But sources tell OC Weekly that Kushner has a new market in mind for a new, nearly-daily paper—and it’s a seemingly surprising place: Long Beach.

I say it’s surprising only because I never figured Kushner wanted to create a paper in a place where the Reg has no current presence. All the paper’s growth in the past year has been in increasing the size and reporting of its community papers, which eventually funnel into the mothership. Long Beach, on the other hand, has never received much coverage in the Reg.

On the other hand, Long Beach is Southern California’s most notoriously underserved media market, a place covered only in print by the long-decimated Long Beach Press-Telegram and sporadically by us at the Weekly. It’s an area with a lively local blogging scene, with people begging for coverage–and somebody must have told Kushner.

CONTINUE READING ON OCWEEKLY.COM

Mayor Ray Dunton’s agenda iteme proposed a five-percent increase—$424.10 per month—explaining the wanted future council members to keep pace with employee pay hikes in the 2013-15 budget. A five-percent annual raise is the most allowed by state law. Ultimately, the council voted for less.

City Manager Jeff Stewart, who has just finished a reorganization of City Hall staff, stressed that money for the pay hike will not come from Measure P, a voter-approved increase in the utility tax, which is bringing in $1.6 million a year. Those funds are reserved for more law enforcement, city services and events, as well as economic development, Stewart said.

Councilman Scott Larsen said the council salary had not changed since 2007. An increase approved that year to take effect 2009 was cancelled because of the recession.

“We get invited to a lot of places and have to do a lot of things [as council members] and the pay doesn’t cover the cost,” Councilman Ron Schnablegger said.

CONTINUE READING IN THE HERALD AMERICAN

**          *****          **

ORGANIC PRODUCTION may still represent only a small fraction of agricultural sales in the United States and worldwide, but it has been growing rapidly over the last two decades. According to the latest global census of farming practices, the area of land certified as organic makes up less than one percent of global agricultural land—but it has grown more than threefold since 1999, with upwards of 37 million hectares of land worldwide now under organic cultivation. The Organic Trade Association forecasts steady growth of nine percent or more annually for organic agriculture in the foreseeable future.

But despite this growth, no one expects organic agriculture to top conventional techniques any time soon. The biggest hurdle for organics is the added cost of sustainable practices. “The cost of organic food is higher than that of conventional food because the organic price tag more closely reflects the true cost of growing the food,” reports the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF). “The intensive management and labor used in organic production are frequently (though not always) more expensive than the chemicals routinely used on conventional farms.”

However, there is evidence that if the indirect costs of conventional food production—such as the impact on public health of chemicals released into our air and water—were factored in, non-organic foods would cost the same or as much as organic foods.

Other problems for organic foods include changing perceptions about just how much healthier they are than non-organics. “Many devotees of organic foods purchase them in order to avoid exposure to harmful levels of pesticides,” writes Henry I. Miller in Forbes. “But that’s a poor rationale: Non-organic fruits and vegetables had more pesticide residue, to be sure, but more than 99 percent of the time the levels were below the permissible, very conservative safety limits set by regulators—limits that are established by the Environmental Protection Agency and enforced by the Food and Drug Administration.”

Miller adds that just because a farm is organic doesn’t mean the food it produces will be free of potentially toxic elements. While organic standards may preclude the use of synthetic inputs, organic farms often utilize so-called “natural” pesticides and what Miller calls “pathogen-laden animal excreta as fertilizer” that can also end up making consumers sick and have been linked to cancers and other serious illnesses (like their synthetic counterparts). Miller believes that as more consumers become aware of these problems, the percentage of the agriculture market taken up by organics will begin to shrink.

Another challenge facing the organic sector is a shortage of organic raw materials such as grain, sugar and livestock feed. Without a steady supply of these basics, organic farmers can’t harvest enough products to make their businesses viable. Meanwhile, competition from food marketed as “locally grown” or “natural” is also cutting into organic’s slice of the overall agriculture pie.

Organic agriculture is sure to keep growing for years to come. And even if the health benefits of eating organic aren’t significant, the environmental advantages of organic agriculture—which are, of course, also public health advantages—make the practice well worth supporting.

CONTACTS: Organic Trade Association, www.ota.com; OFRF, www.ofrf.org.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E – The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

Admittedly, my experience with Haidle is limited to one other play, Mr. Marmalade. And since Treviño also directed that one (at the Garage Theatre), obviously she likes Haidle a lot better than I do. For the purposes of this review, that’s too bad for both of us.

Vigils is the story of a Widow (Meghan Dillon) who, two years after her husband’s death (he was a firefighter who perished trying to save a baby from a burning building), is still living with his soul. I mean literally. The Soul (Brian Canup), eyeless but with a corporeal presence (just accept it), lives with the Widow in their home, locked away in a box at night but let out for scheduled (and unscheduled) hugs. While sometimes the Soul is wishy-washy about it, ultimately he wants to move on to the afterlife and for his Widow to move on with her own earthbound living. She’s almost ready, largely thanks to the Wooer (Luis Castilleja), a co-worker of the Soul when the latter was Body (Steven Meeks). But not quite ready.

The on-stage action jumps between memories (which we’re told—repeatedly—come to the characters in no particular order) and a present-tense that is often signposted for us (“This is not a memory; this is happening now”). Haidle makes various comments about the nature of memory, none particularly insightful, with at least one, an out-of-nowhere metaphor of creating that which is to be remembered with cello-playing there is no “right note,” only the succession of notes, both failing on its own terms (anybody think there aren’t prescribed “right” notes in Mozart’s Cello Sonata in D Major?) and in terms of the play itself, with characters often lamenting the wrong notes that they’ve hit during their lives.

Worse yet, Haidle inexplicably brings the play into metafictional territory. Well, not really, except that on a couple of occasions a character will suddenly and inexplicably refer to the play itself. It’s just bad writing. What the script does have going for it—various little asides by characters commenting on their own physical actions, passable employment of the Rashomon effect to bring some poignancy to missed connections between the Widow and the Body—doesn’t come close to outweighing its shortcomings.

As for Treviño’s take? Because scheduling conflicts had me at a preview, the production can’t get a fair shake here. But as a general note, what I saw felt like the production values were too modest (though Donny Jackson and Daniel Bergher do some nice lighting), while the acting was too projected. It probably does Haidle’s work a favor if the casts plays it close to their verisimilar vest, letting the quirkiness speak for itself, while stylizing the production around them.

But Treviño and company are probably faithful enough to the script. It’s just that Vigils is what it is.

VIGILS LONG BEACH PLAYHOUSE • 5021 E ANAHEIM ST • LONG BEACH 90804 • 562.494.1014 LBPLAYHOUSE.ORG • FRI-SAT 8PM, SUN 2PM • $14–$24 • THROUGH JULY 13

The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office had not issued an official statement or confirmation of Hastings’ death as of late Tuesday night.

Hastings’ story, “The Runaway General,” won a 2010 George Polk Award for magazine reporting—and ended McChrystal’s’s career.

CONTINUE READING IN THE LOS CERRITOS COMMUNITY NEWS

[ In addition to being Father's Day, today is the third anniversary of GreaterLongBeach.com, which struggled forth on June 16, 2010, which was a Thursday, and has been struggling ever since. Three days later, with this brave and beautiful beneath-the-greeting-card exploration of Father's Day, Louise Cunningham delivered the first example---and an enduring reminder---of why it's worth the struggle. ]

“Lucky, you’re doin’ good,” he’d say, and 36 years after his death at age 62, he still does—presumably while sitting on my right shoulder, up near my ear, which explains why I can hear him so clearly. He never explained why he called me Lucky. Nobody did. I never knew.

But it made me—the younger of his two girls—feel special. I loved my dad and hated him, as growing girls are wont to do. I know now that he was human, with way more frailties than most. He wasn’t like those men who went to work every day, maybe went to church every week, went to the school play, paid the bills and were there when the kids needed them. But it doesn’t mean that my father wasn’t worthy of a “Best Dad” trophy. And I miss him like crazy on Father’s Day.

My dad quit high school in the 11^th grade to help support his parents and six brothers and sisters. That’s what the oldest child in the family did in 1930, during the heart of the Great Depression. My dad sold shoes–then and for the rest of his life. He supported his family but was never a success to himself. He leaned on his younger daughter to bring home that trophy.

I always wanted to write and he encouraged it. Even in the eighth grade we collaborated on my first short story, “The Brass Door Knob Mob.” It was never printed anywhere. God, how I wish I had a scrap of that piece to read about the gangsters we concocted, who were trapping people in their homes with no door knobs. It was dreadful, no doubt, but it was me and my dad sitting on the steps of the garage together on a Sunday afternoon, reading our piece. Those were tricky days, trying to keep him sober and interested in things other than oblivion.

Later, after his death, his youngest brother told me, “Your dad was the smartest man I ever knew. And, he was the best big brother ever. He spent money he earned to buy me something to wear to high school. I had one of the first new styles ever–a jacket with a zipper in the front.” Later my dad sent this brother a necktie while he was fighting in the Pacific in WWII – because everyone was supposed to have a Christmas tie. The “after shave” lotion he sent didn’t hurt much either, if you know what I mean.

When we are young and angry we don’t realize how we’ll feel about those closest to us as years go by. How we wish we had one moment with them to tell them what they meant to our lives. It’s a lesson to those who still have that chance. Mend that fence. Send that card. Hug that man. Happy Father’s Day, man.

Ntuk neither confirmed nor denied his candidacy Thursday night when GreaterLongBeach.com contacted him via text to offer the opportunity to comment. After about 45 minutes of back-and-forth, he promised to be available for an interview at 7 a.m. today.

“Yesterday was last day of school for my daughters,” Ntuk explained when he answered his phone this morning, “and there was a lot going on at home.”

Ntuk quickly confirmed that he is a candidate in the April 2014 election for the LBUSD Board of Education’s 1st District seat, which represents Bixby Knolls and North Long Beach—near the Deforest Park neighborhoods where he grew up. Mary Stanton has occupied that seat for the past 24 years.

“I’m excited and enthusiastic about the race,” said Ntuk. “I’ve been a parent in LB Unified for 10 years. I’ve been a customer of the district, but I’ve also been an active volunteer—a member of the PTA board, the Superintendent’s Parents Forum, and a speaker at career days. I’ve been engaged. Of course, that’s just part of being connected to the community, being a good advocate for my kids. But because of that, I also understand what’s going on in the district.”

Ntuk was born, raised, educated, still lives, currently works for and is engaged to be married in the City of Long Beach. He’s the grandson of a former Flight Deck Captain stationed at the Long Beach Naval Base and the son of an immigrant father from Africa. He works as a Petroleum Engineer with the City of Long Beach—and suggests that his engineering background would inform his service as a LBUSD trustee.

“I’m very analytical—a detailed, data-oriented person,” Ntuk says. “I like to read and I know how to read a budget.”

Ntuk says that’s especially important at a time when massive budget cuts have slashed programs and teachers from the LBUSD.

“Budget cuts and layoffs have hit the district hard; the staff is overwhelmed,” he says. “I think I have something to offer. “

Ntuk’s record of public service includes becoming an Eagle Scout as a member of California Heights’ Troop 78. Currently, he serves on the Industry Advisory Board for the Center for Engineering Diversity at the University of Southern California and as Vice Chair of the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Board’s Youth Council. He formerly served on the Board of Directors for Environmental Charter Schools.

Ntuk recently completed training in Leadership Long Beach. His final project was last Saturday’s (June 8) “Inaugural Long Beach ‘Robo Bowl,’” a robotics competition for 150 robotics students representing 13 LBUSD middle schools held at the private Westerly School.

Ntuk was among the organizers of the State of Black Long Beach, which in February filled the Expo Center in Bixby Knolls for the presentation of a document by Drs. Alex J. Norman and Lydia A. Hollie that collected and assembled more than a century’s worth of data about the living conditions of the city’s African American residents.

