Speaker 1: Yes. I'm going to move that item 25.
Speaker 0: Report from Parks, Recreation and Marine recommendation to receive and file a report on approaches to Park Equity in the city of Long Beach Citywide. All right.
Speaker 1: Councilwoman Gonzalez, you want to speak on this?
Speaker 0: Actually, we can go to public. I'm sorry. We'll have the staff report first, and then we can go to public comment and then we'll go from there. Thank you.
Speaker 9: Thank you. Vice mayor councilmembers. We this is a report that.
Speaker 4: We've been working on for some time right now. I know our new director, HURTADO Mowatt, has been working closely to prepare something, and he's going to make that presentation tonight. So I'm going.
Speaker 9: To turn it over to Harlow.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 9: I mean. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Good evening, Vice Mayor and City Council. My presentation today is called Long Beach's Strategy towards Equity in Park Services or Steps for Short. This is an approach that will incorporate innovative strategies and incorporate a new prime strategic plan. In March, when I received a recruitment flier for the position of Director of Parks, Recreation and Marine Department, I began doing my research. I was excited about the possibility of serving the Long Beach community. I started I started my explore on my exploring the park equity issue on June 18, 2018, when I began my job as your PRM Director. I thoroughly reviewed the July 18, 2017 and the February 20th, 2018 City Council discussions on Park Equity. I took notes and began talking to a lot of folks about the best approach based on best practice and to be responsive to this issue. I began exploring parks, beaches, neighborhoods, people, nonprofits and of course, the occasional restaurant or two, because we all have to eat. It has been fascinating so far these first few months and a great deal of fun. To give you a taste of my exploration experience, I selected six parks across the city to help explain the contexts of the steps approach, which goal is to help advance the development of an efficient and effective Long Beach park system. Here's a quick review of these parks. Silverado Park with 10,000. 10,081 people living within a half mile radius of this park. Cesar Chavez Park in thousand, 500 people living within a half mile radius of its center. MacArthur Park with an amazing density of 25,228 people within a half mile radius of the park. Eldorado Park West with 3566 people surrounding the park. Keeping in mind that there's a lot of open space from the center moving out. Long Beach greenbelt with 8352 people surrounding it and. Highland Park with 10,800 people, 805 people surrounding it. A park system for all. And these parks that you just saw along with the other 165 parks, beaches and prime centers make up one park system , a park system for all, a system that can be strengthened when we apply creative solutions to remove barriers to benefit and serve the whole community. The coordinates key to successfully navigating through Long Beach strategies towards equity in park services path known as steps are. Access. How to get from a particular neighborhood to a primary source a or a primary source B? This is where different types of transportations will fall in place. Equity, fairness, challenges can be structural, historical or appear today or tomorrow. Having Fair Parks and Recreation. Having a fair parks and recreation system means removing barriers in a way that makes sense strategically for the benefit of the functionality of one park system. Going green. Forces that pollute, contaminate or negatively impact our environment can unite the community and come up with creative ways to mitigate. Inspiration and creativity, empathy and sympathy towards others, and a quest in leveraging beneficial opportunities for winning solutions to improve PRM services. This helps come up. This helps us come up with feasible outside of the box possibilities that otherwise would not be noticed. Inclusive community engagement. Getting to know people, their preferences, their culture, their ambitions, and using this information for creative programing and design of projects is an important driving navigational force. Effective, effective communication. Use the tools available or create new to be more effective in communication and use different languages used in the community. These are driving forces that helps us explore the Long Beach community and become guides for the steps approach. These efforts must be tested in a reality based, balanced approach to ensure effectiveness and efficiency. This is something we have started. Not something for tomorrow. The intent is to walk the talk today. The mayor and city council did walk the talk with their approval of the fiscal year 19 budget. That included. $100,000 for adding additional senior services. $200,000 for continuing the Be Safe program. $70,000 to launch the PRM strategic planning effort. It's not just the budget and but an investment in the direction of the department. PRM will be piloting new innovative ways for enhancing team programing at and Hampton and McBride Parks and $40,000 to launch the strengthening of prime volunteer operations. Since February and even before I started Prime gone to work in the following added contract classes such as karate, basketball, resume writing, interview skills, Zumba, reading and math, enhanced water exercises and ceramic classes in in the past spring and summer season at recreation facilities that had recently not experienced these types of classes. Content redesign of the of the Recreation Connection catalog has been started in this current fall issue. We added eight pages of free base classes for this fall brochure and will only get better as we continue to publish these issues. Continued Arts partnership with the musical Theater West for Youth and Seniors is another example of partnership efforts. Outdoor experience enhancement is important for our youth. And and there's so much more as well. As mentioned previously when I joined Prime, I immediately started exploring parks, beaches and existing social networks around neighborhoods. I see this type of work as as foundational for the preparation of the launch of a more targeted community engagement effort to develop a vibrant prime strategic plan that will be launched in more in a formal in a more formal way in January. Also thanks to the City Council for supporting a new component in the Prime Department structure to help increase capacity to assess community needs. Grants. Grant Development. Effectiveness. Part Planning and partnership development. The Steps approach will not ignore any of the components of the department. The goal is one department, one culture. Animal Care Services is going through its own review, led by the quest to develop a strategic plan as it continues to serve the needs of the community, listens to leadership direction and gets ready for the appointment of a new bureau manager. Facilities and ground maintenance are key components of the department's mission. The department appreciates its increased capacity for landscape work and money to irrigate more and is exploring best practices for piloting weed control methods. Beaches, boat slips and beach water quality adds to our One Direction quest to make community conditions more livable. Thank you for the added capacity to use new technologies to help with trash that reach our waters from the flow of the two rivers are unifying force. Will be a focus on respect