Nearly two decades after the Long Beach City Council designated a 1.2-mile stretch along East Anaheim Street as Cambodia Town, the neighborhood will get an impressive gateway honoring Cambodian culture and community.
At Saturday’s Cambodia Town parade and festival, Mayor Rex Richardson and Councilwoman Suely Saro, whose district encompasses Cambodia Town, revealed the final design for the ornate entryway. It will be erected at Alamitos and Anaheim, with construction slated to begin in 2027 using $1 million in Measure A sales tax funds. (The full cost of the project is still uncertain and cannot be confirmed until a bid is officially awarded, according to a city spokesperson.)
“This has been a dream of the community in that area for many years,” said Saro, Long Beach’s first Cambodian council member. Parade attendees were “thrilled” at their first look at the final design, the product of more than a year of back and forth with Cambodian community members to “make sure we get it right,” she said.
Richer San and his wife Sithea San have been driving forces behind the gateway project — and Cambodia Town’s official recognition in 2007. The couple escaped the Khmer Rouge regime and came to the U.S., joining a wave of refugees who landed in Long Beach in the 1970s and 80s. The city is now home to approximately 20,000 Cambodians, the highest concentration of any city outside Cambodia.
The gateway has long been in the works. A decade ago, community members began raising money to develop designs with an architect, Richer San said.
He and other Cambodian community members presented an initial concept for the gateway to the city’s Public Works Department, kicking off a collaborative back-and-forth that resulted in two proposals, influenced by the Cambodian Apsara Crown and the Buddhist temple Angkor Wat.
Over 1,000 community members voted on the ideas, favoring the first, and offering feedback that inspired the final rendering, an elaborate structure decorated with golden filigree, including elements of both the crown and temple. Floral appliques will adorn the gate, including lotus and moon flowers, as well as rumduol, the national flower of Cambodia, Richer San said.
It’s not just the design that is meaningful, but the investment in the neighborhood, said Sayon Syprasoeuth, associate program director of the local nonprofit United Cambodian Community. The official designation of Cambodia Town and the addition of the gateway are significant steps toward helping the community claim space, corrective action for an area that was redlined in the past, he said. The recognition of the city allows the people who live there “to embrace and to grow in this space,” he said.
The push for that recognition and investment has been driven by grassroots advocacy in the Khmer community, Syprasoeuth said. “It’s ongoing work, and it’s marathon work.” And it’s not over yet.
A spokesperson for public works said that additional funding “will need to be confirmed” in order to move the project to construction. Richer San has begun a campaign to raise as much as half a million dollars to close the gap, he said.
Saro hopes that the gateway will be an opportunity to increase foot traffic to local businesses. The city has allocated $12.6 million to an improvement project on Anaheim Street as part of its Elevate 28 infrastructure plan, which will make the corridor safer and more pedestrian-friendly, Saro said. If all goes to plan, the grand entrance will be completed in time for the Olympics and will be a world attraction long after the Games, she said.
The entrance will be a significant monument for older Cambodians who settled in Long Beach decades ago, but also for their children and grandchildren, signifying that they belong in the city and in America, Saro said.
“We want to build something that Long Beach is proud of,” Richer San said. And because so many Cambodians came to the city as refugees, the gateway will serve a healing function, he said. “We’re bringing a piece of Cambodia to Long Beach.”