Within Past 30 Days, This Central LB Area Had More Shootings <i>Per Capita</i> Than Chicago Citywide

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Within Past 30 Days, This Central LB Area Had More Shootings Per Capita Than Chicago Citywide

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(Aug 31, 2016, 8:05 p.m.) -- Within the past thirty days, Long Beach neighborhoods between Anaheim St. and Pacific Coast Highway, from Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave to Temple Ave., had more shootings per capita than Chicago citywide.

[Scroll down for further.]

LBREPORT.com applied the latest U.S. Census population data available ("2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates") covering the Anaheim-PCH-MLK-Temple area (census tracts 5752.01 + 5762.02 + 5751.01 + 5752.02) indicating a population of 18,268 residents within those census tracts. The Chicago Tribune website indicates over 400 people were shot in August as of Aug. 29 and has this story indicating shootings from Aug. 28-30. A grassroots Chicago website, www.heyjackass.com (uses the slogan "Illustrating Chicago Values") indicates 473 August shootings (as of 5:30 p.m. PT Aug. 31).

Compare:

Central LB's census tracts above had five confirmed "person-hit" shootings between Aug. 1-Aug. 30. 5 divided by 18.268 (number of thousand residents within the census tracts) = .2737.
Chicago had 473 "person-hit" shootings between Aug. 1-Aug. 30. 473 divided by 2700 (thousands of Chicago's roughly 2.7 million population) is .1751.

Since .2737 is greater than .1751, the number of shootings per capita in these Central Long Beach neighborhoods was greater than Chicago citywide in August...a period said the Chicago Tribune said was the most violent month for that city in nearly 20 years.

Shootings in some Chicago neighborhoods are of course higher than the overall city number, but the Chicago Tribune map at this link shows that unlike Long Beach, nearly all parts of Chicago had some shootings. In Long Beach, shootings disproportionately impact some areas while other parts of LB have none or nearly none [previously described by LBRERPORT.com as a "tale of two cities."]

LBREPORT.com map below is unofficial, prepared by us and cumulated from Jan. 1, 2014 to the present. Each shooting or stabbing reflects data confirmed to LBREPORT.com by LBPD.

2014 to date: Red Xs=homicides; Blue Xs= shootings, person wounded; Brown Xs=shots fired at victim(s), not hit; Purple Xs=shots at occupied residence/vehicle; Green Xs= shots at unoccupied vehicle/residence; Grey Xs=shots fired (no hit, no target identified); Orange X's=non-fatal stabbings. Map is unofficial. A separate map (not shown here) indicates add'l shootings in NLB.

As recently reported by LBREPORT.com:

Tue. Aug. 30: Man (adult) is shot -- and killed -- in the area of Hile Ave. north of 16th St. The area is just west of Temple Ave., about three blocks north and a bit west of LB's iconic "Joe Jost's." LBREPORT.com coverage here
Mon. Aug. 29, 15th St./Walnut Ave., 1:10 a.m., man shows up at hospital with a gunshot wound, says a man tried to rob him and then shot him; officers unable to find evidence of a shooting at that location (6th dist.) LBREPORT.com coverage here Mon. Aug. 29, 1:45 a.m., man shot, area 15th St./Gundry Ave., possible drive-by shooting (6th dist.) LBREPORT.com coverage here
Sunday Aug. 28, 12:30 a.m., Anaheim St./Newport Ave.; shots fired at victims in a vehicle; vehicle is hit, occupants not hit (4th dist.)
Mon. Aug. 22: Man (adult) shot, area 11th St./MLK Ave. (6th dist.), coverage here.
Aug. 11: Man (adult) shot, 200 block of 69th Way (9th district), coverage here
Aug. 11: Juvenile shot, 11th St/MLK Ave. (6th dist.), coverage here
Aug. 6: Mother and daughter (age 4) are shot to death, 9th St./Locust Ave. (1st distict), coverage here
Aug 6: Group fight, two stabbed, one of whom dies, 2600 block E. Anaheim St. (6th dist.), coverage here <
Aug. 5: Body of 19 yr old found at Willow St./San Gabriel River, a homicide (5th dist.), coverage here

Our methoodolgy for this story erred on the side of caution. We omitted a Central LB shooting that LBPD confirmed although the victim indicated took place during a robbery where responding officers couldn't locate remnants of the shooting in the overnight darkness. We omitted a fatal stabbing. And we omitted the Aug. 6 murders of a mother and her four year old daughter shot to death in LB's downtown-adjacent "North Pine Ave." neighborhood (1st Council district) slightly over a mile west and a bit south of Anaheim/MLK Ave.

By way of context, on October 20, 2015, LBREPORT.com reported that within a roughly 30 day period from mid-September to mid-October 2014, LB's 1st and 6th Council districts combined had more hit shootings per capita than Chicago.

Long Beach, Los Angeles County's second largest city, currently provides its residents with a budgeted police level for citywide deployment roughly equivalent per capita to what Los Angeles would have if L.A. cut roughly 30% of LAPD's officers. Long Beach today has roughly 200 fewer budgeted police officers than it had in 2008-2009 after City Council majorities adopted budgets (starting with budget votes in Sept. 2009 (entering FY10) with the economic downturn) that over a period of four years erased roughly 20% of the city's previous citywide deployable force. Other area cities weathered the eocnomic downturn without cutting their police at this magnitude.

During this period, the City Council approved raises for city management and spent several million dollars upfront, with 40+ of escalating annual payments to follow (scheduled to start in mid-2019) to build an entirely new Civic Center without seeking bids on a seismic retrofit for the city's less than 40 year old City Hall.

In June 2016, LB voters approved a sales tax increase to 10% urged by Mayor Garcia and described by Councilmembers in its ballot text in pertinent part to "increase police, firefighter/paramedic staffing; repair potholes/streets; improve water supplies; and maintain general services..." Less than sixty days after voters approved the sales tax increase (effective Jan. 1, 2017), Mayor Garcia and city management proposed a FY17 budget that proposes to use the sales tax increase to address street projects and city infrastructure but would restore only 8 of the roughly 200 officers LB previously had, leaves three LB fire stations without fire engines and leaves a newly constructed North Long Beach fire station without its former paramedic/rescue unit.

Within the next two to three weeks -- at meetings scheduled for Sept. 6 and Sept. 13, 2016 -- a Long Beach City Council majority will vote on whether to adopt the Mayor/Management proposed FY17 or make changes and restore a larger number of police officers and fire resources.