Long Beach To Lose 48 Employees; Statewide Estimate As High As 3,000

By Sean Belk - Staff Writer

February 14, 2012 - Municipalities across California are bracing for a new era of diminished resources as they rapidly disband redevelopment agencies, or RDAs, that were officially dissolved by the state on February 1. The agencies are facing widespread local government layoffs and service cuts.

Cities and counties that opted to become “successor agencies” are now tasked with liquidating the former system, with oversight from the state and other taxing agencies. The move closes the books on more than half a century of community work to remove “blight,” provide affordable housing and other economic development functions in an expedited fashion. Also, many will have to do so with less staff.

Options Still Include: Renting, Buying Or Building After Previous Plans Nixed

By Sean Belk - Staff Writer

February 14, 2012 - Port of Long Beach officials will soon make recommendations regarding plans to move the port’s administrative staff out of its current 50-year-old, seismically outdated building and into a new home.

Plans for the port’s new headquarters have so far fallen flat after two proposals were nixed: first, a $300 million project to construct a new facility was vetoed by Mayor Bob Foster in 2010; and second, the Long Beach Harbor Commission came to a heated stalemate last August on buying the World Trade Center building downtown.

Forthcoming Study Comes Amidst Legal Threat Over Leaded Aviation Fuel

By Sean Belk - Staff Writer

February 14, 2012 - A regional air pollution control agency in Southern California, in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is planning a first-ever comprehensive study of the air quality levels of Long Beach Airport, according to a spokesperson for the government agency.

The Business Journal learned last week that the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) is proposing to conduct a “special study” within the next 12 months, sampling the emissions of lead, ultra-fine particles and black carbon, an indicator of diesel exhaust, from commercial jets and piston-engine aircraft during idling, taking off and cruising. Sam Atwood, spokesperson for the AQMD, said the study would be funded by the EPA, but he did not say how much the study would cost.

Process To Take Years; Call For Moratorium On Development Withdrawn

By Sean Belk - Staff Writer

February 14, 2012 - Revising a more than 30-year-old land use document known as the South East Area Development and Improvement Plan (SEADIP), which sets guidelines along coastal Southeastern Long Beach, will take one to two years. That’s according to city staff, who are in the process of figuring out a timeline of events and how to fund the undertaking.

The rezone is being pushed in hopes of resolving years of discontent over the second+pch proposed development at 2nd Street and Pacific Coast Highway on a nearly 11-acre site currently occupied by a hotel. Nearby residents and wetlands preservationists have fought to maintain the current zoning in place. But the property owner has indicated the current restrictions wouldn’t allow for a sufficient return on investment.

By Michael Gougis - Contributing Writer

February 14, 2012 - Foie gras is not your everyday food. Made from the liver of a duck or a goose, it is an ancient ‘delicacy,’ a rich, fatty food the French claim is part of the country’s gastronomical heritage.

But its method of production is controversial, to say the least. Several countries have banned the method used to produce the food, and several high-end restaurants and food chains refuse to sell or serve it.

By Tiffany Rider - Senior Writer

February 14, 2012 - The latest draft of the Downtown Property Based Improvement District (PBID) management plan, released February 10, shows what the Downtown Long Beach Associates (DLBA) refers to as “significant” revisions. These include a budget reduction of $400,000 and the elimination of what was referred to a “community court.”

The DLBA, the nonprofit that manages the PBID, used 188 of 412 comments received, in conjunction with other input from the local community over the yearlong process, to shape this final draft. To download it, visit www.downtownlongbeach.org.

Kaiser Permanente Awards Long Beach Health Department $1 Million Grant

By Sean Belk - Staff Writer

February 14, 2012 - Kaiser Permanente awarded the City of Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services a $1 million grant as part of the healthcare organization’s new three-year initiative to boost healthy eating habits and physical activity in underserved areas with high obesity rates in Southern California.

The health department was one of six public health entities that received the same amount of funding to administer Kaiser Permanente’s more than $7 million initiative, which establishes Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Zones made to small communities with high obesity rates.