There is a bold vision for the future of Long Beach. In this vision, Long Beach is healthier, greener, more vibrant and economically stronger. This bright new picture painted by readers recreates our port city by rediscovering nature, realigning infrastructure, and repositioning the city and its existing assets to better serve its residents and stakeholders. Two weeks ago, we asked readers to submit their bold ideas for the future of our city. Readers offered many exciting, innovative, and sometimes radical suggestions. While they were indeed bold ideas, the vision readers offered is not as fantastic as to be unachievable. In fact, some of the dreams submitted by our readers are already in the process of becoming reality.
The creation of the breakwater – or, at least, its retention – was determined to be the worst decision in the history of Long Beach in our last reader survey. It is fitting that its removal drew so much support from readers this time around. Calls for the reconfiguration of the breakwater have steadily gained steam over recent years. Those calls have been heard: just this past week the city released the study it commissioned from engineering firm Moffatt & Nichol. Bringing waves back to the waterfront while improving the water quality of the city’s beaches propelled this combined community and city effort to its latest phase. It remains to be seen how the Army Corp of Engineers will respond to this report. Nevertheless, it is an important step, a step many have been anticipating for years.
At the same time, the City of Long Beach is in negotiations to acquire additional portions of the Los Cerritos Wetlands for eventual natural restoration. While the negotiations are not complete, and there is not yet an agreement for a land swap, the land in question forms the central portion of over five hundred acres of available wetlands spanning Los Angeles and Orange County. These wetlands could link Long Beach to the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge, thus creating a massive nature preserve in this urban environment, for recreation, wildlife habitat, flood and surge control and pollution mitigation.
As the population of this semi-arid region has grown, so has its thirst for fresh water. When Southern California continues to reach further out in search of water, often hundreds of miles away, it places burdens on other communities and states. But Long Beach is looking locally to serve supply and demand. The city’s population continues to make record-breaking reductions in the use of water. And Water Department engineers have developed efficient methods of desalination that have attracted global attention. Further development of this new desalination technique and the expansion of city water reclamation facilities can ultimately perhaps make Long Beach water self-sufficient.
While starting out a few steps – or, pedals – behind, Long Beach is at last getting into high gear to become the “most bicycle friendly urban city in the nation.” A reorganization of city departments, reallocation of management and recruitment of staff has laid the foundation for a progressive realignment of city infrastructure to serve bicyclists of all types. From funding for everything from sharrows to bike boulevards, the city has won over $13 million dollars in government grants to develop bike facilities across the city. With their implementation already taking place, keep an eye for the next bike path to come to you.
With these grand initiatives being put into place, Long Beach must continue to look further into the future and put forward more bold ideas to make the city even greater. Some will ask, how can these visions ever become reality? Some will question whether any of them should. We believe that all of them merit discussion and further investigation. Even if they don’t become a reality, we hope that they at least further a constructive dialogue about Long Beach’s future. The problems are often quite obvious; the solutions usually require greater thought and creativity. Hopefully these bold ideas can reach the consciousness of the city’s decision-makers in government, business, and the community at large.
We have compiled your suggestions with the help and input of our editor and other lbpost.com contributors. Over the next two weeks we will be counting down the TEN BOLD IDEAS FOR THE FUTURE OF LONG BEACH…
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