Doing Good in the LBC is a weekly newsletter where we’ll share how you can volunteer or give back in our city and the latest goings-on of good work in Long Beach.
Less than two weeks to go — have you at least started Christmas shopping?
If not, think of local small businesses.
Belmont Shore and Retro Row are popular picks, but also consider East Village Arts District in downtown, an often overlooked few blocks with clothing and accessory stores (like Anneise and ButterScotch) locally produced food, tea and coffee shops (like Culture Shrooms) and unique eateries like Arize Bistro and Zuzu’s Petals.
Downtown needs serious love — and foot traffic would make a fine start. The businesses in the city’s core are on the front lines of the city’s growing homelessness crisis, and prone to property crime that has trended upward in the past six years. What could help is having more people around.
The district is roughly between Long Beach Boulevard and Alamitos Avenue; Ocean Boulevard and 10th Street. In addition to retail shops, the area is dotted with independent artist shops, galleries, museums, historic buildings and murals.
The Museum of Latin American Art is also worth a look, and it has an interesting history, too: It was the former home of the first movie studio headquartered in the state, the California Motion Picture Manufacturing Company.
(Read more history of the Arts District here, and book a walking tour with Long Beach Heritage here.)
Homeless count
If you want to better understand people who live on the streets and the scale of the problem, consider volunteering for the 2026 point-in-time homeless count on Jan. 22.
Each year volunteers spread out across the city in the pre-dawn hours to tally the number of unhoused individuals living in the city, gather any information they can, give them hygiene kits and point them to resources.
Volunteers must be 18, willing to attend a two-hour training session the day before, and show up in the dark-early hours to begin the count. Fill out a volunteer form here.
If you or someone you know needs a hand with food over the holidays, here’s a list of food pantries and free meal services.
Love Your Block
The city selected winners of the Love Your Block mini-grant program that includes up to $2,500 and help from the city to complete projects addressing air quality and transportation efficiency in West Long Beach.
The winners are Legacy in Bloom, a youth-led tree planting and clean-up initiative; Breath of Fresh Air, which hosts education sessions and trades vapes for air purifiers; Community Bee Apiary, a new bee sanctuary located in West Long Beach; Westside Clean & Green, a neighborhood clean-up group that provides plants and air purifiers; and Community Garden, a new green space and garden.
The funds aren’t much, but it’s something.