In October 2012, Ntuk’s detailed his support for Proposition 30—the school-funding initiative promoted by Gov. Jerry Brown—in an essay that appeared on GreaterLongBeach.com.

Ntuk is a longtime footsoldier in the Democratic Party, twice serving as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention—in 2008 in Denver and in 2012 in Charlotte.

And?

“You haven’t asked me about my education!” Ntuk pointed out.

Let’s hear it!

“I went to Clara Barton Elementary for kindergarten,” he began, “then to St. Barnabas Catholic School in Bixby Knolls, then to St. Anthony High downtown. I when to Long Beach City College for my AA in Liberal Arts, then to Cal State Long Beach for my BS in chemical engineering and to USC for my Masters in petroleum engineering.”

Ntuk neither confirmed nor denied his candidacy Thursday night when GreaterLongBeach.com contacted him via text to offer the opportunity to comment. Ntuk indicated he would respond within 15 or 20 minutes. After 45 minutes, when GreaterLongBeach.com texted him to ask if he were still intending to comment, Ntuk responded he would be available at 7 a.m. Friday (today).

Uduak Ntuk was born, raised, educated, still lives, currently works for and is engaged to be married in the City of Long Beach. He was raised in the Deforest Park neighborhood of North Long Beach. He’s the grandson of a former Flight Deck Captain stationed at the Long Beach Naval Base and the son of an immigrant father from Africa. He works as a Petroleum Engineer with the City of Long Beach. Also, he has two daughters.

Ntuk’s record of public service includes becoming an Eagle Scout as a member of California Heights’ Troop 78. Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors for Environmental Charter Schools, the Industry Advisory Board for the Center for Engineering Diversity at the University of Southern California and as Vice Chair of the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Board’s Youth Council.

Ntuk recently completed training in Leadership Long Beach. His final project was last Saturday’s (June 8) “Inaugural Long Beach ‘Robo Bowl,’” a robotics competition for 150 robotics students representing 12 LBUSD middle schools held at the private Westerly School.

Ntuk was among the organizers of the State of Black Long Beach, which in February filled the Expo Center in Bixby Knolls for the presentation of a document by Drs. Alex J. Norman and Lydia A. Hollie that collected and assembled more than a century’s worth of data about the living conditions of the city’s African American residents.

In an October 2012 essay on GreaterLong Beach.com, Ntuk detailed his support for Proposition 30—the school-funding initiative promoted by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Ntuk is a longtime footsoldier in the Democratic Party, twice serving as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention—in 2008 in Denver and in 2012 in Charlotte.

The Downey Firemen’s Association collected more than 12,000 petition signatures earlier this year, forcing the election, which members of the City Council finally ordered with their vote Tuesday. The election will cost about $136,000, officials said.

According to city clerk Adria Jimenez, election code regulations stipulate that a charter amendment must be voted on “at an established statewide general, statewide primary or regularly scheduled municipal election date…”

However, Downey has no regularly scheduled election this year.  Representatives of the Downey fire union initially urged the council to hold the election this November, when council members had considered holding a special election to raise the city’s utility users tax. But that special election is not expected to happen, said city attorney Yvette Abich Garcia.

Meanwhile, fire union officials also asked the council to reconsider its decision not to commission a comprehensive study of contracting with the L.A. County Fire District.

CONTINUE READING ON THEDOWNEYPATRIOT.COM

[ EarthTalk®, a question-and-answer service of E--The Environmental Magazine, appears weekly on GreaterLongBeach.com. Let us know what you think by commenting below. ] 

Dear EarthTalk: How are monarch butterflies doing today? They used to pass through my area in big numbers but in the last few years there seem to be many fewer.  / Bill Wright, Erie, PA

The monarch butterfly, royally adorned in black, white and reddish-orange and able to migrate as far as 2,800 miles, is a true wonder of nature. Each year monarchs travel from Canada and the United States to hibernate in the forests of central Mexico. But in recent years the monarchs have been in sharp population decline due to habitat loss, eradication of the plants it depends upon and other environmental factors.

The decline in monarchs has been going on for two decades, but the last few years have been particularly worrisome. Since December 2011, Mexico’s National Commission of Natural Protected Areas reports a 59 percent decline in the area of its forest that are occupied during the winter by monarchs. Meanwhile, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reports that the number of monarchs that winter along  the California coast has shrunk from over a million individuals counted at 101 sites in 1997 to less than 60,000 at just 74 sites in 2009. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which maintains the “Red List” of endangered species around the world, recognizes the monarchs’ annual migration as an “endangered biological phenomenon.”

According to Monarch Watch, an educational outreach program based at the University of Kansas that engages citizen-scientists in monarch monitoring and conservation efforts, habitat destruction is one key driver in the monarch’s demise: “New roads, housing developments and agricultural expansion…all transform a natural landscape in ways that make it impossible for monarchs to live there.” Also, drought and record-high temperatures in North America in 2012 triggered an earlier-than-usual monarch migration. This disrupted the butterflies’ breeding cycle by drying out their eggs prematurely.

The hot weather has also reduced the nectar content of the milkweed plants that monarch larvae depend on. In addition, milkweed is becoming scarce due to farmers’ increasing reliance on herbicides. Most of the soy and corn crops grown in the U.S. are genetically engineered to resist herbicides. This means even more chemical spraying—and far fewer milkweed plants. Nectar-producing plants that attract adult butterflies are facing a similar fate, further complicating survival for the monarch.

It won’t be easy to stem the tide of human development that threatens the species’ long term survival. In 2008 the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to help the U.S., Canada and Mexico coordinate on environmental initiatives, published its North American Monarch Conservation Plan to establish a conservation blueprint for the butterflies. Key aspects of the plan include the creation of incentives for the conservation of overwintering sites and the restoration of breeding habitat throughout the butterfly’s extensive range.

In the meantime, the Mexican government has worked with WWF and other groups and made strides in restricting logging in areas critical to monarch populations. And in the U.S., monarch habitat restoration work in California and other parts of the U.S. have helped provide the butterflies some relief. Whether these and other efforts are enough to rescue the monarchs remains to be seen.

+++++          =====          +++++

CONTACTS: WWF, www.worldwildlife.org; Monarch Watch, www.monarchwatch.org; Mexico’s National Commission of Natural Protected Areas, www.conanp.gob.mx.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E – The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

Don’t try to look for logical character motivation in Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cell Phone. Despite some slight commentary on culture and a metaphysics of sorts, this is a farce. Understood as such, it has the potential to entertain, and International City Theatre does about as much as they can with this slip of a script.

As Jean, Alina Phelan is charming enough that we have about as much empathy as we can with such a thinly-drawn character. She’s got good timing (essential in the film’s opening scene, which has her playing to an upright corpse), and deadpans the jokes, which maximizes their effectiveness. Eileen T’Kaye, as the titular dead man’s mom, is more over the top, which doesn’t always work as well—especially since most of the humor she gets isn’t quite as strong—but she’s fab while giving her son’s eulogy.

The standout is Trent Dawson. He doubles as decedent Gordon and his brother Dwight, but only as the former does he really get to shine. Act II opens with Gordon’s monolog. It’s far and away the play’s funniest writing, and Dawson absolutely kills. Roving all about the space in front of the stage (a great blocking choice by director Richard Israel), Dawson connects with the audience so spectacularly that the rest of the play pales in comparison.

ICT’s production design is solid, particularly Jeremy Pivnick’s lighting design, which includes some understated details that keep the play from being as static as it might be. There’s also a lovely touch involving stationery that ends Act I.

This may be the shortest review I’ve ever written. That may be because what Dead Man’s Cell Phone has to offer is so simple—which, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad. I’ve certainly seen many, many plays that were less entertaining. And although farce—in whatever guise—isn’t my thing, one great scene here helped an evening make.

DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE INTERNATIONAL CITY THEATRE • 300 E OCEAN BLVD • LONG BEACH 90802 • 562.436.4610 • ICTLONGBEACH.ORG • THURS-SAT 8PM, SUN 2PM • $38-$45 • THROUGH JUNE 30

The news broke early this afternoon on Shortnin’ Bread’s Facebook page, with this short, unsigned message:

“We are deeply saddened to share this news. Due to circumstances beyond our control Shortnin’ Bread bakery is officially closed.
It has been our pleasure serving & sharing our gifts with the community. We Thank you and greatly appreciate all of the love and support we have been given. We will miss you.”

The Shortnin’ Bread Artisan Bakery and Creamery opened 18 months ago, a labor of love—and sweetness—by the niece-and-uncle team of pastry chef Justina Fenton and Keith Russell. Until getting settled on the bottom floor of a classic brownstone on 3rd and Elm, Fenton and Russell spent a couple of years transporting cookies, tarts, brownies and cakes to various farmers markets, fairs and special events in Greater Long Beach.

Shortnin’ Bread had been Fenton’s dream since 2000, when she graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. By October of 2011, it was about to come true. After a week-long soft opening, Shortnin’ Bread officially debuted Oct. 22, and the signature baked goods—along with True Beans drip and French press coffee—immediately began to go out the door.

It was a nice place. The hospital-white interior emphasized the proprietors’ obsession with cleanliness, created a spacious fresh-airiness within a somewhat small room and allowed the meticulously arranged displays of their signature baked goods to star. A few retro touches paid appropriate respect to the long history of the digs.

There was also a hefty dose of Long Beach love. Fenton and Russell applied their philosophy of sourcing goods and services beyond their bakery’s ingredients—even the plumber and electrician who worked on the store are based in the Long Beach area.

“It’s the local economy that needs the money,” said Russell at the time, “so we might as well help each other out. People have been asking if we’ll sell to stores like Whole Foods, but we’d rather deal directly with our customers.”

Back in October 2011. that simple, authentic and local philosophy was going around downtown Long Beach like a low-grade fever. Shortnin’ Bread’s opening was the last of four new businesses to move into the storefronts on the northeast corner of 3rd and Elm, which formerly housed a preschool.

All the tenants expressed confidence that the combined energy of their concentrated presence would attract more businesses to the struggling, yet hopeful East Village Arts District.

“There’s a real exciting aspect to this location,” Russell noted then. “The downtown skyline is right out the window, the buses go by and people are always out walking and riding their bikes.”

But as of today, the little corner bakery will be locked, and it’s bright interior dark.

(Jimmy Dolan contributed to this story.)

BY DOKTOR ZOOM

So here is our first take on this NSA/Verizon/FBI phone-records thingy…Actually it is our second or maybe third take, because there’s no really good way to blog the double-axel facepalm, eyeroll, and fetal position that was our real initial reaction to the news. We eventually got up and made some coffee, and while we’re still NOT HAPPY at this latest evidence that the Obama administration is every bit as happy as the Bush people were to unleash the Homeland Surveillance Apparatus in the name of security, we’re also going to try really hard to only freak out as much as we need to. Which is still a pretty good freakout.

First off, a little wonksplaining about what we should even be freaking out about….

CONTINUE READING AT WONKETTE.COM

Although … maybe it’s just the way we think about the Queen Mary that’s out of date. So much of the luxury liner that arrived at the Port of Long Beach in 1968 has been lost, stripped, reconfigured and forgotten that the ship may actually be the perfect host for a convention of pinups clad in corsets, classic cats with pompadours, Mohawks, fashion mullets, and 280 of the world’s best tattoo artists, representing 30 states and 25 countries.

Mastermind Trace Edwards has put special emphasis on upgrading the music at this year’s Ink N Iron, and a look at the schedule reflects it. Headliners include Sublime With Rome, Iggy & The Stooges, The Offspring and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings.

INK ‘N’ IRON • QUEEN MARY • 1126 QUEEN’S HIGHWAY • LONG BEACH  •INKNIRON.COM • FRIDAY, 2PM TO 2 AM; SATURDAY, 11 AM TO 2 AM; SUNDAY, 11 AM TO 9:30 PM ADMISSION $60

Joking!

