Here’s our look back at 2009 through the lens of our most important and most visited articles of the year.

January

February

March

  • 3/4: Shootings leave three people dead and two injured in a single weekend, just two short months after the Long Beach Police Department announced that gang violence had dropped in 2008.
  • 3/9: Less than a month after predicting that a major motion picture studio would be filming on the site by the end of 2009, representatives from Long Beach Studios announced that a deal to acquire a vacant Boeing site had fallen out of escrow but vowed to complete the deal soon. There have been no further developments, despite plenty of rumors.
  • 3/20: The lbpost.com is first to report that a wetlands-area site near Studebaker and Loynes was bulldozed and graded without proper permits. We would later learn that owner Sean Hitchcock claimed that he didn’t know he was in the wrong, despite being the owner of a major construction company that regularly conducts business with the city of Long Beach.

April

  • 4/1: In an interview conducted with an airline industry blog, Jet Blue CEO Dave Barger says that his airline will leave the Long Beach Airport if drastic improvements are not made, calling the airport “a huge frustration.” The loss of Jet Blue would have essentially crippled the airport, but things are later smoothed over.
  • 4/3: Long Beach made a huge push to become more bicycle-friendly in 2009, and the man behind it all was professional cyclist Tony Cruz. Our interview and feature on Cruz showcased some of his grand plans and foreshadowed developments like the Belmont Shore sharrows lane.
  • 4/8: In a special election, Long Beach City College Dean of Students and lbpost.com co-founder Robert Garcia is elected to the City Council in the First District.
  • 4/16: Three people were killed at Memorial Hospital when a 50-year old pharmacy employee killed two other employees and then turned the gun on himself. Mayor Bob Foster said, “Today is a tragic day for the city of Long Beach.”
  • 4/23: Special contributor Greggory Moore (before he became an lbpost.com columnist) wrote that City Attorney Robert Shannon may be planning to remove medical marijuana dispensaries from Long Beach. The prediction would prove to be true, in part – it was actually City Prosecutor Tom Reeves championing the cause. More on that later…
  • 4/27: Sparks fly as rumors first noted by lbpost.com columnist Nancy Pfeffer indicate that electric automaker Tesla Motors may be interested in bringing 1,500 jobs to Long Beach to produce their new four-door sedan. The site in question? The same Boeing property that Long Beach Studios longed for. At the time, we asked if Tesla would be a good business partner and warned that the company had reneged on production deals in the past and was financially hanging by a thread. As of today, Tesla has still not struck a deal to produce the car in Long Beach, Downey, or anywhere else. They still say it will be available to purchase in 2011, which now seems much nearer than it did at the time.
  • 4/29: The lbpost.com is first to report that a “probable” case of Swine Flue – now known as the H1N1 Virus – appeared on the CSULB campus. It was the first of many cases in Long Beach, although the potential for a pandemic that paralyzed many with fear did not materialize.

May

  • 5/13: City Manager Pat West outlines his plans to tackle a $43 million budget deficit that includes heavy spending cuts and probable layoffs. “We’re looking for a long-term approach to fiscal solvency,” said West. “It definitely poses challenges for us right now.”
  • 5/18: Energized by a statewide effort to defeat Prop 8 – which did not subside even in defeat – the annual Long Beach Pride parade is one of the largest and best-attended in its history. Shortly after, rallies were held to keep momentum going in support of same-sex marriage.
  • 5/20: Environment advocate group Heal The Bay rates Long Beach’s water quality as a “Beach Bummer” due to high pollutant levels, but praises the city for efforts to clean the Los Angeles River. The study eventually led to this June article about the innovative ways that Long Beach fights water pollution.
  • 5/28: Officers were involved in a shootout that wounded three suspects, while later that same day a man allegedly stole an officer’s baton and was shot and hospitalized in Belmont Shore. The media quickly began to take notice and Long Beach gained unwanted notoriety for the frequency of officer-involved shootings.

