Steve Neal
HAVE-A-GREATER EARTH DAY WITH PEDAL, SOLAR & MUSICAL POWER
It's Earth Day, dedicated to the proposition that people really should remember not to shit where they eat---at least on one day each year, and we've come up with a short list of fun and healthy things to do, which we hope you won't poo-poo.
DESPITE LBUSD OPPOSITION, LOWENTHAL AND NEAL WANT LB COUNCIL TO SUPPORT ‘CLEAN WATER’ TAX
LONG BEACH — Councilmembers Suja Lowenthal and Steve Neal have agendized an item for the Jan. 8 City Council meeting that would support a controversial proposed Los Angeles County property parcel tax. Their item, agendized on the letterhead of Councilwoman Lowenthal cites multiple grounds for supporting the Clean Water, Clean Beaches Measure while not disclosing [...]
LONG BEACH CITY HALL DRAGS ITS HEELS OVER BANCAP PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST
Since it reported on an Oct. 23 consent calendar item that would give BANCAP Marina Center, Inc. up to $95,000 in rent credits, LBReport.com’s public records request for BANCAP’s current lease with the city has given way to another question — why isn’t it available? After all, the lease is public record. BANCAP is the [...]
LB COUNCIL EXEMPTS 3 LENDERS IN 1-YEAR MORATORIUM ON HIGH-INTEREST LOANS
LONG BEACH — The City Council on Tuesday night approved a substitute motion by Councilman Patrick O’Donnell to exempt three applications “in the pipeline” — applicants have paid their fees — from a one-year moratorium on payday lending, car title loan lending and short term consumer finance lending land uses. The 8-1 vote (Schipske dissenting) [...]
LB COUNCIL TO CONSIDER 1-YEAR MORATORIUM ON CONTROVERSIAL LOANS
Three types of high-interest loans would temporarily be prohibited in Long Beach under a proposal scheduled to be considered by the Long Beach City Council on Oct. 2. The proposed one-year moratorium on Payday Lending, Car Title Loan Lending and Short-Term Consumer Finance Lending is intended to provide City staff and the Planning Commission with time to [...]
PORKY’S REVENGE? COUNCIL’S SPENDING WISH-LIST WOULD BLOCK PROPOSED BUDGET ALTERNATIVE
LBReport.com has learned that a list of Councilmember-desired spending items is quietly circulating on City Hall’s 14th floor—a list that would deplete surplus upland oil revenue and effectively prevent its use to avert the police, fire, parks and library cuts proposed by Mayor Bob Foster and City Manager Pat. Councilmembers Rae Gabelich, Steve Neal and [...]
DID TELEPHONIC TOWN HALL ON BUDGET OUTDRAW IN-PERSON MEETINGS?
LONG BEACH (Via LBReport.com)—Participants in the Telephone Town Hall held Thursday evening on the alternative Long Beach budget plan proposed by three city council members appear to have outnumbered in-person attendees visible at budget meetings held in some council districts. The office of 9th district representative Steve Neal, who along with Rae Gabelich (8th) and [...]
COUNCIL QUARTET WANTS CITY MANAGER TO DEVISE VIOLENCE PLAN IN 90 DAYS
With police numbers falling, replacements deemed unaffordable and bullets flying in his district, Long Beach City Council member Robert Garcia—Mayor Bob Foster’s choice to chair the Public Safety Committee—has come up with a proposal for dealing with the city’s violence: make City Manager Pat West solve the problem … and fast. Garcia and three colleagues—Patrick [...]
REDESIGNING THE 710: EVERY (HIDDEN) PICTURE TELLS A STORY, DON’T IT?
Taxpayers are funding a massive expansion of the 710 Freeway, but the consultants and public employees who are designing it (their salaries also paid by taxpayers) have announced that the public (that is, taxpayers) will not be allowed to see illustrations of the project until 2012.
POLITICIANS, PRESS IGNORE WORKERS FIRED AFTER HELPING STATE PROBE HILTON
The Long Beach Hilton is in Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal's district and across the street from the Press-Telegram, but Lowenthal and the P-T were no-shows at Wednesday's press conference for five housekeepers fired after cooperating with a state probe into the hotel's tax and employment practices.
