Los Altos Sears closure announced

 

Los Altos Center's retail prime in the 1990's

Los Altos Village Sears closure  announced

 

Transformco added the Los Altos Village Sears to the original list of 18 store closings issued in January of this year. 

 The Long Beach Sears was one of five  stores added today February 15, 2021 to the January list.  The Long Beach Kmart was on the original list and is currently in the process of liquidating its stock.  The Long Beach Kmart  store currently appears on the SB360 company website. SB360 is contracted to conduct the store liquidations.

Transformco the holding company that acquired the Sears and Kmart assets during the 2018-2019 bankruptcy. Then Sears CEO Eddie Lampert formed Transformco  to bid on the assets stating that the new company would re-invent the iconic merchandiser in a new 21^st Century version.  Since acquiring the asset, Transformco has sold major brand assets including Craftsman, Kenmore and Diehard as well as selling off the real estate of the retail locations that are owned.

The Long Beach Sears will join four other California Sears closures that were announced in January: Clovis, Los Angeles, Orange and Sacramento.  The Long Beach and Big Bear Kmarts were the two California stores on the January list.

The Long Beach Kmart store closure located in the 5th District's Los Altos Gateway Center was originally announced on local social media when employees learned about the closing and their families posted the store was closing.  

Many times new Transformco store closures are discovered from the company's  employment page that announces jobs for store closures.  As of the posting the Long Beach Kmart has listings for store closing cashers.

The Sears building was originally the Long Beach Broadway

Taco Beach downtown closed by the ABC

 

Los Altos Taco Beach remains open after ABC pulls liquor license of the downtown location 

Many in the Greater Los Altos  neighborhood know the owner of Taco Beach and frequent it regularly.  The Los Altos location was one of  three locations. Unfortunately the Downtown Taco Beach was severely damaged in the Downtown riots and never did recover.

Today the second part of the story happened- the ABC pulled the license of the Taco Beach Downtown ( the Los Altos Taco Beach is still open).

Los Altos Taco Beach remains open

Many customers of the Los Altos Taco Beach know that the immediate neighbors have worked to limit the hours and noise from the Los Altos Taco Beach and the owner has not been happy with us. Yes we worked hard to limit the impact on our neighborhood when the establishment was first proposed, and we continue to make sure all the alcohol restrictions are followed.

That said, the establishment has become a good Los Altos neighbor we encourage the neighborhood to support them now more than ever. Our neighborhood will continue to reach out to them when ever we see a problem and over the last few years we have had less and less problems.

Unfortunately that was not the case for the downtown establishment:

LB Post story on Taco Beach:

After string of crime reports, ABC revokes liquor license for Taco Beach in Downtown

Los Altos Village Lighting of the Letters

Los Altos Village Lighting of the Letters: 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The annual Los Altos Village Lighting of the Letters event like the rest of the 2020 holiday season will be a very different affair this year.  

Gone this year is the community event gathering of  neighbors with music, food and photo’s with Santa.

The official “Lighting”  will still happen at dusk on December 6th as will the opportunity to give to those less fortunate during these difficult holidays with food and hygiene donations to the Long Beach Rescue Mission.   Donation bins will be located  along the letters route at 5609 Los Santos Drive.

The Los Altos Village Whaley Park Christmas display dates back to the 20^th  mid-century. In the 1950's during the holidays, residents living around the Whaley Park each displayed one giant letter that combined spelled out the holiday message of Merry Christmas and Happy New Year around the perimeter of the park.

One of the original 1950's Whaley Park letters

Why the tradition was lost and what happened to most of the old letters remains a mystery, but enough people still remembered the tradition as the occasional random letter was found as the homes changed hands over the years, keeping the story alive.

Fast forward to the 21st Century. In 2015 former LB Airport Commissioner and now Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug Haubert (and long-time 4th District resident) had Kalitta Charters consent to settle 13 LB Noise Ordinance violations for $54,000. Separate from the first Consent Degree fines that go to the Long Beach Library Foundation, the new Kalitta agreement funds went to the Long Beach Community Foundation to establish and administer two community funds that would directly benefit  the airport impacted neighborhoods in the 4th and 8th Council Districts. 

For more information click on Kalitta Settlement

In the 4th District, the fund created is called the Los Altos Charitable Giving Fund (LACGF).

