Recap: The MacArthur Park Neighborhood Meeting

Tonight the MacArthur Park Neighborhood hosted its monthly meeting at the Mark Twain Library. The speakers included our neighborhood resource officer, Officer Gabriel Bentanzos and Jason Gallup from Sustainable Long Beach.

A Sustainable Long Beach

The second part of the meeting was a presentation by Sustainable Long Beach. The City of Long Beach Office of Sustainability was created to model leadership and supports practical solutions to improve the environment. Sustainable Long Beach began in 2008 when the City Council decided to go green and in doing so was tasked with developing a Sustainable City Action Plan. In a nutshell, these are attempts to more effectively cut down on waste by more efficiently using city resources. The program offers seven major services, this meeting focused on three of the seven.

Some of programs offered by Sustainable Long Beach include:

1. Free Mulch: As the city  moves away from grass longs to drought tolerant plants, the city has developed a program that delivers free mulch to residents. The mulch comes from city tree trimmings, that were once simply tossed in local landfills. Now instead of throwing the trimmings away, they are shaved down and turned into mulch, which when added to lawns, reduces weeds, adds nutrients to soil, regulates soil temperature and helps retain water.  To be eligible to receive you must be a Long Beach resident and a homeowner.
2. The Civic Garden: This was created to demonstrate how to get the most out of a small growing space. Located at 333 W. Ocean Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90802. The garden is a great place to learn how to grow your own food in garden containers you create. Urban gardening itself is the idea that citizens can grow food no matter where they live, whether it's a high rise apartment, a tiny condo, or a house with no backyard. In addition to monthly classes in urban garden, you can also learn how to make your own containers to save space, like Earth boxes and vertical planters. 
3. The Rain Barrel Rebate Program: Long Beach Residents are currently eligible to receive rebates of up to $75 per barrel with a maximum of four rain barrels per home. These barrels collect rain for lawn irrigation without relying on the city's water supply. This program is not free, but the rain barrels you  purchase will run about $85 before the rebate. After getting $75 back, you are looking at a 55 gallon rain barrel for about $10. Additionally, the company that handles the rebates is also offering rebates on high efficiency toilets, sprinkler heads and clothes washers. 
   

Finally, Sustainable Long Beach is aggressively plugging the Cool California Challenge. This is basically a competition between twenty-two cities in California trying to outdo each other in saving on their water and energy bills.  Basically, you create an account and begin monitoring your energy and water bills. As the program gives you tips on how to bring those bills down, you earn points by using less energy and spending less money. If you are successful, your energy bills come down. And as you saves money, the city of Long Beach stands to win money which can be used to bring more energy saving programs back here.

A Brief Safety Update: The Shooting

Most of the safety update centered on holiday safety and some updated information on the fatal shooting at 14th and Gundry last week. For those unfamiliar with the shooting,  read the previous safety update. Here are additional details from tonight's meeting. The suspect is a 17-year-old juvenile. Because of this, despite being involved in this murder, he may be out by age 24. Also the suspect may be connected to other shootings in the area. During the shooting, the suspect was originally spotted on Gundry and fled south to 1136 Hoffman. Police are working with property owners to evict any gang members that may be causing long term problems for the neighborhood. 

A lot of the holiday safety information was common sense and has been covered in previous posts. Here's a brief recap. 

As we approach the holiday season, here are some safety tips.

1.  Ship items to a location where they will be personally received, and/or ask a trusted neighbor to collect and hold the item rather than leaving it in a common area.
2.  Request carriers to ship items to their local store or distribution center to be held for pick up.
3. Advise your local post office when you will be out of town so they can hold your deliveries until your return.
4. Track the progress of your anticipated delivery and if you don’t receive it as expected, contact the issuing company, and when possible request proof of delivery.
5. Remove valuables and holiday packages from your vehicle, and don’t use it as a storage area - More tips from the LAPD

MacArthur Park Neighborhood meetings for the MacArthur Park Neighborhood  are every third Tuesday and hosted through the Neighborhood Resource Center. The next meeting, unless the holidays interfere, should be on 12/15/2015 at 5:00pm.