Brushing aside pleas from housing advocates for a delay that would allow public input and transparency,  the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency voted unanimously this morning to use the city’s entire $20 million affordable-housing fund to pay the bulk of the $30 million being taken by the state, then pay it back over the next five years.
“Thanks for coming [...]

The seven-member executive committee of the Downtown Long Beach Associates that met this morning to complete its annual performance review of the organization’s president and CEO, Kraig Kojian, has proven it is a group that works well together. Maybe too well?
Wellllll, let’s just say that six of the seven members of the executive committee—the exception: Tony [...]

First District Councilmember Robert Garcia is asking Long Beach residents to sign their names to his letter — or, if they’re feeling especially creative, to write one themselves — requesting state officials to make the gigantic new courthouse they’re planning for downtown “a responsible, sustainable and safe addition to our community.” Go to www.robertgarcia.com.
It’s a perfectly [...]

Long Beach development czar Craig Beck insists he warned contractor Sean Hitchcock more than a month ago that it would be illegal to build soccer fields on the 8.38 acres of wetlands-adjacent property near Studebaker Road and Loynes Avenue that Hitchcock was planning to purchase from developer Tom Dean for $2.3 million.
“I would be surprised to [...]

Mayor Bob Foster’s extensive and ongoing tour of the city in search of voter support for Measure I—the $571-million parcel property tax measure he proposed in late July—will not include a public debate offered by the Long Beach Press Club.
Foster has declined an invitation to pro-and-con it with Terry Jensen, a former Redevelopment Agency board [...]