Though the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday expressed its unanimous approval of progress the city has made since August 2020 on its Racial Equity and Reconciliation Initiative, city officials acknowledged that much work remains to be done.
“This is not easy work,” Councilman Rex Richardson, one of the architects of the initiative, said. “Building a modern and resilient city won’t happen overnight.”
Councilman Al Austin said the work the city has done so far is “something we should salute and celebrate.”
The initiative, passed unanimously by the City Council in the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, includes more than 100 action plans meant to reform laws and policies that lead to racist outcomes in matters such as housing, policing, freeway placement and air quality that date back generations.
This is most visible when looking at disparities in life expectancy across Long Beach, which ranges from a little over 72 years for those living in the historically Black and Latino neighborhoods of North and West Long Beach compared to more than 80 years for the Whiter neighborhoods in East Long Beach, according to the city’s Office of Equity.
Since the summer of 2020, the city has taken a number of steps to implement the initiative, including slightly increasing the size of the Office of Equity, designating “Racial Equity Champions” to help implement initiative goals in each city department and mandating racial equity training for all 6,000 city employees, according to the report.
Just under 1,000 city employees have so far completed that training, according to the report.
Councilmembers repeatedly praised the work of the “champions,” though their work has been difficult and stressful, according to a 136-page progress report on the initiative released last week by the city manager’s office.
“I can’t thank them enough,” said Councilwoman Mary Zendejas. Mayor Robert Garcia called them “models for the rest of the country.”
While the city’s progress report makes clear that there have been some small successes, major challenges remain, including racism within the city itself that has exhausted many champions tasked with making the initiative a reality, leaving them “experiencing burnout and feeling unsupported.”
Others at the city noted there “has not yet been a coordinated internal focus” on the racial discrimination experiences of city staff, leading them to wonder if the initiative itself is just “performative and inauthentic,” according to the report.
Deputy City Manager Teresa Chandler acknowledge the hardships those staffers tasked with making the initiative a reality have faced, telling the council, “we have a long way to go.”
Garcia also asked about efforts to reform the Citizen Police Complaint Commission, the result of a previous effort to reform policing that never lived up to its promises of bring transparency and accountability to law enforcement. City Manager Tom Modica said the City Council is scheduled to discuss possible changes to that body at its Feb. 15 meeting.
A sweeping city plan sought racial reconciliation; how’s Long Beach done so far?