GOODBYE, REDISTRICTED! HELLO, GREATER LONG BEACH!
DAVE WIELENGA DISCONTINUES BLOG FOR FULL-SERVICE WEBSITE GREATERLONGBEACH.COM
Dave Wielenga, just this minute formerly of Redistricted! and a talented group of collaborators announce today the debut of Greater Long Beach—a full-service website grown from very deep local roots … and the pooled efforts and experience of the area’s very best journalists.
Together, Greater Long Beach intends to provide something … well, GREATER:
GREATER, as in a Long Beach that is reported, investigated and explained with intelligence, diligence and fearlessness.
GREATER, as in a Long Beach that is explored and celebrated with expert coverage of arts, entertainment and recreation, as well as insightful looks at its people, culture, lifestyles and social issues.
GREATER, as in a Long Beach that is connected to satellite cities–suburbs from Seal Beach to Cerritos, Bellflower, Lakewood, Compton and Downey to San Pedro–through coverage that tracks their particular orbits and their influence on one another.
GREATER, as in a Long Beach that is improving and ascending in both big-city and small-town ways—the natural outcome of a free flow of information through first-rate independent journalism, reported quickly but explained clearly, with necessary objectivity and reasoned perspective.
AMONG THE STORIES ON GREATER LONG BEACH RIGHT NOW:
Ellen Griley’s BLANCHE DEATHEREAUX: QUARTERBACK PRINCESS OF LONG BEACH ROLLER DERBY: “Some people just can’t go up to someone they don’t know and hit them or flip on top of them,” says Sarah ‘Blanche Deathereaux’ Scanlon, the team captain and jammer for the Retro Rollers of the Long Beach Roller Derby. “That’s what got me excited once we actually started looking like roller derby players.”
Bill Pearl’s editorial A WAVE SO BIG NO BREAKWATER COULD STOP IT: It was a wave so big no breakwater could stop it. It had been building for nearly 10 years, and when that wave crashed through the City Council Chamber on Tuesday night, it swept aside years of stale excuses as Long Beach’s elected representatives finally faced up to how much those excuses had cost this City.
Dave Wielenga’s SECOND+PCH + DEVELOPERS + ENVIROS + COUNCILMEMBER = BEER & POLITICS: The latest pivot point in the development of Long Beach—the proposed replacement of the tired, old SeaPort Marina Hotel with the high-rise Second+PCH hotel, residential and retail complex—will be the next topic of debate at Beer & Politics.
Susan Jacobs’ BACK AT MY ROOTS, NO HAIR MEANS NO BAD HAIR DAYS: I’ve returned to my roots, literally: I’ve just had my hair shaved off—gone, no más. As a result, I am happy, nappy and finally free from the drama that I’ve allowed to big-foot its way back into my life for the past several years. I’m back where I belong after trying it all, again.
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Greater Long Beach is inspired by the 10-years-and-counting legacy of LBReport.com, the city’s first legitimate news outlet on the World Wide Web, and informed by the ahead-of-its time hip and humor of the District Weekly. In fact, much of Greater Long Beach’s local news coverage is propelled by Bill Pearl’s nuts-and-bolts dispatches from LBReport.com. Greater Long Beach’s reach into investigations, entertainment, profiles and sports is generated by its publisher, Dave Wielenga, whose wide body of work at the Press-Telegram, OC Weekly and District Weekly has spanned all those categories.
INFORMATION ADVERTISING
Dave Wielenga Terry Jensen
(562) 879-5498 (562) 743- 1285
SUMMERTIME: IT’S ENOUGH TO MAKE SOME KIDS LOSE THEIR LUNCH
BY MELISSA BOTEACH & SOPHIE MILAM
COMPTON BULLETIN
Most children jump for joy when the final bell rings on the last day of school. For them, summer means freedom. It means camp, vacation and popsicles. But summer also means hunger and stagnation for too many American children. Schools begin letting out over the next week, and many children are facing a summer of skipping meals or consuming the cheap but empty calories that contribute to the nation’s child obesity epidemic.
