Wednesday Safety Watch: Early Trends/ Downtown Trends

This map matches what I saw on Tuesday. Downtown is where things are most concentrated right now and most of the activity there appears to be trending East. There was a community walk. patrol tonight. Here's the path we took and what we noticed.

 

MacArthur Park Neighborhood Clean Up 11/21/2015: 10am

MacArthur Park Neighborhood clean up this Saturday 10am: Starting at 14th & Cherry heading down 14th towards Orange.

There Will Likely Be Four Candidates Running For 6th District

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?

---

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.

---

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.

Announced Clean Up Orange Anaheim to 15th Finished

There was an announced clean up of Orange Street from Anaheim to 15th. just shy of Rosa Park's Park yesterday. The street was significantly cleaner than the first time it was hit, especially around the vacant lot at Werner and Orange. The one place that is still in need of some TLC, is next to the Dollar Tree at 15th Street.

It was good to meet four neighbors on Orange, all of whom expressed an interest in helping build a nicer community. Though to be fair, one resident called that Saturday a little hot and humid to be picking up trash. Our next clean up will be on Saturday August 1st. This is a special clean up in that it will be focused on MacArthur Park to prepare it for the Night Market the next day.

Wednesday Mid-Week Safety Watch

The clearest patten was that everything happened on Monday. Even the things you do not see off the map, happened on Monday. This pattern would even continue if this map were extended east and west.  Remember property crime is a good indication of where future incidents will occur. Also that line in the middle of the map has now repeated for the fifth time. In other words, keep an eye on Walnut and stay safe any time you traverse 14th from Grundy to Rose.

Sunday Safety Update 06/01/2015 to 06/14/2015

So, we start with the bad news. There was a homicide at 17th and Altimos on 06/05/2015. It took place around 10pm.

Police responded to two similar calls Friday, both for young men shot in the upper chest, both ending in death

The calls came within two hours of each other, according to Long Beach Police Department press statements.

In the first incident, police were called about 10 p.m. to the 1200 block of E. 17th Street. Anthony Holston of Long Beach had been struck in the upper body by gunfire, police said. He was transported to a local hospital, where was pronounced dead.

Police believe Holston had become involved in a dispute with other men, though they don’t know how many, according to Long Beach police.

The dispute escalated and there was an exchange of gunfire, officials said. The suspect or suspects remain outstanding.

The incident is being investigated as possibly gang-related, police said.

Anyone with information regarding the first incident on 17th Street is asked to contact Long Beach Police Homicide Detectives Hugo Cortes and Oscar Valenzuela at (562) 570-7244.

Anonymous tips for both crimes may be submitted by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), texting TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or visiting lacrimestoppers.org.

I have looked for suspect pictures or more information on the story and have, so far, not been able to find any. This was the second homicide in Long Beach that night, the other one being in North Long Beach.

Now notice what the map above shows, the loitering and tagging are all trending north east. They either begin at Altimos and 17th or Walnut and 14th street. The pattern is very obvious. The loitering and the tagging and the fireworks all tends to begin around 9pm. 

The loitering at 17th and Altimos, at times exceeds twenty people. While law enforcement has cracked down, it hasn't stopped and many of the loitering parties are drinking hard liquor from Ritchie's Liquor Market, at the corner of the intersection or hanging out in front of the laundry mat south of it, after it's closed. This liquor store, called an Alcoholic's Disney World in one Yelp review, is the starting point for most all of 17th street's problems, which tend to often follow it all the way to Gardenia.

Do you notice the exact same pattern here? All activity trends north east. It usually begins about 9:00pm. The loitering around 14th and Walnut is upwards of twenty people, and the tagging follows Walnut right now to Anaheim street and across 14th, where earlier tagging has been crossed out and written over. You will also notice a pattern of incidents on Anaheim leading into the vehicle recoveries on the east end of the MacArthur Park neighborhood.

---

All activity in both maps trends north east and centers at 14th and Walnut.

---

If you look at the two maps side by side, you can see a pretty clear central starting point on both weeks just south of Walnut and 14th.  

In response to increased crime, there will be an additional safety report on Wednesday of this week. Also, the MacArthur Park Neighborhood Association and the resource center will continue working even harder to keep all neighborhood resident's safe. We will also be creating a safety tool kit for this website. This will be followed by tool kits to increase resident's access to educational resources and after school and summer programs for kids.

Making A Better Neighborhhood Starts Here

Alleyway Beautification: Phase One

Sundays will begin the Alleyway Beautification Project. Today, we removed a lot of weeds from this alley nearest the carnceria on 1732 15th street. Each Sunday we will remove a little more. After that, we'll do something really impressive.

Peterson Cleanup Finished: 15th to Anaheim

Creative Landscapes

Today Peterson Street was cleaned up from 15th to Anaheim. There will be an unannounced cleaning of Warren Street tomorrow, mostly because I intended to get Warren today but just did not have the time to clean up that much trash and attend the second meeting of the Anaheim Re visioning Project.

Thank you to all the neighbors along Peterson, 14th and 15th street that simply took the time to say thank you for the gesture. Below you can see a before and after picture of Peterson where it approaches Anaheim Street.

There could also be a little more attention to the walkway around Mark Twain Library where Peterson approaches Anaheim. You can see the side by side of the library's before and after picture on the Next Door posting.

Before and After

Next week, on Saturday 04/25/2015 at 10am, there will be an announced cleaning of Gardenia from PCH to Anaheim. The meeting place will be at PCH and Anaheim. Volunteers are welcome. Provided will be four rolling garbage cans, iron claws, gloves, brooms and bottled water. See the clean up schedule on the neighborhood cleanup page.

Trash removed from Peterson Street Today