Clean Up: This Saturday Walnut and Anaheim: Headed North to PCH 10am

Clean Up This Saturday 12/12/2015: 8am. 1744 Gaviota

There will be a clean up this Saturday at 1744 Gaviota. A LARGE DUMPSTER will be available, so you can get rid of items too large for regular pick up. The street tackled will be Gaviota from PCH to 15th. Clean up starts at 8am. Food and water will be provided.

Gardenia Street Is Clean from PCH to 14th Street

There was an announced cleaning of Gardenia Street starting at 1611 Gardenia. The clean up headed north and south down Gardnia. All dumped items, with the exception electronic devices such as TVs and an water heaters, were removed. In the end, the dumpster was filled in about one hour.

I have personally signed up for a large clean up on the 12th of December 2015. This will be a joint clean up with friends from the Wrigley Neighborhood. I intend to make this a slightly bigger clean up than we've don in the past. There will likely be food, prizes and other reasons for our neighbors to get involved. Stay tuned for details. #SupportJosephine

MacArthur Park Neighborhood Clean Up: 11/14/2015: 8:00am - Noon.

There will me a MacArthur Park Neighborhood clean up this Saturday 11/14/2015, 1611 Gardenia. From 8:00 - noon. A large dumpster will be provided for anything too big for regular pick ups.

There Was AOC7 Clean Up This Weekend on 11th Street

This Saturday we didn't clean up MacArthur Park so we could help the AOC7 in their monthly neighborhood clean up. That clean up got 11th, Cerritos, Licoln Elementary, Norman Court and probably two additional tons of trash. Thanks to the AOC7 and all the neighbors who came out to support the clean up. It was a great event that probably took at least three dumpsters worth of trash off the street. 

I still intend to get Ester, Werner and the remainder of Orange this week. Next Saturday, there will also be a clean up on Sherman and 16th street at 8am..

Junipero Clean Up: Anaheim to 14th Street

There was a small announced clean up of Junipero from Anaheim to 14th Street. The picture to the side shows what was removed, and a few businesses we helped tidy up for. 

I might get the rest of Junipero this week, but I am not promising. Overall, Junipero south of 14th was already pretty clean, except for an abandoned business just north of an alleyway that has become overrun with old leaves. 

Normally, clean ups take place on Saturday at 10am. This one was Sunday at 8am to allow me to volunteer at CERT's Ready Long Beach in Heartwell Park. Next week we will be getting 17th street, and possibly we will be getting it all the way into the Poly District on the other side of Alamitos as a preemptive Neighborhood Expansion before the crime that appears to be clustering there gets out of hand.

Volunteers for clean ups are always welcome. The clean up schedule is here.

Walnut Street Cleam Up: Recap

Sorry, no there are pictures this time. So north of 15th Street, I was able to clean Walnut with room to spare. I actually filled 75% of the bag with trash from the alley behind the U-Haul Station. Had I had a little room left over, I would have done an unscheduled clean up on the north side of Gaviota today. Unfortunately, south of 15th Walnut is pretty bad. South of 14th, next to the three large apartment complexes bordering the industrial businesses on Anaheim, on the east end of the street, I was able to fill a bag. Usually one bag can do half a street. One bag should have handled all of Walnut from 15th to Anaheim; it handled half of that. 

In other words, Walnut took four bags, and I still haven't finished the east end of 15th to 14th Street; I may finish that later in the week, but no promises. I did meet some neighbors who said they would like to be involved in future clean ups. Hopefully, they will follow through and we soon meet a lot more. Also, don't forget to take the pledge to keep your part of the MacArthur Park Neighborhood clean. It is your neighborhood after all. Next week, I have a clean up on Junipero scheduled. It may get rescheduled due to the Ready Long Beach Event, planned by CERT as I am on a list of potential volunteers.

