' What I Saw/Heard/Learned "Around the Table" '
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What I Saw/Heard/Learned "Around the Table"

by Bill Pearl, LBREPORT.com publisher


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(Sept. 24, 2017, 7:25 p.m., updated Sept. 25, 8:52 a.m.) -- LBREPORT.com provides below what we saw, heard and learned at "Around the Table," a Saturday Sept. 23 event presented by "We Love Long Beach" and the "Long Beach Community Foundation."


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Co-presenter We Love Long Beach states on its Facebook page:

We believe all Long Beach residents and organizations share a collective desire to come together and figure out how we can use our individual talents, strengths, and resources to make Long Beach a safer, healthier, and more connected city. As we come together Around the Table to listen and learn from each other's stories and ideas, we have the power to make a tangible difference in our neighborhoods and our city. That's what Around the Table is all about.

Why: These days, the connections we make with people are more commonplace via social media than face to face. We believe Around the Table is the place where on one day, every Long Beach resident and organization will have a voice, share their story face to face, and together come up with new ideas and possibilities around how we can make Long Beach even better. Imagine where these simple conversations Around the Table might lead our city next.

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[Sept. 25 update] "We Love Long Beach" Executive Director Scott Jones says the 501(c)(3) group's board members are Adam Ferry, Christine Gibson and Ryan ZumMallen. [end update] The "Long Beach Community Foundation" 501(c)(3)'s boardmembers listed on its website at this link include (among others) retired LB Mayor Bob Foster, retired Councilman Gary DeLong (board chair), Bob Stemler (attorney with Keesal, Young & Logan law firm) and Economic Development Commission member Randal Hernandez. [end update]

LBREPORT.com learned that the LB police department sent an email blast encouraging recipients to attend one of the events staged at the city's four police substations. The city's Library Department promoted the event on its website and multiple branch libraries had tables set up (and we attended one of them.)

The Gazettes and Long Beach Press Telegram (corporately co-owned, separately run) carried stories previewing the event. The Gazettes headlined its story: "Citywide Conversation About How To Make Long Beach Better"; the PT's headline to an abbreviated version of the story was "Long Beach to host citywide conversations Saturday; here’s how to attend."

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[Sept 25 update] "We Love Long Beach" Exec. Dir. Jones says they estimate roughly 300 citywide tables with between 2,500-3,000 participants. [end update]

On event day, the event website displayed a Google-map with icons displaying locations for planned events. The first location to which we went was an ELB home where we learned the event was canceled due to a family member's illness. A few hours later, we went to an event at the El Dorado branch library where event facilitator Betty had a table prepared in a library meeting room with refreshments waiting...and we were the first person to show up. A few minutes later, a library patron (Angela) walked in after learning of the event while at the library to check out a book. A few minutes later, man (Rich) arrived after learning of the event via the Library's website.

Facilitator Betty deftly handled the meeting, explained that she graduated from St. Anthony High School in the late 1940s and her husband had been an LBPD officer. Betty said she remains active today as leader of the El Dorado Book Club ("Literacy for a Better Life") and effectively communicated her love for Long Beach. She displayed a detailed, first-person knowledge of decades of Long Beach history, and spoke (sometimes critically) about decisions made years ago that affected the city's development and circumstances now. We could have listened to Betty speak for hours. Angela, a CSULB student majoring in Women's Studies and pursuing her teaching credential, listened intently and at one point thoughtfully remarked that unlike in the past, the cost of housing in Long Beach has now become very expensive. Rich suggested letting homeless persons use vacant land along Spring St.(west of Orange Ave. and near PCH at the L.A. River) where volunteers might offer them haircuts and other services, and leave them alone if they want to be left alone.

When we learned that other LB libraries were hosting tables, we quickly made phone calls to check their turnout. The Burnett branch library said the event (with two persons scheduled to attend) was canceled...but other branches reported respectable turnouts: The Los Altos branch library reported 27 participants. Dana: 15. Bay Shore: 10. Bach: 6. And NLB's Obama branch: 14 (with 9 completing surveys.)

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At late afternoon, we stopped by another ELB home (west of Woodruff, north of Los Coyotes Diagonal) where at its height over a dozen people attended. The event organizer, Theresa, said she'd learned of the event via SoCo [South of Conant] Neighbors, a group with connections to "We Love Long Beach." She took photos of the gathering (requested by organizers) and. with her neighbors, provided more than refreshments; it was a front lawn feast of baked potatoes, salads, meatballs, ice cream and brownies.