Rubin’s responsibilities in her elevated position at LBLGP? Let’s just say it’s a buck-stops-here job. No? Then let’s just say Rubin will play a key role in leading, directing and managing LBLGP Inc’s operations, finances, personnel, strategic initiatives, educational mission and event development plans, as well as collaborate with the Executive Committee, Board Members, and membership to support the growth and goals of the organization. That’s the way the press release lets-just-said it.

As daunting as responsibilities of that breadth and depth may seem—especially to those of us who are topping off  the day by rewriting a press release–Ms. Rubin brings a 20-year background in non-profit education and health and human services. Her portfolio includes work with organizations serving the needs of constituencies such as LGBT, people living with HIV/AIDS, at-risk youth and the homeless.

Rubin  recently served at New Millennium Secondary School as the Director of Operations for the charter school. She previously worked as the Director of Programs and Services at the Downtown Women’s Center on Los Angeles’ Skid Row and as the Director of Programs at The Gay and Lesbian Center of Long Beach. Ms. Rubin earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a master’s degree in Psychology from California State University Dominguez Hills.

Conversely, good night.

The sudden and extensive evidence-gathering operation immediately ignited speculation of a connection with alleged corruption by Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez.  Last year Noguez was jailed for months when his office was raided after investigations by former LA District Attorney Steve Cooley and Los Cerritos Community News (LCCN) reporters Brian Hews and Randy Economy.

Hews and Economy subsequently became the forcal points of a public forum—”Re-Thinking the First Amendment”—that was presented and moderated last March 11 by GreaterLongBeach.com publisher Dave Wielenga. A packed house at McKenna’s restaurant considered the productivity of the  two reporters—the only two  at LCCN—against  claims by other, larger newspapers that their diminished productivity and impact is due to understaffing.

Hews and Economy reported Tuesday night that Calderon is has been considering 2014 run for Assessor in 2014, citing an interview in which Calderon told LCCN that he was “exploring the Assessor’s office as an option in 2014.”

So far, though, it’s nearly all speculation.

“Those warrants are sealed by order of the Federal Court; therefore we have no further information,” reported Tony Beard, the Senate’s chief sergeant at arms, in a statement to the media. “The Senate has and will continue to fully cooperate with the agents in this matter.

FOR THE COMPLETE STORY, GO TO LOS CERRITOS COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

Dear EarthTalk: Why are wetlands so important to preserve? — Patricia Mancuso, Erie, PA

Wetlands include swamps, marshes, bogs, riverbanks, mangroves, floodplains, rice fields— anywhere that saturation with water is the dominant factor determining the nature of soil development and the types of plant and animal communities there. That’s the definition used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but of course it applies to widespread areas in every country and on every continent except Antarctica. If all the world’s wetlands were put together, they would amount to an area one-third larger than the United States.

The key role wetlands play in life on Earth is recognized by environmentalists, biologists and others concerned about the health of the planet and its inhabitants. The EPA points out that, besides containing a disproportionately high number of plant and animal species compared to other land forms, wetlands serve a variety of ecological services including feeding downstream waters, trapping floodwaters, recharging groundwater supplies, removing pollution and providing habitat for fish and wildlife. Wetlands can also be key drivers of local economies, given their importance to agriculture, recreation and fishing.

But wetlands are on the front line of increasing development pressures around the world, according to Wetlands International, a global non-profit dedicated to the wetlands conservation and restoration.

“Wetlands are vulnerable to over-exploitation due to their abundance of fish, fuel and water,” reports the group, which works on the ground in 18 countries to educate the public and policymakers about the health of local wetlands and to advocate for better policies. “When they are viewed as unproductive or marginal lands, wetlands are targeted for drainage and conversion.”

And that dismissive perspective on wetlands appears to be growing.

“The rate of loss and deterioration of wetlands is accelerating in all regions of the world,” Wetlands International reports. “The pressure on wetlands is likely to intensify in the coming decades due to increased global demand for land and water, as well as climate change.”

The issue of wetlands loss has been brought to the forefront in the United States over recent decades, in large part because of attention reflected from widespread expansion of development—debates on zoning and land-use planning—is making it difficult to ignore.

Concern about endangered species is a key and underlying issue: More than one-third of species on the U.S. Endangered Species List live only in wetlands and almost half use wetlands at some time during their life cycles.

While the issue lingers on in municipal planning meetings around the country, the federal government directs some of its power toward wetlands protection. The Clean Water Act spells out regulations that offer tax incentives for selling or giving wetlands to land trusts or other conservation groups, facilitate cooperative efforts with state and local entities, and provide for the outright acquisition of wetlands to add acreage to public lands systems. Several states have passed laws to regulate activities in wetlands, and many municipalities include wetlands conservation in their development permitting and zoning processes.

Readers can do their part by staying current on local zoning laws, keeping an eye on local wetlands and speaking up if something looks amiss. Potential problems are much easier to resolve early on than after damage is done, so speaking up soon can often lead to more successful and less contentious outcomes.

CONTACTS: EPA Wetlands, water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/; Wetlands International, www.wetlands.org.

[ EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial. ]

Sweet, nerdy Seymour toils in Mushnik’s Skid Row Florists, hiding his love for simple shrinking violet Audrey, whose sadistic motorcycle-riding dentist of boyfriend, Orin, won’t let her out of his iron grip. But the status quo is shaken up with the arrival of Audrey II, a sui generis plant that Seymour stumbled across during a recent, unexpected total solar eclipse. Seymour realizes he can obtain all of his heart’s desires via Audrey II. But “Twoee” has desires—and a mind—of its own.

Little Shop of Horrors is as silly as it sounds, which is far more fun than stupid because of how well Howard Ashman (book/lyrics) has milked the humor for everything it’s worth. Alan Menken’s music, meanwhile, is more of a mixed bag. But when Menken rises to Ashman’s level, the whole thing soars to the top edge of the sillysphere.

Vonderschmitt has a good Seymour and Audrey—Stephen Lydic and Theresa Finamore—and he’s got them looking as Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene as possible. In fact, Vonderschmitt has everything looking as much like Oz’s film as he can muster. This includes Audrey II. And who can blame him? That plant is spectacular! Of course, Frank Oz was Kermit, as in the Muppets, as in the highest peaks of puppeteering on the American cultural landscape. Long Beach Playhouse couldn’t hope to compete.

The company comes surprisingly close when Audrey II is small, getting Twoee to dance impressively via a technology I don’t quite understand. But when Twoee gets talky and grows to immense stature, it just kind of flops around like some sort of insensate, toothed clam. That’s funny enough in itself, I suppose, but that spell is broken beyond repair by having Twoee’s voice emanate from the house speakers, rather than from the stage like the rest of the characters (who are not mic’d). The incongruity is just too much.

Music is this production’s biggest weakness. Not only is it canned, but its orchestration makes it a Muzak version of the score, making for a flatness that can rarely be overcome, especially when this is not a cast of exceptionally strong singers. But in select moments, when Ashman and Menken afford them particularly high takeoff points, they do rise above the orchestration.

“Somewhere That’s Green” is our first clue that we’re going somewhere. It’s a clever little song, and Finamore parades Audrey’s meager dreams with just the right comedic wistfulness.

But the Playhouse reaches top altitude when Orin breaks into “Dentist!” If you know Little Shop of Horrors, you know it’s coming—truly a hilarious number—and it’s not readily apparent that Greg Nicholas is going to be able to pull it off. But he fucking brings it.

The highlight of Act II is “Suddenly, Seymour”, where Lydic and Finamore deploy unexpected performance skills,  (including the tiniest bit of choreography with their hands that is so fantastic it draws one of the biggest laughs of the show. A really magnificent touch). Here the pair benefits from tremendous backing by Kieara Williams, Jazz Madison, and Jazzy Jones, the trio that serves as the Skid Row Greek chorus. While they do spirited work elsewhere, I couldn’t help wishing I were seeing these three very young women when they were 10. But they’re perfect here, and “Suddenly, Seymour” soars.

It wouldn’t be fair to criticize Long Beach Playhouse for its excellence with “Suddenly, Seymour,” nor is  it the company’s fault that the song comes so early in Act II.  But these circumstances create a predicament. A cast that has just put out its artistic climax still has a lot of show to put on, and with the rest of the play plagued by Twoee’s technical incongruities, the experiential arc of the journey that is the Playhouse’s Little Shop of Horrors is misshapen—there’s too much lowland as it heads into the final showdown.

The less you remember of Frank Oz’s film version of Little Shop of Horrors, the more likely you are to enjoy Long Beach Playhouse’s production. That doesn’t mean those well familiar with the former should stay away, but that doesn’t mean you should just stay home and rent the film.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS LONG BEACH PLAYHOUSE • 5021 E ANAHEIM ST • LONG BEACH 90804 • 562.494.1014 LBPLAYHOUSE.ORG • THURS-SAT 8PM, SUN 2PM • $14–$24 • THROUGH JUNE 29

LBREPORT.com has obtained a copy of an invitation to a mid-June fundraiser for O’Donnell’s campaign at the downtown Long Beach office of the law firm Keesal, Young & Logan. It was sent by the ”Patrick O’Donnell for Assembly 2014″ committee and lists a number of political and public figures as supporters of O’Donnell’s candidacy for Assembly.

Among them: Mayor Bob Foster, retired state Senator Betty Karnette, Vice Mayor Robert Garcia, former Vice Mayor Jackie Kell, former Harbor Commissioner and Councilman Doug Drummond, LB School Board member Dr. Felton Williams, Signal Hill Councilman Larry Forester, Water Replenishment District Director Rob Katherman, Michael Dene of the Apartment Association of California/Southern Cities, Harbor Commissioner, former Harbor Commissioner Mike Walter, and Rodney Wilson, the president of the East Anaheim St. Business Association.

O’Donnell joins a race for the state Assembly that already features an ex-colleague, former Long Beach Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga. He’s had his eye on this office for awhile. He formed a committee to run for the Assembly in 2012 but dropped that bid — and instead sought a third four-year City Council term — when Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal dropped her 2012 state Senate bid and sought a final two year Assembly term.

In late December 2012, a little over six months he after his re-election a third-term following write-in and runoff campaigns, O’Donnell filed paperwork forming the O’Donnell for Assembly 2014 committee. LBREPORT.com was first (again) to report the development…and Councilman O’Donnell told us in early January 2013 that he hadn’t made any candidacy announcement regarding the 2014 Assembly race, wasn’t saying that he is running or isn’t running and noted that he transferred money to the new Committee from his 2012 Council re-election campaign in compliance with a year-end deadline for closing out his Council reelection committee. “Right now, my focus is very simple. I’m a teacher in the classroom by day, and a part time Councilmember by day and night,” he said.

CONTINUE READING AT LBREPORT.COM

And as the actors of the Downey Civic Light Opera (DCLO) wade into Lerner & Lowe’s classic musical, Paint Your Wagon, the familiar script will undoubtedly squeeze some fresh pain from the opening scene—a funeral.

Because moments before the curtain rises for the opening night of the final production of the DCLO’s 58th season, longtime executive producer and directorMarsha Moode will come to the stage to formally announce that the closing-night performance of Paint Your Wagon on June 16 will be the company’s last … ever.

And moments later, when the actors break into the show’s first song—“I’m On My Way”—it will be nearly impossible to apply its lyrics to Paint Your Wagon’s contrived plot … not when they so poignantly comment upon whatever the future may hold in the absence of a  tradition that helped forge the City of Downey into a community.

Feel free to sing along:

Where am I goin’?
I don’t know
Where am I headin’?
I ain’t certain
All I know
Is I am on my way

When will I be there?
I don’t know
When will I get there?
I ain’t certain
All that I know
Is I am on my way

Gotta dream boy
Gotta song
Paint your wagon
And come along…

For the entire story, we turn to Les Spindle, a writer whose piece on the end of the Downey Civic Light Opera was just published in the LA Stage Times:

BY LES SPINDLE
A mixture of exultation and sadness is likely to prevail on Friday, when Downey Civic Light Opera concludes its 58th season with the group’s final production, the rollicking Lerner and Loewe musical, Paint Your Wagon. DCLO’s longtime executive producer/director Marsha Moode will make a formal announcement to opening weekend audiences that this will be the company’s final production.

