Search results for: ""
WHY ARE WETLANDS SO IMPORTANT TO PRESERVE?
That's the question on EarthTalk®, a service of "E--The Environmental Magazine," which will appear weekly on GreaterLongBeach.com. The cool part? They give the answer, too!
COUNCIL’S COWARDICE ALLOWS MAYOR’S OPINION TO SUB FOR CITY POLICY
Editorial by LBReport points out that BNSF wants a massive rail yard amid the homes and schools of Long Beach neighborhoods that already have the city's worst air, and the Long Beach City Council doesn't have enough courage to publicly support or oppose it.
DAVID WEIDMAN: MR. MIDCENTURY IS AGAIN AN ARTIST FOR OUR TIME
The groundbreaking silkscreen techniques and designs that David Weidman introduced during the Eisenhower presidency are still shaking the earth today. On May 4, the ninetysomething artist will be in Long Beach for a meet-and-greet (and show-and-sell) at In Retrospect on Retro Row.
ONE QUESTION FOR … ASSEMBLY CANDIDATE TONIA REYES URANGA
Nearly three years after Tonia Reyes Uranga last held a public office---or ran for one---the former Long Beach City Council member has filed to run for the 70th district seat in the California Assembly in 2014. We've got one question for her ...
“STATE OF BLACK LONG BEACH: A CALL TO ACTION”
The State of Black Long Beach report is not another improvement plan for the city's African American residents, but rather an unprecedented reality check---more than a century's worth of data that can serve as the foundation for constructing solutions. Download the document inside.
TRAVEL: DO I REALLY WANT TO TAKE A MINIBUS TO THE SAN DIEGO ZOO?
When her alarm buzzed Friday morning at 6, Marissa Gomez wasn't sure a bus trip to the zoo was such a good idea. But the Cal State Long Beach freshman was certain she didn't want to lose the $20 she'd laid out for the dorm-residents' excursion. Besides, she loves giraffes! Marissa's diary initiates GreaterLongBeach.com's weekly Travel feature.
A SECOND BITE OF THE APPLE AT EAST VILLAGE TASTE OF DOWNTOWN
This the second and final evening of the Taste of Downtown East Village Arts District, three hours of sipping and sampling the signature dishes of the most-popular restaurants in downtown Long Beach. See,we forgot that it started Wednesday. Why didn't Kraig Kojian call and remind us?
ZOMBIE WALK’S LOGAN CROW: YOU CAN’T KEEP A DEAD MAN DOWN
A year after Logan Crow brought the Zombie Walk downtown to "catastrophic success"---massive attendance, massive debt---and called out Long Beach officials, amends were made to create a better model for Zombie Walk V on Saturday (Oct. 27).
SAVING THE LOS CERRITOS WETLANDS HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN
We-the-people have worked hard to get the Los Cerritos Wetlands into protective custody, but their oft-degraded condition means there's much more to do. The upgrades begin tonight with a 6:30 workshop at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
SEE THE EARLY PLANS FOR RESTORING THE WETLANDS AT AQUARIUM TONIGHT
Now that we-the-people own so many more acres of the Los Cerritos Wetlands, now that we have invested so much of our effort and perseverance and emotion to save them, standing on the edge of this crucial natural resource and scanning its inscrutable surface feels so truly … different—yeah … one hell of a lot different—than [...]
BLUEGRASS BECOMES AN ANNUAL CROP AT ROSE PARK FESTIVAL
When an event begins to advertise itself with the word “annual,” it begins a transformation from “that one-time cool thing that happened last year” to part of the community. Such is the case of Sunday's Rose Park Bluegrass Festival.
RANCHO LOS ALAMITOS: STILL PROVIDING THE RIGHT THING AT THE RIGHT TIME
At 7.5 acres, Rancho Los Alamitos is only a smidge of its original size and is hidden behind the walls of an east Long Beach housing tract and so close to Cal State Long Beach’s art department that you can almost audit classes. But its just-completed renovation makes it a historical gem that's more-important than ever.
