Inside District 9 Newsletter

Inside District 9

Building a Better Ninth District

Issue # 34

April 15,2011

In This Issue

North Long Beach Showcase

Family Fitness Program

After School Park Activities

North Long Beach Paves Roads

Weekly Axiom:

Follow-Up - 90% of organizing is follow-up.

Upcoming Neighborhood Meetings

College Square Neighborhood Assn. - Every 1st Monday 7 p.m. El Nuevo Altata Restaurant 6800 Long Beach Blvd.

Coolidge Triangle Neighborhood Assn. -Every 3rd Wednesday 7 p.m. Coolidge Park Clubhouse 352 E. Neece St.

DeForest Park Neighborhood Assn. - Every 3rd Thursday, 7 p.m. DeForest Park Clubhouse 6255 DeForest Ave.

Executive Board Meeting - Last Wednesday of the Month 7 p.m. Houghton Park Clubhouse, 6301 Myrtle Avenue.

Good Neighbors of NLB - Every 2nd Tuesday 7 a.m. Spires Restaurant 1935 Del Amo Blvd.

Grant Neighborhood Assn. - Every 2nd Thursday 7 p.m. Community Presbyterian Church Corner of 64th/Orange Ave.

Houghton Park Neighborhood Assn. - Every 1st Thursday 7 p.m. 6301 Myrtle Ave.

Starr King Neighborhood Assn. - Every 1st Wednesday 7 p.m. El Nuevo Altata Restaurant 6800 Long Beach Blvd.

Community Action Group - Every 1st Sunday 2 p.m. LBPD North Division Substation 4891 Atlantic Ave.

North Project Area Committee Every 4thh Thursday, 6:30 p.m. North Division Substation 4891 Atlantic Ave.

For more information please call: 562-570-6137

Dine In The 9

Introducing El Nuevo Altata Restaurant!

El Nuevo Altata is a Mexican restaurant located in the 9th District that offers a variety of appetizing dishes. Stop by and try their carne asada burrito!

El Nuevo Altata Restaurant

6800 Long Beach Blvd.

Long Beach, CA 90805

310-638-1961

Open Mon., Wed., Thurs., Fri., Sat., and Sun.

11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

New Field Office Hours!

The 9th District Field Office now has new office hours. The new office hours are:

Monday Through Wednesday
9:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

If you would like to meet staff outside those hours, please schedule an appointment by calling 562-570-6137.

9th District Council Office

6335 Myrtle Avenue.

Long Beach, CA 90805

Phone: 562-570-3319

FAX: 562-422-3852

S.T.A.R Task Force

Do you care about maintaining your Sidewalks, Trees, Alleys, and Roads? Then join the S.T.A.R. Task Force!

The S.T.A.R. Task Force is a committee of residents who work to ensure that all instances of pot holes, graffiti, and other blight are reported to our office for the purpose of maintaining our Sidewalks, Trees, Alleys, and Roads (STAR).

Beginning in March, S.T.A.R. will meet every second Monday at 6 p.m. at the Center for Families and Youth building. 6335 Myrtle Ave.

Fore more information on S.T.A.R. please contact our office at (562) 570-6137

https://www.longbeachvos.org/

With one click, job seekers can pull job listings from more than 50 regional and national job listing boards - including Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, and HotJobs.com.

Jordan Parent Advisory Council (JPAC)

JPAC Meetings are usually held the second Wednesday of every month.

Jordan High School Library/Media Center
6500 Atlantic Ave.
(562) 423-1471

Connect with me online:

For more information please visit the City of Long Beach District 9 website.

Welcome to Inside District 9, your source for community news and updates.

Meet This Week's District Captain!

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Doris Felix, DeForest Park Neighborhood

"Because I live here, I feel that it's important to be a part of the process of growing my community. I know that I can make a difference and that I have something to offer."

Facts about Doris:

Has been 9th District Resident for eight years.
Former Cultural Heritage Commissioner.
Interested in supporting, "Healthy Options, Safe Neighborhoods" campaign.
Interested in bringing awareness to health.

The District Captain program provides opportunities for 9th District residents to get involved in our community. For more information on joining the District Captain Program please call our office at (562) 570-6137.

Message From Councilmember Steven Neal

Welcome neighbors to another edition of "Inside District9," your weekly newsletter. We have some very exciting updates for the nith District this week.

If you haven't already noticed, interesting street banners are being installed along the Atlantic and Long Beach Blvd corridors. The banners, themed "Discover North Long Beach" were designed by local artist and architect, Ioana Urma, and add an energetic and beautiful touch to our tranforming corridors. To highlight the community, the history and the future of North Long Beach, the banner features a skate boarder, a biker, and the Historic Atlantic Theater spire. I encourage you to take a drive down Long Beach Blvd and have a look at them.

Secondly, I remind you to bring your families to tomorrow's Discover North Long Beach Community Showcase at the Long Beach Logistics Center, 100 W. Victoria Street from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Be sure to stop by, as we have plenty of exciting exhibits and attractions, including the launch of our new Ninth District Community Website, www.insidedistrict9.com.

Also, I would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family of our late District Captain, Erma Kemp, in the College Square Neighborhood. Erma was a longstanding leader in North Long Beach, who was instrumental in the community campaign to reduce traffic from adjacent cities, while protecting the youth in the College Square Neighborhood. Erma lived in the community for almost fifty years, and was a great neighbor and pillar in the community.

Lastly, I want to wish a speedy recovery to both Claudie Forge, wife of Joe Forge, President of the Starr King Neighborhood Association and Ciara, daughter of Dr. Crystal Howard-Johnson, President of the Houghton Park Neighborhood Association.

Sincerely,

Steven Neal
Councilmember, Ninth District

Discover North Long Beach Community Showcase

Please click on the image to enlarge.

Click on the image above to enlarge.

The Aquatic Center Family Fitness Program

The Aquatic Center is partnering with Coca Cola to provide families with a health and fitness program. The program focus is to assist families with weight loss, lowered cholesterol or blood sugar, increased physical activity, increased time spent together, and/or improved nutrition.

Families will have the opportunity to participate in our aquatic exercise program as well as beach and park activities as well.

In addition, each family will receive $200. This is an eight week program to provide a great opportunity to the community to promote better health and fitness to children and adults.

Click on the image above to enlarge.

Long Beach Parks and Recreation After School Park Activities

Please click on the links below to view an April calendar of what activities are going on at a park or facility near you.

North Long Beach Paves New Road - Paramount Blvd.

The Uptown Gazette recently featured an article on the reconstruction of Paramount Boulevard in North Long Beach that will begin in May and is expected to be completed in September.

"It will replace damaged curbs and gutters, remove old asphalt, install required accessibility improvements, install new pavement markings, place traffic striping and install vehicle loop detectors at signalized intersections. The project will create an estimated 18 full-time equivalent jobs. Construction is scheduled to begin in May and finish by September...." To read the full article click here.

Healthy Options, Safe Communities - A Victory For Long Beach Residents

Councilmember Steven Neal lead a coalition with Councilmembers Robert Garcia, Dee Andrews, and Vice-Mayor Suja Lowenthal to get the "Healthy Options, Safe Communities" campaign approved by the Council. This consists of three initiatives to address the issue of the accessibility of healthy food options, while attempting to curb nuisance liquor stores in the community.

The three items that were approved include a voluntary Healthy Neighborhood Market Conversion Program to provide education and tools for corner store operators to offer healthier food options, while making interior and exterior improvements that increase the overall neighborhood experience. Next, was the "Deemed Approved" policy that will set certain higher standards for nuisance liquor and corner stores to meet. Finally, the City Council created a Liquor Store Policy that discourages the approval of any new liquor store in the City of Long Beach

With these new tools, our neighborhoods will be healthier and safer. Liquor and corner store owners can now strengthen their connection to the community by improving their overall appearance and inventory.

The Uptown Gazette and the Press-Telegram provided an update on the Council Meeting.

If you would like to view the video from the City Council meeting, just click this link and select item number 9 or forward the video to 58:42 to watch the presentation to the Council on this initiative.

Long Beach Police Department North Division - Crime Prevention Notice

Below is very useful information from the Long Beach Police Department on how to prevent burglary.

Click on the image above to enlarge.

Get Familiar with Nixle

What is Nixle?

