BIXBY PARK NEIGHBORHOODS SAY PUBLIC-SAFETY CUTS HURTING RESTORATION
By Dave Wielenga
Charging that efforts to revitalize Bixby Park are being stymied by public-safety measures that have been reduced to insufficiency, seven constituent associations in Long Beach’s second and third districts have delivered a letter to council members Suja Lowenthal and Gary DeLong requesting specific improvements—including restoration of a park ranger.
Bixby Park is located in the 2nd district, represented by Lowenthal, but is adjacent to the 3rd district, represented by DeLong.
The letter describes an atmosphere of increasingly flagrant illegal behavior at Bixby Park, including public drinking and drug use, drug dealing, overnight camping, widespread littering and loitering, as well as a gang fight that broke out during a children’s theater festival.
“Currently, there is no safety officer or patrol on hand to cite or arrest the public for these types of illegal activities,” wrote the constituents associations in their letter. “Three years ago, there was a park ranger program in Long Beach that provided security to Bixby Park and all of the parks in Long Beach. The park rangers arrested drug dealers, oversaw park safety and built relationships with park users and neighbors. More importantly, their presence established a sense of safety and provided quality of life for park users.”
The letter was composed by Claudia Schou, who helped found Friends of Bixby Park in July of 2010, and has led a variety of improvement efforts. After she signed, so did representatives from five neighborhood associations—Sasha Witte (Bluff Park), John Thomas (Bluff Park), Emily Stevens (Rose Park), Lois Ledger (Alamitos Beach), David Clement (North Alamitos Beach)—as well as Sidney Cramer of the OnBroadway Business Association.
In various combinations, the groups have compiled an impressive list of park enhancements and projects over the past 13 months—new trees, monthly cleanups, specially created keep-our-park-clean banners, installing a low-water planter in place of a non-working water fountain and a few fundraisers toward paying for the new furnishings that are part of an architect-prepared blueprint for a park makeover (already approved by Parks and Recreation).
Since this fast start, however, neighborhood association representatives report that raising money for Bixby Park has become steadily more challenging and that donations have slowed to a trickle. They say people are reluctant to put their money toward the physical rehabilitation of Bixby Park because they doubt that privately upgraded facilities can overcome its sullied spirit—an ambiance of insecurity that ranges from foul language to foul play—without a corresponding commitment from the city to improved public safety.
Mindful of the budget problems plaguing Long Beach, the alliance of neighborhood associations tried to keep their wish list modest in the petition to Lowenthal and DeLong.
***Reinstate one part time park ranger at Bixby Park to ensure that there is no use or sale of illegal substances at Bixby Park.
***Install additional cameras at the skate park area and bandshell area to record park activity.
***Install signs that say “Drug Free Zone.”
“Our efforts to raise funds and revitalize the park have been challenged by the stigma of public drinking and drug use, drug dealing and unsafe environs at the park,” says the letter.
The bottom line, says Schou, is getting people to the park, but it’s not always easy.
“When I talk to other moms in our neighborhood and ask if they take their kids to Bixby Park, they say, ‘No way! I take my kids to Livingstone Park.’ You know, the one in Belmont Shore? It’s a nice park, but it’s totally impacted now.”
Created in 1907, Bixby Park is one of Long Beach’s oldest, and probably the most historic. It’s where people attended the city’s famous Iowa Picnic, concerts by the Municipal Band and Sunday shuffleboard tournaments. In the summer of 1928, Herbert Hoover gave a presidential campaign speech there that drew 5,000 people. A year earlier, more than six times that many had turned out for a visit from the Ku Klux Klan, which staged a massive march along Ocean Boulevard that culminated with 30,000 people gathering in Bixby Park.
Located on Ocean Blvd. between Cherry Avenue and Junipero, Bixby Park extends inland three blocks to Broadway. Walking its length today reveals characteristics that vary from a spectacular ocean view to a grassy picnic area to an historic bandshell to a playground with a broken slide, to a makeshift skateboard park to a dried-up fountain.
At the moment, it’s kinda dead.
