Los Altos to light UP!

December 4th Lighting of the Letters for a 21st Century

Whaley Park Christmas

A mid-century tradition returns this year on December 4th, 2106 to the Los Altos neighborhood adjacient to Whaley Park (North)  with a community lick-off event marking the return of  giant letters spelling out a holiday greeting. 

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.

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

Long time Los Altos resident Bob Sockup with original Whaley Park holiday letter

City Prosecutor Doug Haubert

Fast forward to the 21st Century. In 2015 former LB Airport Commissioner and now Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug Haubert (and a 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 8th and 4th Council Districts.  
click on Kalitta settlement

In the 4th District, the fund created is called the Los Altos Charitable Giving Fund (LACGF).  Fourth District Councilman Daryl Supernaw was asked to recommend a committee to plan and oversee LACGF projects. The Los Altos resident committee members, Michele "K" Kreinheder, Bill  Marshall and Joe Mello met and quickly decided to bring back the Whaley Park Christmas Letters tradition.

In 2015, a kick-off  event at Whaley Park took place announcing the plans to bring back the holiday letters. Last year's event included displays of one of the original letters and a prototype of the new letters.

Partnering with the Long Beach Area Council of Boy Scouts to produce the new letters, the LACGF committee has been planning this year's Whaley Park Lighting of the Letters event.  Councilman Supernaw's office has supported the committee's efforts as has the newly formed Greater Los Altos Neighborhood Association (GLANA). For more information click on GLANA

This year's event will have all the new Boy Scout built 21st Century versions of the holiday letters up around the park-complete with solar lighting.  Santa will return as will a bounce house, a table with shared neighbor made treats, holiday music and other family fun.  

 

2016 Whaley Park Holiday letters made by Long Beach Boy Scouts will include solar lighting

A box to collect can and dry food goods for holiday meals for families at the Tucker School Transitional Programs of the California Children's Services will also be available at the Lighting of the Letters event.

The Lighting of the Letters event will begin at 3:00 pm at Whaley Park (North) on Sunday December 4th and continue until the letters light-up at dusk.

The land for Whaley Park was donated and is named for Lloyd Whaley, the East Long Beach developer.

Whaley developed numerous areas around Long Beach including the neighborhoods of Los Altos (originally  Los Altos Village), Park Estates (originally as Los Altos Park), and Country Club Manor.  Whaley built the Los Altos Shopping Center and the famed Galaxy Tower on Ocean Blvd in Bluff Park.  Whaley also donated land for numerous public uses including the Los Altos Public Library, Los Altos Park and Scherer Park.

Other Fourth District Holiday events

In his weekly newsletter, 4th District Councilman Daryl Supernaw announced other holiday events in the 4th District including :

·      Joe Jost's Annual Lighting of the Antlers, December 1st

·      The Community Hospital 22nd Annual Tree of Love, December 1st

·      Long Beach Playhouse Miracle on Anaheim Street benfiting the WomenShelter of Long Beach, December 3rd

For more information on these events and other 4th District news click on SUPERNAW  NEWS

This is what a late flight looks and sounds like

This is what a late night flight looks and sounds like...
A commuter jet at 12:40 am on November 22nd over Los Altos hits 79- 81 dB 

On November 22nd, hours after the  Long Beach Noise Ordinance deadline for flights landing,  residents of the Los Altos neighborhood were treated to another late night flight. 

A 14 passenger Gulfstream V

 According to the LB Airport WebTracker site, the aircraft was a Gulfstream V .  It flew over the Los Altos neighborhood at approximately 12:43 am.  The noise monitor by CSULB at the beginning of Los Altos monitored the noise at 79 db. as the plane descended over the homes.

The second to the last noise monitor before the runway, at the end of the Los Altos neighborhoods, had the middle of the night noise registering at 81 dB.      (click on picture below to enlarge)           

                                                                                              

IndustrialNoise.com comparison chart has the following information on what 80 dB is similar to:

Garbage disposal, dishwasher, average factory, freight train (at 15 meters). Car wash at 20 ft (89 dB); propeller plane flyover at 1000 ft (88 dB); diesel truck 40 mph at 50 ft (84 dB); diesel train at 45 mph at 100 ft (83 dB). Food blender (88 dB); milling machine (85 dB); garbage disposal (80 dB).

80

2 times as loud as 70 dB. Possible damage in 8 hour exposure.

for information Click on NOISE

   (click on picture below to enlarge)  

The Gulfstream V  carries a crew of four and up to 14 passengers. It has a range of 6,500 nautical miles ( about 7,500 miles).  The distance from Los Angeles to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico is 1,062 nautical miles (1,222 miles).

For more information on late flight noise ordinance violations Click on LATE FLIGHTS 

Regardless of fines, JetBlue noise violations continue

2016 LB Airport late flights fines up 51.6%

The fines for breaking the LB Noise Ordinance late flights restrictions at the  Long Beach Airport are up 51.6% over last year through September of 2016 according to the September Monthly Noise Report released with this month's agenda of the LB Airport Advisory Commission (AAC). 
For more information on this month's AAC meeting click on AAC November

Year-to-date totals for the fines for 2016 through September are $458,000 compared to $236,500 for the same period last year.  

The monthly Noise Ordinance fines in September 2016 amounted to $7,200. This year the September 2016 monthly fines totaled $31,600, a 22.8% jump over the monthly figure from last year. 

According to the September Monthly Noise Report, non-commercial aircraft (General Aviation and Charter flights) noise violations are down 4.4% over last year's year-to-date totals.

Despite flying less flights from Long Beach this year, JetBlue's September 2016 year-to-date Noise Violations amounted to 95 compared to 51 last year, an 86.3%  increase.  This number is more alarming due to the fact that for most of 2016, JetBlue did not fly all of its daily slots. The airline declared it was "rotating" its allotted flight slots causing a considerable negative economic impact to the LB Airport, and thus preventing other airlines taking its non-used spots. 

According to airline industry data complier OAG in its 2016 Monthly On Time Performance (OTP) report, JetBlue ranks 32nd  of  the 53 North American airlines.  According to OAG, JetBlue's on-time arrival rate is 77.2% (with-in 15 minutes is considered on-time by OAG). JetBlue also had the second highest flight cancellation percentage of any major American airline with 2.5%. Of the United States major airlines, only Spirit had a higher flight cancellation rate of 2.8%, but ranked 17th in on time performance in North America.  

Click on OAG REPORT  (see last page for North America)

All six of the Long Beach Airport September commercial aircraft Noise Ordinance violation fines were to JetBlue. The report indicates that the six JetBlue violations were out of 2,377 total monthly commercial flights or .3% of the total.  

The Monthly Report totals do not include those late night flights not fined under the noise ordinance. The report totals are for the late flights that are fined flights deemed violating the Noise Ordinance, not the total number of late flights. The Noise Ordinance does have fine exemptions ( not included in the fined report) for certain reasons that may cause a late flight. The late night flights, fined and not fined, are the most disruptive to neighborhoods living under the flight path.

Requests from neighborhood leaders at the  Community Input Meetings for the International Terminal Feasibility Study to include data on the percentage of international flights that are currently late to the surrounding Southern California airports, that data was not part of the study.

While the LB Airport's own reports show clear evidence of the continued and growing problem of late commercial flights especially by JetBlue at LB Airport, data on the occurrence of international flight delays to Southern California airports has never been brought forward into the proposed International Flights debate at Long Beach Airport.

Only Fourth District Councilman Daryl Supernaw has regularly brought up the continued late night flight problem facing the neighborhoods in City Council meetings and as a regular feature of his weekly newsletters to residents. 

Click on NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 11