Now you must understand that so far not one high-ranking official in LB has issued a statement on this fait accompli development---not its City Manager, Tom Modica, not its mayor, Robert Garcia, not its Health Department czar, Kelly Colopy, not one of its City Council members, not even the President/CEO of the Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, the bespoke suit wearing Steve Goodling.

All these stellar individuals have remained suspiciously silent on the subject even though all these people supposedly represent the best interests of LB residents, of which there are more than a half million living in this city.

Don't these people have a right to know beforehand of what I'm sure will be a controversial, wildly unpopular move that might well have a major impact on downtown Long Beach?

Why has City Hall gone into such an opaque mode?

Is it concerned about the uproar that might ensue among its citizenry about sticking a contingent of undocumented kids into the Long Beach Arena, and/or into a section of the Convention Center itself?

Why all the secrecy?

Oh, there have been articles penned on it, but, significantly, no words of attribution from any City Hall bigwig.

The only quotes have been from unnamed sources, a time-honored journalistic trope that I myself have used on occasion when a person prefers to keep his name out of the public limelight.

But why are Long Beach leaders so concerned about such anonymity?

I think I know the reason.

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They know sticking a contingent of kids in downtown Long Beach certainly wouldn't be a rousing boon for downtown businesses that have suffered so badly the past year from Gavin Newsom's financially-disastrous lockdowns and, of course, from the infamous Memorial Day Plunder & Pillage Festival in which 210 businesses were looted.

They know sticking a contingent of kids in downtown Long Beach certainly might well present serious health concerns in a city that has been so excessively stringent about the dangerous effects of the Coronavirus that it has even shut down its schools the past year and kept its restaurant industry on life support for so much of this harrowing span.

They know sticking a contingent of kids in downtown Long Beach doubtless might be harmful to the long-struggling hotels in the area and certainly not be beneficial to the once thriving convention business that Steve Goodling is now desperately trying to resurrect.

Yet, the muteness now pervading among leaders has been deafening.

You'd think a guy like Steve Goodling would come out and say this is a bad idea for a city reeling from the oppressive governmental intrusions of Covid-19. Yet, Ol' Stevie hasn't even been returning calls and Emails.

I mean, what's going on here?

Which LB leaders---or leader---have been dealing with the Federal officials? Who reached out to whom? How much compensation are the Feds willing to guarantee LB for business losses? How long will these kids remain in LB?

On the latter question, some people say it won't be longer than a couple of months.

But we're dealing with the federal government here, so it might last longer, much longer.

What if the Sports Arena, and/or the Convention Center still is brimming with kids on the weekend of Sept 24-26 when the long-awaited return of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is scheduled?

I'm sure they'll be gone by then, but what if they aren't?

It's quite evident that the Long Beach political panjandrums have been quite amenable to the Feds' overtures.

But shouldn't there have been some sort of public debate on such a divisive issue.

I've been told that an announcement is forthcoming soon.

Great.

It's good to know the august Long Beach City Council, whose members are deservedly known in this space as the 9 Unworthies, are on top of this situation.

Natch, not one has been quoted on it, but you just know that each has spent hours doing thorough research on it.

For sure, our City Council members will only do what's good for Long Beach, as they've shown so often in slashing police budgets and raising city taxes and "loaning" $5 million to the money-hemorrhaging Aquarium of the Pacific whose outgoing president of this fine non-profit organization pulled down more than $500,000 last year before recently scurrying off to retirement where God knows how scandalously inflated his pension will be.

All for the good of their Long Beach constituents.

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