June

  • 6/2: MediaNews announces that their newspapers (which include the Press-Telegram) will begin charging readers to view their websites. The Press-Telegram rolls out an online E-Edition that offers an exact version of the printed publication online for a fee.
  • 6/9: The lbpost.com unveils the redesigned website you see before you, providing an easier-to-read format and increased capabilities. The comments left below the article are still some of my favorites that have ever been left on this website.
  • 6/10: The lbpost.com conducts an exclusive interview with then-Gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom as his campaign for the 2010 election seemed to be gaining momentum. He spoke extensively of plans to assist public schools and improve the environment in smog-filled places like Long Beach. Newsom would drop out of the race before the end of the year.
  • 6/11: Long Beach native sons Snoop Dogg and Willie McGinest voice their support for the proposed Kroc Center community facility to be built in the heart of inner-city Long Beach. McGinest called the Kroc Center “a dream come true” and Snoop promised to hold a rap concert with all proceeds benefiting the facility. Soon after, the lbpost.com published stunning video of the proposed designs.
  • 6/12: With gang violence and officer-involved shootings quickly on the rise, Long Beach Police Chief Anthony Batts told the lbpost.com in an exclusive interview that financial hardships were likely to blame for the troubles and that he had detailed plans for prevention.
  • 6/15: In the midst of a crippling statewide drought, the lbpost.com traveled from the Hoover Dam to Long Beach to examine how the city receives its water and what is being done to conserve the dwindling resource.
  • 6/18: Funding earmarked for a new skate park in Long Beach is named to an Oklahoma senator’s list of Top 100 biggest wastes of stimulus money. Amid all the shouting and arguing, throngs of teenagers show up to the park to skate, as they do every single day. Later in the year the park is closed for renovations and will be completed in 2010.
  • 6/19: Long Beach unemployment reaches 12.5%, a drastic jump that has slowed but remains far higher than both the state and national levels.
  • 6/29: The Sharrows bike lane makes its debut in Belmont Shore to the delight of bikers and frustration of residents and motorists. Part of the city’s plan to become more bike-friendly, more additions like it are planned for 2010.

July

  • 7/3: Photographer Russell Conroy brings us stunning images of Long Beach from high above while riding in the zeppelin Eureka, the only such aircraft operating commercially in the world. The zeppelin is made available for flights around the area, and photographer Samuel Lippke takes a ride of his own in November.
  • 7/17: CSULB President F. King Alexander announces to students in an e-mail that enrollment will be severely slashed, tuition will likely be increased and there will be furlough days in response to a $42 million cut from the state of California.
  • 7/20: Long Beach Airport director Mario Rodriguez explains his vision for the renovation and rebirth of the historical airport, and explains that relations with Jet Blue have improved drastically.
  • 7/23: Local engineering firm Moffat & Nicholl releases a long-awaited study that provides several plans to modify the Long Beach Breakwater, improving water quality and possibly bringing waves back to our shores. An estimated $52 million could be generated by the increase in tourism revenue. The Army Corps of Engineers has since agreed to review the study and will decide in 2010 whether the project is worth pursuing.
  • 7/30: City officials present a budget that deals with a $38 million deficit with sharp cuts, layoffs and furlough days. “We’re in a better situation than most cities, but not as much as we’d hoped,” says City Manager Pat West.

August

  • 8/4: Local developer Tom Dean breaks a three-year media silence for an exclusive interview with the lbpost.com, explaining that he will withdraw his offer to trade 37.7 acres of wetlands for 13.4 acres of City-owned public service yard unless the City Council approves the deal that very night. The Council approves the deal that many characterized as grossly lopsided in Dean’s favor by a 5-4 vote. The deal hits a snag when pollutants are discovered throughout the wetlands-area in question. Dean issues another warning that the deal must enter escrow by December 31. No announcement has been made since.
  • 8/6: Michael Shane Ellis resigns as boardmember of the Long Beach Unified School District, following a bizarre-beyond-words term that included an unexplained three-month absence from meetings and a warrant for his arrest. A special election is held in late December to fill the seat, burdening taxpayers with the cost of the election.
  • 8/12: Long Beach Police Chief Anthony Batts leaves his position to become Oakland Police Chief. He had served in the LBPD for 27 years.
  • 8/20: Car dealerships in Long Beach felt the wrath of the recession and closed down at an alarming rate, but the debut of the Ford Taurus SHO and vehicles like it energized Pacific Ford and signaled a new turn in the auto industry.
  • 8/21: A candelight vigil is held in support of a homeless Belmont Shore man who was beaten and hospitalized in critical condition. In late December it was reported that the man, still in need of care, left his clinic and is currently missing.
  • 8/24: The state of California continued to suffer through the longest budget drought in history and raided city budgets in order to pay their own bills. The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency voted to borrow and cut future projects in order to provide a mandated $30 million.