More than 31 million children benefit from the national school lunch program, with 62 percent receiving free or reduced-price meals. But only one in six of these kids will receive a similarly subsidized summer meal during the summer months. READ MORE
DISAPPOINTED IN COLUMBIA SPACE CENTER, DOWNEY FIRES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
THE NEXT FRONTIER: Space Center's revelations include include how to take a dump in space
FROM ERIC PIERCE / DOWNEY PATRIOT
Eight months after presiding over its grand opening, Jon Betthauser has been fired as executive director of the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey, where city officials complained about poor fundraising and the fact that the center is not even fully operational yet.
“The bottom line is the center is currently average and it should be exceptional,” said Scott Pomrehn, a deputy city manager who has assumed Betthauser’s duties. “It really needs to be outstanding.” READ MORE
ON FATHER’S DAY, SHE FEELS MORE LUCKY THAN GOOD
DAD WITH ASSISTANT, c. 1950
BY LOUISE CUNNINGHAM
This is for everyone whose father wasn’t Robert Young—you know, the 1950s TV dad on “Father Knows Best,” the dad everyone wished they had. Instead, we got … well, I got an alcoholic mess of a smart, well-read, first-to-wear-Bermuda shorts (with black socks and shoes) in 1959 dad, who died young. I got lucky. He called me Lucky.
“Lucky, you’re doin’ good,” he’d say, and 36 years after his death at age 62, he still does—presumably while sitting on my right shoulder, up near my ear, which explains why I can hear him so clearly. He never explained why he called me Lucky. Nobody did. I never knew.
But it made me—the younger of his two girls—feel special. I loved my dad and hated him, as growing girls are wont to do. I know now that he was human, with way more frailties than most. He wasn’t like those men who went to work every day, maybe went to church every week, went to the school play, paid the bills and were there when the kids needed them. But it doesn’t mean that my father wasn’t worthy of a “Best Dad” trophy. And I miss him like crazy on Father’s Day. Read more…
COMMIE GIRL ON JURY DUTY: BENDING THE MORAL ARC OF JUSTICE ALL OVER YOUR ASS
FAIR IS FAIR, RIGHT?
BY REBECCA SCHOENKOPF / FOURSTORY.ORG
Remember last week when I said we would talk about parks today? Oh, I had so much opining to do, and you … you were going to listen!
But that was before I got jury duty, and you … you, but of course, got it with me. Now! Everyone knows I love jury duty—I do! Doing my civic duty gets me all tingly and happy, and if I could wear my “I Voted” sticker all year long without looking like a homeless who doesn’t change her clothes, I would. Voting and jury duty in the same week? The French have a name for that, and it is “hog heaven.”
And so we got a courtroom, and a voir dire, and an almost-unheard-of one-day trial, and it was the stupidest case you’ve ever seen in your long life of seeing stupid cases. There was our judge, welcoming us with Dr. King’s quote about the moral arc of the universe bending towards justice—lovely!—and in our case, “justice” was some simpering lunatic chick suing a perfectly wonderful young man who didn’t do a thing wrong. Young lady, we will bend the moral arc of justice all over your ass! READ MORE
RETURN WITH THE BLASTERS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE EARTH—RECORD STORE, THAT IS
BY PETER THOMPSON
Subject: “I don’t like music I haven’t heard before”
Yeah, someone really said that. We wish we had her name so we could attribute it. But instead, we held her up to ridicule by writing the quote on the infamous felt letterboard that greeted each soul who entered the hallowed grounds of Middle Earth Records in Downey.
These were the ’70s, the peak vinyl years, and Middle Earth was the place to go to feed your music addiction. Punk landed early here, finding fertile ground among the prog, rock and folk freaks who made up the staff. The Ramones made an in-store appearance here. Middle Earth was the home store of the Blasters, as well as Richard and Karen Carpenter, and bands passing through L.A. made a southeast detour to Downey just to search the imports. (And our parents thought Downey was a SAFE place to raise their kids!)