“This illustrates the typical response we get from potential donors,” says Schou. “Over and over we hear them ask, ‘How are going to get people to the park if they don’t feel safe?’ After hearing that from enough people, we decided to ask city for help.”
The letter from the seven constituents groups was delivered to the offices of Lowenthal and DeLong on Aug. 19—one week ago today.
So far, no answer.
14 Comments
A majority of the electors, the voters, in Long Beach should be providing clear, specific, and periodic direction to our elected Council on what the city’s budgeting priorities should be.
Our merely providing “input” during various public meetings and budget workshops is not sufficient. As voters we must meet *our* responsibility to make sure that the Council’s budget votes reflect *our* priorities, and not whatever their own personal preferences might be.
This is a *proper* budgeting standard to which the *voters* are responsible for holding their elected Council. Whenever voters fail in this responsibility, our budget likewise reflects that failure.
I propose that during every single general election we direct the City Clerk to ask every single Long Beach voter what his or her budget priorities are. This need not be a lenghty or complex question. List the current major functions of city government (e.g. public safety, public health, infrastructure installation and maintenance, etc.) and ask each voter to assign a number according to their personal priorities with 1 being highest, and on down the list.
The results can be tabulated, documented, and then reported to both the voters and to the Council as an “official election result.”
Once the voters have provided, by consensus, their clear, documented, and official direction in the area of the budgeting of public funds, the Council should then be required to *only* approve budgets that are accurately reflective of that direction.
Whenever any Council does not budget in compliance with official voter-mandated priorities (as determined by general election ballot) those Councilmembers who cast divergent votes should be recalled and replaced with people who will do so.
This is but one way in which our city budgets can be brought more in line with the public policy priorities of the people of the City, as properly represented by a majority of the voters.
I am sure there may be others. We should find and settle upon one of them. Because I do not think our city budgets are always accurately reflective of the true priorities of a majority of the voters in Long Beach. Our budgets should be.
They never will be, however, unless we adopt some official, documented method by which to learn what those true priorities are, to provide that clear direction to our Council, and then hold them fully accountable to that direction.
Never would’ve known there was a Bixby park ranger up until three years ago..
@ Greet — that’s why we call it representative government. We don’t hold elections on every thing we do — that would be costly and counter to an elective government. If you don’t like our decisions, then the ballot box is always available so is referendum.
Yes the cuts will hurt the Bixby Park area — but I encourage you all to read my blog at: http://www.gerrieschipske.com to see how once again the cuts are the hardest in the 5th District. Funny how that happens. Guess I should have asked to be on the budget oversight committee — wait I did.
John Greet’s comment is at the needed strategic level. He gives one of various possible answers (as he himself notes, ‘there may be others’) to the all-important question: ‘How should public decisions be made?’ (at least here in Long Beach, and at least on budget priorities).
In my opinion, we don’t need to fix on just one method to improve muni budget decisions. We could likely benefit from use at once of perhaps several methods – each imperfect but each giving us extra help. Besides John’s proposed method, we could for instance adopt what is done in some other cities: form citizen teams with some powers to propose and decide details.
No one method by itself will be the last word. John’s proposed method, a ballot on priorities, illustrates this. The method is simple enough to be workable. However, precisely because of its simplicity, it can go only so far. In fact that’s true for any budget decision method which looks just at ‘priorities’. By itself it won’t give the info you need on TRADEOFF.
And tradeoff is the big issue. Usually it’s a better idea to spend at least something on a ‘lower priority’ category (e.g. public works) rather than spending all you’ve got just on the ‘higher priority’ category (e.g. public safety). To appreciate this, just consider your own household expenses. Yes, insuring your home or auto has higher priority than going out every Thursday night. But likely you’ll be better off foregoing SOME of those expanded coverage options and instead treating yourself to SOME Thursday nights out. Finding a good balance (tradeoff) between the two will be the real issue.