In 2015, a kick-off  event at Whaley Park took place announcing the plans to bring back the holiday letters. Supported by the Long Beach Area Council of Boy Scouts to produce the new letters, the LACGF,  Councilman Supernaw's office and the Los Altos Neighbors group.

Follow the Los Altos Village Instagram account 

Click on : https://www.instagram.com/losaltosn/

Los Altos Center business changes

 Los Altos Center business changes 

Follow the Los Altos Village Instagram account Click on : https://www.instagram.com/losaltosn/

In addition to changes all ready in the works before the pandemic forced an economic shutdown in March of this year, the COVID pandemic has accelerated business changes at the Los Altos Center’s three retail shopping areas.  

Another new financial institution adds to Los Altos as the banking destination of Long Beach.  Arrowhead Credit Union has taken over the former Red Apparel  space at the Los Altos North Shopping Center.   The fast growing credit union's membership is open to State of California employees and employees of  member cities including the City of Long Beach and Signal Hill.  Arrowhead joins Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, Farmers and Merchants, and Southland Credit Union with banking branches in the Los Altos shopping centers along Bellflower Blvd.  making the area the most dense banking area in Long Beach.  

Geico Insurance will also open in the Los Altos North center in the former Aladdin Sleep Center mattress store. 

Two changes already planned before COVID was the Panera Bread Restaurant opening in the former Payless Shoes space in the Los Altos North Center and Pet Supplies Plus opened in the long empty Los Altos Hallmark store at the Los Altos MarketCenter. .

Also filling a vacant business space  at the former Vape Depot  next to Umberto’s is the second location for Long Beach’s Lebua Thai Massage and Spa.   

COVID challenges led to the closing of GNC, Wholesale Nutrition Center, Chronic Tacos, Sweet Embellishments and EJ Malloy’s.  

Replacing  Wholesale Nutrition Center in the Los Altos Center West,  is the new Mathnasium Los Altos, a student math tutoring business. The center’s Copyco  has moved to the Los Altos Center North in the former Sweet Embellishment space.

Chronic Taco will be replaced by D’Vine Mediterranean  Express . It is the 4^th location for the Orange County based chain.

The E.J. Malloy's Los Altos Village space will be Kennedy's.  The new restaurant is owned by Ian Moston who has had ownership partnerships in Long Beach's Riley's and 908 at the new LBX Mall. 

Taco Beach opened the first parklet in the Los Altos Village  area along with opening half of its parking lot to dining. The rear covered Taco Beach patio also remains open to customers.  During the COVID closure the restaurant repainted and updated its outside.

For more information click on:

 Arrowhead Credit Union

Los Altos MarketCenter.

Lebua Thai Massage and Spa.   

Copyco  

Mathnasium Los Altos

D’Vine Mediterranean  Express 

Taco Beach

 

Herlinda Chico wants you to know she is not a cop

 Herlinda Chico wants you to know she is not a cop

 

Raise your hand if the term “field deputy” reminds you of a police officer. Perhaps a police officer on a farm?

Well that is the latest from Long Beach City College candidate Herlinda Chico who is trying to explain why she lied on her ballot description.

Her reason? She did not want you to think she was a police officer.

In the October 11, 2020 Long Beach City College newspaper Viking News , Chico explains why she put the deceptive job title of “college advisor” as her ballot job description instead of her real job as Janice Hahn’s Field Deputy:

 Your job title on [Supervisor Janice] Hahn’s website is listed as “field deputy” which is different from “college advisor” as listed as your career on the ballot. A blog recently criticized this listing as being an inaccurate description, what is your response to this criticism?

The term “field deputy” isn’t a title that doesn’t accurately describe my duties. A lot of people think it sounds like I work with the police department. I used a term to describe one of the roles I perform by advising the supervisor on issues around education and labor. Our office has worked to set up a peer navigator program, which helps students connect to housing and educational resources available to students. This is something we started at LBCC and have done afterward at other colleges.

