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Future File: Results Of SEASP (Son of SEADIP) Reviewed in 2026

by Joe Weinstein, Ph.D.


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(July 25, 2026, 7:45 a.m.) -- We present this ten-year retrospective from today in 2026, looking back to 28 memorable steps spanning roughly a decade that together brought us today's proudly progressive Long Beach. One can credit the outcome in large part to the City Council's approval of the SEASP ("son of SEADIP") SE LB land use zoning plan.

#1. During Planning Commission hearings on the SEASP plan, all public speakers testify against the plan's allowance of up to 7 stories in SE LB developments.

#2. Planning Commission unanimously approves the plan but mandates that for each 7-story building the Commission will review aesthetics of the rooftop paint color scheme.

#3 During Council hearings, all public speakers apart from LB Chamber of Commerce and construction union reps testify against the plan.

#4 Council unanimously approves plan, adds proviso to allow up to 9 stories, and asks City Manager and City Attorney to bring back reports within 90 days as to possible legal necessity to require the higher buildings to blink warning lights for aircraft descending into LGB.

#5 Mayor Garcia lauds plan in latest "Go Long Beach!" email.

#6 Three "core zone" property owners submit development plans. Each includes a 13-story tower.

#7 Step #1 (but with 13 stories in place of 7) is repeated for each of the submitted plans.

#8 Planning Commission mandates amendment of plans to restrict towers to 12 stories, and then approves the amended plans.

#9 Step #3 is repeated for each of the submitted plans.

#10 Council unanimously approves all three plans.

#11 Developers raze all existing trees during bird nesting season.

#12 Development Department, after being alerted by environmentalists, solemnly warns each developer that step #11 must not recur during their construction.

#14 Development #1 is built per plan. Development #2 is built in reverse (mirror image) of submitted drawings. Development #3 excavates 300-foot-square plot down twenty feet, then quits when developer files for bankruptcy.

#15 King tides fill the excavated hole from Development #3. Likelihood of such tides, from accelerating sea-level rise owing to greenhouse-gas emissions and resulting global warming, was noted already in 2012 and earlier by California state government in advisories to local planning departments. Some hint of sea-level-rise impact is noted, albeit presented as of scant consequence, even in the SEASP. Various LB city officials and departments, however, express shock and surprise.

#16 US Army Corps of Engineers LB Breakwater reconfiguration study report is delivered, presents plan to breach and lower breakwater.

#17 LB Chamber of Commerce, LB Convention and Visitors Bureau, and various city departments (including Development, Parks-Rec-Marine and Public Works) all predict $500 million annual boost to city economy from tourism to restored LB beaches if the Corps' breakwater plan is implemented. The City Manager, with unanimous Council approval, authorizes a $3.8 million consultant study into the feasibility of a shuttle service from LGB to the wondrously restored beaches.

#18 LB Council votes $55 million to implement the first stage of the multi-stage breach-and-lower-breakwater plan, with $10 million bonus if this stage is completed within twelve months.

#19 Trans-Pacific-Partnership, which now includes China as premier member, announces banner year for global trade, including emission of a record amount of greenhouse gases owing to Asian industrial production and to fueling of global shipping.

#20 Port of Long Beach receives two ‘world-leader port' awards: (1) as biggest exporter of coal and fossil fuels and (2) as "greenest": least in-port greenhouse gas emissions per ton of cargo.

#21 The successful first-stage breakwater-breach bidder is Breakwater Solutions -- a newly created joint venture of Koch-Trump Industries and Mitsubishi. BS completes the first-stage breakwater breaches ahead of schedule and wins the $10 million bonus.

#22 However, BS loses $60 million overall on the project (thanks to built-in required BS "franchise" payments of $20 million to each of the parent corporations, Koch-Trump and Mitsubishi) and declares bankruptcy.

#23 City Council votes unanimously for a BS bailout. The bailout takes the form of a $100 million contract with "the Aquarium" (i.e. with nLBa AoP) (the acronym of course stands for "not-Long-Beach-affiliated Aquarium-of-the-Pacific") for "support services": after retaining $20 million overhead, nLBa AoP subcontracts to BS for $80 million of "support services."

#24 Yet higher king tides wash over roadways to and surrounding all developments near 2d&PCH as well as beachside and some inland areas in Belmont shore and Naples island.

#25 Low-elevation-property owners demand City Council action to create a defensive dike against the rising sea.

#26 LB Council allocates $155 million to selected consultants to create a plan for building a defensive dike, as part of a "Re-envisioning Belmont Shore" initiative.

#27 Ex-mayors O'Neill, Foster and Garcia join newly elected "comeback kids" - including Mayor James Johnson and City Attorney Laura Richardson - in urging that LB voters pass a new package of sales, parcel, income and excise taxes in order to fund "critical infrastructure needs." Noted needs prominently include: completing the lowering of the breakwater; beginning construction of the defensive dike; raising up to new heights the newly-rebuilt and continually-sinking Belmont Olympic pool; upgrading of bluff-retaining shotcrete to the latest available astroturf-shotcrete blend; and seismic safety upgrades for the new City Hall.

#28 At a special rally, in response to supporters' repeated cheers "Go Long Beach," Garcia enthuses that the proposed taxes would give Long Beach unquestionably the nation's sole highest per-resident overall municipal tax rate -- so that Long Beach will thereby "lead the nation's cities in infrastructure investment."


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