A month ago the publishers of the Long Beach Post came to me with the idea of running a piece on a proposal I had been working on in the community for nearly four years.  The goal was to focus attention on Armory Park and take advantage of the readers’ ability to share their opinion regarding the concept.  While I had reservations about using this forum to lobby support for a project I am working on in the community, the opportunity to get input from a larger audience was important to vetting out the concept.  There were over sixty comments posted to this piece, all of which were positive to the proposal. 

 

Armory Park is an effort to simplify a series of dangerous intersections, while creating a new park in community desperately in need.  It would serve as the focus for series of local efforts to revitalize this very important entrance into the downtown.  This at a cost significantly less that creating a park of comparable size in this densely built-out community.  Both consultant traffic studies yield results that predicted that the performance of the intersections would improve, in some cases quite drastically.  Every City department and agency has been supportive of this concept save one; the City Traffic Engineer.  Despite the larger implications beyond traffic, City staff circled the wagons around public work.

 

This is of little surprise, considering that the proposal has unanimous support in the community.  From the East Village Association and the Hellman Area Neighborhood Association to the Downtown Long Beach Associates and Arts Council of Long Beach, the support is wide reaching.  Recently the diverse interests of the Redevelopment Central Project Area Committee spoke with a single unified voice endorsing the project that they voted nearly three years ago to fund the feasibility study for.  The local city council person, Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal continues to voice her support for the project.

 

Armory Park will be included in the City’s general plan update; Long Beach 2030 for the public to voice their opinion.  Thank you all for your continued support.  Please continue to make your feelings known regarding this very important project.