So...what did the table's participants like about Long Beach? One said Long Beach is diverse, not "one dimensional" like OC. Several said they like Long Beach's small town atmosphere where people know personally, or know others who know personally, people who range from prominent civic individuals to long-time friendly neigbors, who were school classmates, or have kids who are now school classmates and who share mutual friends and acquaintances. Some said they live in houses previously occupied by their parents; others said they chose to live in the neighborhood because its residents maintained and in many cases improved their post WWII-tract homes.

Several said they like the neighborhood because of its convenience; everything they need is a quick drive away. Some laughed, others shook their heads, when one resident said the City wants people to ride bicycles instead of drive their cars. One woman said she enjoys riding her bicycle very much, but not for shopping and necessary errands. Another resident expressed interest in new businesses coming to Douglas Park and said she recently drove to one of its new restaurants (west of Lakewood Blvd.) but found its parking lot jammed and too small for convenience, so she decided to go to another location of the same restaurant in Los Alamitos. "If I can't find parking, I go somewhere else," she said.

The issue of City Hall plans to increase density came up. Some said they'd heard about it on NextDoor.com or from friends; others didn't know much about it. Those who had heard about it weren't familiar with its governmental wonky details. Those who knew about it weren't pleased about it, and those who hadn't heard about it were likewise displeased when they learned about it. Nearly all said they hadn't heard about it from city officials.

As it was getting dark, we didn't wait to see how many of the participants filled out a survey: a four page document with 31 questions in two columns of questions per page with multiple possible responses for most questions. The survey is administered by the University of Chicago's Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement, and the survey form said completing the survey was voluntary; responses would be kept confidential with no personally identifiable data reported; the LB Community Foundation would have access to the participant's email address but not to individual responses; and the study's results will be made publicly available online.

Among the questions (in many cases paraphrased below):

  • Which best describes your most important reason(s) for participating in Around the Table?
  • Did you know or not know people at your conversation?
  • Did you raise an issue of concern regarding your community?
  • Did your conversation(s) generate any specific solutions?
  • How likely are you to take specific actions or next steps regarding an issue or solution discussed (and a follow up question: what actions or steps are you likely to take?)
  • How much impact do you think people like you can have in making your community a better place to live?
  • Which of the following social issues are most important to you? (Choose up to three: Arts and Culture, Economic Issues and Poverty, Education and Youth Development, Environment and Parks, Religion and Morals, Equity and Social Inclusion, Family, Food Access, Government, Health, Housing and Homelessness, Immigration and Migration, Public Safety and Judicial System, the Media, Technology, Transportation or other (three blanks.)
  • How often do you vote in local elections for Mayor or school board?
  • How often (ranging from every day or never) do you get information about your local community from each of the following, whether online or offline: local newspaper; local TV news; local radio; a local blog; a person or group you follow on a social networking site; a local newsletter or email listserv, or word of mouth from friends, family, co-workers and neighbors?
  • What is your highest level of education?
  • What year were you born?
  • What's your race or ethnicity?
  • What's your relationship to the LB Community Foundation (funder, grantee, volunteer, attended previous event, not heard of them before Around the Table)?
  • What is the one most important problem facing Long Beach?
  • How can you best help address this problem?
  • With whom would you like to work to address this problem (select all that apply: foundations (grant-making groups), nonprofits, schools, government, neighborhood groups, religious institutions, residents, I don't know or other)
  • To help "We Love Long Beach" understand the interests in your community, what group(s) would you be interested in joining (arts/crafts, block parties; groups for books, or cooking or gardening or kids play; movie nights, pet groups; groups for sports, walking/running or yoga or other.)

[LBREPORT.com comment: We're surprised that the researchers didn't ask if the survey respondent is a local government official or a family member. (We know that some attended the events.) Or whether they're a City of LB employee in some other capacity. We're not suggesting such respondents shouldn't respond, but we believe their responses could skew the results and at minimum should have been identified so they can be culled out and reported (as a class, not as individuals.) Why isn't it relevant to know if the respondent is part of or has ties to a government entity whose policies residents may feel are part of the community's problem(s) and not their solutions?]

That said, we found the event on some levels worthwhile personally. We would likely never have met El Dorado library table facilitator Betty, a treasure trove of local history. We might not have heard ELB residents articulate at length, in very clear personal terms, their deep attachment (in some cases decades) to their neighborhood snd why they want it protected and preserved.

We also note that the same El Dorado library meeting room that drew two "Around the Table" participants had a standing-room-only crowd of over sixty people (by our count) eight days earlier (Sept. 17) to discuss formation of a new ELB neighborhood group spanning the 4th and 5th Council districts, initially spurred to action over residents' concerns over proposed increased density.

If you attended one of the "Around the Table" events, please do share what you saw/heard at your event on LBREPORT.com's Facebook page or via our Disqus comment system below.


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