Today, 30+ years later, we’re searching out those who either drew a paycheck from Middle Earth or simply wasted away their youth and hard-earned cash on vinyl, magazines, and other “things” we sold back in the day. For more information, check out http://www.facebook.com/middleearthrecords
WHAT: A Tribute to Middle Earth Records featuring The Blasters
WHERE: The Echo, 1822 Sunset Blvd, LA 90026
WHEN: Saturday, June 19, 2010; doors open at 6:30
FOR MORE INFO: attheecho.com
ALL WRITEY!!! A SAMPLING OF YOUR COMMENTS / CRITICISMS / LOVE NOTES / WITTICISMS
JUNE 9, RACHEL POWERS’ “ELECTION DAY FOR PERENNIAL CANDIDATE PETER MATHEWS: MANY UNHAPPY RETURNS”
Probably time [for Mathews] to give it up; Richardson was eminently beatable. The “lost” campaign mailers story sounds a little fishy to these ears. / HOWARD X
Rachel, time to put your incredible talent to work on a fact-based novel about the Eternal Candidate. Or a film. Maybe you could get the Mathewsmobile to get in and promise its owner royalties to go toward the next campaign. Plenty of material. / KATE K.
I hope this means Mathews will stop parking that eyesore of a people mover—covered in half-assed “detailing” extolling his virtues—in the most inconvenient places in town. The worst was when he was parking it on Bellflower Blvd., right at where it bottlenecks near the YMCA. The second really bad spot creaed a major traffic hazard on 7th Street near Park. Good riddance! / LB CITY GIRL Read more…
IF YOU SEE ONLY ONE PLAY EVER AT THE INTERNATIONAL CITY THEATER, MAKE IT “A SHAYNA MAIDEL”
AT THE ICT THROUGH JULY 3
BY GREGGORY MOORE
I haven’t particularly enjoyed the plays put on by the International City Theatre (ICT). Some of this is simply script selection—whoever is doing the choosing has very different taste than I—and some of it is a sense of what makes for effective theatre that is different than mine.
But I’m happy to say that the ICT’s production of A Shayna Maidel is unlike any show I’ve seen there. Barbara Lebow’s script deftly displays both emotional depth and architectural tightness, while director Shashin Desai and cast rarely miss capitalizing on either. Read more…
‘RIDING BIKES WITH THE DUTCH’ TONIGHT AT THE ART THEATRE: IS IT BETTER THAN KOBE-HATING?
MICHAEL BAUCH & SON FILMING IN AMSTERDAM
BY DAVE WIELENGA
The timing of Michael Bauch’s documentary film, “Riding Bikes With The Dutch,” couldn’t have been better—unless you count the fact that tonight’s 7 o’clock encore screening at the Art Theatre coincides with Game 4 of NBA finals between the Lakers and Boston Celtics. I do.
But a promise is a promise, and I invited my parents to see the film—a surprisingly inspirational comparison between the cycle-centric culture of Amsterdam and the pedal-pushing movement in Long Beach—before I realized it would conflict with my Kobe-hating. Then again, they’re basketball fans, too, so maybe … naahhh—I’ve been wanting to see this flick since I missed the premiere in May. Read more…
COMPTON RESIDENTS CONSIDERING BOYCOTT, LAWSUIT TO STOP POLICE DEPT COMEBACK
BY ALLISON JEAN EATON / COMPTON BULLETIN
Aftershocks continue to ripple through Compton’s 10.5 square miles following the city council’s 3-2 vote last week to re-establish a local police department a plan that no longer has the backing of the consultant on whose study the plan is based.
A majority of the community appears staunchly opposed to reviving the department—shut down a decade ago because of rampant corruption—and several of the city’s most vociferous activists are currently rallying their fellow constituents to get active in a movement to stop the return of the Compton Police Department. They are calling for a boycott of the city’s Juneteenth celebration. There has even been mention of possibly filing an injunction preventing the city from moving forward with the plan. READ MORE
ELECTION DAY FOR PERENNIAL CANDIDATE PETER MATHEWS: MANY UNHAPPY RETURNS
PETER MATHEWS
BY RACHEL POWERS
It’s 8:07 p.m. on Election Day—that is, the polls have been closed for seven minutes—and I am drinking tea at Sipology, the downtown Long Beach coffeehouse & gallery that has served as sort of a headquarters throughout the latest Peter Mathews for Congress Campaign. Earlier in the day, Mathews invited me here for the victory party.
Three people are at the table next to me: a middle-aged woman who has decorated her laptop with cut-out pictures of kittens; a restless, clean-cut young man–I would put him at 19—who is obviously participating in his first campaign; and his mother, who has come along to provide moral support.
