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

A Month Ago We Hosted A Clean Up

A month ago we hosted a clean up that brought out more than twenty four volunteers. Here are the very delayed pictures. Litter Free Long Beach also helped by bringing in a large crusher so we could empty the alleyways. 

My neighbors, who have said they didn't feel comfortable doing a clean up, all came out and helped clean up the alley behind the U-Haul Station. In all, we moved more than nine tons of trash, we filled the dumpster in about two hours and Litter Free Long Beach got a lot of old electronics out of our way, the stuff the dumpster couldn't take.

Since April we hosted more than fifty five clean ups. We submitted more than 800 Go Long Beach Requests. We helped over six neighborhood associations. We had more than 62 safety updates and participated in the Anaheim Re visioning Study. 

This year we're focusing on more community building, bringing better leadership to the Sixth District and  and shining an intense light on community safety by bringing Safe Passage to more neighborhood schools.

The trees have also been trimmed in virtually the entire neighborhood including MacArthur Park itself.  Updates will come to this site every day from this point on.  

Neighborhood Expansion returns tomorrow.

Sunday Safety Update: 11/15/2015 to 11/21/2015

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

Within the borders of the MacArthur Park Neighborhood not much is happening. It's been very quiet around the park itself. And thanks to our neighborhood resource officers, the park itself and the alleys are spotless. When I passed by for today's clean up, the other side of 14th was worse than the park itself.

There is a weak trend of assaults at PCH and Alamitos heading northwest towards fifteen, where a slightly stronger trend of unrelated crimes dips south back into the neighborhood. Be vigilant around PCH and Alamitos by the college and by Alamitos and 15th. Also be very careful if you're in the north end of the neighborhood just to the east of us.

There is a weak trend of car thefts heading from the AOC7 around Hoffman and 11th heading North East towards Gaviota an Anaheim. In that same neighborhood last night at around 10th and Vina, the streets were blocked off and a police helicopter was in the area.  I know due to neighborhood contacts, I have not yet learned the reason. I will share as soon as I do.

Within pour neighborhood there is a lot of activity around Junipero that starts with strong trends heading East or West and weaker trends heading South East or North West. If you're in the area around Anaheim and Junipero, please keep your items locked. There have been increased breaking and enterings, which will get worse as we approach the holidays. Also, there is a strong trend of different kinds of crime around Spaulding Street. Anywhere on Spaulding west of Junipero keep an eye out for your friends and neighbors.

Because I have a few off days, there will be extra neighborhood walks, Go Long Beach Requests, and Josephine A Villaseñor and I are going to work on a more structured version of a Community Watch that would allow better communication between neighborhoods and better training on conflict deescalation, disaster preparedness and and self defense.

Dee Andrews to Host Town Hall on Public Safety 10/27/2015

Councilman Dee Andrews will host a 6^th District Town Hall meeting, at 6:00 pm, on Tuesday, October 27^th, at Mark Twain Library, 1401 E Anaheim St, Long Beach, CA.

The topic of the Town Hall meeting will focus on public safety. The guest speakers will include Commander Robert Smith, Long Beach Police Department, West Division and Homeless Services. The commander will be reporting crime updates and giving tips on crime prevention.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information call (562) 570-6816.

Neighborhood Clean Up 10/10/2015: 9pm

This Saturday, another MacArthur Park Neighborhood resident is hosting a clean up. This one is taking place in the eastern end of the neighborhood as defined by Next Door. A dumpster will be available and high school service hours are available for this one. See the flyer for more details.

Public Invited to Grand Opening of Jenni Rivera Memorial Park on July 2

Mayor Robert Garcia, Councilman Dee Andrews, and the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine invite residents to the grand opening of Jenni Rivera Memorial Park, on Thursday, July 2, at 10:00 am. The 3-acre park is located at 2001 Walnut Ave. The opening ceremony will include the unveiling of a 125-foot-long mural in tribute of Jenni Rivera’s life and love of her hometown, Long Beach.

“Jenni Rivera was a true Long Beach legend. Her music, and her many philanthropic contributions, touched so many people in our city and around the world,” said Mayor Robert Garcia. “Naming this park after Jenni honors the legacy of one of our city’s most inspiring native daughters.”

Ms. Rivera was a Latin Grammy nominated singer, songwriter, actress, television producer, and entrepreneur. She was named the "Top Latin Artist of 2013" by Billboard Magazine, and her 20 million albums sold made her the highest-earning Banda singer of all time. She and six other people died in a plane crash on December 9, 2012, shortly after performing to a sold-out crowd of 17,000 fans in Monterrey, Mexico. She was 43. 

What One Phone Call Can Do

In early April I mistakenly sent a compliment to Go Long Beach. I meant it to be an observation about tree trimming. 

At the time, I was just trying to see how long it would take the city to respond to a simple tree trimming request.  

 The concern was the trees were so overgrown on Grundy, virtually no street light was doing a thing to light the path a night.

I expected no response.

What happened was the city hired an arborist and the arborist agreed. As much as I like trees, when they keep the entire street darkness every night, it is a safety issue. 

A month ago, I noticed signs that the trees were interferring with the side walks and had been marked for removal. Two weeks ago the dumpsters show up and the trees started coming down

The point here is, when you ask for something for your neighborhood, the worst you will hear is no, so you might as well ask.

Gardenia Clean Up PCH to 14th Finished

Today there was an announced clean up of Gardenia Street from PCH to 14th. Because I had more volunteers we were able to get up a lot of the leaves lining 17th street. The Go Long Beach App was used to schedule pick ups for the bigger items that could not be fitted into the cans.

The Results: Litter that was removed from Gardenia today

Thank you to all the volunteers that came out. Also it was nice to meet the members of WESCA and the city workers involved with Litter Free Long Beach at the earlier clean up on Orizaba.

There will be no street cleaning next Saturday as I will be in Arizona for two days. We will resume at 10am on 05/08/2015 where this started about a month ago at 15th and Cherry. There is a chance there may be some city involvement in the future, which will hopefully give us a little more room than the four rolling trash cans.

I don't really have any before and after pictures because honestly Gardenia wasn't that bad.