This painful decision came after consultations between Moode and VenueTech Management Group LLC, which took over operation of DCLO’s longtime performing venue, the 738-seat Downey Civic Theatre (owned by the City of Downey) last year. Moode, the indefatigable driving force behind this nonprofit theater company since 2000—when she advanced from its publicist/fundraiser to top manager and artistic director—says she had considered phasing out DCLO two years from now, which would have coincided with the company’s 60th anniversary, but unfortunate new developments caused her to move those plans up.

Six Decades of Entertainment
DCLO was founded in 1955 as the Downey Children’s Theatre. It first performed in a Downey high school cafeteria, staging children’s plays, shows and musicals for teenagers. The company eventually switched to a strictly musical-theater format, as the re-named Downey Civic Light Opera moved into the Downey Theatre in 1970.

Moode explains that a combination of drastically increasing rent under the new management, as well as the new requirement for DCLO to turn all box office functionality and control of ticket sales to the management firm proved unfeasible for the company. She adamantly states that she can’t manage the organization’s cash flow and financial obligations under the mandated changes.

Last year, Moode successfully negotiated with the City and VenueTech to complete the 2012-2013 season under DCLO’s longtime rental and ticket-sales arrangement. but she says that option has been taken away. There are additional issues that Moode says are extremely problematic, including the loss of key dates in DCLO’s opening week schedules, which VenueTech plans to fill with a variety of brief-run events. Moode decided that, all in all, the changes would not be workable for DCLO, and that it sadly is time to close the shop.

CONTINUE READING AT LASTAGETIMES.COM

Machinal closes tonight @ Long Beach Playhouse

Playwright Sophie Treadwell created Machinal in 1928. This too-little-known treasure is an expressionistic telling of one woman’s struggle to find her way in a world she experiences as mechanistically cold and condemningly absurd that crystallizes many of the philosophical themes that dominated that time: fears of losing our humanity in an increasingly automated world, women struggling to chart their own course, early existential preoccupations with freedom and free will. Long Beach Playhouse does just about everything possible to mine those motifs, revealing not only elements of the Zeitgeist in the 1920s, but questions that appear to be hauntingly timeless.
MACHINAL LONG BEACH PLAYHOUSE • 5021 E ANAHEIM ST • LONG BEACH 90804 • 562.494.1014 LBPLAYHOUSE.ORG • 8PM • $14–$24 • CLOSES TONIGHT

Midnight ska-cumentary: Dance Craze @ The Art

They’re promoting this as  the first U.S. showing in 25 years of this classic ska-cumentary film on its original 35mm print, and we’re not so skeptical that we’ve gotta look that up. We’re too fired up about the chance to catch such Ska legends as The Specials, The English Beat, Madness, The Selecter, Bad Manners and Body Snatchers. And that’s just on film. The show will feature live appearances by DJ Lawless, Scooter Run and prizes will be given away. Dancing and singing along are encouraged. Show up on your scooter and they’ll let you park it out front for nothing.

DANCE CRAZE THE ART THEATRE • 2025 E FOURTH STREET • LONG BEACH 90814 • 562.438.5435 ARTTHEATRELONGBEACH.COM • $17 ADVANCE, $20 AT DOOR • MIDNIGHT

Sunday best: Patchwork Festival @ Marine Stadium

Delilah and Nicole know the best gifts come from the heart, which is why they require every vendor at Patchwork to have one. That adds up to more than 120 hearts, all of them pumping blood and creativity and inspiration from their twice-a-year gathering place next to the waters of Marine Stadium. No wonder these one-day marketplaces are so re-invigorating, whether you’re planning to buy, to browse or to give your heart new reasons to beat.
PATCHWORK SHOW MARINE STADIUM • 5255 PAOLI WAY (BAYSHORE @ APPIAN WAY) • LONG BEACH 90803 •  PATCHWORKSHOW.COM • 11AM TO 5 PM • FREE

Tour great Long Beach homes, but don’t get any ideas

Most of the time, imagining ourselves living in a better house is easy, requiring nothing more than envisioning ourselves having more money. There’s a chance that could happen, right? Mathematically?  But probably not during today’s Great Homes of Long Beach Tour, an annual fundraiser by Long Beach Heritage, which this year will showcase five homes of such distinction and significance that they are woven into the fabric of the city’s history. And by that we mean that there is absolutely no chance we could ever live in one of them. We’re not even going to think about it.

Not while touring a two-story 1937 Spanish Colonial with Andalusian influence in California Heights, the one featuring an arcaded portico, a faux stone entry and an interior staircase that was originally owned by J. Donald Gunn, who worked for Craig Shipbuilding.

Not while inside the 1904 Jenny A. Reeve House, a National Historic Landmark that is one of three Greene & Greene homes in Long Beach.

Not while contemplating the 1914 Craftsman which was one of the first homes in the Virginia Country Club area, but hasn’t been wounded by the addition of a second floor, and not just because it’s surrounded by lush gardens.

Certainly not while learning about the early Federal tract style of a 1951 home with a simple floor plan and nondescript styling that its new owners see as an opportunity to make a statement about a unique and sustainable life style. Sustainable meets stylish.

Not even in a 1976 residence, inspired by the Steamline Moderne style, which  features uncluttered architecture softened by rounded corners. It is one of Long Beach’s first solar homes.

While we’re on the Great Homes of Long Beach Tour, as a docent slowly escorts us through the hush and meaning that has elevated these homes into the realm of museums, we swear to resist the temptation to fantasize … about having a bank account fat enough that we could make one of these domiciles the center ring of our daily circus … about exploring them until their hushed and hallowed rooms transformed into what we’d probably end up calling “the crib.”

We’ve promised not to do any of that … because we’ve been warned that somebody could get hurt … and we’ve been advised that it would probably be us … because we’ve been guaranteed that at some point during the five hours and the five houses of the Great Homes of Long Beach Tour we will suddenly become excruciatingly aware that we could never fit in one of these houses—not because we could never collect enough money, but because we lack the understanding and could never handle the responsibility of getting them safely to the next generation.

GREAT HOMES OF LONG BEACH TOUR LONG BEACH HERITAGE FUNDRAISER • TICKETS $30 FOR MEMBERS, $35 FOR NON-MEMBERS • AVAILABLE THROUGH PAYPAL AT LBHERITAGE.ORG • WILL-CALL PICKUP AT 4260 COUNTRY CLUB DRIVE FROM 11:30AM TO 2PM • TOUR IS NOON TO 5PM

How’d that turn out?

Well, let’s just say that the Long Beach Sea Festival that kicks off Saturday shapes up as the simple kind of summer-long celebration of the waterfront that has become local tradition, despite periodic attempts by various Barnums and Baileys to turn the thing into a circus and play us for suckers. In fact, one of those attempts was the very first incarnation of the Long Beach Sea Festival, back in 1908. More on that shortly.

FIRST, A LITTLE on the 2013 Long Beach Sea Festival, a three-month series of aquatic-themed events—swimming, sailing, sunning, building sand castles, fishing, watching boat races—that begins at Marina Green Park on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. And admission is free.

Saturday’s inaugural features a variety of family and children’s activities, team strength events, along with hula dance lessons and … food trucks! The entertainment includes a concert by the 1980s music cover band, Knyght Rider, and a screening of the movie Finding Nemo at sunset.

Thankfully, that’s much different than what Long Beach’s movers and shakers envisioned on September 1, 1908, when they launched the city’s history of celebrating summer on its shoreline with a five-day event they called the Festival of the Sea.

GET A LOAD of the gushing in this Los Angeles Times preview, published Aug. 29, 1908:

Arrangements for the Festival of the Sea … are rapidly nearing completion and those in charge assert that it will be the finest thing of its kind ever attempted in the Southwest. A special effort has been made from the first to give a peculiar flavor of the sea to the entire programme, and in following out this idea a number of novelties will be introduced.

Those “novelties” included twice-a-day jumps from a hot air balloon into the ocean by a parachutist on fire, contests among “three airships of the aeroplane type,” exhibitions of wireless telegraphy and local poultry, athletic events, a battle of the bands and a different parade every day—one comprised entirely of automobiles. Downtown streets were lined with vendors’ booths, the corners featured vaudeville stages and buildings were hung with flags, bunting and streamers.

The Times was just as breathless in its coverage of the Festival of the Sea:

Street cars and trains came into town crowded with visitors. Up and down the brilliantly lighted streets they strolled, stopping to buy a ‘red hot’ or an orangeade. To carry out the idea of the sea, boatloads of kelp and seaweed were brought in from Catalina and festooned about the streets.

YES, WE READ THAT RIGHT: “… boatloads of kelp and seaweed were brought in from Catalina and festooned about the streets.”

But the centerpiece of the original Festival of the Sea was the crowning of an honorary Queen and King, replete with their courts, in a throne placed in a gigantic replica of a seashell, set in the surf before a specially constructed grandstand on the sand that seated—depending on which newspaper was reporting—10,000 or 15,000 or 25,000 spectators.

About six months after bestowing the Festival of the Sea with these extraordinary reviews, the Times revisited Long Beach’s elaborate aqua fair, in a March 31, 1909, story that appeared beneath this headline:

SOCIETY WOMEN AMONG SUED

Society and club women, leading merchants and professional men were served today with papers in a suit instituted by Martin H. Jackson to recover $66.50. The complaint, filed with Justice Brayton, contains the names of 100 defendants, most of them members of the Chamber of Commerce and the Ebell Club. The suit is an echo of the Festival of the Sea given last fall, and is for services in designing a number of floats and the Queen’s throne. The festival was an artistic success, but a financial failure, and Jackson is only one of many creditors.

In fact, it took five years to pay off the Festival of the Sea, an accomplishment the Times noted on Feb. 21, 1913. By that time, however, the event was no longer remembered for its glory, but as “a fiesta which plunged the chamber and many private citizens in debt because of inclement weather and extravagant expenses of reckless committeemen.”

The plot—which matters increasingly less as the play goes along—centers around Rosalind (Sarah-Laine Milner), who is a permanent guest in the court of her uncle, Duke Frederick (Mike Austin), even though her father, Duke Senior (Austin again), has been banished from court, his dukedom usurped. Frederick decides to banish Rosalind, but his daughter, Celia (Nora Hunter), is too tight with her to let her go alone, so off they stroll into the Forest of Arden, with faithful jester Touchstone (Jesse Seann Atkinson) in toe. In Arden they re-encounter Orlando (Kevin Alai), now also a refugee due to dishonorable familial doings and defiling the trees with bad love poems about Rosalind, who is just as smitten with him but is now masquerading as a man and so goes unrecognized, even though they’re together almost constantly.

If that sounds both silly and getting a bit redundant with the motifs (and you ain’t heard the half of it, sugar), it is, yet none the worse for all that, because credibility isn’t necessarily the standard of great art. There are lots of different things going on in the Bard’s three-dozen plays, and not all at the same time. In As You Like It plot is a necessary conveyance, like the undercarriage of a limo. The party going on inside is something else entirely.

As You Like It is wacky. A meaningless character called “Mar-Text” appears like a typo and is never heard from again. Hymen, the god of marriage, makes a cameo, gets a song. Everyone falls in love and makes amends as if under a midsummerian dreamspell, even though the possibility of its all going wrong is kept in plain sight. “How many actions most ridiculous / Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy?” asks one shepherd. “Into a thousand that I have forgotten,” answers the other.

And yet Shakespeare does some of his very best writing here, in what is his most metafictional work this side of The Tempest. “All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely players,” says Jacques, who yearns to be a fool but is too melancholy for the task. “They have their exits and their entrances, / And one man in his time plays many parts[.]” Shakespeare was raising the literary bar, and if his depth seems less unique now, it’s only because he succeeded so completely.