 

-From Viking News 10/11/20

 

For more information about the deceptive Herlinda Chico description click on:

• Herlinda Chico out as Long Beach Field Deputy for L.A. Supervisor Hahn’s office

• Long Beach Political Machine connections to Melahat Rafiei run deep

• Supernaw's bid for re-election will be a rerun of  the 2015 election

• Long Beach Redistricting Commission’s  “independence” is in question with maps drawn by connected political consultant

• Herlinda Chico's real job

• Long Beach City College Foundation's Hall of Fame political scandal

•  Long Beach Redistricting Commission’s “independence” is in question with maps drawnby connected political consultant

• Soon-to-be federal felon's political firm has ties to  Helinda Chico 

•  Supernaw's bid for re-election will be a rerun of  the 2015 election

•  Supernaw wins

•  Chico put down $7,732 on a $305,000 home -then borrowed  $20,634 on the home-then stopped paying on the home loans for months

•  Chico’s political consultant lied to police about being a Congressman

• Chico flip-flops(again) on Airport

• Long Beach Business Journal endorses Supernaw and blasts his opponent in a scathing editorial

  Herlinda Chico's real job: Would a  field deputy by any other name smell as sweet? 

 

Southwest will have 34 Long Beach flights

 Southwest will take all of JetBlue’s Long Beach Airport slots

Southwest Airlines will takeover all of JetBlue’s slots at the Long Beach Airport. Southwest will go from 17 flights to 34 flights. The new destinations will be announced at a later date.

Southwest is JetBlue’s biggest competitor. 

For year’s JetBlue had successfully kept out major competition out of Long Beach Airport by acquiring a majority of flight slots. 

 JetBlue utilized all of its flight slots for only a short time.  It however would not give up those slots to other airlines using a tactic it called “slot rotation” .  Hurting the bottom line of the airport, critics called the tactic “slot squatting

 With a near monopoly at the airport, JetBlue pushed for upgrades and a new terminals. Without the upgrade JetBlue threatened to leave Long Beach. The size of the new terminal  became a point of contention between JetBlue and the impacted neighborhoods. The drawn-out fight resulted in a compromise size between what JetBlue wanted and the airport impacted neighborhoods wanted. 

After obtaining a new terminal at what amounted to an almost private JetBue airport, JetBlue began to push for Long Beach becoming an international airport.  

Again JetBlue faced major push back from the impacted neighborhoods. Neighborhood leaders from the Fourth, Fifth and Eighth council districts that had already formed a strong coalition fighting the terminal expansion quickly mobilized to stop the new international terminal.   In the end, JetBlue had overplayed its hand and lost the fight for the international terminal.

 Part of JetBlue’s failure was based on its “focus city” business model compared to the traditional “hub city” model.  JetBlue’s transcontinental flights violated the Long Beach Airport Noise Ordnance just about nightly racking up huge fines. In the middle of the international terminal flight, those fines reached $1,000,000 and that was without the airline flying all of its slots.

Shortly after the international terminal fight, 4^th District Councilman Daryl Supernaw  sought to strengthen the Long Beach Noise Ordnance.  With the help of top notch airport attorney’s hired by the city,  several changes were implemented. Those included ending slot squatting /rotating and increasing late arrival fines.

 JetBlue’s quest for an airport without competition failed. The irony is  that now its biggest competitor Southwest will basically end up with the monopoly that JetBlue once had.

CSULB announces parking changes

CSULB announces pandemic related parking changes

 

CSULB announced changes to parking for Fall 2020. With only 355 in-campus classes, only 3,000 to 4,000 students are expected on campus.  The rest of the 38,000 students will be taking classes online. CSULB offered 9,700 classes last school year.

Instead of the usual semester pass (this year it is $175), the CSULB Parking and Transportation Services Department announced it is offering a monthly pass at $40. Students can also pay daily at $10 a day to park on campus.   

Residential parking permits increased by $25 to $200 a semester. It was previously announced that the university expected  only 1,000 students would live on campus in the dorms including athletes during the pandemic. Since that announcement, the Big West Conference athletic season for fall sports has been postponed until the spring.

The campus has also closed six parking lots and the parking structure at the Walter Pyramid and both the North and South Palo Verde parking structures.

All CSULB transportation shuttles have been stopped for the fall semester.

CSULB will not be subsidizing the free Long Beach Transit Bus Pass for all students. LBT will be offering CSULB students discounts for the unlimited bus pass.  A 30 day LBT bus pass will be offered to CSULB students at $40 and a 150 day pass will be offered at $100.