Walnut Street Clean Up: 09/12/2015 10am

This cleanup will be starting from the south side of the intersection, moving south towards Anaheim this time. Volunteers are always welcome. All clean up materials will be provided. The clean up schedule is here: 

http://macarthurparklbc.blogspot.com/p/events.html

16th Street Clean: Gaviota to Orange

There was an announced cleaning of 16th Street today from Gaviota to Orange Street. Because 16th is actually one of the cleanest streets in the neighborhood. there are no before and after pictures this time. I am including a picture of the 64 gallons of trash, that was removed from the street. Whenever a street is that clean, it gives me a chance to get things I normally miss like fallen leaves.

I'd also like to take the time to thank the neighbors I met along 16th street like Teodoro. Every time I have seen him, he has been helping keep the neighborhood clean. Additionally, there is some very beautiful architecture along 16th Street. Hopefully soon, the rest of the neighborhood follows suit. 

Sunday cleanings are not normally announced, but tomorrow we'll be cleaning Rosa Park's Park at 8am. This is mostly because there have been no clean ups over the last two weeks and we're making up for lost time.

Update: 08/23/2015: Rosa Park's Park has been cleaned as well. Orange was cleaned this morning up to 17th Street, actually a little past it. Barcelona was cleaned as well.

Break Down Of Tonight's Community Meeting On Starting Neighborhood Watches

There was an hour and a half meeting today at the Mark Twain Library centered on starting a neighborhood watch. Community watches are started when a small group of neighbors get together. One of those members attends there Division Leadership Forums, which take place bimonthly, and passes on what they learn to other community members within their watch. The next Leadership Forum is Wednesday 08/26/2015 and the topic will be gangs.

The questions at the meeting about starting meetings centered around what to do when neighbors do not get along and how to handle communication difficulties when neighbors speak different languages. First remember sometimes reaching out to your neighbors is how these issues are best dealt with. And if your common ground includes a safer neighborhood, there's a good chance that some of those differences will seem less important in the long run. When trying to meet your neighbors for the first time, it's recommended to start small like reaching out to your own apartment complex first, before reaching out to a greater network of neighbors. 

Neighborhoods can use events like National Night Out as an opportunity to meet more neighbors. National Night Out is a community-police awareness-raising event in the United States, held the first Tuesday of August. Texas and Florida have the option to use the alternate date of the first Tuesday in October to avoid hot weather While National Night Out has passed this year, those speaking at the meeting remind us it's really easy to hold a free event, like the potlucks that often take place in Wrigley, and use that as an opportunity to say hello to the people living next door.

What do you do if you and your neighbors don't speak the same language?

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ឧទ្យាន បិទ នៅពេលព្រលប

Do you know what this says? If Google Translator is correct, it's "The park closes at dusk," in Khmer. It was correctly pointed out at the meeting because all the signs in MacArthur Park are exclusively in English a good portion of MacArthur Park/ Whittier residents would not know the park's closing time. In other words, be sensitive to the fact that language barriers may prevent others from having the same information you do, especially when reaching out to your neighbors.

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On a more general level, the attending police did remind everyone that the West Division is the largest division in Long Beach with 225 officers assigned to the area. There are four resource officers that can handle more long term problems such as nuisance buildings. Additionally, there are two Quality of Life officers who spend a great deal of time helping the neighborhood homeless residents to get back on their feet. For anyone west of Cherry and South of the 405 you would get a hold of one of those resource officers by emailing LBPBWest@LongBeach.Gov. Since part of this neighborhood, as defined by NextDoor is east of Cherry, you would simply change the word "West" in that email address to east and then send the same mail.

This Makes Six Months of Cleaning up MacArthur Park

Today makes six months that we have been working to make the MacArthur Park Neighborhood a better place; the very first clean up was six months ago from this Saturday om 15th Street. We intend to spend it where this began, helping our neighbors in the AOC7.