The woman with the kitties on her computer finds the LA County Registrar’s website, scrolls to the early returns for the 37th District race, and asks the others, “Who’s Laura Richardson?”
The mother blinks. “Well, that’s the person he’s running against.”
“Oh, man,” says the woman. “She’s got over 5,000 votes.”
Mother: “What does Mathews have?”
Woman: “Fifteen hundred.”
“What!?” the son interjects. Read more…
COMMIE GIRL IN THE VOTING BOOTH: ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
BY REBECCA SCHOENKOPF / FOURSTORY.ORG
I don’t like to brag—oh, who’m I kidding? I do like to brag! I like it a lot! And this morning, I will be bragging about the fact that I am what I like to call a “high-information voter.” I can name you seven Supreme Court justices off the top of my head, and all nine if you give me a pencil and a sheet of scratch paper. In fact, I know that there are nine Supreme Court justices, instead of the far more popular uneducated guess of 12! That is how high-information I am!
But, as that sexy old coot Donald Rumsfeld once haiku’d, “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don’t know.”
And that can extend—even for someone as brainy (and fetching) as I am—to the voting booth. READ MORE
ALL WRITEY!! A SAMPLING OF YOUR
The crooked Mayor (I’m just guessing but, it’s a safe bet) would like to have even more City workers to keep him and his accomplices, I mean, fellow City workers in power. / JOE MACK
JUNE 2, ERIC PIERCE’S “ELON MUSK IS … BROKE? COURT FILINGS SAY YES”
His troubles go deeper than that. Tesla’s main funding source is the Department of Energy but they’re not allowed to use that $456 million grant to produce cars, so they need independent fundraising for productions (without which they can’t generate revenue and pay back the government, or customers who have already placed cash deposits for a car that doesn’t yet exist). The government money isn’t even available until Tesla independently raises a certain amount of hard cash. Read more…
AGAINST OPINION OF VOTERS, DECLINING CRIME RATES AND EVEN ITS OWN CONSULTANT, COMPTON COUNCIL MOVES TO RE-ESTABLISH POLICE DEPARTMENT
FROM BETTY PLEASANT / WAVE NEWSPAPERS
Despite the Compton City Council’s 3-2 vote Tuesday re-establish its own police force—disbanded 10 years ago because of corruption—the city-hired consultant who’s supposed to shepherd the transition has serious misgivings about the mission.
So do the city’s voters, at least as measured in 2004, when 67.8 percent of them defeated Measure D, which would have revived the Compton Police Department.
And crime rates have tumbled in Compton since it contracted with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department—the city recorded 55 homicides in 1999 and 37 last year.
But some city residents, officials, and particularly Mayor Eric Perrodin, have been straining at the bit to dump the sheriff‘s deputies and return their own Compton cops to the streets.
ELON MUSK IS … BROKE? COURT FILINGS SAY YES
ELON MUSK: BUSTED! (Photo: Brian Solis, http://www.briansolis.com and bub.blicio.us.)
BY ERIC PIERCE / THE DOWNEY PATRIOT
Elon Musk is broke and has been living off personal loans since October 2009, this according to court filings reviewed by online magazine Venture Beat.
“About four months ago, I ran out of cash,” Musk wrote in a court filing dated Feb. 23 and reviewed by the website.
More from the story:
According to the filing — part of his pending divorce case from sci-fi novelist Justine Musk — Elon Musk has been living off personal loans from friends since October 2009 and spending $200,000 a month while making far less.
Tesla, likewise, is dealing with its cash flow problems by borrowing money from a friendly source — the United States government, which has eagerly backed cleantech startups through a Department of Energy loan program. READ MORE
AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND LATINO WORSHIPPERS FIND NEW LIFE TOGETHER IN A CHANGING NEIGHBHORHOOD
BY RAQUEL MARIA DILLON / COMPTON BULLETIN
The Black choir clapped and swayed, propelled by the organ’s groove and drums’ beat, as gospel music filled the tiny New Life in Christ Church on Compton Avenue. The rhythm came naturally, but when it was time to sing, the choir had to turn to sheet music to keep from stumbling over the Spanish lyrics.