The success Long Beach Shakespeare has with As You Like It is more mixed. Sometimes the actors are speaking in asides when they should be addressing each other; sometimes the timing is completely mismatched to the text. And as happens too often in the Richard Goad, characters stand around listening to others recite their lines.

But As You Like It also features some of the best work LB Shake has done. Director Helen Borgers does extremely well to add pantomime that makes Act I’s wrestling scene come to life. (J.J. Ryder as Charles the wrestler is very funny here.) Also on display is some of LB Shake’s best use of silence, with the actors letting awkward conversation hang in the air as the characters try to sort themselves out.

Milner is solidly cast as Rosalind, by turns convincingly confident and diffident, amused and concerned, satisfied and frustrated as she gives life to the character exceeded only by Hamlet in terms of having the most lines of any of the Bard’s creations. And as well as she gives her lines, she receives those of her castmates equally well, seeming to genuinely react to the words she hears. Her pairing with Nora Hunter as Celia works well. Hunter, a newbie to LB Shake, has a beautifully expressive face, and so anyone in a scene with her has something solid against which to play. (Side note related to the pair: The costuming for As You Like It is pretty good overall, and the pair’s dresses are particularly lovely.)

As You Like It may be Shakespeare’s best comedy, with distinct characters disporting themselves in all their idiosyncrasies, in service of a plot with enough wackiness and generally funny dialog—not to mention the depth riding sidecar—to overwhelm its ludicrousness. This is a fun time, and a good reminder of what all the Shakespeare fuss is still about.

AS YOU LIKE IT LONG BEACH SHAKESPEARE CO. • RICHARD GOAD THEATRE: 4250 ATLANTIC AVE, LONG BEACH 90807 • 562.997.1494 LBSHAKESPEARE.ORG • FRI-SAT 8PM, SUN 2PM • $20; $10 FOR STUDENTS • THROUGH JUNE 29

• We like its name, which sounds so much like the title of a surfing movie you almost forget our coastline doesn’t have any waves.

• We like its timing, which disregards the Summer Solstice—as well as the nearly three weeks remaining in the Long Beach Unified School District’s 2012-13 traditional calendar year—in favor of the Memorial Day Weekend.

• We like its effect, which not only gives us a city-sanctioned jump of nearly a month on the start of summer, but also a summer that is about 10 days longer—from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

• We like its heft, which amounts to more than 800 events.

• We like its breadth, which includes free or low-cost cultural programs, sports activities and special events like movies, music, camps and classes.

• We like its website—www.100daysofsummer.org—which is a cornucopia of listings for goings on at places from the Long Beach Sea Festival, the El Dorado Nature Center, Rancho Los Cerritos and Rancho Los Alamitos historic sites, and ideas for spontaneous fun like biking, golf, tennis, kayaking swimming, and free drop-in youth and teen programs, and much more.

OK, but we’re not sure, yet, if we like The Basix, a cover band that will perform on Day One of the 100 Days of Summer—that’s this Friday—at Marina Vista Park beginning at 5 p.m. The press release describes The Basix as “a high-energy dance band with a set list that appeals to people of all ages.” That could go a lot of directions … and the release indicates it will, promising that “rock songs from Earth Wind and Fire, the Rolling Stones and The Doobie Brothers; disco tunes from the Bee Gees, Donna Summer and KC and the Sunshine Band, and top 40 from No Doubt, Maroon 5 and Justin Timberlake will have audiences dancing and enjoying a great time with family and friends.”

Personally, it’s the next paragraph that makes The Basix sound most encouraging, noting that bouncers have been ordered for Marina Vista Park, along with caricaturists, face painters and balloon artists … and we see now that it’s a different kind of bouncers the release is referring to, although there’s nothing about “food trucks” we don’t understand, nor the term “free admission.”

But notwithstanding  the cooperation and organization that has created 100 Days of Summer, there’s one thing about it we don’t like—the mental picture we get of Parks and Rec department head George Chapjian and  Convention & Visitors Bureau boss Steve Goodling squinting from beneath floppy sun hats, wearing tucked in Hawaiian shirts with Bermuda shorts that display blindingly white shins on their way to black socks and penny loafers. And we can’t get it out of our heads!

The Bald Soprano, Ionesco’s first play and the first work presented on the Garage/Alive Ionesco double-bill, is in that mix, and not on the kind side. It’s the sort of absurdist/dadaist piece that is meaningless merely for the sake of being meaningless. And while the point—if there is one—may be to point up the lack of inherent substance in language or the meaningless palaver that is part and parcel of polite society, these issues have been dealt with far more compellingly in the 60-plus years since The Bald Soprano debuted.

This is basically absurdist slapstick, the linguistic back-and-forth serving roughly the same purpose as blows exchanged by Larry, Moe, and Curly. A lot of people like the Three Stooges—I’m just not one of them. The cast here does what it can to infuse the text with charm, but in my eyes its got nothing with which to work.

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

The Chairs, on the other hand, seems to genuinely reach for something. An Old Man and Woman (Craig Johnson and Robbie Danzie, respectively), married for 75 years, live alone in their home on a tiny island in a vaguely post-apocalyptic world (we don’t get much more than that Paris was destroyed 400 years ago). Lamenting that the Man could have risen to far greater heights than his present position as “general factotum,” the couple reminisces about life together while preparing to receive a hoard of guests—everyone in the world, basically—to hear the Man hold forth, through an orator, on…well, the subject isn’t exactly clear, but whatever it is, it’s supposed to be humanity’s saving grace. The guests begin to arrive, except they’re invisible to us, and chair after chair is brought out for these phantoms.

The Chairs is, by design, obscure, though Ionesco seems to be saying something about shared illusions and the feeling of unfulfilled promise that may plague us during our advanced years, and our undying hope that things may yet take a turn for the better. “We could have been so happy,” the Man says, “I’m sure of it, we could have been, we could have been; perhaps the flowers are budding again beneath the snow!”

But whatever the statement, it is made redundantly, and a play that runs roughly an hour would more effective—and no less substantive—at 40 minutes. The problem is not with director Jamie Sweet and company’s pacing, but with the text itself. Ionesco may be playing with the theme of monotony (in both life and marriage), but that is no excuse for creating monotonous work.

Get a degree in English, and you’re likely to come across the concept of the “imitative fallacy,” a highfalutin way to say that it’s an artistic error to portray monotony by being monotonous or meaninglessness by intentionally leaving meaning in the lurch. Pure dadaists would disagree.

But Marcel Duchamp was making an important point in 1917 when placed a urinal on a pedestal and called it art, a point about how art is not only in the making but in the seeing. But it was also still a urinal on its side.

In 1948 Ionesco was certainly breaking with tradition. Whether that is enough to still enjoy his early work, or whether his method yields personal meaning, depends on your point of view.

THE BALD SOPRANO & THE CHAIRS THE GARAGE/ALIVE THEATRE COLLISION • 251 E 7TH ST (JUST WEST OF LONG BEACH BLVD) • LONG BEACH 90813 • 562.433.8337 THEGARAGETHEATRE.ORG • THURS-SAT 8PM • $18; $15 FOR STUDENTS & SENIORS; CLOSING NIGHT + PARTY $20 • THROUGH JUNE 8

“My dad and mom met at the Pike,” Gerrie Schipske began. For the broadly accomplished, 62-year-old Long Beach City Councilwoman, that was the beginning—the chance interaction of a couple of teenagers on the bright, bustling midway of a classic old amusement park in 1948. Of course, even without such a personal connection, mentioning the old Pike is always a good icebreaker in Long Beach. Judging from the sentiment that fluttered through the banquet room at McKenna’s restaurant as Schipske opened her address to the Women Lawyers of Long Beach a few weeks ago, the image of finding love at the Pike may still be the city’s favorite meet-cute, more than three decades after the park’s 1979 demolition.

Schipske grew up in what was left of this Long Beach, an era that people variously strain to remember, struggle to imagine, find themselves yearning for, regard as a Golden Age, hold up as the standard the city should strive to meet again. She was born in the Naval Hospital, nowadays known as the Veterans Administration Hospital. She was baptized at St. Lucy’s Catholic Church on the west side of town, the one in which her parents were married, not far from Silverado Park, where they held their reception. Her family shopped on Pine Avenue when it was the center of a retail district full of department stores and specialty shops. She read the Independent, Press-Telegram—the I,P-T, as it was known to locals.

Schipske is proud of her deep Long Beach roots and delights in dropping the names of the architectural masterpieces, historic people, landmark places, unique traditions—the icons, so many long gone, but some still around—that gave context to the milestones her life was passing, that opened up options and encouraged her to focus on the future she would inhabit.

“I’ve known I wanted to be in politics—to be an elected official—since I was voted student-body president of my high school,” declares Schipske, whose desire has always been obvious, but whose Election Day results haven’t been so gratifying . . . until recently.

Schipske has been running for political offices—mostly among assorted state assembly and congressional districts—since 1988, and after being crushed by Orange County Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher in the 2002 edition of his biannual Waltz Back to Washington, her record as a finalist was 1 win and 5 losses. Since then, however, Schipske’s neighbors in Long Beach’s Fifth District have twice elected her to represent them on the City Council—by a nail-biting margin in 2006, then via landslide in 2010.

Was that a referendum on Schipske’s solid Our Town background? Or a reaction to a résumé that sounds like Jack Kerouac helped her with it? And after stints with the Central Intelligence Agency, as the City of Long Beach’s first public-information officer, as a registered nurse, an attorney, the author of three books about Long Beach history, as a member of the California Medical Board, as head of the Orange County Democrat Party, as a foster parent, as the adoptive parent of three now-adult children, as a grandmother—what’s next? We’re all about to find out.

On March 21, Gerrie Schipske launched her campaign for Mayor of Long Beach. The primary election is next April, and if she gets more than 50 percent of the votes in that primary, Gerrie Schipske would be the mayor of Long Beach . . . meaning, therefore, that Gerrie Schipske would be the first openly gay mayor of Long Beach . . . because . . . inasmuch as . . . basically . . . as we have all known, probably since we have known of her … Gerrie Schipske is gay.

Why does all that feel so weird to say?

Maybe because we haven’t had any practice?

My first conversation with Schipske was in October 2002, a month before her Election Day mismatch against Rohrabacher. We met in her campaign headquarters, a rented office on the fringe of an old Long Beach shopping center, directly above a beauty college. We went into a windowless room, sat on metal folding chairs and talked—starting with topics suggested by my questions, then traveling along some tangents until we arrived at some of her talking points. The central theme was how Schipske’s campaign—despite less-than-one-percent losses to congressmen Steve Kuykendall in 1996 and Steve Horn in 2000—was being financially abandoned by the Democratic Party and its PACs, and thus not considered for endorsements by traditionally supportive organizations because of a bipartisan redistricting deal among California legislators to protect incumbents. The conversation touched on oil drilling, health and education, automotive-fuel efficiency, job creation, terrorism, sewage treatment, and the number of flights at Long Beach Airport. Lesbians, gays and bisexuals were mentioned, but in most cases, their issues were covered by larger umbrellas.

Schipske never mentioned she is a lesbian. I didn’t ask her about it. I never mentioned I’m a straight male. She didn’t ask me about it.

It’s been the same for the past 11 years, with only two exceptions that come to mind. Two years ago, when public opinion seemed to take the side of Robert Garcia—Long Beach’s other openly gay council member—in a difference of opinion with Schipske over the naming of a downtown square that’s now called Harvey Milk Park, Schipske quipped, “I hope they don’t revoke my gay card.” And early this year, when the opening of the Historical Society of Long Beach’s exhibition, “Coming Out In Long Beach,” drew a large number of elected officials, Schipske observed, “At one time, politicians couldn’t be seen with us; now, they can’t be seen without us.”

I’m not saying Schipske is somehow hiding who she is. She has lived openly with her partner, Flo Pickett, for 33 years, raising three children and now doting on a 3-year-old granddaughter.

I’m not saying Schipske is not a passionate, vigilant, creative and proud force for LGBT equality, protection and opportunity. What I’m saying is I don’t have any right, qualifications or desire to say anything for Schipske or about her sexuality.

