West Long Beach

West Long Beach has the 710 freeway running through it. The 710 has provided our group with several possible story angles to follow up on. One lead our group has is to meet with the Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma, because of the heavy amounts of pollution produced by port traffic.

Another lead we have deals with redirecting port traffic to an abandoned rail yard near a park; this story can work in conjunction with the LBACA angle. Our group has relevant contact information for both leads.

Downtown Long Beach

   Our group will cover downtown Long Beach for the final project. A few ideas that have been discussed include the coverage of events within this area that help better the community. We plan on using a video of the events and film some interviews. Some potential sources would be the attendees of the event as well as the organization(s) holding it.
    We also may focus on how the downtown plan is going back into effect. We would interview people on both sides of the issue about how it will affect them and their neighborhood. This can be incorporated into an audio slideshow or an interactive text. Further background research will have to be conducted on both of these topics as well as anything else we choose to cover.

North Long Beach: A Journey

Many choose not to venture into north Long Beach. They think it's a dangerous, gang-ridden ghetto. But they're mistaken. North Long Beach is a vibrant, diverse area that's home to dynamic Hispanic, Samoan, and Jewish communities. Our group intends to examine these communities along with issues regarding the lack of businesses in the area, and the disparity between the wealthy and the impoverished.

4th Street, Carroll Park, Bluff Heights, Belmont Shore area

4^th Street, Carroll Park, Bluff Heights, Belmont Shore area- group blog

Our group plans to focus our efforts on the 2nd street and 4th street areas. On 2nd st., we plan to cover the chocolate festival and scavenger hunt events and get in-depth interviews with the business owners who are participating to see if these events help local businesses during a bad economy. Visuals on 2nd. street will focus on videos and stories that showcase the good/bad effects of running a business on 2nd. street. On both 2nd. and 4th st., we will focus on bike-friendly saturdays and how a bike-friendly community will is good for the reputation of long beach and also for businesses. Multi-media for bike-friendly Saturdays will include an interactive map of participating business with plenty of bike racks. We'll also take more photos and video. Lastly, we'll cover local bands that are being showcased on 4th street every wednesday on their emerging sounds of wednesday series for an audio podcast.

Central Long Beach: Mission Statement

     My group and I will cover everything South of PCH with the 710 on the West, and Junipero on the East. This is a Massive area, but one filled with stories. A few point of interest in out section are LBCC, the Museum of Latin American Art, The Pine Street corridor, the Atlantic corridor, and a small section West of the 710. It is this small area of a few dozen blocks that will likely present the most difficulties to coverage as it is an area without any popular destinations to focus on. We have started our plan by agreeing to all do out photo slide show on a relevant story in our area. -Patrick Moreno, of team Central (downtown).

Howard Smith smokes a cigarette outside his Westgate of long beach apartment, this photo was taken from a Press Telegram article from November of 2007 about residents living under the poverty line in Long Beach. Photo By Stephen Carr 

Ambicious and Thriving : Long Beach Gay Community

Hot Java on East Broadway in Long Beach California

by Nayeli Carrillo

Long Beach is known for its diversity and with a strong LGBT community we have not only seen a stronger health awareness but an emphasis of how open and bonded the entire LB community is.

Interviewing The Center's newly promoted Administrative Director Porter Goldberg he discussed the establishing of the Center and its growth from a living room discussion to a social service organization.  According to him their formation came from a “a need into the community for our community to come together and get to know each other” especially with the lack of acceptance at the time in 1977.

 He’s extremely proud of their ability to not only help the LGBT community but also provide information, services, assistance and culture programming to the over all Long Beach community, further strengthening the connection among the city’s residents.  Some of the services include youth empowerment, overeater anonymous support group (people battling compulsive eating) , minority support groups, a hate crime hotline and the LGBT film festivals.

A recent event being hosted is a Women’s History Month Speaker series every Friday in March and the second in April at 6:30 to showcase accomplished women in traditionally male-dominated fields.

Long Beach’s Cal State University is also strong in aiding its gay community with their Delta Lambda Phi chapter, the first chapter was established in 1986 in Washington D.C. The group is set apart by its striving to creating a brotherhood, quality and lifelong bonds of friendship and support Proud member David Pham says he is active member of the fraternity, which is in fact the only gay fraternity in the nation, recently becoming international as they established a chapter in Montreal, Canada. 

The Long Beach chapter was actually established only 3 years after the original one and by far one of the oldest chapters.  They are striving by being involved in the community with projects such as Relay for Life, Glaad Media Awards, Gay Days at Disneyland and Long Beach Pride.

The LB gay community presence was actually one of the reasons David came to Cal State Long Beach. “ I was definitely scouting the area and whether it was gay-friendly or not, so I definitely knew what a huge gay community that Long Beach had.  I was aware of the many services they had from gay youth chats to support groups to gay coffee places”, he adds. He even mentioned how one of our own alumni is co-owner to Hot Java, a hotspot for LGBTQ group meetings.

