There Was An Announced Clean Up: Walnut Anaheim to 15th Street

There was an announced clean up in the MacArthur Park Neighborhood of Walnut from Anaheim to 15th Street. South of 15th, Walnut is usually very bad, especially by the apartments south of 14th Street. It took two days. But here are some before and after pictures. Next week we'll be getting 15th Street starting at Orange and get as close to Junipero as time will allow.

We also helped support the AOC7 clean up on Saturday. It was impressive, because earlier, Mary said she was worried that everybody else seemed to have something to do that day. Despite that, look at the turn out below. Am incredible turn out left places that we intended to clean the next day so immaculate, we had to go somewhere else and clean our own neighborhood instead.

The Incredible Turn out for the Neighborhood Clean Up This Weekend

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

Clean Up: 1501 Gaviota: 01/30/2016 8am

There is a clean up this Saturday at 1501 Gaviota, A dumpster will be available, Will be hosting a smaller on later at 12pm at Orange an 15th to cover Ester and the North end of Orange. Volunteers are welcome at both clean ups.

Announced Cleaning: Gaviota from PCH to 15th Finished

Thank you to the over twenty two volunteers that came out to clean up Gaviota from PCH to 15th Street. The dumpster was full by 11pm. Will post the pics when they're emailed to me. Thank you to Carmen from Litter Free Long Beach and Bryan Ben and the Neighborhood Resource Center for providing the dumpster.

Sunday Safety Update: 11/22/2015 to 11/28/2015

Disclaimer: Please note these maps are meant to show which direction crime is trending, areas to keep an extra eye on and places to remain vigilant in order for Central Long Beach residents to remain safe. That said, previous trends don't guarantee future trends will repeat in the same direction and patterns. Also, an absence of crime in one area, does not guarantee an absence in the future.

The darker the arrow, the stronger the trend.

So this week, in the MacArthur Park Neighborhood, there was a steep drop off in crime. There is more tagging, both reported and unreported. There is an attempt by the taggers to try and claim Fire Station 10 and the alley behind the U-Haul Station. Because of this, both will be monitored every single day until it stops.

There is a trend of property crime leading into some thefts from cars along the east side of Junipero. I will remind everyone again to keep your cars locked and read this article. While on the phone with a friend who works on Anaheim; she had to shut down the business for theft from a car to get investigated. The car was unlocked. You may think you have nothing of value, but these crooks left with sunglasses. Once they're inside, they don't want to leave empty handed.

Whenever I do clean ups, I find lots of cars with windows open. There were at least 10 on 14th Street last week. Please be very careful with your cars anywhere near Rotary Centennial Park or Orizaba Park, as car thefts and thefts from vehicles tend to cluster there.

There is a much stronger trend of assaults just south west of our neighborhood. If this map is extended a little west, they start to get bad. So please keep safe in the south end of the Poly Neighborhood. Additionally the trend of assaults identified did move east as predicted, and that does make the tagging in the alley behind the U-Haul much less surprising. 

Because of this, an eye will be kept on PCH between Alamitos and Cherry for the next two weeks, whenever possible.

Other Shootings

There has been an officer involvded shooting since the last reported shooing. The suspect is currently in the hospital in stable condition.

Long Beach police officers responding to a call of an assault late Thursday shot a man holding a meat cleaver who turned out to be the person who reported the attack, authorities said Friday.

An officer arrived at a residence in the 300 block of East Sunset Street about 11:20 p.m. after receiving a 911 call, according to a police statement. As the officer approached the front door, “a male exited the residence holding a meat cleaver in a threatening manner and confronted the officer.” - Full Story

The next Community Watch Meeting:

Linden-Roosevelt Neighborhood
Monday, December 7th
7 – 9 pm
Roosevelt Elementary Room A101
1574 Linden Ave   
  
The Central Long Beach Neighborhood Alliance
Community Watch Meeting
12/13/2015
4pm - 7pm
Events Page
Fox Coffee House
425 W Willow St, 
Long Beach, CA 90806

There is also a meeting some people will be attending regarding Long Beach PD wearing body cams. I would have liked to go, but I have three separate meetings on that day. I will still let you know what comes of it.

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..