But the label of Long Beach’s First Gay Mayor is around the corner, and the combination of Schipske’s run for mayor and this weekend’s Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride festival— Sunday morning Schipske’s campaign trail is actually going to merge with the Pride Parade route, as she rides a fire engine in the 1-mile parade down Ocean Boulevard—seems as though it might be the time to ask some questions on that subject … and find out what she might have to say, herself.

CONTINUE READING AT OCWEEKLY.COM

Get used to reading Insights 2013 because this exhibit, which manifests the restless passion, or if you prefer, oddball ennui that springs from the hearts, souls and guts of both graduate and undergraduate students from the Department of Art, is going to be around through July 3.

It all got started Wednesday (May 8) evening with an awards ceremony in the Horn Center, followed by a reception. Several attendees who were originally put off by the Insights 2013 name bought a couple bottles of wine and discussed it long into the night, finally putting forth a theory that the name of the exhibit—again, Insights 2013—is actually part of the exhibit—an attempt by the artist to distract or disappoint the audience, thus increasing the impact of work by students in programs including Art Education, Ceramics, Drawing and Painting, Fiber, Graphic Design, Illustration/Animation, Metal, Photography, Printmaking, and Wood.

INSIGHTS 2013 UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM • CAL STATE UNIVERSITY/LONG BEACH • 1250 BELLFLOWER BLVD • LONG BEACH 90840 •  WEBSITE 562.985.4111 EXT 7014  • TUES, WED, FRI NOON-5PM, THURS NOON-8PM, CLOSED MONDAY • $4 • THROUGH JULY 3

Another component was added to the controversy Tuesday when scientists and faculty members at USC, UCLA and UC-Irvine e-mailed a letter to the LA City Council stating that the EIR fails to consider key research findings on air pollution and its health impacts.

The letter is published in full on LBReport.com.

USC professor Andrea Hricko—a professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine and the director of community outreach and engagement for the Southern CA Environmental Health Sciences Center—added this in the e-mail to which the letter was attached:

“If the [Los Angeles] City Council decides to return the FEIR [Final Environmental Impact Report] to the Port of Los Angeles for revisions, we respectfully ask that you instruct the Port and its consultants to consider this information, which was not reviewed nor included in the FEIR.” [The letter doesn't "take a position" on the project, but says the EIR fails to consider the latest science -- and should have, and should do so, if Council sends the FEIR back for revisions.]

Railway giant BNSF, which wants to build the new rail yard on a site adjacent to neighborhoods in West Long Beach, claims the location is environmentally friendly and good for the local economy.

“SCIG will be located within four miles of the ports allowing trucks loaded with cargo to travel a much shorter distance before transferring the containers to rail,” it said in a public communique Tuesday, “instead of traveling 24 miles up the 710 Freeway. SCIG will support the competitiveness and forecasted growth of both ports, which handle more than 40% of the nation’s container cargo and account for more than a million jobs in California. “The project results in significant air quality and health risk improvements as compared to continuing the existing uses at the site.

“SCIG will be the greenest intermodal facility in the U.S. and will feature $100 million in green technologies, clean new trucks on designated routes and funding for zero emissions technology research. BNSF has offered to build a sound wall on the eastern side of the Terminal Island Freeway and plant intensive landscaping on both sides of the freeway.”

Helen (Tiffany Toner) works in an office that functions like a machine, largely because her co-workers are unquestioning cogs. But Helen can’t quite make herself fit. She is not punctual; she is inefficient. But she has an out: her wealthy and powerful boss, George Jones (Mark Coyan), wants her as his bride. Though her skin crawls at even the thought of his touch, seemingly it’s an escape, though quickly it becomes apparent that she’s traded one deterministic gaol for another.

Machinal presents an interesting acting challenge for its lead, as Treadwell moves Helen through nine scenes (or “episodes,” as the playwright calls them) with dialogic styles that emulate the various milieus wherein Helen finds herself. In the first episode, for example, Helen falls in with the robotically efficient chatter of her workplace:

STENOGRAPHER: You’re late!
FILING CLERK: You’re late.
ADDING CLERK: You’re late.
STENOGRAPHER: And yesterday!
FILING CLERK: The day before.
ADDING CLERK: And the day before.
STENOGRAPHER: You’ll lose your job?
HELEN: No!
STENOGRAPHER: No?
HELEN: I can’t!
STENOGRAPHER: Can’t?
FILING CLERK: Rent—bills—installments—miscellaneous.
ADDING CLERK: A dollar ten—ninety-five—3.40—35—12.60.
STENOGRAPHER: Then why are you late?
HELEN: Why?
STENOGRAPHER: Excuse!
ADDING CLERK: Excuse!
FILING CLERK: Excuse.
TELEPHONE GIRL: Excuse it, please.
STENOGRAPHER: Why?
HELEN: The subway?
TELEPHONE GIRL: Long distance?
FILING CLERK: Old stuff!
ADDING CLERK: That stall!
STENOGRAPHER: Stalled?

In the next episode, the dialog downshifts to reflect the life that Helen shares at home with her mother (Sherry Denton-Noonan), as they discuss the possibility of Helen’s accepting George’s proposal:

HELEN: Tell me—your skin oughtn’t to curl—ought it—when he just comes near you—ought it? That’s wrong, ain’t it? You don’t get over that, do you—ever, do you or do you? How is it, Ma—do you?
MOTHER: Do you what?
HELEN: Do you get used to, it—so after a while it doesn’t matter? Or don’t you? Does it always matter? You ought to be in love, oughtn’t you, Ma? You must be in love, mustn’t you, Ma? That changes everything, doesn’t it—or does it?

Episodes that follow include domestic life with George (stylistically dominated by his cliché-ridden optimism), a maternity ward (clinical, sterile), and a court proceeding coverage (adversarial, litigious). Toner is brilliant through all of it, managing always to display Helen’s ill-at-ease core, regardless of what milieu is being reflected off her surface. And Toner’s facility with both emotionality and the successive elocutionary styles required of her are complemented by a surprising physicality.

As much as Toner is the star, the overall effect produced by Machinal comes from the cast’s work as an ensemble, along with the impressive technical achievement (see below), and all of Toner’s castmates are great, holding down multiple roles so solidly that you rarely think of the actors as doubling (or tripling, or quadrupling). John Conway is a prime example. He’s prominent in his opening scene as the Adding Clerk; as Helen’s extramarital paramour he is the main support to Toner during the middle swath of the play; and he’s an important stylistic adornment as a courtroom reporter near play’s end. Yet, you have to work a bit to see that it’s the same guy. And while it’s easier to notice when the actor (Mark Coyan) playing George Jones (a role that shouldn’t be doubled) pops up later as other characters, it’s a tribute to Coyan that we can swallow it.

Director Katie Chidester and crew have done a spectacular job of bringing Machinal to life. The slyly functional set looks like something out of early German cinema, with a stunning lighting design by Joey Welden that colors and shadows both set and performers with just-so precision (although in certain scenes on opening night some of the cues—particularly in a lounge scene—were hit slightly late). Still pictures are unable to do it justice.

And while this is the best-looking thing I’ve seen at LB Playhouse, Tim Murphey’s sound design is just as good, with the whirr and hum of machinery (of capitalism, of the cosmos, of the psyche, if not the soul) informing the proceedings. In fact, it all flows together—the props, the costumes (including some damn good wigs), the smallest details.

Chidester exploits each of the elements at her disposal for all it’s worth. She teases out the rhythms inhering to the dialog, then fleshes them further with the rhythmic use of props (the cranking arm of an adding machine, the metronomic tapping of pen on legal pad for minutes at a time). Chidester’s realization of Machinal is so pitch-perfect that it’s hard to imagine that the original production wouldn’t seem lacking by comparison, considering that Chidester has recourse to inspiration and technology unavailable to producers in 1928.

With her daring, compelling, unflinching script, Sophie Treadwell masterfully crystallizes many of the philosophical themes that dominated her time: fears of losing our humanity in an increasingly automated world, women struggling to chart their own course, early existential preoccupations with freedom and free will. By unearthing Treadwell’s too-little-known treasure, Long Beach Playhouse does just about everything possible to mine those motifs, revealing not only elements of the Zeitgeist in the 1920s, but questions that appear to be hauntingly timeless.

MACHINAL LONG BEACH PLAYHOUSE • 5021 E ANAHEIM ST • LONG BEACH 90804 • 562.494.1014 LBPLAYHOUSE.ORG • FRI-SAT 8PM, SUN 2PM • $14–$24• THROUGH JUNE 1

As its name suggests, the Local Control in Sentencing Act gives flexibility to prosecutors and judges in cases of low-level drug possession for personal use. That crime is currently a felony, but SB 649 would allow prosecutors to reduce it to a misdemeanor. Similarly, judges could deem such low-level drug possession offenses as misdemeanors, after considering the characteristics of each case and the defendant’s record. The bill does not apply to anyone involved in selling, manufacturing or possessing drugs for sale.

Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) authored the bill, and sponsors such as the American Civil Liberties Union of California and the Drug Policy Alliance are promoting it as an optional way for counties to safely alleviate overcrowding in county jails and ease pressure on California’s court system. The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates that reducing penalties for drug possession could save the state and counties about $159 million annually.

“One of the best ways to promote lower crime rates is to provide low-level offenders with the rehabilitation they need to successfully reenter their communities,” said Leno, according to a press release. “However, our current laws do just the opposite. We give non-violent drug offenders long terms, offer them no treatment while they’re incarcerated and then release them back into the community with few job prospects or opportunities to receive an education.

“SB 649 gives local governments the flexibility to choose reduced penalties so that they can reinvest in proven alternatives that benefit minor offenders and reserve limited jail space for serious criminals.”

Nationally, drug possession is presently treated as a misdemeanor in 13 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government. According to the press release, drug crime is not higher in those states. The release also cites a statewide poll of Californians conducted last year by Tulchin Research, which reported that 75 percent of the state’s voters favor investment in prevention and alternatives to jail for non-violent offenders and that 62 percent of Californians agree that the penalty for possessing a small amount of illegal drugs for personal use should be reduced to a misdemeanor.

Apparently, SB 649’s mere appearance on the Senate floor Thursday startled its supporters—including Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, senior policy advocate with the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. After it passed with two votes to spare, Dooley-Samueli sent an e-mail to some of the bill’s allies, acknowledging that the victory “comes as a surprise … because we weren’t expecting the vote to happen so soon! Every expectation was that the floor vote would not happen until the end of the month, but the Senator (Leno) had good reason to go ahead—a belief that he had the votes. And he was right!

In the past few decades, comic culture has turned from being a niche group to cross-section of people who together comprise a huge market share, which explains the expansion of comics beyond books to webcomics, TV shows, spinoff shows, blockbuster films and countless other items.

In the midst of all those comics and adaptations, it’s easy to get lost. Free Comic Book Day serves as an easy introduction into the brightly inked world of comics.

“A lot of the time they give away an issue 0 or 1, or a one-shot,” says Camille Adair, a lifelong fan of comic books. “If you like what you got for free you’re more likely to go back and purchase the rest of the series later on.

Be sure to check out the local shops participating!

Mayor Bob Foster, a student of ancient Rome, is surely familiar with the ancient Latin proverb Natura abhorret vacuum: Nature abhors a vacuum. Long Beach’s mayor is applying that principle to the cowardly Long Beach City Council, which continues to evade taking a publicly voted action on whether to support or oppose an attempt to put a major rail yard next to homes, parks and schools in a part of the city where residents already endure some of the most polluted air in the country.

A different location for the rail yard has been urged by groups including the West Long Beach Association, Building Healthy Communities/LB, Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma, Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, Coalition for a Safe Environment, Communities for a Better Environment, Communities for Clean Ports/End Oil, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Natural Resources Defense Council and Physicians for Social Responsibility/Los Angeles. They have repeatedly said that rail yards belong in the Port, not in neighborhoods. They have urged putting the rail yard in the Ports using on-dock rail.