Two years after this African-American Pentecostal congregation of about 100 people welcomed their Latino neighbors, the two groups are still trying to stay in tune in a part of the city that has not always lived in harmony.
ALL WRITEY!!! A SAMPLING OF YOUR COMMENTS / CRITICISMS / LOVE NOTES / WITTICISMS
Well written; you manage to tell the story with HER words, putting shape to someone who is, to say the least, multifaceted. I admire Tonia’s candor and chutzpah; sadly this kind of elected official is the exception and not the rule. I think she will win because she shows up and does her job. / CHRIS FUENTES
Tonia is a strong legislator who makes good decisions for all of Long Beach and is very loyal to the residents of her district. Four more years of her service is a true benefit to all of Long Beach. She is her own decision maker; no puppet person here, folks! / JUDY CRUMPTON Read more…
PANTS ON FIRE! ERIC PIERCE’S POST-MORTEM ON TESLA MOTORS’ PHONY FLIRTATIONS
PINOCCHIO'D!
COMMENTARY BY ERIC PIERCE / DOWNEY PATRIOT
And just like that, Tesla Motors is gone. Downey fell for Tesla’s phony, flirtatious come-ons like a pudgy teenager speaking to the pretty cheerleader who needs homework help. We fell in love with the ambitious promises, the lofty technology and the national media attention. We fell for it all, hook, line and sinker.
But don’t blame Downey.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s founder and chief executive officer, lied. Tesla lied when they told city officials and state lawmakers that they were not considering any other location besides Downey. You can’t blame Tesla for accepting Toyota’s offer: after all, business is business and $50 million is an impossible amount of money to turn down, especially when you’re a start-up company. But Tesla didn’t have to lie about their negotiations with Toyota. They didn’t have to string Downey along like a puppet, to the point where city administrators were flying to Sacramento, testifying before lawmakers. READ MORE
TONIA REYES URANGA’S ‘ONCE-IN-A-CHANCE LIFETIME’ AND THE BALANCE OF POWER IN LONG BEACH
TONIA REYES URANGA
BY DAVE WIELENGA
These are the waning days of Tonia Reyes Uranga’s run for her political life—and perhaps the darkness before the dawn of a new balance of power in Long Beach. Too heavy? Maybe not. Defeat in Reyes Uranga’s June 8 showdown with well-connected newcomer James Johnson for the 7th district seat on the Long Beach City Council would return her to private citizenry for the first time since 2002. Victory could mean the end of the so-called Mayoral Majority that’s been steered for the past four years by just-re-elected Bob Foster. What would you call that?
“This is a once-in-a-chance lifetime,” is the way Reyes Uranga put it near the end of another day at her Atlantic Blvd. campaign headquarters—although that’s not exactly the way she meant to put it. She heard herself mix up the words, but when she tried again, they out the same tangled way: “This is a once-in-a-chance lifetime.”
You get the point—it’s been a wearyingly long and complicated campaign for one of Long Beach’s most-fierce political warriors. Read more…
Pixel Dust
"TO BEACH HIS OWN" (Photo: Jeanine Birong)
Dave Wielenga: REDISTRICTED! 
ONE WOMAN’S RESPONSE TO THE SECOND+PCH ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT—COMMENTS DUE MONDAY
ARTIST'S RENDITION: SECOND + PCH
EDITOR’S NOTE: The period for public comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the proposed multi-use (residential, retail, hotel) Second+PCH project closes today. Longtime resident and environmental activist Lisa Rinaldi has already submitted her comment, and has offered a copy to Redistricted! The DEIR can be read here and comments e-mailed to Long Beach Department of Development Services Senior Planner Jeff Winklepleck at jeffrey.winklepleck@longbeach.gov. Here’s what Rinaldi wrote:
Dear Mr. Winklepleck:
My comments on the DEIR for the Second+PCH project are set forth below.
(1) The proposed project violates existing SEADIP height limitations.
(2) The DEIR erroneously includes sidewalks, parking lots, building footprints and balconies among its open space measurements to calculate the 30% open space required by SEADIP. These are not “on-the-ground” areas for the purpose of calculating usable open space in accordance with SEADIP.
(3) (a) As stated in the DEIR, increased traffic cannot be mitigated. Read more…