In fact the LB Council finds it easy to budget irresponsibly while meanwhile mouthing agreeable verbiage about ‘priorities’. They can always claim correctly that most money goes to the highest-priority general category, “public safety”. But that’s a copout (pun only partly intended) on the real tradeoff problem involving amounts and specifics. Heed to that problem calls for deciding how to divide available funds among categories of admittedly different priority. And more than that: for deciding how to divvy up not only among a few general categories but indeed among many different specific activities under those categories. Each pair of activities X and Y raises the question: given an amount of available funding for the combination of the two, how much should go to X rather than Y? Careful budgeting calls for heed to many of these tradeoff questions.
Suja and DeLong presided over the continued destruction of this city for long enough. Their incompetence is only overshadowed by their arrogance.
As for the park, it belongs to the neighborhood. Ever hear of a neighborhood watch? Great – apparently, the LBPD hasn’t.
Too busy covering up or was it a stop at the bank to cash the checks?
for “for a better”: But Suja is beloved (just ask her, since she ran unopposed) by the 2nd District minions and Gary will be the “reasonable saviour” who rescues Congress. My God is the leadership in this City screwed up!
I just want to clarify a few things. The low water planter has not been installed yet, but has been approved; the gang fight broke out during a Shakespere performance of Merry Wives of Windsor.
We discussed a park watch program with our councilmembers and parks and rec and felt that it might be too dangerous to have our volunteers confront drug users/dealers. It doesn’t help to call the police because they leave as soon as they see them.
Suja and Gary and parks and rec will do their best to assist us within their means. They have been a tremendous help with all of our revitalization to date.
With all due respect, Gerri, you have five park rangers at El Dorado…
Last clarification, the resolution was submitted to let our councilmembers know that we are all on the same page. Not to critisize, just to request their assistance. We know they are faced with major budget cut challenges. We know they will do their best to help us resolve this.
With $258 million of the $380 million FY2011 general fund expenditures going to public safety depts, one would think safety in the city would be secure.
Let me just say I live very close to the park…I witness & photograph illegal behaviors/activities on a daily basis in Bixby Park. I do not use the park (I would like to), I did not attend any functions in the park throughout the summer due to the “bad element” that “resides” in the park. I have seen drug deals, bloody fights, public drinking & drunkeness, public urination (indecent exposure), public sex acts, littering, loitering, sleeping in vehicles, sleeping in the band shell & more.
BTW, almost none of this activity is done by the skateboarders, for the most part they are there to have fun, perfect they skills & teach their dogs to skateboard. The moms and kids on the playground also do not contribute to the problem.
I awakened one morning in July 2011 to find a homeless man (my pet name for him is Mr. PeePee for obvious reasons) asleep under a blanket on MY FRONT PORCH! I called the police & dispatch told me the LBFD had to respond. She wanted to know if he was breathing…did I touch him to make sure he was alive? Seriously, do you think I am going to touch him? He’s filthy, he stinks, he is ALWAYS stumbling down drunk, he urinates on the trees in the park, on the wall of RiteAid…did she really think I was going to touch him? Would she? By the time LBFD arrived he had fled.
I have seen bloody fights, called the police and by the time they arrive (45 minutes later) all participants have fled. But should a call for a drunk man down in the park come in 4 police cars arrive, a fire truck & paramedics within minutes. Then they proceed to load him into the ambulance & take him to hospital where he is most likely given IV’s, food & a cushy place to sleep for the night. He’s back in the morning with a Jack Daniels bottle…
I became so fed up recently that I called the Cheif of Police, got his secretary’s voicemail (who was on vacation), got another assistant who put me in contact with the head officer of patrol. He mentioned that this is a very busy area….smaller police force due to budget cuts….After a lengthy discussion with him it was deterrmined that he would step up night patrols to get the sleepers out of the bandshell, more drive byes at night & put an end to sleeping in vehicles on 2nd between Junipero & Cherry. The band shell rarely has sleepers in it now, there have been fewer fights, however the overnight sleepers in vehicles has not changed. This is a very SMALL start, who knows how long it will last, we’ve a LONG way to go. The officer suggested that I contact Lowenthal & DeLong as that is where their direct orders come from…yeah I can see how much that helped from the article written above.
Now LBPD is laying off another 35 officers? REALLY? Make the cuts elswhere; cut politicians salaries for a start!
