{"id":75651,"date":"2023-07-23T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2023-07-23T15:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=75651"},"modified":"2023-07-27T09:56:55","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T16:56:55","slug":"where-in-the-world-is-bixby-annex-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/where-in-the-world-is-bixby-annex-park","title":{"rendered":"Where in the world is Bixby Annex Park?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a bite-sized bluff area overlooking the ocean in Long Beach. It\u2019s bordered by sidewalks, and its grassy knoll sprawls between the Long Beach Museum of Art and the 1900 Ocean Beach Club.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re still lost, it\u2019s the one where Yogalution hosts its large free outdoor classes. You\u2019ve probably rubbernecked the spectacle while driving along Ocean Boulevard.<\/p>\n

The park holds both good and bad memories for me\u2014it\u2019s where I\u2019ve taken many yoga classes and where I usually watch the annual Pride Parade. It\u2019s also where I had my phone plucked from my purse in broad daylight, and where I had the worst first date of my short life (if you are reading this, I am sorry, and thank you for the sushi).<\/p>\n

Most recently, that park became the center of a newsroom debate\u2014what is the name of that park? The consensus in the newsroom was that it is called Bluff Park, of course\u2014obviously. But a sign that appeared in the park recently begs to differ.<\/p>\n

According to that sign, which I spotted recently, it is now called Bixby Annex Park. (If you didn\u2019t know, Bixby Park is that bigger park across the street).<\/p>\n

Kurt Curtis, the conductor of the Long Beach Municipal Band, has also long called that area Bluff Park. It\u2019s where the 113-year-old band has been playing for just around 15 years. His father, the late Larry Curtis, was the band\u2019s longest-standing conductor before him, and he also called it Bluff Park.<\/p>\n

I asked Curtis what he calls that park, and when his response was laughter, I exhaled validation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last couple of years have been kind of funny about the whole thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Three people walk to “Yoga On The Bluff” at Bixby Annex Park Wednesday, July 19, 2023. Photo by Brandon Richardson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Bixby Annex Park sign went up this February after the city had apparently been receiving proposals to rename and re-sign the area for years. Most of the requests came from Municipal Band concert-goers, according to Jane Grobaty, spokesperson for the city\u2019s Parks, Recreation and Marine Department.<\/p>\n

Her husband and my desk neighbor, Tim Grobaty, was one of the people insisting to me that that park is, indeed, called Bluff Park after I labeled it Bixby Annex Park in a newsletter. Tim has been a columnist in Long Beach for decades. If he\u2019s confused, we all are.<\/p>\n

The thing is, what we called Bluff Park was just a piece of the actual Bluff Park, which really begins at South 36th Place and Ocean Boulevard and ends at the museum. And then there\u2019s the fact that most of that area is considered to be the neighborhood of Bluff Park. Quite the mess, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

\"\"
We’ve got Bluffs and Bixbys galore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI am told that the sign was installed to be helpful in directing people to the Municipal Band concert site, which we used to call, \u2018Bixby Bluff.\u2019 While it really is Bluff Park, residents wanted the connection made to Bixby Park across the street, so\u00a0 \u2018Bixby Annex\u2019 was proposed. Many feel that Bluff is so long and divided by the Museum of Art and apartments that the sign would help,\u201d Jane told me in a recent email.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Long Beach Municipal Band director Kurt Curtis directs musicians at Bixby Park. Photo courtesy of the Deparmtent of Parks, Recreation and Marine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Curtis confirmed this story. Bluff Park is typically where the city itself directs people to watch the Municipal Band when they\u2019ve played there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut last year, a gentleman came up and said, \u2018You know, that\u2019s not the technical name of it. Bluff Park is that little section a little farther south,\u2019\u201d Curtis said. \u201cSo I took that to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then the city returned a year later, with an official proposal to clear up all the confusion: officially name the contested piece of land, “Bixby Annex.”<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the other thing: If you Google “Bixby Annex,” the search returns naught. The only place online the park is labeled as such is on the city\u2019s 2023 Municipal Band Summer Schedule<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, the Municipal Band held the \u201cIt\u2019s Showtime\u201d performance in Bixby Annex, but Curtis said concert-goers were still expressing confusion about the park\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put \u2018Bixby Annex,\u2019 and people are confused now thinking, ‘Well, so did you move?’\u201d he said. \u201cThat was the impetus of the change. It\u2019s almost too bad it couldn\u2019t have just stayed the way it was, because everybody knew where Bluff Park was, you know, even if it was incorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curtis has played trumpet with the Municipal Band for 25 years and is in his third year of conducting the band, picking up where his father left off, so I figured he must place strong sentimental value behind calling it Bluff Park, where the band has played so many times.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly want to call it the appropriate name, whatever that is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Curtis said in the end, it didn\u2019t seem to terribly affect Tuesday night\u2019s concert.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a big crowd last night, so apparently they figured it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another fun municipal fact for you: There\u2019s another park in Long Beach dedicated to Kurt Curtis\u2019 father\u2014it\u2019s simply called <\/i>Conductor Larry Curtis Concert Park<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bixby Bluff, Bluff Park, Bixby Annex\u2014what do you call the bluff area between Junipero and Cherry? The city recently renamed the small plot of land, but yogis, municipal band fans and longtime Long Beachers are still scratching their heads. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":75634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,32099],"tags":[32208,32209,31898,1374],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[9454],"class_list":["post-75651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","category-things-to-do","tag-bixby-annex-park","tag-bluff-park","tag-long-beach-municipal-band","tag-yogalution","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/302"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75651"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75733,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75651\/revisions\/75733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75651"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=75651"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=75651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}