September

  • 9/8: The spirit of Wilson High’s famed “Freedom Writers” lives on as teacher Devon Day contributes to a collection of inspiring teaching stories and leads her invigorated students on a journey that takes them to museums, meetings with holocaust survivors and the hills of West Virginia.
  • 9/14: A community mourns as a one-year old girl and her brother are hit by an intoxicated driver as they cross the street with their parents. Kaylee Alvarez is dragged for more than a mile and dies at the scene. The driver is arrested and charged with hit-and-run.
  • 9/16: The Long Beach Unified School District is awarded $250k as a runner-up for the Broad Prize for Urban Education. It is the second consecutive year that LBUSD is named a runner-up, and the district has received $1.4 million from the foundation since 2003.
  • 9/22: We wish photographer and friend Russell Conroy well as he begins a two-year commitment with the Peace Corps in a small African nation.
  • 9/22: The Aquarium of the Pacific holds a “Top Chef” style cookoff to promote the eating of sustainable seafood rather than species that are endangered. The food is fantastic. The campaign later lands the aquarium in hot water (sorry for the pun) with PETA, which claims that eating no seafood at all is the best strategy.
  • 9/22: The City Council hears an update on a lawsuit brought by hundreds of Long Beach Police Department officers that claims they should be paid for dressing and undressing for work. The trial, Edwards v. Long Beach, is ongoing.
  • 9/28: In an op-ed provided exclusively to the lbpost.com, City Prosecutor Tom Reeves directly relates dispensaries to “a drug dealer standing on a corner” and disputes the notion of the businesses as caregivers. Reeves becomes a staunch advocate for the elimination of dispensaries and begins the process of shutting some down. Columnist Greggory Moore wonders if Reeves is mounting the campaign due to higher aspirations. In November, Reeves announces his intention to run for City Attorney in 2010.

October

November

December

  • 12/3: lbpost.com columnist Don Jergler takes a video tour inside the unique Belmont Heights “lego house” that is currently on the market. The story is reported on by KCAL Channel 9 and remains one of the lbpost.com’s most read articles of all time.
  • 12/7: The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency votes to solicit proposals from three architectural firms for designs to build a commercial/residential zone on Atlantic Avenue, for the time being saving the 67-year old Atlantic Theater after months of outcry from residents that feared it would be torn down. New details are expected in January.
  • 12/8: Miller Children’s Hospital unveils a brand new care facility after years of planning and fundraising. It is one of the most advanced children’s care units in the nation.
  • 12/9: Melody Ross is named the 2009 lbpost.com Person of the Year.
  • 12/16: The Long Beach Unified School District approves budget cuts that essentially eliminate summer school expect for extreme credit deficiencies, and alter bus routes that will affect thousands of students.
  • 12/18: Sources tell the lbpost.com that the Long Beach Armada baseball team will cease operation, presumptively opening the door for Long Beach State to acquire Blair Field.
  • 12/21: lbpost.com readers submit their suggestions for ways to volunteer and give back to the community this holiday season. More than 20 charities and organizations are provided with contact information in the article.
  • 12/31: Extreme sports athlete Travis Pastrana sets a Guinness World Record by jumping his Subaru rally car 250 feet off a Pine Street Pier ramp and safely onto a barge floating in the Pacific Ocean. The event is broadcast live on ESPN and tens of thousands ring in the new year in downtown Long Beach. (Story coming soon…)

Happy New Year!