{"id":88670,"date":"2026-04-20T04:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/?p=88670"},"modified":"2026-04-21T07:04:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:04:57","slug":"how-does-a-city-get-its-own-monopoly-game-just-ask-long-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/eat-see-do-2\/see\/how-does-a-city-get-its-own-monopoly-game-just-ask-long-beach","title":{"rendered":"How does a city get its own Monopoly game? Just ask Long Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article was originally published by LAist<\/a> on April 19, 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monopoly lovers can now buy up the Queen Mary, collect rent on Belmont Shore and park their token at a storied tattoo shop, Outer Limits<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Long Beach landmarks line the spaces of a new Monopoly edition themed around L.A. County\u2019s second biggest city, released just this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Long Beach edition is part of an expanding series of Monopoly games featuring dozens of American cities, which Hasbro licensee Top Trumps<\/u><\/a> started to produce about five years ago when interest in board games surged during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What it takes to make the cut<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How does a city land on one of the world’s most popular board games? Turns out, it\u2019s not just a roll of the dice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for places with strong community pride, places where people will really love seeing their city on a Monopoly board,\u201d said Jennifer Tripsea, a partnership sales executive with Top Trumps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long Beach fit the bill and got to join a list of SoCal cities on Monopoly boards including Huntington Beach, Riverside and Palm Springs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tripsea said in some instances, a city will pitch themselves to the company \u2014 she didn\u2019t disclose which have \u2014 but not every place makes the cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

There has to be enough population \u2014 or local enthusiasm \u2014 to support a run of thousands of games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top Trumps sells the games online and through local businesses, sometimes the same ones featured on the board. That creates a built-in customer base: residents, tourists and collectors hunting for their next addition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while some businesses may offer to sponsor their way into consideration, their inclusion isn\u2019t a given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tripsea said when deciding who earns a spot, the company weighs cultural relevance, brand standards and community input.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The community gets a turn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Once a city is selected, residents are invited to help shape the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means emailing suggested landmarks and drafting potential Chance and Community Chest cards. For Long Beach, one Community Chest card directs players to collect $100 if they “attend a beach cleanup at Alamitos Beach.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of submissions flooded in over the last year, many pointing to the same top attractions, Tripsea said. The Queen Mary and Aquarium of the Pacific take up the same spots on the board that are occupied by Park Place and Boardwalk in the original game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Queen
The Queen Mary in Long Beach. Photo by Brandon Richardson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Others featured on the board are lesser known to outsiders, like Rosie\u2019s Dog Beach and the Arts Council for Long Beach<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arts nonprofit was \u201csurprised and excited\u201d to hear from Top Trumps last year that they were being included in a version all about Long Beach, said interim executive director Lisa DeSmidt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI describe Long Beach as a big city that’s run like a small town, and that everybody kind of knows each other to some degree,\u201d DeSmidt said. \u201cLong Beach has a sense of community in that Long Beach takes care of Long Beach people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An intern for the arts council, Peyton Smith, designed its space on the board, featuring small, intricate renderings of landmarks like the Long Beach Airport and the Pyramid at Cal State Long Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For DeSmidt, the game serves as a kind of cultural snapshot highlighting the city\u2019s mix of arts, neighborhoods and institutions. It\u2019s reminiscent of the council\u2019s own project mapping the city\u2019s cultural assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis ties into uplifting what makes Long Beach unique and what people love about it,\u201d DeSmidt said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long Beach is the latest SoCal city to get its own Monopoly game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":88671,"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":[32366],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32383],"class_list":["post-88670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-see","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88670","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\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88670"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88677,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88670\/revisions\/88677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88670"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=88670"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=88670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}