Take a trip down to the water in Long Beach on the 4th of July, and you clearly see that the annual Queen Mary fireworks show is quite a draw. With so many people passing through, it’s a great chance for Downtown to show itself off.
Here are a few suggestions for how the City might do a better job next year:
- Activate the public plazas. Yes, there’s a lot wrong with the Pike at Rainbow Harbor development, but the open areas could still be put to good use. On this day of particularly heavy foot traffic, however, the City did nothing to exploit this previous public resource. People passing through the Pike courtyard itself saw the Ferris wheel up and running ($3 a ride—a fair deal, to be sure) and a kiddie train chugging about, but otherwise the plaza featured nothing more than the usual array of tchotchke vendors. A DJ and a dance party is merely one possibility among many to energize that space. Then there are the grassy little expanses that dominate west of Pine Avenue. A few celebrants were hanging out, but the vibe was dead. The City could have made things exciting at no cost simply by inviting groups to stage events on the grass. Let the hippies come out and party, with music and food, etc. Get something similar going by the artificial lake at the Hyatt, and fuggedaboutit.
- Reduce the ambient light. Sure, there are all kinds of liability issues around which the City has to tread carefully, but there’s got to be a way to kill at least some of the ambient light from 9 p.m. until the fireworks finale. I’m no expert in optics, but I’m pretty sure that the less ambient light there is, the more impressive the fireworks will appear. And in the world of fireworks shows, perception is reality.
- Get people to luminesce themselves. Look, we like fireworks because we like pretty lights (and for some of us, big booms). One of the reasons Christmastime in Long Beach is magical is because our residents—particularly in the Naples area—get crazy with the décor. Can we get that going for the Fourth of July? If you’ve been to Burning Man or Glow in Santa Monica, you know what a neat experience it is to be immersed in a sea of glowsticks and the like. This year several entrepreneurial spirits were out and about selling such things, although the impact was not enough to really bring the trippy effect it should have. But what if the City got in on the action? It’s probably an easy way to make a little extra money (with which perhaps the City could bedeck that faux roller-coaster bridge with some real lights so it’s less lame or actually start paying for its own fireworks show again).
- Got public art? Show it off! Planted in a median in front of the courthouse we’ve got what I think of as a rather nice piece of public art. And whether or not you feel Sea Grass was worth the $150,000 commission, there it sits, looking its most impressive when lit up at night. So why on the Fourth of July–a day when people are streaming downtown–was it left in the dark? And while we’re at it, couldn’t the Arts Council have gotten someone, anyone, to put on a performance at Chantilly Clad, the $60,000 installation on Ocean Blvd. near Alamitos Ave.? Even if you don’t dig that suspended doily bra of an objet d’art, the idea of a little outdoor stage right there is pretty cool…except that it’s constantly empty and begging for use. Considering that the City is short on money, Long Beach needs to capitalize on the resources already in place.
- More evenly spread police deployment? I’m told that most of LBPD’s Downtown resources this 4th of July seemed to be placed down on the sand, where—within minutes of the firework show’s ending—cars and foot patrol officers began herding people back to the streets. The downside of having your mobile stations set up in the beach parking lots and not in Downtown proper, though, is that when a food cart near the Aquarium catches on fire, it takes more than 10 minutes for an officer to show up. Presuming that propane tanks were on the cart (that’s what we were told), it could have been disastrous for so much time to go by with only three frustrated vendors attempting to keep a constant stream of people from walking by the blaze. Police can’t be everywhere, of course, but since the LBPD knew in advance that this would be the most highly trafficked area of the city as 9 p.m. approached, plus the fact that the fire—and particularly its smoke—could be seen from a good distance, 10 minutes seems like an awfully long time to respond to a potential emergency. Is it too much to think that a bicycle-mounted officer would be nearby (like they always were when the Occupy Long Beach contingent downtown numbered above 20)?
A hot dog cart caught burning at Rainbow Harbor
It’s easy to sit here behind my computer and backseat event-plan how the 4th of July in Long Beach might become a more successful celebration of both our nation and our city. But maybe we can utilize resources we’ve already paid for and make improvements that aren’t all that tough.