Supernaw requests Long Beach ordinance to target street takeovers

Supernaw requests Long Beach ordinance to target street takeovers 

July 9, 2021, East Long Beach street take-over at Bellflower and Stearns

Long Beach Fourth District Councilman Daryl Supernaw has agenized a council item for July 20, 2021 meeting to “prepare an ordinance to enhance penalties for participating in or being a spectator at a street takeover”.      

The request to the City Manager and City Attorney came just days after a street takeover at the corner of  Bellflower and  Stearns on the night of Friday, July 9^th.  That takeover saw cars doing donuts in the middle of the intersection and racing up and down Bellflower, including on the wrong side of the road.   The takeover included dozens of people standing in the street videotaping the takeover.

As the police arrived, the participating cars raced south on Bellflower, some without headlights, as some turned into Los Altos Village neighborhood streets to avoid the police.

Close to the freeway, both the Los Altos Gateway Shopping Center north of the 405 and the Los Altos Shopping Center North have been taken over by social media-promoted car events.

The street takeovers promoted on social media have had deadly consequences for both drivers and bystanders. Many of the bystanders come with the cars to video the takeovers for social media. 

Regular street takeovers in the Los Angeles suburb of Sylmar  took an inevitable  dangerous turn last month when a car predicating in the street takeover almost hit a pedestrian before slamming into a nearby business and heavily damaging it.

This year the City of Anaheim passed an ordinance aimed at giving the police more power to deal with the takeovers, including charging spectators.  Both city’s responses were to incidents where people were injured in street takeovers in those cities.  Other California cities enacting similar ordinances.

The street takeover problem grew nationwide during the pandemic. In May, the state of Georgia passed a law to deal with the growing problem.  The new Georgia law creates a new crime category called reckless stunt driving, requires mandatory jail time, and increases fines and penalties on participating, organizing, or promoting the takeovers.

 For more information click on:

Supernaw’s July 20^th Agenda Item

East Long Beach  street take over with  video

East Long Beach street take over

East Long Beach  street take over

For approximately twenty minutes on Friday, July 9, 2021 dozens of cars took over the intersection of Stearns and Bellflower Blvd.

The squealing tires and smoke from the burning rubber along with the roar of souped-up  mufflers on the cars racing up and down Bellflower started just after 10:30 pm and lasted for over 20 minutes. During those 20 minutes before the Long Beach Police Department arrived,  some of the cars raced on the wrong side of the road down Bellflower Blvd.

When the police arrived driving south toward the crowd from the direction of the 405 freeway, the cars began racing south down Bellflower, many without their headlights on.  A few cut into the Los Altos Village residential streets in what appeared to be an attempt to evade any police. 

The LBPD did not pursuer the cars but instead stayed at the intersection of Steans and Bellflower to clear it out.  The dark rubber marks in the intersection are still visible.

The street takeovers promoted on social media have had deadly consequences for both drivers and bystanders. Many of the bystanders come with the cars to video the takeovers for social media. 

Regular street takeovers in the Los Angeles suburb of Sylmar took an inevitable  dangerous turn last month when a car predicating in the street takeover almost hit a pedestrian before slamming into a near-by business and heavily damaging it.

This year the City of Anaheim passed an ordinance aimed at giving the police more power to deal with the takeovers, including charging spectators.  Both city’s responses were to incidents where people were injured in street takeovers in those cities.  Other California cities enacting similar ordinances.

The street takeover problem grew nationwide during the pandemic. In May, the state of Georgia passed a law to deal with the growing problem.  The new Georgia law creates a new crime category called reckless stunt driving, requires mandatory jail time and increases fines and penalties on participating, organizing or promoting the takeovers.

UPDATE 7/14/21:  Councilman Supernaw has proposed Long Beach develop an ordinance to address street racing. For more information CLICK ON: 

Supernaw requests Long Beach ordinance to target street takeovers 

Long Beach Airport gets another Southwest flight to Hawaii

Long Beach Airport gets another Southwest flight to Hawaii

Southwest Airlines announced another flight to Hawaii from the Long Beach Airport today. The announcement on its expansion into the Hawaiian air market included expanding flights from airports that it already provides flights to the islands and new cities that will now offer flights to the state.  The new flight schedule will double Southwest's current flights to Hawaii from across the nation. 

The new flight from Long Beach will be the third for Southwest  with service beginning June 23, 2021. Hawaiian Airlines also has two flights from Long Beach. With five daily flight to Hawaii, the Long Beach Airport has become a major gateway for vacationers in just a year after JetBlue announced its departure from  the Long Beach Airport. 

Other cities that will get expanded service to Hawaii from Southwest include San Diego, San Jose and Oakland.

Southwest also announced inaugural service to Hawaii from Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix. Those flights will begin the new service to Hawaii on June 6, 2021.  Southwest is offering special fares as low as $129 one-way in those cities. 

Southwest currently has 34 of the 53 Long Beach flight slots. 

For more information

Southwest Airlines to more than double its Hawaii trans-­Pacific service

Kennedy’s at the Los Altos Village has a soft opening

 Kennedy’s Craft Kitchen & Cocktails in Los Altos Village has a soft opening

Kennedy's  the new restaurant at the former  E.J. Malloy's Los Altos Village space has now opened.  With a soft opening under COVID rules the restaurant has a limited menu (see below).

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. 

With a small patio, the restaurant is working on opening a parklet in front of the restaurant.  

UPDATE: The website is now up: KENNDY'S

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/