14th Street Clean Up: Orange to Cherry Done

About 96 Gallons of trash was removed from 14th Street this morning

About 96 gallons of trash was removed from 14th Street in preparation for our joint clean up around MacArthur Park this Saturday. We're getting the smaller things around the park as much as possible before Saturday, so there will be more room for the big ticket items like mattresses and furniture in the dumpster. Again, we will have a dumpster in case any MacArthur Park needs to get rid of larger furniture too large for the average trash can. See the flyer below for details. 

By the way, so far the follow streets have been cleared of litter at least once: Peterson, Gundry, 14th, 17th, Sherman and Stanton. Volunteers are welcome and would be greatly appreciated for the joint clean up this Saturday.

Joint AOC7/ MacArthur Park Clean Up This Sat. 07/18/2015: 8:30am

Unannounced Clean Up: the Rest of 14th; 17th Sherman to Cherry

There was an unannounced clean up to finish off 14th Street. I will give residents some credit, a lot more have clean up the intense amount of fireworks than have done so in the past. We will be back to finish 17th Street very soon. Remember there is an announced cleaning of Grundy this coming Saturday in preparation for the Joint AOC7/ MacArthur Park Clean Up the following week. Additionally, the first neighborhood that asks MacArthur Park to bring their cleaning supplies to this Thursday, can have a street cleaned on us.

UPDATE 07/07/15: There was an unannounced clean up of Peterson from 15th Street to Anaheim this morning on 07/07/2015. Also if anyone is missing a child-sized clown suit, one was found at the intersection of 14th and Peterson. Also if anyone is missing a child-sized clown suit, one was found at the intersection of 14th and Peterson

UPDATE 07/09/15: There was an unannounced clean up of 17th Street from Sherman to Junipero. Additionally, the first neighborhood that asks MacArthur Park to bring their cleaning supplies to this Thursday, can have a street cleaned on us. If nobody asks, we'll be tackling Warren Street that Thursday.

14th Street Clean Up Done: Junipero to St. Louis

There was an announced cleaning of 14th street from Junipero the St. Louis. It was originally intended to run all the way to Cherry, but we ran a little short on time. In general, 14th Street was pretty clean except when it nears a few large apartment complexes. I will get the last little pice before Cherry tomorrow morning. You can see below some before and after pictures. You can also see how many fireworks were set off last night on a single street and I threw in one creative use of drought resistant landscaping.

I'm about to appear on Blog Talk Radio with Niama Williams, so I'll let the pictures I took tell the story today.

Unannounced Clean Up Gardenia PCH to Anahiem

There was an unannounced clean up of Gardenia from PCH to 14th street. Gardenia is never that bad. At least one young kid asked me on the clean up, "Why do you have to do this?" I answered, "I don't have to; I chose to."

The second picture is of one of two damaged storm drains at PCH and Anaheim. I wonder if I took an inventory of all the damaged storm drains in our neighborhood, how many I would find that need to be fixed, especially by major intersections like PCH or Anaheim.

Sherman Clean Up 15th to PCH Finished

There was an announced clean up of 15th street today. And there were some volunteers, so things went a little faster. We'd like to express our appreciation to Frank, a resident since February who helped for almost an hour and a half with the worst side of Sherman Street. For those who are not familiar with the layout of Sherman, one side is very wide with diagonal parking spaces so the help was very much appreciated.

With some help, sherman was clean in just under 3 hours.

In all about 96 gallons of trash was removed. Next week, at 10am on Saturday, we will round out our three week focus on the east end of the MacArthur Park Neighborhood when we tackle cleaning Stanton Street from 15th all the way to PCH. Actually, Stanton doesn't go all the way to PCH, so we will be tackling Stanton from 15th, just shy of PCH. Everyone in the neighborhood is welcome to join in. Everything you need to participate will be provided.

This is the beginning of Sherman Street at 15th

Remember you can visit the page where we list clean ups to see where we will be each week and join in. Most clean ups will begin at 10am.

