The pages were created by Millikan High alumnus Paul Prosise, who hopes a 2002 reunion of fans of the original Pike can take place.

Mr. Prosise's site is apolitical but it's impossible to view its images without realizing LB's classic beachfront attraction didn't just disappear. It was erased with the help of some taxpayer paid City Hall geniuses who believed the city's namesake long (and publicly owned) beachfront should be shortened and disposed of.

The Pike's Cyclone Racer roller coaster was bigger than NY's Coney Island Cyclone, bigger than anything else on the CA coast. On windy days, riders on its southerly turns got dustings of sea spray. As Mr. Prosise's web pages also show, much of the ride was originally over water but by the 1960s, LB's breakwater had drained the ocean from under its supporting pier, pushing the sea away from the shore.

Lined with incandescent bulbs visible for miles, the Cyclone Racer ran two side by side trains that "raced" each other on nearly parallel (but slightly different) courses. The ride began with a shattering first drop that lifted you off your seat and didn't let up, roaring into wild, banked turns and a blur of interior wooden beams.

It was a classic beachfront experience, but after buying the Queen Mary, City Hall claimed the classic coaster had to be demolished to make way for a roadway. (We leave it to LB readers familiar with the geography to judge whether this was really necessary.)

The Cyclone Racer was bulldozed in September, 1968 and the remainder of the Pike (absent its signature attraction) closed in 1979. City Hall then blamed the Pike's demise on Disneyland and Magic Mountain.

Among other unique items lost: a hand crafted dark ride with life size wood carvings ("Laff in the Dark") and a "Diving Bell" (a metal cylinder that, once sealed, lowered riders into a water tank, then yanked upward in a giant whoosh).

To be sure, other items also disappeared: freak shows, tattoo parlors, bars, and some ladies who could best be categorized as, er, independent business women. Locals realize Walt Disney built his Anaheim park (the first ever theme park) in part to create a clean family environment as an alternative to adult grime surrounding the Pike (and L.A.'s former Venice and Ocean Park piers, now also gone).

Today, LB City Hall points to a gleaming Convention Center, a modernized Ocean Blvd., an Aquarium and a coming Carnival cruise ship terminal adjacent to the Queen Mary.

In January 2001, a Deputy City Auditor issued a report (which the City Council "received and filed" without comment) indicating LB Convention & Entertainment Center operations resulted in City financial operating losses of $2.5 million in FY 2000, $3.0 million in FY 99, with cumulative operating losses since 1978 exceeding $60 million.

[LBReport.com covered this story in January, 2001. It is posted at Dep. City Auditor Conv. & Ent. Ctr. Report.]

The Aquarium, which City Hall assured the public would be independent and financially self-supporting, didn't produce the visitors forecast. It now threatens to drain taxpayer tideland revenue and has become a City Hall entity.

In the late 1990's, Ken Jillson, a successful southland businessman who recalled the original Pike, enthusiastically sought to rebuild the Cyclone Racer and run it. He was effectively given the cold shoulder by City Hall.

Eliminating the area's grime was overdue, but entirely erasing LB's publicly owned downtown beachfront strikes some as a costly example of City Hall hubris.

Like LB, San Diego and Santa Cruz also had beachfront amusement areas with wooden coasters (smaller than LB's). Unlike LB, those cities replaced the grime with a cleaned, restored beachfront. Their areas are now tourist draws (and the beachfront coasters, the only two surviving on CA's coast, are state historical landmarks.)

City Hall and its supporters say Queensway Bay's entertainment and commercial development can provide the critical mass to catalyze the rest of LB's new downtown. It has been renamed the "Pike at Rainbow Harbor." It includes some ambitious elements.

Ironically, it also includes plans for a pedestrian bridge with sides shaped in the profile of a roller-coaster.

Last year, the Disney Co. created "California Adventure," trying to replicate the classic California beachfront experience miles away from the beach. Tourists come from around the world and spend considerable sums to recapture some of the things LB had and discarded.

These can be seen on Mr. Prosise's web pages. Clicking on the following link will open a separate window to his site. To return to LBReport.com, simply close the window: Prosise Pike homepage.

And enjoy your ride.