A great event the Delta Lambda Phi is particularly proud to organize and present every year as part of their way to support their Philanthropies tis Dragilicious.  The event, which raised $1,200 in ticket sales last year, with proceeds going to the LGBTQ center on campus, invites people to come out and perform in drag.  This year’s proceeds will go to two projects, the “It Gets Better” Project and the “Trevor Project”. 

The Trevor Project is a leading national organization, which “provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth” with recent spokesperson actor Daniel Radcliffe.

The other project is the “It Gets Better Project” which not only deals with suicide as a secondary prevention service but rather a primary prevention service by showing LGBT youth and groups their potential of happiness and positivity with their lives.  It helps them to look past the obstacles to their maximum capacity and that life “WILL get better.” 

Co-chair for Dragilicious and Delta Lambda Phi member Jose Miguel Santiago says his involvement with Dragilicious came from his desire to volunteer and in turn it makes him empowered and optimistic for the gay community as a whole.  It’s become clear that support continues to grow with people attending and supporting the cause showing the growing acceptance that organizations like The Center hoped to create through their establishment. 

The number of Gay friendly establishments in Downtown Long Beach such as cafes and bars and Long Beach Pride growing in years is not only a result of a growing LGBT community but the amount of press the city has. 

Part of what is evident in their success is this specific community’s ambition to strive for equality.  Miguel actually re-established the Gay-Straight Alliance at his high school during his junior year through which he actually created a more gay-friendly campus and helping his students educating them about Signs of Suicide prevention presentations and Bullying/Gay bashing prevention.  He has also become involved with volunteering in the LB Aids Walk and volunteering at the LB Pride.

Goldberg has said that he’s proud of seeing the city thrive and their embracing of the community’s diversity.  The city’s local government, businesses and community organizations have all been incredibly supportive and show just how strong the Long Beach Community is.    

The Palace Offers Foster Kids New Hope

Foster youth of the city of Long Beach find new hope and a promising future with the grand opening of The Palace Hotel, a renovated apartment building that houses and guides 13 emancipated youths to becoming successful in the future.



On Wednesday, Feb. 22, Mayor Bob Foster, Councilmember Patrick O’Donnell, 4th District, The Long Beach Housing Development Company (LBHDC), LINC Housing, and United Friends of the Children (UFC) celebrated the grand opening of The Palace in Long Beach.

The Palace hotel was once notorious for a center of drugs and prostitution in the 1920s and a place that offered little hope. Today, with the help of United Friends and LINC Housing, The Long Beach Housing Development Company was able to gut out the entire building and in a 6.2 million dollar project aimed at supporting and guiding at risk foster youth in Long Beach.

“The 13 youth chosen to live at the Palace were given the opportunity based on certain criteria- a willingness to learn, a willingness to succeed, and a perseverance for personal achievement,” said Carolina Diaz, Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator of United Friends of the Children.

According the Press Telegram, it is estimated that of the 1,400 to 1,500 youths who leave foster care each year in Los Angeles County, a shocking 36 percent face homelessness and many more struggle with chronic unemployment within two years. Also, in California, 36 percent of foster youth become homeless within 18 months of emancipation, as stated by Everything Long Beach.

These statistics are what brought about the union of LINC Housing, UFC, and the Long Beach Community to respond to a need of the community.

The 13 chosen residents will be staying for about 18 months as they learn to support themselves. These youth are required to find a job and pay rent while they receive “social, educational, mental health, job training and life- skills services” offered by Pathways, a transitional living service run by United Friends of Children.

“This programs gives kids who once had little hope and guidance towards a promising future, a second chance at life. A chance to succeed and be independent,” said Mauve Linder, a local resident of Long Beach who strolls the area daily.

Part of the ground floor of the renovated apartment building houses iCracked, an iphone and ipad repair company founded by AJ Forsythe who started the company as a college student. The Press Telegram notes that the CEO, Forsythe, “hopes to hire at least 4 or 5” residents of The Palace to help several youth gain work experience under the Pathways program.

United Friends of Children is a non- profit organization dedicated to “bettering the lives of foster children and supporting foster youth in their journey to become successful, independent adults.” The non- profit organization joined with LINC Housing, a company dedicated to building affordable and sustainable housing for those in need, to build a program in Long Beach to reach the foster youth of the community.

The renovation began early summer in 2010 to include 13 studio apartments and a multitude of sustainable features. Some of the features include Energy Star appliances, recycled materials, a high efficiency HVAC system, and dual-flush toilets. To reduce building costs, photovoltaic solar panels and ClearEdge5 fuel cell technology were incorporated into the design. According to the Everything in Long Beach website, the building is registered with the U.S. Green Building Council and is expected to achieve LEED Gold certification.


The Palace Hotel is a wonderful example of “public and private sectors” that joined forces to meet the needs of the community not only in services offered, but also with renovation and an effort towards sustainability.

- Crisitna Szewczyk