Literary superhero Ray Bradbury stands up for threatened Main Library, as the vote to keep it open approaches
With a number of our public officials warming to the notion of keeping Main Library open until real, actual plans can be made for its demise, famed science fiction author Ray Bradbury made what could have been a [...]

Mothers, geezers, students and the unemployed explain why we need this place

The large crowd clustered outside the doors of Main Library at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday is mostly just folks–ordinary people—and that comes as something of a surprise, given the city’s claims that Main Library is too big and used only by the homeless.

There’s some interesting background emerging today on the proposed sale of City Hall East–the building at the northeast corner of First Street and Long Beach Boulevard, where Long Beach Police Department relocated a few years ago while its longtime downtown home was remodeled.
According to today’s Press-Telegram, Long Beach City Council on Tuesday will consider selling [...]

Not sure why the level of discourse at last night’s city meeting about closing Main Library seemed so high and lively. Maybe it had something to do with the topic, which hinged on our access to knowledge–and with the fact that the discussion took place just a few feet away from hundreds of classic works [...]

Gabriella Holt lives up on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, so she doesn’t get to vote on Long Beach’s Proposition I—the $571-million property parcel tax placed on the November ballot by Mayor Bob Foster and the City Council (minus Fifth District rep Gerrie Schipske). But Holt hopes to represent a lot of the people who do [...]

Several dozen of us had filled the banquet room of a Bixby Knolls restaurant—quite appropriately, Nino’s Italian restaurant—to hear a fascinating talk on the history of the Roman Republic Thursday night. (Fascinating fact: it’s the only republic to endure longer than the one we’re currently enduring in the United States). Suddenly, a Long Beach ballot-measure campaign [...]

Will Mayor Bob Foster’s push for passage of his proposed $571-million parcel property tax increase be so intensive that it temporarily pushes his chief of staff, Becki Ames, out of City Hall to head the campaign?
“If I need to take a leave of absence to man the ship, I’d be happy to do it,” Ames [...]

As a U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class, Virginia Sanchez sees why literacy is vital

Long Beach native Virginia Sanchez was an adult services librarian at Long Beach Public Library when she answered the call of duty and enlisted in the United States Navy.
Petty Officer 1st Class Sanchez was sent to Afghanistan last Fall, where she’s [...]

It’s officially not official yet. Despite hearing from Mayor Bob Foster, and devoting considerable discussion to the topic, Long Beach Chamber of Commerce hasn’t decided how it feels about Hizzoner’s proposed $571 million infrastructure bond–which will be in our hands and on our ballots in November.
And it may not know how it feels until some [...]

Gerrie Schipske is the only member of the Long Beach City Council to oppose Mayor Bob Foster’s proposed $571 million tax on property owners to pay for repairs to so-far-unspecified aspects of Long Beach’s infrastructure, and the Fifth District representative may be paying the price for her brave position.
An editorial in today’s LBReport.com makes a strong case that Schipske–who on [...]