The intersection of Temple Avenue and Tenth Street lies about halfway between the focus area of the group’s safety campaign.
In an effort to make its residents feel more secure along the 10th Street Corridor, the Rose Park Neighborhood Association (RPNA) is launching a personal safety campaign Friday morning that will start with distribution of personal alarms to vulnerable residents and a walk along the corridor in an attempt to empower those who travel along it.
A release put out by the RPNA said that the program was inspired by its past president Emily Stephens, who often saw people commuting along the corridor early in the morning and wanted to ensure their feeling safe. Current RPNA president Gretchen Swanson said the association and Moms for a Beautiful Tenth Street, one of the groups helping out with the event, want the residents of Rose Park to feel strong and safe.
During the event participants will decorate trees along the Tenth Street Corridor between Orizaba Avenue and Junipero Avenue and place with them empowering messages and the names of strong women.
“By writing women’s names that have been role models on tags and hanging them on the Tenth Street trees, each participant will honor those that have empowered them in their lives,” Swanson said in an email to The Post. “We are leaving it up to each participant to choose the names of women they value most.”
According to Long Beach Police Department crime data for the precincts that include the portions of 10th Street between Orizaba and Junipero the area has averaged about 29 robberies of a person and 30 aggravated assaults from 2014-2017. That same period saw nine rapes and one murder recorded in the area.
Data from 2018 only includes figures from January and February with those precincts recording 14 robberies and 10 aggravated assaults through the end of February. Part of the campaign will include the distribution of personal safety alarms which were donated by a member of Second District Councilwoman Jeannine Pearce’s staff.
Devin Ablard, Pearce’s communications deputy, said the devices that he helped fund are about the size of a thumb drive and when their buttons are pressed they display a high powered LED light that flashes and plays a loud alarm. Ablard said it’s something that could hopefully scare away a potential mugger, adding that he felt compelled to contribute to the campaign because the corridor is part of his home.
“That’s my neighborhood,” Ablard said. “I don’t take the bus, I drive, but I do drive by and see more vulnerable populations, the elderly, women by themselves taking the bus early in the morning and late at night. It’s always been on my mind on what we could do for them, not so much as a city, but as a community.”
The group is scheduled to meet at 8:00AM at the intersection of 10th Street and Orizaba.