Comments on: EMINENT DOMAIN

By: yibs

yibs — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:29:33 +0000

The east village people want to expand up to 10th street now. That is just adding 3 more streets of bad area. So called arts districts only thrive when the project was well thought out. The Chelsea district in New York once was a terrible area, and in some parts still is, although it’s pricey to live there. It took a long time for that to emerge out there being that the whole city of New York went to shit for many decades. We don’t have people with that kind of ambition leading this city. I don’t really care to wait 20+ years to see if something great happens in this city.

By: dreday

dreday — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:46:19 +0000

yibs, i might have agreed with you above but i’m not on the same page with you in regards to your last rant, or at least not all of it. every arts district is not a ghetto filled with weirdos and poor artists. perhaps you should take a trip to someplace like Chelsea. Or perhaps you’re talking about long beach in which case i would still disagree. art districts are not just about art, they are about community, neighborhood feels, etc. Yes, the usually start in bad spots, but they’re probably the best chance that spot has at turning into something.

as for the 500 mill that was dumped into city place and the pike, i couldn’t agree with you more. it will take us years to overcome those piss poor decisions.

By: yibs

yibs — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 21:05:35 +0000

I believe what i see everyday. I live on Ocean blvd. The back lot at Acres has crack heads smoking there crap there at night. This whole area needs to be redone. I love how the city takes the shittiest part of downtown and renames it the east village arts district. Every arts district is a ghetto. It’s usually full of poor struggling artists and weirdos. People come here for certain reasons. as in certain conventions, the gay pride festival or the grand prix. Nobody ever goes hey lets go vacation in long beach for the hell of it, or hey lets go there because it’s so beautiful. Year after year i hear things are going to change, and then it’s the same. 500 million on the pike and cityplace that ruined any chance of becoming a great downtown. My rant is over for now.

By: dreday

dreday — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:52:51 +0000

yibs, i totally agree. it seems as if we’re in the minority though as most people in long beach are too busy believing their own press releases.

By: yibs

yibs — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:21:56 +0000

People come from all around the world to see the 2 things that long beach has to offer. The queen mary and acres of books. If this is all we have to offer than i am not surprised that nobody comes to long beach. Nobody wants to come to our trash infested no wave beaches. Nobody wants to visit a city that is a giant ghetto. And new residents are staying away when they really see long beach for what it is, and not the lies on the city website calling us a resort destination.

By: eee333

eee333 — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 04:10:23 +0000

JR, I can be plenty positive, I’m known as creative, and actually, I’m notorious for thinking outside the box.

Here’s the thing. On the one hand, we have people saying don’t get rid of Acres of Books for new business. Use all the open buildings and vacant storefronts there already are.

But then on the other hand, someone suggests making a new park, when in fact, the complementary argument would be we already have plenty of parks that aren’t living up to their potential, let’s focus on those before wasting money on a new one (this is assuming it would be a public park; if someone wants to pay and put in a private park, go for it).

Again, I hate to say that my evidence is NOT anecdotal. I’ve been to A LOT of the parks. Here’s the short list of the ones that aren’t screwed up. 1. Trolley Park: the tiny triangle of grass at 2nd and Redondo. Why isn’t it screwed up? Well, probably because you can’t get away with anything there. No shade, no building, a single bench. 2. I forget which streets they’re on, but those tiny parks that are the size of half a building lot, surrounded by wrought iron and locked up. Why isn’t it screwed up? Because it’s locked up! All the other parks have a lot of problems. Some are being worked out (yay!), some aren’t.

I was simply saying in other words what others had already said: let’s make use of what we have and beautify that before we start wasting more money.

By: dreday

dreday — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:05:02 +0000

eee333 how can you possibly call people rooting for a park naive. just because one park doesn’t work you would rather see everything just fill in with parking lots or development?

the old amphitheater while it was there and the library both suffer from the same problems. they suffer because the downtown that has been dead for a long time and just started perking up over the last couple of years. there still aren’t enough people living around the area to really activate the area and create a public demand for open space. So if nobody else wants to lay claim to the area it’s easy for the homeless to take over.

what needs to happen is the residents moving into the area need to combine with the residents that have been there and take over the park again. activate the damn thing with a dog park or something and drive the homeless out.

as for acres of books. i don’t want to see a amphitheater there either but a nice little park to hang out in, drink some coffee and read some books and magazines would be great.

if other cities can pull it off then why can’t downtown long beach? it can be done but people need to be a little more positive and get a little creative.

By: Long_Beach_Huntington

Long_Beach_Huntington — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:57:04 +0000

As I walk downtown I am amazed at the empty storefronts. LB should first fill emptly spaces, before approaching successful business to up root and relocate.
Once the empty spaces are filled up and Downtown is bursting at the seams, only then should we ask any existing business to move for the good of the city.
If the current trend continues and is then applied to my hazy logic, LB would never be able approach this conversation of Eminent Domain.
As long as I have lived here there have always been empty spaces on Pine, a few days ago I saw three empty spots, on a corner, how can that be?
A city with empty storefronts on the main street is like a mouth missing a front tooth, operative, but not so pretty.
Which brings me to the break water, nice beach? The 900 pound gorilla in the room. A little waves go along way for economic development. I like to think of Waves as the bidet for the hind end of the LA River. Aquatic City maybe someday.
I am sorry I drifted from the topic I sometimes do that. All I am trying to say is, ” We should fill up our existing empty things first, before gutting a full thing to fill it with another empty thing.”

LBH

By: eee333

eee333 — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 19:11:33 +0000

“Maybe even turn the rest of that block into a small park where readers could go enjoy their books. We all know there isn’t a single green field anywhere near that area. one could even take the idea further and add a little stage for local performing arts.

The Bertrand Smith Community Park, located right next to Acres of Books. Sounds good to me.”

Surely you can’t be that naive. Do you spend any time in the downtown area? There’s a beautiful little park right next to the main library. A Japanese-themed garden. It is absolutely OVERRUN with homeless people. There’s even portapotties for them out there now. I presume because of the overwhelming smell of urine, they put them there in hopes that people will stop using the out-of-doors as a latrine.

A stage? If you’ve spent any time in the downtown area, you must remember the amphitheater that was once by the transit mall. It was quite literally a home for the homeless. I work in the office building across from where the amphitheater used to be, and one of our forms of entertainment was to watch local “scene” down there. And Fridays were even better. When they used to have the farmer’s market/flea market, they would have a live band play. Nevermind the horrifying cacophony of the “bands” they were able to get play this venue, it became a magnet for every homeless person in town–their weekly entertainment.

How about the stage/bandshell at Recreation Park? Have you ever been there? It REEKS of urine, and from sundown to sunup it’s the home for numerous people. They even have pizzas delivered there!!!

And how many other parks do you want me to use as examples? Sure, a few parking spaces wouldn’t be a bad idea, but there isn’t a chance in the world of maintaining a safe, urine-free park in the downtown area.

To be clear, I don’t have a problem with homeless people–live and let live. But charming, quaint and CLEAN parks they do not make.

By: mike guardabascio

mike guardabascio — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:25:07 +0000

while on a dig in ND, i met a retired australian literature professor who said that acres of books was the best bookstore in the world. he’d made two trips to long beach, from australia, to visit it. it’s not only a tourism draw for the intelligentsia, it’s also a place that we residents can visit regularly without being bored out of our skulls (unlike certain boats i know).