GIVE YOUR 2 CENTS ON $7 BILLION PROPOSAL FOR AN OC-TO-LA TRAIN LINE AT WEDNESDAY MEETING IN BELLFLOWER
The public is invited to an information-and-feedback meeting Wednesday evening in Bellflower regarding the proposed Orange Line, which would connect Los Angeles and Santa Ana—along with in-between towns like Downey, Paramount, Bellflower and Artesia—by running modern trains along the Pacific Electric right-of-ways that once carried the Red Car. The meeting, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 [...]
THE LOCAL NORM: ON CHASING RAINBOWS, FAMILY MONEY & DIRTY BASTARDS
Barack Obama's ordination as The First Gay President may have popped Long Beach City Council member Robert Garcia's long-range campaign for that distinction, but it's given Mayor Bob Foster's political advisers an idea so crazy it just might work. This week's report from local correspondent Norm de Ploom.
OC WEEKLY STORY ON MEDPOT A DISTURBING LOOK AT LONG BEACH OFFICIALS
After approving medpot dispensaries in 2010 and conducting a fiasco of a lottery to determine their locations, the City Council is on the verge---twice delaying its vote--of outlawing them. Meanwhile, Long Beach collects millions in pot-related fees and fines, simultaneously permitting and prosecuting various dispensaries.
GREATER LONG BEACH GIFT GUIDE: IT’S WHAT WE GOT YOU THIS YEAR
Long Beach is crawling with interesting and unique places to pick up something for everyone on your list, and holiday shopping can actually be an interesting way to explore the city in all its quirky weirdness. To get started, check out this list of unique Long Beach shops.
BLANCHE DEATHEREAUX REDUX: FROM THE GET-GO, SHE WAS ‘BOUT IT
Sarah "Blanche Deathereaux" Scanlon was new to the game but became an instant star when Long Beach Roller Derby showed up 1 1/2 years ago. Yes, it does feel longer than that, perhaps because it feels so right. With the league seeking funds to get out of debt and stay alive, that's a good feeling to think about.
FORMER LBPD CHIEF ANTHONY BATTS RESIGNS AS TOP COP IN OAKLAND
Anthony Batts, shown here with Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, said he is considering a research position at Harvard University after resigning Tuesday as Oakland police chief. Batts resigned as Long Beach police chief in 2009 to take the top cop job in Oakland.In both jobs, Batts was frustrated by city council-imposed cuts to his force.
WHAT IS ALCHEMY, ANYWAY? LET’S JUST SAY SHE KNEW IT WHEN SHE SAW IT
The International Alchemy Conference was coming to Long Beach, but nowhere did it say what alchemy is, so I went to find out for myself. I tried to withhold my preconceptions, and I wasn't proud I kept picturing a cartoon of a bearded man with a conical hat churning a bubbling cauldron.
TODAY IS LAST SATURDAY ON 4TH STREET: FIGURE IT OUT AND GET THERE!
Hey, today is Last Saturday on 4th Street! Although that may seem intended to confuse you—as though maintaining that today is September 17, which was the date last Saturday—it’s actually intended to remind you that today is Last Saturday on 4th Street! Although that may seem intended to confuse you—as though suggesting that today may [...]
WHITE HILLS: BRINGING TOGETHER SPACE ROCK AND PROTEST SONGS
While “protest record” and “space rock” don’t traditionally go together, the New York City-based band, "White Hills," is just that---railing against government and corporations while pushing its sound to places influenced by Hawkwind and Pink Floyd. The band played Alex's Bar on Thursday night.
DUBLAB MUSIC AT { OPEN }: IT’S A LONG BEACH THING—FOR A DAY, ANYWAY
Saturday's music event and fundraiser for Dublab online radio at { open } may seem like a Los Angeles scene slumming it in Long Beach for a day. But after talking to Markus Manley—longtime local promoter and organizer through his Robots and Angels collective—the event is clearly so much more than that.
JACK GRISHAM’S “AMERICAN DEMON:” FROM A NOT-QUITE GOD’S LIPS, TO OUR EARS
“I wasn’t really talking to God,” prodigal punk Jack Grisham says of his memoir, "An American Demon." But the literary device is convincing: Grisham as a demon taking his cues from the “Not-Quite,” a lesser God, “an inch shorter, a pound heavier, two degrees less intelligent and nowhere near as loving and kind.”
