District Six Primary: Josephine Villasenor: 04/12/2016

Business Review: Lily Kim Bakery

While the outside declares this a French Bakery, and there are a lot of breads, the main attraction is clearly the premade meals. Most of those meals, while not necessarily Cambodian, are of an Asian flavor. Know in advance the Lily Kim Bakery does not accept credit cards, so you will have to bring cash. $10 is more than enough for a decent meal here.

Generally speaking within the Aspara Plaza on Alamitos and Anahiem, the Lily Kim Bakery is probably the most popular attraction. The family owned store features a counter of plates of pre-made meals to go, neatly wrapped in saran wrap. The prices of the food range from $2.50 to a high of about $6.50, and $6.50 gets you a lot of food. They also have all the usual drinks you would find at a 7-11, an equally expansive rack of chips and an impressive smoothie menu that will run you about $2.50.

The food, is good, I wouldn't rate it as exceptional. Here's the main reason: everything is served cold. That means, the Lily Kim Restaurant is probably better suited as a take out store, than it suits dining in. .That is reinforced by the fact there are only two tables and no outside seating. I was there at a time that wasn't busy and you had to join an occupied table to sit down.

The restaurant itself is usually pretty packed around breakfast and lunch time, but since most everything is made in advance service is still very quick. And the person behind the counter was very friendly and helpful when I asked about different dishes. Cleanliness could have used a little work, but I think that was partly because I showed up later in the day. The venue could add a star just by giving customers access to a microwave to heat the food up when you're eating in. 

 In terms of overall expectations, quality may not be up to par, but it's about the best you will get in the area at that price. I haven't seen an entire meal for $2.50 in years. Three stars seems unfair, since they clearly are trying to make the best impression on their customers; and four is too generous because there are some very simple issues, that could very easily be cleaned up.

The Lily Kim Bakery
1171 E Anaheim St
(562) 218-7818 

People's State of the Long Beach City 2014

The People's State of the City was held tonight at Stephens Middle School Auditorium. In all, about 500 people attended. The forum was created by about fifteen community organizations that united four years ago under the banner Long Beach Rising. The forum itself was created to give the people of Long Beach an opportunity to respond to the Mayor's State of the City address which occurred earlier in January.

The theme of the night was "Halfway there and a long way to go." Much of the focus of the meeting was income inequality and how it tends to center itself in certain City Council districts over others. While the seven official topics of the night were: jobs, housing, poverty, immigration, education, the environment and community safety most of the meeting focused on poverty, jobs and housing disparities. Much of that disparity was shown through statistical maps to fall disproportionately on the west side of Cherry Avenue.

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Long Beach is a tale of two cities: One east of Cherry; one to the west.

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According to the slides presented about 130,000 Long Beach residents cannot afford their rent. About 20,000 Long Beach residents live in overcrowded homes. And of 63% of renters who reported issues to housing authorities, less than one third saw any corrective action. The grass roots organization that created Long Beach Rising is fighting to end some of the disparities by working to create an escrow account that will be enacted when disagreements between renters and property owners occur. In addition to that, they are fighting for a higher minimum wage, against the widening of the 710 and to protect the rights of women working in the hospitality industry.

Also highlighted was the concept of wage theft. In one example a Port Trucker who earned $975 in salary was showing also receiving $962 in deductions. The result was $12 in take home pay, which is clearly not enough to live off. However, to be absolutely fair, it would have been more helpful if the slide clearly showed what all the deductions were. Another practice they highlighted in the hospitality industry was making workers often work 14 hour days and clock in more than an hour after arriving at work.

The personal sense from the event was it was mixed. It clearly had the participation of the Long Beach residents. But virtually nobody who was being criticized, except for LBUSD, was in attendance. This means, everyone who was being characterized as the biggest issue including the hospitality industry, property owners or the low paying businesses were not there to answer, listen to the concerns or offer solutions. 

And I think in the end, if we want a better community we will have to bring everyone in that community to the table to talk.

Business Review: Pinches Pizza

Pinches Pizza is located on 1711 E Anaheim St, Long Beach, CA 90813. That is next to the La Gaviota Market just east of Gaviota and Anaheim. The venue can boast very good pizza and clean, comfortable dining area. It has about five tables, two video games and a very simple and classic New York style decor. 

It also had friendly and fast service. The pizza itself was very good for the price. The place also delivers and has daily specials.

Those specials ranged from 50 cent wings to 99 cent garlic bread to a sandwich and sub for $3.99. The bottom line, you will get your money's worth here. If you are getting a special deal, you may well get more than your money's worth.

To be fair, Pinches Pizza isn't much different than a small mom and pop Pizza Hut. But the pizza is well made, served quickly and the toppings are generous for the price. I ordered the vegetarian and there were enough vegetables on it that I lost count. The venue is about twenty by forty feet in size. 

There is a single TV.  When I was there they were playing the Spanish Version of Die Hard. But then again, "Yippie Ki Yeah," is the same in any language so I could easily follow along. 

Where Pinches Pizza could improve was the venue is a little dark inside. It's painted a dark red, so without a light on, the place is a little dim. Also, they do not have any wifi connection. Where they shine was the food itself and the fact that they were encouraging their customers to review them on Yelp.

Overall, their reviews on both Yelp and Google+ are impressive.