Please plan on attending tonight’s meeting to voice your concerns.  The Long Beach City Council meets at 5PM at City Hall, 333 W. Ocean Blvd in Downtown Long Beach.

For more information, please visit the City of Long Beach website: http://www.longbeach.gov/

Read the Eakins/Press Telegram Story Here:
http://www.presstelegram.com/search/ci_10260404

Now the Press-Telegram Editorial Board has taken a position in favor of the Mentally Ill Homeless Center in Friday, August 22nd’s edition in its main OpEd Feature:
http://www.presstelegram.com/opinions/ci_10270021

While we welcome the exchange of ideas presented by the Press-Telegram and the free publicity the newspaper is providing us, we need to set the record straight.

Councilmember Gerrie Schipske made the motion to place a Mentally Ill Homeless facility 384 feet from the Art and Craft Manor neighborhood in the 5th District.  She did so after briefly reviewing staff recommendations and without the benefit of a public hearing from the community.

If not Councilmember Schipske, then who should be the person most responsible for this project advancing to this stage?

We at Neighborhoods First are a non-partisan political action and information organization dedicated to protecting and improving Long Beach neighborhoods. We are a broad-based, citywide organization with members from every council district and represent the views of all parts of our city.  We are not a narrow, single-issue group.

We encourage all Long Beach neighborhood residents to pay close attention to this latest controversy.  Tomorrow, your neighborhood may be next to be sacrificed on the alter of political expediency.

The City’s need for a new police station doesn’t have to mean the destruction of a safe, vibrant neighborhood. 

Mike Kowal,
Neighborhoods First

New develoments in the Schroeder Hall Army Reserve base at Willow and Grand are listed below:

http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_9713988

 Homeless center still on the table
LONG beach: A project that many believed had been scrapped hasn’t found another location.
Article Launched: 06/26/2008 10:25:49 PM PDT

LONG BEACH - A proposed mental services center for the homeless in East Long Beach isn’t necessarily off the table, despite an announcement at a recent City Council meeting to the contrary, a city official said.
Officials also have rejected a list of alternative locations to the controversial homeless services site near the Schroeder Hall Army Reserve Center at Willow Street and Grand Avenue, according to a letter sent this week by Community Development Director Dennis Thys to City Manager Patrick West and members of the City Council.
Schroeder Hall is slated to close in 2011, and in order to use the property, the city must follow strict federal rules that require former military bases be used for homeless assistance.
Under the city’s original plan, the Long Beach Police Department’s East Division substation was to be relocated to the 4.73-acre Schroeder Hall site. Across the street, a 1-acre city-owned lot next to the Department of Health and Human Services at Grand Avenue and Barnett Street was to become the homeless assistance center.
Although no housing for the homeless was planned at the site, and clients reportedly would be shuttled in and out to receive service, the proposal sparked outrage among nearby residents.
Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske of the 5th District, where the site is located, announced at a June 10 council meeting that the homeless service provider that had been chosen to run a program there, Mental Health America, had agreed to look for alternative locations.
But while many opponents of the original plan left that meeting with the impression that the project had been scrapped, Thys said Thursday that isn’t necessarily the case.
“The plan that was approved by the City Council was for the Grand Avenue site,” Thys said. “Until we can find an alternative site, that’s still the plan.”
Activist group Neighborhoods First, which had organized neighbors to pressure the city to rethink the project, gave officials a list of 70 possible alternative sites.
But in his letter, Thys says that none of the sites is viable. Twenty-six locations are at city parks or are zoned for future park expansion, another 15 are zoned exclusively for airport development, and others face problems such as being used for port activities, being on school campuses or even being outside of the city limits entirely, the letter says.
“Those were just supplemental for the city,” said Joe Sopo, vice-chairman of Neighborhoods First. “I’m sure the city was already aware of those locations. We have faith in the city that they will find an alternative location.”
Thys said city staff is working with Mental Health America to identify other possible sites, but that this isn’t the first time the city has done so.
“We did spend nine months looking at alternative locations prior to this, so it’s not an exercise that we’ve not pursued,” Thys said.
Officials with Mental Health America didn’t return phone calls seeking comment Thursday.
Thys still defended the original plan.
“Despite what some people have been saying, it is in fact located in an industrial area, it doesn’t have a direct impact on the residential community,” Thys said. “The site has a buffer, which is the proposed police substation.”
If a substitute site is found, then the police substation is still expected to be able to open at Schroeder Hall. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and then the Army, must approve the city’s plan for it to proceed.
However, if the city gets bogged down by the search for a new site and doesn’t submit its proposal to HUD, or doesn’t include homeless assistance in it, then the Army could create its own plan for Schroeder Hall. That would mean residents and city officials would have little say in what is built there.
But whether the city can find a new location within this densely populated city - one that won’t raise the ire of a new set of neighbors - remains to be seen.
“We’re gonna watch them,” Sopo said. “We don’t expect it to be on Burnett Street, and we don’t expect it to be in another neighborhood.”