In contrast, Mayor Foster, unwisely joined by 7th district Councilman James Johnson and Congressman Alan Lowenthal, have proposed to leave the proposed rail yard exactly where BNSF wants it…with what the electeds call “mitigation.” Things like a so-called “buffer park” and money for various items that can be offered as a sop to residents and as bullet points in campaign brochures.

At its core, we believe this is a moral issue. We doubt very much that Mayor Foster, Congressman Lowenthal or Councilman Johnson (all of whom are dads) would want their children playing in—or living anywhere near—a so-called “buffer park.” In our opinion, it’s morally wrong to camouflage—with shrubbery or money—pollutants that health authorities say can bring debilitating suffering and death-hastening cancers and pulmonary diseases.

The policy-setting Long Beach City CounciL—whose primary duty is supposed to be protecting public health and safety—has still not taken a publicly voted position on whether to support or oppose the putting the rail yard where BNSF proposes to put it.

Why?

We believe it’s because cargo and corporate interests, the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and other like-minded business groups and building trade unions want it where BNSF wants it. Those interests can dispense campaign contributions useful to politicians in future campaigns. In other words, it’s a political hot potato.

We are not persuaded by City Attorney Bob Shannon’s explanation for what’s taken place, which we published earlier today, indicating that Mayor Foster’s discussions were “consistent”—an interesting term susceptible to differing interpretations—with what the Council authorized in a closed session.

But the agendized item stated it was to authorize the initiation of litigation, and what the City Attorney told the public that the Council did in that closed session was to authorize appealing the L.A. Harbor Commission’s certification of the SCIG’s Environmental Impact Report. We are not addressing here whether we believe what took place fits within the Brown (open meetings) Act. We believe at this point there is a better remedy.

In our view, what’s taken place isn’t an example of a strong Mayor. It’s an example of a weak City Council. We believe the public deserves an up or down vote by the Councilmembers they elect — who have a vote that the Mayor doesn’t have — on whether the City they govern on health and safety matters supports or opposes the SCIG rail yard where it’s presently proposed.

That’s what now-exited Councilwoman Rae Gabelich and still-incumbent Councilman James Johnson sought to do in December 2011 … but were derailed by a substitute motion from Councilman [now potential Assembly candidate] Steve Neal.

Week after week thereafter, the City Council continued to feed that policy vacuum by not taking a position on the rail yard…even after Mayor Foster and Councilman Johnson publicly advanced their so-called “mitigation” measures at the L.A. Harbor Commission’s March 2013 meeting. What Foster and Johnson advocated with so-called “mitigation” was never publicly approved in a public vote by the policy-setting City Council.

By not filling that policy vacuum, City Councilmembers are hiding like ostriches—with their rear ends sticking up in the air visible for all to see. The entire city (and beyond) can see what their real vision is for parts of Long Beach: a “no man’s land” with “buffer parks” and ersatz “mitigation” that at the end of the day delivers what some special interests want.

In our opinion, the negative impacts on Long Beach residents of the proposed rail yard can’t be mitigated. We believe the rail yard should be relocated into the Ports, using landfill if necessary. We urge at least three principled Councilmembers to agendize a recommendation of relocation, not mitigation, for an up or down vote at the May 7 Long Beach City Council meeting. The City Clerk’s deadline for doing so is noon on Friday (May 3).

If there is no Long Beach Council publicly voted action on this, on May 8 Mayor Foster will likely stand before the Los Angeles City Council expressing what is basically his personal opinion enabled by a Council created policy vacuum on one of the biggest health and safety issues ever to affect part of Long Beach.

Decades ago, some small Mayors, local officials and Congressmembers reliably delivered what then-powerful tobacco industry interests wanted. They cited “jobs,” benefits for the “economy” and what they portrayed as mitigation for smokers via “filters” (that led the users to believe the impacts were less than they were…while users inhaled the deadly fumes).

If there is much difference in moral terms between what they did and what Mayor Foster, Congressman Lowenthal and others likeminded are advocating with “mitigation” for the railyard now, we fail to see it.

FOR MORE OF THE BEST NEWS COVERAGE OF LONG BEACH, GO TO LBREPORT.COM

Austin, who represents the 8th district, made the revelation Wednesday at a May Day press conference at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in downtown Long Beach, where a variety of politicians, activists and religious leaders made a united call in support of efforts to prevent gun violence. Speakers included Representative Alan Lowenthal, Sheri Barnett of the California Brady Campaign, Jessica Quintana of Centro Community Hispanic Association (CHA) and Dr. Rab Razzak from Doctors for America.

Momentum for a Gun Buyback Day began January 22, when the City Council unanimously approved an agenda item co-sponsored by Councilmembers Steve Neal (9th district), James Johnson (7th district) and Austin requesting that Police Chief Jim McDonnell and the LBPD explore the feasibility of conducting such an event. The LBPD had a 90-day window to complete its assessment.

Apparently, it’s feasible.

The LBPD will be operating the event, handling everything from logistics to the press. So far, however, no information beyond the date, place and time of the Gun Buyback Day could be confirmed.

Oh, except for this: People will be able to exchange their firearms for Target gift cards.

Only five years ago?

Exactly five years ago, says owner Luis Navarro, whose calendar confirms that Lola’s opened its doors on May 2, 2008.

But Lola’s so quickly became such an integral part of Retro Row that it can be difficult to bring to mind when it wasn’t there.

Although today is Lola’s birthdate, Navarro is holding off on the celebration until Sunday—Cinco de Mayo—when the party will include a DJ’d day of blues, soul, and rock and roll from the 40s, 50s, and 60s, as well as Flamenco performances at 1:30 P.M. and 2:30 P.M.

Additionally, Lola’s will launch a new menu, including such new items as a cast-iron-grilled rib eye steak served with garlic cilantro butter, and a mole recipe made with hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, and vanilla beans. Don’t worry, the family recipes that are at the center of Lola’s identity aren’t going anywhere.

Lola’s is open 11:30 to 9:30 and is located at 2030 E. 4th Street, Long Beach, 90814. Call 562.343.5506 for daily specials or to book your next special event.

If true—that is, if a request for mediation has been officially issued by Long Beach city management or promised by Foster—it has been done without the authorization of the City Council and it is a position opposed by West Long Beach neighborhood groups who live near the proposed SCIG railyard and thus would be on the front lines of whatever contaminants it would emit.

LBReport.com broke the story today after obtaining the letter written by Buscaino, who represents San Pedro on the LA Council.

CONTINUE READING AT LBREPORT.COM

Note: Maaike Rose Wielenga, who recently celebrated her 15th birthday, is student at South Pasadena High School. She runs for the school’s cross country and track teams, and plays the clarinet in an Altadena jazz band, but the tag line at the end of her e-mails defines her as “earth lover, tree hugger, butterfly.” Maaike’s account of her family’s adventures last summer during their push to the top of Mt. Whitney and when car trouble stranded them in the desert on the way home provides the jump start to

 ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

IN A TYPICAL BEGINNING to my family’s summer vacations, I learned about last July ‘s backpacking trek to the top of Mt. Whitney a mere four days before departure. My two younger brothers and I weren’t concerned. Although I was still 14 last summer, meaning Jacob was 12 and Pieter was 9, we’ve been backpacking with our mom and dad all our lives. We got our bags packed, and my mom took us shopping for rain coats and freeze-dried foods.

But this was going to be the longest backpacking trip we had ever been on—41 miles in five days, at high elevation all the way—starting at Horseshoe Meadows (9,960 feet) and ending at Whitney Portal (8,360 feet). In between was Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet. Reaching the top and then getting back down to our family car—an old VW pop-up camper van—was going to be an extreme undertaking and a great achievement.

We arrived at Horseshoe Meadows after a three-hour drive. My dad dropped us off with our packs and drove on to park the car at Whitney Portal. My grandparents met him there and brought him back to Horseshoe Meadows. While waiting, my brothers, mom, and I spent the hours reading and trying to ignore the altitude sickness—all of us were headachy. My grandparents and dad finally arrived, and we had a picnic together. Then we went to the bathroom—the last time we would see a toilet for days—put our packs on, said goodbye, and started off.

The scenery was beautiful. The tall trees had a color that looked like caramel and chocolate swirled together, and the meadows were full of green grass and flowers. A few miles into the hike we started getting a splotchy drizzle, and soon thunder started rumbling.We were hoping it wouldn’t rain too hard when pieces of hail began to fall from the sky, biting our legs and arms. As we stopped under a tree to put on our rain jackets, the hail began to pour out of the sky—literally—in an insane storm that lasted at least 10 minutes. Jacob said the ground looked like white Dippin’ Dots.

The weather was perfect after that—cool but sunny—and we reached our first-night destination at Long Lake around 6 p.m. Dinner was delicious: loaded mashed potatoes and sausage that tasted like the best meal in the world. Sleeping, however, was extremely uncomfortable, with just a thin pad separating us from the hard ground. I was lucky enough to get to sleep on a big rock—very comfortable, as you might imagine.

On Day Two we climbed New Army pass. As we ate our breakfast that morning, we looked up at the surrounding walls of rock, wondering how we were going to get over them. They looked impassable. Switchbacks turned out to be the answer. They weren’t as bad as people say and they gave us a great view of the valley we had hiked the previous day.

When we reached the top of the pass, an elevation of about 12,000 feet, it was extremely windy. We had a quick treat of Pop Tarts, then continued along the trail. Thankfully, it was downhill until almost the very end. Then it got steep, again, and since we were already worn out, this last part became the hardest and most tiring part of the day.

Our goal on Day Three was Guitar Lake. The hike was mostly uphill, and the scenery changed dramatically as we crept above the tree line. We reached the lake at about 3 p.m. and still had a good five hours before it would get dark enough to sleep. To kill time, we waded in the icy mountain lake and played gin—many, many hands of gin. Without the cards, I don’t know what we would have done.

Guitar Lake is where the Whitney Zone begins. Because of the popularity of Mt. Whitney, when you are in the Whitney Zone you get to use a WAG bag—WAG stands for Waste Alleviation and Gelling. To put it simply, that bag is your bathroom that you have to carry around and use while you’re in the zone and carry out with you when you leave. It’s required in order to keep the area around Mt. Whitney from becoming a big mess of human feces. My family was going to be in the Whitney Zone all the way to Whitney Portal, meaning for our last three days we were going to be using the WAG Bag. Very pleasant, I know. And keep in mind, there would be no trees to provide any privacy. Boulders would have to do.

On Day Four we summited Mount Whitney, waking up at 4 a.m. and setting off up switchbacks in the darkness. Two miles from the top, the trail divided—one route went down to Whitney Portal, the other up to the top of Mount Whitney. We dropped our packs at this junction and headed toward our goal. Relieving ourselves of the heavy packs put us in a positive mood, but the trail got increasingly rocky and the altitude started getting to us a bit.

We finally reached the top! All of us were relieved and thrilled. We went into the Summit House, made of stone, which has been up there since 1909. It was crazy to see old black-and-white photos with that same hut. We took many pictures, made a few phone calls and added our names to the list people sign when they summit, just to prove we had climbed Mt. Whitney. The realization hit me after a few minutes—I was on top of the highest mountain in the contiguous United States! Even as we descended to the place we would camp on our last night, I still had that feeling of excitement and accomplishment.

And that’s when my dad notified us that while he was driving from Horseshoe Meadows to Whitney Portal, our car had started to make a horrible sound—and there was a possibility that it might not be able to get us home … a possibility, he emphasized; nothing should really happen.

 ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

WE MADE IT DOWN TO OUR CAR the next day, and boy were we glad. After four days without a shower or bathroom, and four nights of sleeping on the hard ground, we were relieved to be back (and be done with, eh, the WAG bags). We stuffed everything in the back of the van, piled inside and began to drive down the road—a little apprehensively at first. But of course, our car was fine! It wasn’t acting up at all! After stopping for hamburgers in Lone Pine, we said goodbye to Mt. Whitney and began our three-hour drive home. Everything was working out perfectly!

