Dear Mayor and Members of the City Council:
The Press-Telegram recently reported about the seismic and engineering challenges that face our 32 year-old City Hall. City Staff has warned the Council that in an event of a major earthquake, the concrete beams could collapse and damage escape routes for employees and visitors. According to Public Works Director Christine Anderson, this tragic scenario could trap people in the building for days before any rescue.
City Planners estimate that repairing City Hall could cost $151 million. The cost to build a new Civic Center could be between $193 million and $235 million.
Today, our city’s civic center is a tragedy. We have a City Hall that is a danger for city employees, a main library that is leaking water, a park that is not used by local residents or visitors, and dozens of concrete planters that are empty- no trees, no grass and obviously no civic pride.
Like many of you, I have visited some of America’s great Civic Centers- San Francisco, New York and Portland to name a few. They all share a vision of the future while respecting the past. They incorporate art, trees, water…and have become tourist destinations themselves.
Here’s my two-cents if you decide to build a new City Hall: Build the most Environmentally Progressive City Hall in America.
Imagine a Green City Hall built from recycled materials, powered by the sun, and designed with energy efficiency in mind. This new structure would be more than a building- but a statement to the world that environmental responsibility matters. Sustainability is the future, and Long Beach can choose to lead, or can continue to follow.
A Green City Hall can be just the beginning. The entire Civic Center needs to be re-imagined as an active, open and attractive destination.
Residents and employees avoid Lincoln Park and complain about the waste of prime real estate. Artists and arborists, not just city planners need to be involved in the future development of the Civic Center. We should study great American parks like Chicago’s Millennium Park. That project was a public-private partnership where the Mayor and Council raised millions of private funds from local companies and developers.
Our City Hall sits in the heart of our Downtown. For us to truly grow into an urban metropolis, we are going to need vision and political will to support a progressive project on the Civic Center site. Will going Green cost us more? In the short term, yes….but I for one think it’s worth it, and would be willing to put my tax dollars behind a project that would make Long Beach an environmental leader.
I invite your thoughts on this, and if you would like to comment on this letter or on the City Hall project, I will post it in this column. You can reply back at [email protected]. Thanks.
Go Long Beach,
Robert Garcia