Long Beach Mayor Garcia Says Issue Of Equity In Availability Of Park Programming Is Real But Also Partly Matter of Public Perception, Partly Communication

' Long Beach Mayor Garcia Says Issue Of Equity In Availability Of Park Programming Is Real But Also Partly Matter of Public Perception, Partly Communication

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(Aug. 23, 2017, 8:50 a.m.) -- Mayor Robert Garcia acknowledged at a meeting of LB's Parks & Recreation Commission that the issue of equity in the availability or non-availability of park programs in various parts of the city is real, but said it's also partly a matter of public perception and partly a matter of communication. LBREPORT.com provides a transcript of his words below.

Mayor Garcia voiced his view near the end of roughly fifteen minutes of non-agendized remarks to the Commission on Aug. 17, in which he discussed mainly matters not concerning parks or recreation. The Mayor, currently seeking re-election, discussed port cargo, the local economy and jobs, said the city is "doing great" and voiced his views on LB crime and proposed increased density, the latter two separately reported by LBREPORT.com here and here.

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LBREPORT.com provides below the portion of the Mayor's remarks, delivered without notes, regarding park programming and equity below.

Mayor Garcia: ...There's still a lot of people in this community that need support. Our parks programming is a really important place where that happens. Programming that's happening in our community centers and in our senior centers and in our parks is really important.
I know there's a lot of conversation right now around the equity issue, which I know that is real. And I've been going around to all the city parks and I hear it from people, you know, and whether or not part of it is perception, and part of it is folks, what they experience. A person, a mother at Drake Park who is just not seeing as much programming for whatever reason and seeing it at other places, she may not understand the nuance of classes and which ones are paid and which ones are not. She just knows that there's not that program.
So I think for us it's both a communication challenge. It's how we communicate and how we, and if there are ways that we can as a community do a better job, I think that's what we're all going to look at.
I don't know. I don't have the answer. What I do know is what we currently do is amazing with the resources that we have, so I'm very proud of that and I want to just thank you all for your work...

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