Come to our second meeting about the proposed Homeless Center at

Buffum Elementary School - 2350 Ximeno Avenue

Wednesday, April 30

6:30 PM — 8:30 PM

For more information please E-MAIL: info@lbneighborhoodsfirst.org

or  PHONE: (562)-595-8865

I only hope that I can get some support to convince the City/LB Housing
Development Company to buy the property, rehab it and turn it into senior housing.
This property is the perfect solution for seniors who cannot climb stairs to live and is a solution rid the neighborhood of blight.  

In 2000 South Wrigley NAG was just a little neighborhood watch group and was then called the Neighborhood Action Group.  In 2002 we wanted to do more and did not want to be limited under a neighborhood watch; so we changed our name to the South Wrigley Neighborhood Advisory Group (still NAG).  Our Advisors were Teresa Gomez of Neighborhood Services, who taught us how to get things done, and together with Margaret Madden also of Neighborhood Services, assisted in the “teaching” process.  We were able to learn how to get things done through the tireless tutoring by these ladies.

I am pleased to inform you that after 5+ years, the South Wrigley Neighborhood Advisory Group has succeeded!  After all the hard work behind the scenes of all involved, including Rita Hooker, the West Division and Cristyl Meyers of the City Attorney’s office, the City Council voted on April 22 to revoke the business license of the Princess Inn located at 1879 Magnolia Ave. and it will be shut down!  It was a great collaboration of residents and the City Departments to make things happen.

The Princess Inn has been a long time nuisance.  Please read the backup material on Hearing No. 1 on April 22, 2008 council agenda for the background of these issues.
NAG identified this as a problem location in the year 2000, at the very same time Henderson was identified as a problem.  We rose to the challenge of Chief Batts to assist the LBPD in identifying the problems in the neighborhood and work with the Police. 

Through the tenacity of the members of South Wrigley NAG, Rita Hooker, LBPD West Division, Cristyl Meyers of the City Attorney’s Office and with the assistance of the 6th District Council Office, this is another huge success for the neighborhood.
 
Things may take a long time, but this has been a great year for getting things done. First the Henderson problem apartments - 1950 and 1960 Henderson - were bulldozed, and now the Princess Inn will also be gone.

It certainly is a red letter day for this little South Wrigley neighborhood!!

Councilwoman Gerrie SchipskeLast Chance for SEADIP COMMENTS

Greetings!This is the last chance to submit comments on the South East Area Development Improvement Plan (SEADIP) survey.  Please join me on  Monday, April 7, 2008, at 6:30 p.m. for a SEADIP meeting to be held in the Emerson Elementary Auditorium, 2625 Josie Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90815.There will be a presentation from the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, and  city staff will be accepting comments from those in attendance.  Please note that March 31, 2008, is the deadline to submit comments on-line.Please visit the SEADIP web page for additional information and/or to take the online survey.  http://www.longbeach.gov/plan/pb/apd/special_studies/seadip.asp

The City of Long Beach has begun a process to update the specific zoning plan for the far southeast area of the city.  This is the area bounded roughly by 7th St. on the north, the county line on the south, Marine Stadium on the west, and the San Gabriel River on the east.  The old plan, the Southeast Area Development and Improvement Plan (SEADIP) was drawn up about 30 years ago.Since that time the original concept of the planners for mostly low-rise development with water views and emphasis on preserving and restoring the wetlands has been overridden several times by individual variances, with unsatisfactory results.  What is more, not all of the area now considered part of SEADIP was included in the plan, and some provisions conflict with the California Coastal Act.  For example, the building on any part of the wetlands is likely to be rejected, especially when considering the loss of so many wetlands since the original SEADIP was written.

Click the Planning tab; then, under Information, click Special Studies where the SEADIP plan is the last choice.  You can look at the city’s PowerPoint video, read the original SEADIP, read completed surveys, and take the survey yourself.  And if you have concerned friends and neighbors, please ask them to participate in the survey as well.For the wetlands,

Mary Parsell, President
Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust