Many of our major City priorities are making remarkable progress, and I’m excited to see the final results.

In this edition we’re highlighting an Update on the Latino Cultural Center, the restoration of the Martin Luther King Jr. Park statue, the 2021 Festival of Flight and more.

Our City Council has identified the preservation and promotion of the cultural groups that make up the fabric of our community as a top City priority. On Tuesday they reaffirmed that commitment with their support of the draft Community Engagement and Business Plan for the development of a Long Beach Latino Cultural Center.

Over the past year, the Office of Civic Innovation has led a visioning process with support from the Economic Development and Public Works Departments, which has included 19 focus groups, two online surveys and key informant interviews. Community members are excited and expressed a desire for a center that goes beyond a museum and provides not only cultural recognition and arts but space that promotes wellness and equity.

While a site has not yet been identified, this is another important milestone in the community visioning process. The City will continue to be engaged with our partners, including the Steering Committee and Centro CHA to develop a space, programs and services that meet community needs.

 The 6th Annual Livability Summit is swiftly approaching and the deadline to RSVP is today, October 15. The Summit is a unique opportunity for staff across departments to connect and will focus on Recovery & Collective Impact.

This year’s Virtual Summit will feature individual morning activities and afternoon sessions held via Zoom, with opportunities for virtual participation.

Please check with your supervisor before completing the form. You will receive a separate email with a calendar invitation, virtual instructions and additional information for what to expect from this year’s Virtual Summit.

View a summary of the 2019 Livability Summit HERE and the 2021 Agenda. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to any one on the planning team:

Alison Spindler-Ruiz, Estefania Zavala, Fern Nueno, Jose Fierros, Lara Turnbull, Meredith Reynolds, Moria Khou, Nancy Villaseñor, Rachel Junken, and Tony Cruz.

Last month, our long-serving Chief of Police Robert Luna announced his retirement. I want to thank Chief Luna for his dedication, and commitment to his profession, his employees and our community.

Chief Luna’s retirement has left the City with an important recruitment process to go through and it is expected to be finalized prior to his departure.

Next week we will invite our community to tell us what they want to see in their next Police Chief through a survey, which will help guide the City’s selection process. The survey will be available online and at libraries throughout the City.

Learn more about Chief Luna's history with the department, here.

I’m happy to share the City team’s hard work at Martin Luther King Jr. Park has paid off.

The statue of Martin Luther King Jr. has been restored and is looking great. Additionally, the upgrades to the camera system that were prioritized are now complete!

Huge thanks to the Parks, Recreation and Marine and Technology and Innovation departments for elevating this as a priority and the support from Councilmember Suely Saro to help get this done!

The return of the Long Beach Festival of Flight is a wonderful sign of our City’s progress.

The 2021 Festival of Flight, which was canceled last year due to the pandemic, is returning with aircraft on static display, live music, food trucks, activities for kids and helicopter rides for purchase.

I encourage you to check out the event. More than 10,000 attendees are expected to attend the outdoor event between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Taxiway E, located on the west end of the airfield at 3590 E. Wardlow Rd. For those who attend, keep in mind you’ll need to show proof of being fully vaccinated or a negative COVID-19 test within the last 72 hours.

Renters across the city and throughout the state have been impacted greatly through loss of income and are facing precarious housing situations. To assist landlords and tenants, the City designed the Long Beach Emergency Rental Assistance Program (LB-ERAP). LB-ERAP is part of the Long Beach Recovery Act and is established to provide assistance exclusively to landlords and tenants in Long Beach and is separate from the State’s rental assistance program.

Through a coordinated effort the City and local community-based organizations have outreached and provided application assistance to community members across the City totaling $19.6 million in payments, including 1,546 utility payments.

The City has received a total of 9,706 submitted applications to date, with varying degrees of completion. To support the further disbursement of funds, the City Council requested staff look for opportunities to simplify and reduce the burden on applicants. Development Services has put in a commendable effort thus far and will continue to work diligently.

In the past year there has been nearly 2 million pedestrian trips counted by the Beach and Broadway Eco-Totems via infrared and inductive loops in real time. Public Works holds an annual Long Beach Bicycle and Pedestrian Count (Count), where volunteers manually count bicyclists and pedestrians and record travel behavior, including helmet use and wrong-way riding. Volunteers may sign-up online for the 14th Annual Count now.