Sunday Safety Update: 10/04/2015 to 10/202015

That map for this week in the MacArthur Park Neighborhood looks worse than it is. The biggest issue is the tagging has picked up. Keep an eye on 14th and Walnut, the south end of Rose and Anaheim and the north end of PCH and Gardenia. Notice that car thefts are trending towards Junipero and Anaheim. However, know that this is a much weaker pattern than last week. They seem to be trending that way, but if you look at a larger picture you can argue there is no real pattern.

You may still want to keep your cars locked up around 15th street and the east end of the neighborhood, near Junipero and Rotary Centennial Park. Do the same on Anaheim Street, Peterson and around MacArthur Park itself.

The multiple incident at the south end of the park was a fight. Since it was four fights on the same day at the same time, I assume they all refer to different people in the same fight. Near Junipero and 17th, the multiple incidents are two auto burglaries. Just south of that area, where the car thefts are trending towards us, we submitted about 15 Go Long Beach Requests for tagging and dumping to draw attention to the area as part of a Neighborhood Expansion effort. We will be getting the West Side of the 710 in response to the most recent shootings.

Lastly, notice the theft and assault on Alamitos. Stay safe in that area, especially as the construction continues. Also a large dumping area on Warner south of 14th has moved to Werner. This is actually one of the largest collections of dumped items I have ever seen.

District Six rep Dee Andrews has suggested Long Beach adopt the Dog Walker's program to the city's existing community watch program. 

The Long Beach City Council on Tuesday will hear a proposal from Councilman Dee Andrew to implement a Dog Walker Watch program as part of the city’s existing Community Watch Program. 

The idea, according to Andrew’s office, is that while residents are out walking their dogs, they can also be trained to watch for suspicious activity that police have called on citizens to report. With more than 63,000 dog-owning households in Long Beach, that is a lot of eyes and ears, officials say. - Full Story.

I have a cat, but I will still be watching anyway.

 

Clean Up: 09/26/2015: 17th Street from Gardenia to Orange

There will be a clean up in the MacArthur Park Neighborhood that will get trash off 17th Street. We will be starting at 17th and Gardenia and heading west. Clean ups occur virtually every Saturday at 10am. Volunteers are always welcome. This will be the third time we have cleaned 17th Street.

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

St. Louis/ Dawson Clean: 14th to Anaheim St

There was an announced clean up of St. Louis Street that followed 14th Street to Anaheim. While originally we intended to get St. Louis, Dawson and Raymond, in the end it was just a little too hot to get all three. We were able to get Dawson from 14th to Anaheim and 14th Street again from St. Louis to Dawson.

Thanks to the neighbors who gave me the bottled water.  Thanks to the volunteers that helped make this cleaning go a little quicker. Because both streets were reasonably clean we were able to get some nasty weeds out of the Anaheim Corridor.

We may finish and get Raymond tomorrow; that kind of depends how hot it gets. We originally planned to get 15th Street, that will probably have to wait until a later weekend.

Update 08/31/2015: Raymond has been cleaned. It helped that the temperature was only 74 degrees today and the humidity was only 63%. That sounds terrible but last night the humidity was 83% and the temperature was 78.

Next Clean Up:08/29/2015: St Louis & 14th 10am

11th Street Clean Up: Walnut to Mahanna

There was an unannounced clean up of 11th Street from Walnut to Mahanna to support our partners in the AOC7. While this clean up was originally intended to go to Alamitos, we ran out of room in the trash bag, and it was getting a little hot. The rest of 11th, from Mahanna to Alamitos will be tackled tomorrow.

The clean up also touched some areas of Hoffman relatively close to 11th Street.

This is part of this week's Neighborhood Expansion which so far has resulted in 19 additional Go Long Beach Requests and several Community Walks through the areas that have seen an increase in reported crime  The MacArthur Park Neighborhood will be doing this often when something serious happens in a neighborhood outside its boundaries.

Update 08/27/2015: So our goal was to get to Alamitos today. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Cerritos we had another 32 gallons of trash, so we didn't quite make it there today. However, being the stubborn people that we are we will try again tomorrow at 9am to get that last little stretch of the neighborhood bordering AOC7 a little cleaner by noon. This was our 41st clean up this year.

By the way,whoever issued the heat warning for today, understated how hot it would be. At least Arizona was a dry heat.

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.

Tomorrow: Join Our Neighborhood Partners In The AOC7