Cambodia Town Revisioning: Kick Off Meeting

From Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia via Facebook:  One of my commitments during my campaign for Mayor was that the city would invest to make Cambodia Town on Anaheim more walkable and livable. Today we kicked off the first community visioning meeting to talk landscaping, sidewalks, and lighting. Join us at the next meeting on Saturday April 18 at 2:30 at the Mark Twain Library.

Since I moved here in 2004, I have rarely frequented this area of my community. The idea is to turn Anaheim into more of a destination than a way of getting somewhere else. In other neighborhoods this has been accomplished by adding seating, widening sidewalks and adding awnings for shade. There would also be a focus on better lighting and the kind of overall design that would make Cambodia Town function more as a collective place to pass your time rather than a collection of individual shops.

I would also personally recommend the city incorporate as many suggestions as possible from it's own assessment of MacArthur Park. This would include better bike paths, repaired sidewalks, a renewed attention to neighborhood parks as well as giving local residents a better selection of healthy good often not found in poorer neighborhoods.

Suggestions on the Mayor's post honoring the campaign pledge to make Cambodia Town more walkable and livable included: waterwise landscaping, bus shelters and less ridged architecture such as rounded edges and tiered domes.

I personally would like to see all businesses in on Anaheim, Orange and Cherry take the city's pledge to keep the city clean.  I also think it would be nice to have the kind of medians that you find in Wrigley and Bluff Heights which welcome you to the neighborhood while also slowing down the car. The next meeting for this project will take place on Saturday April 18 at 12:00 noon - 2:30pm at the Mark Twain Library.