This Week: Learjets, Dinosaur Flatulence and Bake Sales
Tues | JUN 3 City Manager Pat West responds to a projected $17 million city budget deficit—enough to fund four more Lobstergates, buy out six more Acres of Books or purchase 31 homes for Congresswoman Laura Richardson—by promising to encourage city employees not to live as long. Control [...]

In a strongly-worded memo to the mayor and city council members, City Manager Pat West said that the city has ended discussions with Orange-based ad company Media Management Service about erecting six electronic billboards in Long Beach.

Sadly, the words in this headline–and the scenario they’re plucked from (fast-talking career gal reporter Jennifer Jason Leigh’s resignation in “The Hudsucker Proxy”)–probably didn’t read as colorfully in real life.

City may dig into Jergins Tunnel; college cops seek attacker
After languishing for a generation, the Jergins Tunnel–the underground pedestrian walkway that once gave amusement park visitors a traffic-free passage from the Jergins building to the Pike–inches closer to being saved.

“New” Manhattan Project spy; John Morris on public safety
The Press-Telegram writes compellingly about public safety,

Or something by another dead guy. Just make the Museum of Art good again. Is now too soon?

PHOTO by RUSS ROCA
Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
The Long Beach Museum of Art’s strongest, most varied show in years—of photo-realist street scenes that look like Los Altos; terrifying red clay babies, tall as a man; cool [...]

New City Manager Pat West answers six of our half-dozen questions

PAT WEST by LUKE MCGARRY
Patrick West officially begins his tenure as Long Beach city manager—a position sometimes called “the city’s CEO”—on Monday. He hasn’t signaled any major changes in the way the city does business, but the very act of his appointment last month by [...]

Tues | Aug 21 Long Beach holds a special election—“special election” being another way of saying, “What, there’s an election?”—and chooses Laura Richardson to represent the 37th District in Congress. Richardson wins with 67 percent of the vote, which sounds like a lot until you consider that only 8 percent of eligible voters actually voted, [...]

The District Weekly study guide for the most powerful job in Long Beach!
By Theo Douglas, Steve Lowery, Brandon Miller, Will Swaim and Dave Wielenga
WHY WE FRIGHT
After four years as city manager, Jerry Miller will officially leave City Hall on July 7, and the City Council has hired a search firm to find his replacement. They’re [...]