A STAND AGAINST SILLINESS: O’DONNELL ONLY DISSENTER IN CITY COUNCIL VOTE FOR ‘LB HEALTHY FOOD POLICY’
Fourth District representative Patrick O’Donnell cast the only vote against a “Long Beach healthy food policy”—an item on Tuesday night’s Long Beach City Council agenda that was spotlighted by LBReport.com in the first installment of its new series on City Council silliness. Proposed by Councilmembers Steve Neal, Robert Garcia, Dee Andrews and Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal, the “Long [...]
NOT DOING THEIR JOBS: LBREPORT.COM’S NEW SERIES ON COUNCIL SILLINESS
LBReport.com begins an editorial series titled, "Not Doing Their Jobs," pointing out City Council agenda items that go far beyond the scope of what this council should be doing. Today's nonsense: Councilmembers Steve Neal, Robert Garcia, Dee Andrews and Suja Lowenthal seek to create a "Long Beach healthy food policy."
EDITORIAL: YES, REMOVE NEIGHBORHOOD NUISANCES; NO ON NANNY NONSENSE
A proposal advanced by four Councilmembers (Neal, Garcia, Andrews and Vice Mayor Lowenthal) to handle liquor-store related nuisances is basically a copycat of the Conditional Use “deemed approved” process already used in Oakland, Pasadena, San Francisco and other cities…which is just fine with us. Better late than never for Long Beach. In our opinion, no [...]
COUNCIL WRESTLES BEFORE ADDING RESTRICTIONS TO MEDPOT ORDINANCE
In a lengthy item marked by multiple motions and divided (and in one case reconsidered) votes, the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday night voted 6-3 (Andrews, Johnson, Gabelich dissenting) to approve amendments to its medical marijuana ordinance. If approved on a second council vote, the amendments will expand allowed hours of operation, require surveillance [...]
FOSTER’S BUDGET VETO KILLS DEAL WITH FIREFIGHTERS TO FORFEIT RAISES AND PREVENT STATION CLOSURES
Long Beach Firefighters Association president Rich Brandt and members of the group’s leadership on Tuesday night told the Long Beach City Council that Mayor Bob Foster’s veto of roughly $330,000 in Fire Department spending killed a deal in which firefighters had narrowly voted to give up roughly $2.4 million in raises to prevent rotating fire [...]
FOUR LB COUNCIL MEMBERS WANT TO TALK ABOUT MAYOR FOSTER’S SURPRISE VETO OF HIS OWN BUDGET
Four members of the Long Beach City Council — Patrick O’Donnell, Gerrie Schipske, Rae Gabelich and Steve Neal — have placed an item on the September 28 meeting agenda to “consider and discuss” and potentially attempt to override Mayor Bob Foster’s veto of one percent of the general fund spending in the city manager’s proposed [...]
ALL WRONGY!! LATEST DEFAULT NOTICES FROM P-T COMMENTERS
THE HEADLINE: Long Beach Councilman Steve Neal’s home in default THE STORY: Ninth District City Councilman Steve Neal has defaulted on his home and it is scheduled to be sold at auction Oct. 12. P-T COMMENTERS RESPOND: And yet he opposes gay marriage. / TOM what do you expect a black man to do when [...]
ALL AROUND THE TOP O’ THE TOWN ON A FAREWELL TOUR WITH VAL LERCH
Lerch steers his car onto a side street off Artesia Blvd. and hits the steering wheel for emphasis. “Now you look and you tell me this isn’t as good a neighborhood—pride of ownership, all of that—as anything you’ll see in Belmont Heights, in East Long Beach.”
NEW COUNCIL CAN’T AGREE BETWEEN LOWENTHAL, O’DONNELL FOR VICE-MAYOR
In a tense, polarized atmosphere accompanying what has previously been a mainly placid ceremonial act, a newly sworn City Council first failed in a 4-4 tie to delay its choice of a new Vice Mayor until Aug. 3, then failed on another 4-4 tie (on a reversed vote) to name Patrick O’Donnell as Vice Mayor. [...]