MEET THE NEW-FI … SAME AS THE LO-FI—AND THAT’S A GOOD THING
The New Fidelity remains as relevant a presence and influence on the Long Beach music scene today as it was more than 10 years ago, when Dan Perkins’ outfit was called Lo-Fi Champion and shared bills with an almost completely different cast of contemporaries.
‘I KNOW THE DUDE WHO TAMES THE SHREW!’
With all respect to Shakespeare, sometimes it's not so much a love of the The Bard as having a buddy in the cast that puts audiences in the seats of local theatres. Other times ... well ... read on to find what Victoria Bryan discovered at the Long Beach Playhouse on opening night of "Taming of the Shrew."
‘ANNA IN THE TROPICS’ GETS A CINEMATIC TAKE FROM LB SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
"Anna In The Tropics" won the Pulitzer Prize for playwright Nilo Cruz, and Long Beach Shakespeare Company captures the human story---and the humidity---that's at the essence of his tradition-vs.-modernization theme.
ETHAN COEN’S ONE-ACTS AT THE GARAGE: THE DEVILISHNESS IS IN THE DETAILS
Ethan Coen says his collection of three short plays---Almost an Evening---was named after “hear[ing] a parting theatergoer complain it had been ‘not even almost an evening.’” Coen's rejoinder to us: “I take some pride in my work, and together these plays do make up almost an evening—I don't care what anyone says.”
WHETHER WRITING OR WHISPERING, HE COMES THROUGH LOUD AND CLEAR
By the end of the third season of Cesar Millan’s popular show, “The Dog Whisperer,” the diminutive Mexican-American had professional dog trainers, animal behaviorists, and dog lovers in a tizzy. If you believe the testimonials of some dog experts (get over the names of the publications: “The Woofer Times,” “The Bark,” “Urban Dawgs”), Millan’s training methods are [...]
MURDER OR MERCY: WHAT DO WE REALLY MEAN BY THE SANCTITY OF LIFE?
A couple weeks ago, 88-year-old Roy Laird went to County Villa Healthcare Center in Seal Beach to see 86-year-old Clara, his wife of nearly 70 years---like he did three times every day because Clara could no longer walk, sit up, feed herself or recognize visitors. This time, Roy shot her in the head with a .38 caliber revolver.
LONG BEACH THEATRES HAVE QUITE A FEW QUESTIONS FOR THEIR AUDIENCES
“We know that theatre audience numbers are shrinking and, naturally, theatres are concerned about that,” said Victoria Bryan, a Long Beach State professor who is overseeing the survey of Long Beach theatre audiences. “Talking to people who do attend shows seems like a good place to start to understand how we can build and sustain future audiences.”
NORWALK COUNCIL RIPPED FOR HOLDING MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE EVENT ON 9/11
The Norwalk City Council has received significant negative public feedback for a city-sponsored celebration of Mexico’s Independence Day. There were many objections, but the biggest was that the Independence Day, which is actually Sept. 16, was held on Sept. 11—the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, PA. During [...]
LOWENTHAL CONTEMPLATES LONG BEACH BUDGET FROM JAI MAHAL PALACE
Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal participated Tuesday in the proceedings of the City Council's Budget Oversight Committee from the Jai Mahal Palace luxury hotel in India, using the free consumer-level Skype Internet platform.
ALL WRONGY!! NEW DAY, NEW DRAIN-BRAMAGED BATCH OF P-T COMMENTERS
THE HEADLINE: Long Beach police officer arrested on grand theft charges THE STORY: Long Beach Police officer Damian Ramos was arrested Friday for grand theft of weapons. Ramos, a five-year employee, answered a found-property report at a Long Beach business but allegedly didn’t put all the recovered property into evidence. P-T COMMENTERS RESPOND: Isn’t this [...]
ALL WRITEY!! A SAMPLING OF YOUR COMMENTS / CRITICISMS / LOVE NOTES / WITTICISMS
DAVE WIELENGA’S “IT GETS YOU THINKING ABOUT THE TEN COMMANDMENTS—AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS,” JULY 12 Fundie nutbags will never stop pushing the separation wall; we must be ever vigilant. / HOWARD X I struggle to see how allowing a piece of art, which contains no words and is open to interpretation by the viewer, [...]