Nixle is a Community Information Service built exclusively for secure and reliable communication. The Nixle service is built on the most authenticated, secure, reliable, and high-speed platform, ensuring communications are trusted and accurate.

Why is Nixle important?

Until now, there has never been an authenticated and secure service that connects municipal agencies and community organizations to their residents in real-time, with the same ease and in the same way that current services such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter provide users with an unauthenticated platform for connections. Nixle solves this problem by providing ONE standardized service for consumers to receive immediate and credible neighborhood-level public safety and community information, via SMS, email, or web.

Discover The Ninth District Parks, Recreation and Marine Programs

9^th Long Beach City Council District Parks, Recreation and Marine Programs

Long Beach Parks, Recreation & Marine offers many recreation programs at the six programmed parks in the 9^th City Council District. Residents can view monthly calendars of events for each 9^th District park on the Department's web site at:

www.longbeach.gov/park/recreation/after_school_activities/parks.asp.

Each calendar has the supervised hours and a listing of the various activities for each day. Senior citizens can view the Houghton Park senior program calendar at

http://www.longbeach.gov/park/recreation/seniors.asp.

9^th District Parks

Coolidge Park Coolidge Park is located at 352 Neece Street south of Artesia Street and west of the Long Beach Freeway. The 6.1-acre park offers a basketball court, softball field, playground, picnic area and a community center. For more information, call (562) 570-1618.

Ed ''Pops'' Davenport Park

The 11.6-acre park is located at 2910 E 55^th between Candlewood & South. The park was named in memory of Long Beach Police Officer Corporal Ed "Pops" Davenport. Residents can enjoy a sports field, two half-court basketball courts, a walking path and a playground. Call (562) 570-3150 for more information.

DeForest Park

DeForest Park has many recreational amenities including a basketball court, community center, playground, racquetball court, softball field, tennis court and a volleyball court. The park encompasses over 50 acres including the 34-acre DeForest Nature Trail along the Los Angeles River to the south the Call (562) 570-1620 for more information.

Houghton Park

Houghton Park at 6301 Myrtle Avenue has a large community center, a Skate-BMX Park, baseball, softball and soccer fields; basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, a picnic area and playground on 26.4 acres. The park offers many recreation programs and services for youth, teens and seniors. Call (562) 570-1640 for more information.

North Long Beach Community Center

The North Long Beach Community Center at 2311 South Street has activities including basketball, indoor and outdoor games, arts and crafts and homework help. Call 562-570-8046 for more information.

Ramona Park
The 7.2-acre Ramona Park at 3301 E. 65^th Street has a community center, fields for baseball, softball and soccer; tennis, basketball and volleyball courts, and a playground and picnic area. Call (562) 570-1665 for more information.

South Street Parkway

The 1.5-acre South Street Parkway adds beauty and open space to the neighborhood at South Street and Jaymills.

North Long Beach Walking Club

The North Long Beach Walking Club meets Tuesday mornings at Houghton Park from 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. Please bring water, a hat, and sun block. For more information call Luz at (562) 570-7910.

City of Long Beach Tree Planting Program

City Of Long Beach Tree Partnership Tree Planting Program

The 9^th District is presented with an opportunity to plant 100 trees throughout the community with the assistance of the Tree Partnership Tree Planting Program Grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Trees planted through this grant must be planted on public property and can be planted either by individuals or neighborhood groups.

We are calling 9th District residents and neighborhood groups to action by recommending locations to plant trees. Here are the requirements when considering your recommendation:

1. All trees must be planted on city-owned, public property such as parkways between streets and sidewalks.

2. All property owners will be required to agree to maintain a planted tree by signing a tree maintenance agreement form prior to the planting of any tree.

3. All trees require a planting permit from the Department of Public Works.

4. Community groups organizing a tree planting will be responsible for accounting and submitting documentation of volunteer hours.

5. Community groups requesting assistance with labor for tree planting should contact our office for more information. The grant only provides funding for trees and planting supplies and does not include funding for tree or concrete removal, establishing new tree wells, etc.

Please contact the 9^th District Council at 562-570-6139 or district9@longbeach.gov with your recommendations.

Bike Racks in The 9th District