About an hour had passed when my dad suddenly turned off the radio, pulled to the side of the highway and our car rolled to a stop. I started panicking silently: “What happened? Is our car on fire? Should I get out before it explodes?”

My dad got out, unloaded all the packs from the back and stuffed them in the passenger compartment with us. It was cramped! We waited while my dad looked over the engine, then explained the situation: some belt had broken and the engine was spewing oil. Oh, and we couldn’t drive anywhere. Our only option was to call a tow truck.

When my brothers and I heard this news we got ecstatic—this was going to be, by far, the best part of our trip! Our car had threatened to fail us many times before, but this was the first time it had really happened. We were actually stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the desert and needed a tow truck!!

While we waited in our hot car, my brothers and I took millions of pictures and acted like hippies,  making peace signs at passing cars. I took it upon myself to be the official photographer of this exciting adventure. I snapped pictures of my dad calling the tow truck, our cramped conditions inside the car, the scenery outside and the rescue helicopter that was flying over us (Hey, Mister! Over here!!!). After years of saying we might break down, we finally had—and it was awesome.

The tow truck finally came and it was one of the big ones. Not the kind that pulls the car, but the kind that carries the car. My brothers and I watched it come down the highway and pull in front of our van. My brothers, my mom and I piled into the air-conditioned back seat of the truck (yesssssss, cool air!) while my dad showed the tow truck driver the problem. Then we got to watch as cables were attached to our car, and it was pulled onto the bed of the tow truck.

We were driven to Ridgecrest, my brothers and I savoring every minute of the ride, and were dropped off at a car fix-it place named Prognathous.  When the mechanic said he needed some time to look at the car, to see if he could fix it in a day or so, we decided to explore the town. On foot. In 100-degree heat. As we walked along, I couldn’t help thinking, “Those guys in the passing cars must think we’re crazy.”

After buying some running shoes for me (I needed them, anyway) we ventured, hot and parched, toward a Subway restaurant, where we had a gift card. We ordered huge sodas and played our favorite card game, gin. My brothers and I never, ever get sodas, so this also became one of the highlights of the trip.

Our car, we finally learned, could not be fixed in a day. In fact, the engine probably needed to be replaced. So we called our grandpa to drive up from South Pasadena to pick us up and drive us home. Since it would be a few hours until he arrived, we needed to something to do. The local movie theater was an option, but to our disappointment there was nothing playing at the time

Exhausted, hot, and with nothing to do, we headed to a pizza place. Dinner was ordered and more gin was played. My brothers were mesmerized by the arcade games, and when my parents gave them a bit of money, they eagerly ran over and took a very long time deciding how to spend their precious quarters.

Eventually, Grandpa showed up, and we resumed our trip home, finally getting back at around 10:30 p.m., safe and sound … but with still one problem—our car was stuck in Ridgecrest. After debating awhile, it was finally decided that we would rent a U-Haul trailer and use my other grandpa’s truck to tow our van home.

The next morning, my dad rented the trailer, hitched it to Grandpa’s truck, and together they drove back to Ridgecrest. My mom, brothers, and I were spending a restful day at home when, sometime in the afternoon, my dad called. Grandpa’s truck had overheated coming back with our car somewhere near Lancaster. It could drive fine on its own, but it couldn’t pull the trailer, or our car. So Grandpa drove home, leaving my dad in Lancaster with our van and the trailer.

Luckily, we had a neighbor who also owned truck, and we asked him if he would go to Lancaster and pull the U-Haul trailer—and our car—the rest of the way home. He said yes, and we finally got the car home and dropped it off at the fix-it place. After hours of waiting, multiple breakdowns, and a 5-day backpacking trip to Mount Whitney, our journey had finally ended.

Now, when someone asks my brothers and I about the most exciting thing we did last summer, our response isn’t, “We hiked to the top of Mount Whitney,” but, “Our car broke down in the middle of nowhere!!!!”

The event is being held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at a private residence in East Long Beach. To get more specifics—such as the address—RSVP to Kenya Parham at 818.835.2375 or Kenya@PSCampaign.com.

The story includes a summary of the meeting by Ann Cantrell, a veteran advocate of parks and open space, and an interview with O’Donnell, who represents the 4th district.

CONTINUE READING AT LBREPORT.COM

Rosa Del Toro held LBSU women’s previous 1,500 meters record, set in this same meet a year ago when she clocked 4:24.97 in a third-place finish.

In the past month, Foley has lopped nearly 10 seconds off her best time in the 1,500 meters. Her 4:33.29 at the Stanford Invitational on March 30 was a personal record. On April 18, Foley chopped more than four seconds off that mark with a time of 4:28.72.

Steve Scott, for whom the invitation is named, just happens to have been the best 1,500-meters running in United States history.

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IN AN EVENT THAT WAS, in many ways, 40 years in the making, more than 100 paying ticketholders listened Monday night as a panel of local historians, architects, structural engineers and city officials praised our futuristic, much-maligned Long Beach Civic Center.

The discussion was held in the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Ocean Theater, a few blocks south of Civic Center, which could have been seen as a snub—the complex includes City Hall, Main Library and a 286-seat auditorium, easily enough space to have accomodated the Monday night’s crowd.

But Maureen Neeley, former Long Beach Heritage Preservationist of the Year, assured the audience of educators, architects and downtown-ophiles that Long Beach, like many other cities, has always had a difficult relationship with its civic centers. “It’s not unique to any city, any era or any people,” Neeley said. “It’s been going on for decades.”

Civic Center was dedicated in May 1977 after a 20-year assortment of rejected plans, which proposed building it along Long Beach Boulevard; south of Ocean Boulevard; even northeast of Chestnut Avenue and Seventh Street. Neeley pronounces it a “marvel that we came up with something so unique and futuristic. I have to say, ‘Well done, Long Beach, and so glad we’re here.”

City officials at Monday night’s discussion—Councilmember Suja Lowenthal, an urban planner whose 2nd district includes Civic Center; and Councilmember Robert Garcia, whose 1st district contains Long Beach’s oldest historic district—echoed Neeley’s enthusiasm.

Lowenthal delivered glowing opening remarks. “This is really a beneficial discussion about the soul of our city,” she said, calling Civic Center an “incredible space in our downtown core.”

Lowenthal tried to dispel longstanding rumors that City of Long Beach officials have quietly readied plans to demolish Civic Center, while acknowledging that she may have helped start them.

“I may have had a hand in those rumors, since I have been one of those voices calling for a Civic Center visioning process,” Lowenthal said. “Somewhere in the very near future, I do see a better Civic Center. Of course, that would take lots of resources, creativity and ingenuity.”

Nearly four years after the United States entered its deepest recession since the Great Depression, financial resources remain in short supply in Long Beach and other California cities.

“There is no plan, from where the city stands and what the city’s perspective is, no plan or design already in place for a Civic Center,” Lowenthal asserted. “There certainly have been discussions, but there’s no plan or design in place. Any discussion … will occur in public. What we want is a forum where passionate and informed opinions can be exchanged in public.”

Not having the funds to raze Civic Center and rebuild it with a long-rumored public-private, city-developer partnership has prompted some intriguing ideas for creative reuse.

“How can we incorporate the expansion of our Harbor Department into an expanded Civic Center?” Lowenthal asked. “I think they can be a really great partner and an asset in downtown.” Lowenthal noted that she and Garcia had signed a letter to the Port of Long Beach asking it “to be a part of Civic Center” by occupying the architecturally-significant 1960 Long Beach Superior Court building when the court moves to the new Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse one block northwest.

“We have been very public about that, and hopefully it will occur and they will move to the downtown,” Lowenthal said, delivering what may have been the evening’s bombshell soundbyte.

However, this was far from only revelation of the night. There was also a rare reminder that in 1977, the Long Beach Museum of Art Foundation commissioned noted architect I.M. Pei to design a new building for the Long Beach Museum of Art on the Ocean Boulevard and Pacific Avenue corner of Civic Center—only to have the City abandon the project when projected oil monies failed to materialize. Attendees also heard that the curved grassy slope outside Main Library originally was slated to house permanent seating for Municipal Band concerts.

“It was designed with seats originally and we wanted to do it,” said architect Donald Gibbs, who with his father, Hugh, was part of the Allied Architects who designed Civic Center. “But the City Council at the time says, ‘We can’t have the seats because we don’t want anybody gathering there. We don’t want people voicing their opinions.’ The idea of [it being] the city’s living room was one of our goals but it wasn’t politically attainable at the time.”

Architecturally, our Civic Center can look monolithic, and at times, downright soul-crushing. But architect Alan Pullman of Long Beach-based Studio One Eleven pointed out that the Civic Center drew its appearance from a long line of influences, ranging from Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier’s attempts to romanticize concrete to the structures designed by Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates in the 1966 Oakland Museum and in the 1969 Knights of Columbus Building in New Haven, Connecticut.

Pullman acknowledged he was uncomfortable delivering a critique of Long Beach Civic Center with Gibbs listening, and he relieved the tension by making light of his assessment of City Hall. “Really, it’s a Modern building. It’s a Late Modern building,” Pullman said correctly.

This blend of Modernism with the earlier Brutalism—literally, from the French term for “raw concrete”—can look and sound threatening, even today. When Civic Center began to go up in 1973, however, it was merely on trend.

“It really became the Late Modern de rigueur grammar of city buildings,” Pullman said, entering as evidence a photo of I.M. Pei’s 1978 Dallas City Hall, which resembles an inverted pyramid, and is still in use.

“So many of these were built; they really became what cities were looking for,” Pullman said. “They were fairly cost-effective, but they contained a certain amount of monumentalness.”

Another often-heard critique of Civic Center—up there with “I can’t find the Main Library,” “Where’s the park?” and “The wind makes me cold”—is based on a seismic study of City Hall from the mid-2000s. It projected that people inside City Hall during a major earthquake could have trouble accessing elevators and stairs.

Ken O’Dell of MHP Structural Engineers in Long Beach stepped up to address those concerns Monday night, and in the process answered another question that might have been on some people’s minds.

“Why do you have a structural engineer talking to you about Civic Center design?” O’Dell asked jokingly. “Frankly, I raised my hand when they said I wouldn’t have to pay the $5 admission.”

As for Civic Center’s earthquake-worthiness?

“It’s a building that doesn’t meet today’s [earthquake] code, but what does that mean?” O’Dell said. “A lot of people will say something’s bad if it doesn’t meet today’s code and it must be replaced. If we were to tear down every building that doesn’t meet today’s code, we would be tearing down 80 to 90 percent of Southern California.”

O’Dell expanded on the themes of lifespan and legacy as he referenced the debate about Civic Center’s fitness for the future.

“When you’re making your case, you recognize that the value of what you see here doesn’t stop with what you see,” he said. “The value is in the historic context as it grows—from where it is to where it can go. There is absolutely no reason you can’t move forward with something that comes from the past.”

Across the audience, many heads nodded in agreement. On stage, moderator Rick D’Amato, an architect at LPA in Irvine, concurred with O’Dell–but noted that preserving an architectural relic sometimes demands a bold, far-reaching approach. “They keep trying to throw Band-Aids on it,” he said.

D’Matto returned to a slide of I.M. Pei’s Dallas City Hall, which is surrounded by a plaza just as bleak as Long Beach Civic Center, albeit with a water feature. He followed with a startling photo of the building as it looked one day nearly 30 years ago.

“For one day in 1984, they brought in hot dogs and lifeguards and had a day at the beach,” D’Matto said, describing the photo exactly. “But they never did it again. They keep trying to bring in the public on a one-day basis. They keep doing that instead of stepping back and saying, ‘What’s the big picture? How can we make this building last 50 to 100 years, as we very well can?’ ”

The same questions should be asked in Long Beach, D’Matto said.

“What people don’t realize is, architecture is very subjective, it’s very fashionable,” he said. “We have to figure out how to make Civic Center relevant to today’s sensibilities. I think anything from the past can be made relevant.”

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