RESTORATION OF COMPTON CREEK PARCEL BEGINS
Plans are finally underway to restore the soft-bottomed section of Compton Creek, the local tributary adjacent to the casino and the new shopping center. The Environmental Protection Agency and Los Angeles County has announced acquisition of the four-acre parcel of land surrounding the creek. The roughly 8.5-mile creek is part of the 42.1-square-mile Compton Creek [...]
BLANCHE DEATHEREAUX: QUARTERBACK PRINCESS OF LONG BEACH ROLLER DERBY
“Some people just can't go up to someone they don't know and hit them or flip on top of them,” says Sarah ‘Blanche Deathereaux’ Scanlon, the team captain and jammer for the Retro Rollers of the Long Beach Roller Derby. “That's what got me excited once we actually started looking like roller derby players.”
RETURN WITH THE BLASTERS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE EARTH—RECORD STORE, THAT IS
Subject: “I don’t like music I haven’t heard before” Yeah, someone really said that. We wish we had her name so we could attribute it. But instead, we held her up to ridicule by writing the quote on the infamous felt letterboard that greeted each soul who entered the hallowed grounds of Middle Earth Records [...]
NEW SIGN IN COLLEGE PARK WEST POINTS TO ANOTHER DIFFICULT SPRING FOR COYOTE-HUMAN COHABITATION
Three weeks after a coyote alert was called in East Long Beach, officials from Long Beach and Seal Beach are about to post a warning banner at the entrance to the College Park West neighborhood (above). But coyotes are clever (right), not to mention more than a little bit deserving of our sympathy, cornered as [...]
ALL WRITEY!!! A SAMPLING OF YOUR COMMENTS/ CRITICISMS/ LOVE NOTES/ WITTICISMS
Most of the this week’s reader feedback was to a pair of reports on the Long Beach City Council’s 7-1 vote to grant BANCAP a $3,000 reduction of its monthly lease of city-owned waterfront property on the Seaport Marina because a sub-tenant, the Seal Beach Yacht Club, needs a break on its rent because of declining membership. BANCAP [...]
ALL WRITEY!!! A SAMPLING OF YOUR COMMENTS/CRITICISMS/LOVE NOTES/WITTICISMS
Most of the this week’s reader feedback was to a pair of reports on the Long Beach City Council’s 7-1 vote to grant BANCAP a $3,000 reduction of its monthly lease of city-owned waterfront property on the Seaport Marina because a sub-tenant, the Seal Beach Yacht Club, needs a break on its rent because of declining membership. BANCAP [...]
ALL WRITEY!! A SAMPLING OF YOUR COMMENTS/CRITICISMS/LOVE NOTES/WITTICISMS
A selection of snippets and full-on blasts from the feedback received from readers this week: MARCH 30, “MARCHESE ACCUSED OF TRYING TO GET NON-PROFIT WETLAND GROUP’S MAILING LIST FOR HIS CITY COUNCIL CAMPAIGN” The timing of Don May’s well-orchestrated letter, and the past and current actions of the LCWLT Board, should cause people to wonder [...]
ALL WRITEY!! A SAMPLING OF YOUR COMMENTS/CRITICISMS/LOVE NOTES/WITTICISMS
A selection from the feedback received from readers this week: MARCH 21, “DAVE WIELENGA BECOMES A BLOGGER” Awesome, Dave! I’m glad you are continuing your excellent coverage of Long Beach. I am certain this opportunity will inspire you to greater success. Now, how do we keep this site secret from Mr. Greet. / EVAN GOULD Dave: Best [...]
Contact
News tips, story ideas, feedback or just saying hi! Dave Wielenga / Publisher: DaveW@greaterlongbeach.com Feedback Letters to the Editor: AllWritey@greaterlongbeach.com Connect with us! Facebook: facebook.com/greaterlongbeach Twitter: twitter.com/greaterlb Photography John Gilhooley: johngilhooley.com Jeanine Birong: jeaninebirong.blogspot.com
