Knowledge is power, and reporting this story before the Planning Commission meeting, not afterward, empowered residents to attend and take part. For the record, after strong public testimony from multiple neighborhood groups and individuals citywide in opposition, the Planning Commission voted against moving the maps forward to the Council (although city staff said it will do so anyway.)
Our coverage included updated maps earlier this year and two reports in the days leading up to the Aug. 17 Planning Commission meeting (updated maps and details here and a perspective piece here.) Our coverage of the Planning Commission meeting itself (which some others are now belatedly reporting) is here.
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LBREPORT.com is also, to our knowledge, the only LB news outlet that has reported details of campaign and "officeholder" contributions to LB's incumbent Mayor and five Councilmembers now seeking seeking re-election. Unlike others, our coverage names names and doesn't just list anonymized numerical totals. In our opinion, the public has a right to know details on both stories. Council incumbents who collect campaign and officeholder contributions from development and real estate interests are the same people who vote on whether to allow increased density and building height increases that may benefit corporate interests and disserve the public interest. (LBREPORT.com has made contribution details easily accessible on our front page in a special "follow the money" section here.)
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All of this happened by coincidence as LBREPORT.com begins our 18th year. The type of coverage above, that others didn't provide but we did, is among the reasons we launched LBREPORT.com in August, 2000. At that time, some sneered at the idea of delivering local news online. We believed then, and still do, that savvy news consumers want newsworthy content, not fluff and spin. We began with just words, no photos, no Facebook, no Twitter, no smartphones with cameras for stills and video. Of course we have all of these now, and more, and we continue to grow by reporting newsworthy stories that others can't, or won't or don't (or don't until after we do.)
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As George Orwell put it (and we quote on our front page): "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations." We're not perfect (typos and bad links are our specialties) but we try hard every day to report news that matters to Long Beach taxpayers and neighborhoods.
As LBREPORT.com enters our 18th year, we'll do our best to continue reporting Long Beach news stories that matter, without flinching, regardless of whose toes it steps on.
And again: Thank you, Long Beach.
s/ Bill Pearl, publisher
