As with many organizations towards the end of each year, countdowns or lists are almost essential in communicating the achievements or important aspects surrounding that year (our own publication included).
But instead of laying out list contents in one post as most news organizations opt to do, The City of Long Beach has since December 22, been using its popular Facebook page (11,400 fans and counting!) to announce its own Top 10 Stories of 2012–releasing one per day, with the campaign ending on New Year’s Eve.
The City has gone through immense efforts to broaden its online presence and outreach in the last few years, earning it recognition as a leading “Digital City” (its 2012 award is coincidentally number 5 on the list). You can watch City Council meetings live or find archived videos for specific agenda items. Important civic capabilities are becoming more accessible online so one doesn’t have to trek to City Hall in order to get them done. And the Long Beach Public Library has the most comprehensive digital archive of historic photographs in the city.
As of Sunday, nine stories were announced. The number one story will be announced at 11AM on December 31, New Year’s Eve.
The top nine stories revealed thus far are below. What do you think should have been included? What would be your number one?
10. Long Beach Ready for Giant Rock to Roll Through City Streets
This story was not only found on one of our Top 10 lists, but was a story that reverberated throughout Southern California. People became fascinated with the 340-ton rock that was to be transfered from Riverside to Los Angeles for a piece by artist Michael Heizer.
9. Long Beach Named Silver Biking Friendly City and Top 20 Bike Friendly City
The City’s self-named moniker of “The Nation’s Most Bike Friendly” city should not be underestimated. Not only was the ubiquitous Long Beach Bicyclist named our own Person of the Year, the City welcomed two of biking most prestigious awards this year—The League of American Bicyclists’ Silver award granted to cities across the nation who supersede given infrastructure to include bike-friendly features on a larger level; and Bicycling Magazine’s Top 20 Bike Friendly Cities, where it sits in the top twenty for the first year ever.
8. Long Beach Airport Generates $11 Billion in Regional Economic Impact
What more is there to praise about Long Beach Airport (LGB)? Not only did they unveil their massively impressive new concourse—the only airport in the nation to have it’s shopping and eating amenities consist entirely of local businesses—but they generate some of the community’s most impressive economics: 43,000 jobs that generate some $11 billion for the regional economy.
7. $2.8 Million Federal Grant Creates 363 New Healthcare Jobs, Provide
Adding on top of LGB’s impressive economic impact, Pacific Gateway—the region’s workforce development agency of which Post founder and former publisher Shaun Lumachi was a part of—received a grant which created 363 new jobs throughout the Long Beach medical community, including jobs at Long Beach Memorial, Miller’s Children Hospital, Community Hospital Long Beach, and the MemorialCare Health System.
6. Transformation of The Promenade in Downtown Long Beach
It has been a long haul: years of planning, RDA help and troubles, and many supporters and dissenters, The Promenade has had its fair share of ups (BikeStation, Harvey Milk Park) and downs (empty spaces, lengthy construction phases). But this year offered the final push to complete the entirety of The Promenade in Downtown, which now hosts some of the city’s most iconic hangouts, such as Beachwood BBQ and Congregation Ale House. And to add to the increasing palatability of The Promenade will be famed Michael’s Pizzeria, opening next year next to Beachwood.
5. Long Beach Recognized Again as National Leader in Using Technology to Improve Service
As the introduction of this piece discusses, the City has been intensely focused on increasing its digital presence—and this year, it beat a multitude of other cities in being recognized by two national surveys as a Top 10 Digital City by the Center for Digital Government and Government Technology and a Top 10 Social Media City by the University of Illinois at Chicago. All we can say is: how utterly deserved.
4. Water Quality Improvements Continue
It was once the serene site of Olympic tryouts and the ultimate mini-beach hangout for Long Beach… And then Colorado Lagoon, thanks to badly designed storm drains and lackluster flooding prevention systems caused it to become one of the City’s most polluted bodies of water. And while the overall water quality has improved, it is this particular body that deserves the utmost recognition in having been removed from Heal the Bay’s list of California’s “Beach Bummers” and now holding an A+ in water quality. Let the games begin.
3. City of Long Beach Activates LB COPS
Detractors call it Big Brother but supporters—including a ton of small business owners who are partaking in the initiative—praise the Long Beach Common Operating Picture (LBCOP) program. In an effort to help solve crimes and, at least according to the police department, create safer streets, the LBPD can now remotely access the closed-circuit cameras of participating businesses across the city in order to capture images or spaces that were otherwise inaccessible.
2. Long Beach Becomes More Business Friendly – Streamlining the Business of Doing Business
It has been a common chiding of business owners across the city: Long Beach is not business friendly, creating a complex, almost inaccessible path in order to get one’s doors open and signs lit. And the City hears these cries loud and clear, having made “key investments to make establishing, and doing business in Long Beach an easy and affordable experience.” These investments include streamlining permitting and inspection into a single process that ultimately reduce permit fees by 15%. Looks like we’re trying to become the most friendly in more than just bicycling.
Follow the Long Beach City Facebook page and look out for the number one story Monday morning!