Give ‘em up!

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY
Four candidates for the 7th District seat on the Long Beach City Council—incumbent Tonia Reyes Uranga and challengers Jill Hill, James Johnson and Jack C. Smith—will debate under press conference-style questioning amid the South Pacific-style kitsch of the Puka Bar on Monday (Feb. 22) at 7 p.m. in the first [...]

Doug Fieger, who I felt like killing a few times during 1979—when “My Sharona,” the song he wrote and sang for The Knack, was on the radio never-endingly—died on Valentine’s Day. He was 57 and succumbed after six years with cancer. Here’s the Los Angeles Times obit.
Suddenly, I miss the guy—and consider the six weeks [...]

The Long Beach Press Club has announced its schedule for seven open-to-the-public debates among candidates running for election to seven City of Long Beach offices—the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th City Council Districts, along with City Attorney and City Prosecutor.
(A debate between Mayor Bob Foster and challenger Stevie Merino is still pending; in the [...]

Mike Murchison didn’t like reading The District Weekly’s reports today about the haz-mat crews that have spent the past few days cleaning up another mess on the Los Cerritos Wetlands that Tom Dean is trying to trade to the City of Long Beach … in this case, the standing water—habitat for coastal plants, creatures and [...]

*UPDATED WITH RESPONSE FROM DEAN’S LOBBYIST, MIKE MURCHISON
A hazardous-materials cleanup team in protective pajamas departed the site of an oil spill on Los Cerritos Wetlands property owned by developer/oilman Tom Dean at mid-morning today, but a sickly-shiny layer of petroleum remained on the surface of rain-filled ponds used by migrating waterfowl. So did bright yellow floating booms used [...]

An apparent oil spill on the Los Cerritos Wetlands owned by developer/oil driller Tom Dean—including the 33-acre parcel south of Second Street that he is trying to trade to the City of Long Beach—has drawn cleanup crews for the fifth consecutive day, The District Weekly has learned. The California Coastal Commission, which must approve any [...]

Tesla Motors has selected the City of Downey over the City of Long Beach as the manufacturing site for its new Model S, a four-door all-electric family sedan, The District Weekly learned early this afternoon—apparently, we discovered about 5 p.m., at about the same time as The Downey Patriot was learning the same thing.
“We’re very [...]

The clean trucks ordinance chugging past the Harbor Commission–and lone dissenting Harbor Commissioner Mario Cordero–which The District Weekly’s Dave Wielenga wrote about Wednesday, coasted through another green light Monday.
As LBReport.com’s Bill Pearl writes:
“In an action that opponents vowed to appeal to [Long Beach's] elected City Council (without indicating their procedure for doing so), [Long Beach's] [...]

The folks at the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust were good enough to remind us, and so we’re reminding you: the City of Long Beach’s Development Services Department will be holding yet another a development meeting at 5:30 tonight at Wilson High School, to discuss the proposed Second+PCH project.

An administrative assistant and a chef were laid off by the Long Beach Museum of Art this morning, The District Weekly has learned, and in a brief interview executive director Ron Nelson blamed an economic squeeze exacerbated by a reduction in funding by the City Council.
“Art institutions across the country are struggling with a difficult [...]