Who wants to go to a park that is unsafe, filthy, smells of urine, has homeless people taking up no less than two picnic tables & a bench with their recycling efforts in order to purchase more Jack Daniels – they share, isn’t that nice. They also take very good care of each other, if one is falling down drunk they will get him off the ground & prop him up on a bench.
PERHAPS WE SHOULD JUST BULLDOZE THE PARK & PUT UP CONDOS!
Since I’m on my soapbox…on March 22 a good friend fell & shattered her ankle (literally, her foot was facing backwards – 1st & Kennebeck). Paramedics responded but they refused to transport her to hospital as it isn’t in the budget…HELLO!!!!
I love Long Beach but we truly need some major changes and FAST!
Thanks for listening…reading.
There is a large element of racism in this story. Bixby Park was one of the great parks in America until the neighborhood changed and a majority of people using the park were people of color. That was in the 80′s, and at that point the city abandoned the park. No more concerts, no activities; the park was essentially closed. Eventually the city realized that people of color are people too, and some steps were taken to save the park. This Claudia Schou person has made her agenda clear. She wants Bixby park to like Livingston Park – full of rich white people. To people like her any time 3 or more people of color gather together it is a gang event. Long Beach will never again be like it was decades ago – full of retired white people. Now it is a racially and culturally diverse city. That is not a problem to bitch about.
@Richard Stuart Are you reading the same letter from Claudia that the rest of us are reading? I live right down the street from the park and I applaud Claudia and her groups effort. Trying to make the park safer has nothing to do with race or ethnicity of the park users it has to do with safety and the current state of lawlessness in the park plain and simple. I guess it’s difficult to see that through your ideologically fogged glasses. Claudia keep up the good work, the residents of this neighborhood are behind you and your groups efforts 100%.
Ok Richard Stuart- I think you are way out of touch with 1972-1990 with Bixby Park and this neighborhood.-
First- rich white people NEVER were in this zone of life in any great number at all- it took the early 2000-2010 decade to get those “rich” pale people you whine about to move BACK into the ghetto zone that this old FIRST District (yes that is right! Second District and First were what was to become Alamitos Beach) used to be. Don’t believe me? Look up the US Census data for this area from 1970, 1980 and see how many people at or below the poverty line. If you are talking Ocean Boulevard of 20 years ago, or 30 years ago, best remember that most of what you see was not there years past.
Second -there was NO neighborhood association at all down here until the late 1980′s- and
THIRD- Bixby Park is way way way!! better off now than 20 years ago. Crime? we had crime- and it was bad. Color- the criminals were mostly white druggies/ or just the typical Long Beach bums- the same crew that has lived ON the Beach for years and years.
As to the park- it took the neighborhood YEARS to get the city to clean the park, fix the band shell, install playgrounds for all children- years and years of volunteer effort, donations, time spent at endless meetings..
And why the bitch on Claudia Schou? I do not know this person- do you? She is a what? YOU whine she wants the park to be like Livingston park? Last time I looked at Livingstone Park it was clean, and the kids were all having a great time playing on the park equipment? So “colored” folks? don’t like cleanliness?
You are a racist, and have a BIG BIG attitude problem about this neighborhood and the history of the last thirty years with this park, this neighborhood, and the people who changed this area from a full blown drug ridden, crime ridden slum to something that still needs work, but is much better than before.
Maybe you should be asking the City Council where they spend the money and why Long Beach still has the same overspending problem that the city had in- oh- 1978. Maybe you know some “colored” person that can start checking the audits and the contracts that City Council approves.
Follow the money , and stop whining about what color someone is. Green is what matters here.
Hi Richard,
In our efforts to seek funding for Bixby Park, we mention at the very top of our request letter that Bixby Park is one of the most culturally and economically diverse parks in Southern California–a fact that all of us are most proud of.
Bixby Park is an urban park. Our goal in working with parks and rec is to identify the ways we can serve the needs of everyone who uses the park.
I am currently working with the Rec Center to launch a chess club for kids–similar set up as a chess club that was offered at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY, where I was born.