LBUSD: Free Meals for Children When School Is Out

Long Beach Unified School District is sponsoring the Summer Food Service Program to help feed children during the summer months. Free and wholesome lunches are available to children, ages one to 18 years old, at locations listed below: 

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ONLINE MAP OF THESE SITES

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El Distrito Escolar Unificado de Long Beach patrocinará el Programa de Servicios Alimenticios de Verano para ayudar a alimentar a los niños durante los meses de verano. Hay alimentos gratuitos y saludables disponibles para los niños y jóvenes de un año a 18 años de edad en las ubicaciones a continuación:

School/Escuela	Address/Domicilio	Dates/Fecha	Meal Time/Horario
Buffum	2350 Ximeno, Long Beach	7/6 to 7/31/15	11:10 to 11:40 a.m.
Cabrillo	2001 Santa Fe, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/31/15	10:25 to 10:55 a.m.
Franklin*	540 Cerritos, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/23/15	12 to 12:30 p.m.
Hamilton*	1060 E. 70th Street, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/23/15	12 to 12:30 p.m.
Holmes	5020 Barlin, Lakewood	6/22 to 7/2/15	10:45 to 11:15 a.m.
Jefferson*	750 Euclid, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/23/15	12 to 12:30 p.m.
Jordan∞	6500 Atlantic, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/31/15	10:25 to 10:55 a.m.
Jordan Plus	171 W. Bort, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/31/15	10:25 to 10:55 a.m.
Lindbergh*	1022 E. Market, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/16/15	12 to 12:30 p.m.
Lindsey*	5075 Daisy, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/16/15	12 to 12:30 p.m.
Madison	2801 Bomberry, Lakewood	7/6 to 7/31/15	11:35 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.
Poly	1600 Atlantic, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/31/15	10:25 to 10:55 a.m.
Stephens*	1830 W. Columbia, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/23/15	12 to 12:30 p.m.
Washington*	1450 Cedar, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/23/15	12 to 12:30 p.m.
Wilson	4400 E. 10th Street, Long Beach	6/29 to 7/31/15	10:25 to 10:55 a.m.

 

∞The entrance for Jordan will be on Myrtle Avenue. 
* La entrada para la Escuela Jordan estará por la avenida Myrtle.

There will be no service on Friday for sites with an asterisk (*). 

For additional information or summer meals sites that are sponsored by Long Beach City Parks, please call 562-427-7923 or visit the Nutrition Services  

No habrá servicios de alimentos los viernes en las escuelas marcadas con un asterisco (*). 

Para mayor información o lugares donde se servirán los almuerzos patrocinados por el Departamento de Parques y Recreación, por favor llame al 562-427-7923 

UPDATE: 06/23/15: Free lunches are again being served to anyone under 18 at MacArthur Park. Lunch is served from 11:30 to 12:30 every day Monday through Friday, with the exception of July 3 when the park is closed. Aside from the age limit there are no restrictions, and service is first come first served. The free lunch program continues through August 21. 

Second 15th Street Clean Up

15th street was again cleaned from Cherry to Orange. This time trash was picked up/ weeding and leaves were only picked up in the alley way closest to the Carneceria at 1732 15th Street. 

This is the second time we have cleaned 15th. The first was on 03/14/2015, about a month and a half ago. Since that time, every street in the neighborhood has been cleared of litter at least once.

Below is an indication of what the alley will look like in the coming days. The alley was weeded and cleared of trash up until the end of the blue market. Getting any more than that will require some additional space in my trash cans.

It was nice to meet new neighbors along 15th street as well as reconnect with those that I met the very first time there was a neighborhood clean up. I will say that the street was significantly cleaner than the first time I picked up trash along it. It still took longer than I wanted it to, however, I was out of practice.

Next week, there will be a clean up on Walnut from PCH to Anaheim. However, it will take place on Sunday so I can help the AOC7 with the literacy fair taking place at MacAthur Park.