and responsiveness, which is key for step success. Collaboration is an important word, but it's also an important way to work. Not easy, but more long lasting because of the ability to get a larger net of resources to align citywide for greater impact. Not so much an economy of scale as much as an ecology of scale. This is similar to a healthy watershed system helping the flora and fauna of the region. I mention here a lot of our city departments that we're collaborating with, and it is an amazing ecosystem, very similar to the watershed system. An important component of the steps alignment with all the city efforts is the focus on making sure that this very this very diverse city is served well. Partners of Parks. And PRM are aligning together to strengthen their respective missions. It is a creative tag team that yields scholarships, enrich classes and support of friends of groups and so much more. Our efforts to create a strong partnership to enhance parks, programs and services will identify how best people and organizations can help develop a vibrant one park system for all. Our goal here is to advance opportunities for our work on sustainable environment, urban agriculture, workforce development, arts and culture. Community awareness through local history. Exploration. Healthy lifestyles and livability. Resources. Key in these efforts is our collaboration with both higher education, K-12 schools and sports organizations. Collaboration with education, businesses, nonprofits and individuals in these efforts will expand the capacity to make sure the park system strives for complete functionality for a diverse city. The potential for the community benefit return is huge. The steps suffrage sets the foundation for a successful 2020 prem strategic plan. Inclusive community engagement is the lever that leads to data analysis that goes from neighborhood specific to broader variables of healthy and functional one park system. This will allow this will allow us to be more competitive in grants and partnerships to be effective in this way. We need to increase our ability to communicate effectively with a diverse community. This requires creativity, cultural sensitivity, and multi-language abilities. Creative ways to heighten the awareness of transportation options is one example. With this evolution, PRM staff will be able to be more supportive to event and program development so that these events and services align with the one park system that serves all. It is hard to envision a sustained effort in this direction without the heightened awareness in the importance of respect and responsiveness. So these values are key. Steps is a solution approach that leverages the strength of diversity, whether it's 0 to 5 age, the in-between ages before you get to your eighties and nineties are sensitivities to unique attributes of groups, whether variables are economic, educational, cultural related to disabilities, gender based lifestyle or racial. The approach has to take all these diverse wealth attributes into consideration. From. A gazebo is the most famous, iconic structure for parks. It comes from the word to gaze. From any Long Beach, Park, Beach or recreational facility. Our goal is for any community person to be able to figuratively gaze through the one park system and choose what best experience will delight that person and add to the collective citywide joy of a strong, livable community. I really want to thank all of the following for helping get to this point on for this plan. The Long Beach neighborhood groups and the residents, the mayor and city council, the city manager and all the other city departments, the PRM, executive team management and staff, Parks and Recreation Commission, the partners of Parks Interpark and the Interdepartmental Park Equity Change Team and the local nonprofit organizations.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
Speaker 9: I the last slide I just want to mention this is a picture of the all city beach day. Not only does it create memories for Long Beach youth from across the city, it's also a great symbol of what steps is all about. I'm excited. I'm excited about this beginning and look forward to more to come.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Councilwoman Gonzalez.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
Speaker 0: Yes. First and foremost, I really want to thank you, Heraldo, and all of your park staff. I know Stephen, who is interim director. Meredith, who's with you and many of our park and Rec staff members, if we can give them a big round of applause for their work here in the city. And I'm just personally very grateful because this has been a long time coming. And I'm very I just will say very succinctly that I'm very excited about the direction this Park equity item has now taken and evolved into. It started some time ago, and I'm glad we finally got it right, from what I understand and what I'm seeing here. And I really appreciate the effort that has been put in from all of your from yourself being new to the city, but also from your your staff members. So, you know, when I brought this forward some time ago, this was not to say who has something, who does not, but it was really just to look at the systemic issue that I feel has been in our park system. And it may not be inherently apparent to everybody. But, you know, when we represent some of us represent areas that have a lack of programing, have had a lack of we have more dense neighborhoods and maybe have the same services as everybody else. And so it looks like a lack of programing oftentimes. And oftentimes it is, especially when you compound that with high poverty rates in some areas and high unemployment rates. So I don't do this because I want to, you know, say one place has something and one place doesn't. But I just want to detail the fact that this is it's a really important issue. Not only to me, it was I was elected to to do this, but to many of the families and community members who are here today, and I think many of our first district residents for being here from Craftsman and Willmar and North Pine and the seniors at the many various places in downtown, I really think them for being here as well as our park commissioners. I've talked in length with many of them, Margot Morales and David Sonata, and I've chatted with Stella, Ursula and Maria La Salgado, who is our first district representative. I appreciate them as well as our Karen reside from Partners of Parks. I appreciate the collective input. So a few things I will say about this. I think, again, it's a great step forward. It's a great job that we've done on this report. And I would like to add that and I know we have the data analysis that we've we've mentioned, but I just want to point out in terms of data analysis and what we've talked about in the past and where this sort of stemmed from it was the lack of contract classes for a multitude of reasons. And we know that the contract classes are based on zip code, from what I understand. And so I'd still like to see and I'm sure you're already looking at this data on resident zip codes so we can see exactly where residents are coming going in our park system. For example, I attended because I wanted to try it out with my toddler. I went to a park I'm sorry, a cooking class in Eldorado Park. And I asked most of the there were probably about ten families there. And I asked the families I said, where are you guys from? Just want to know. They had no idea who I was, right? So I'm like completely blank slate and most of them were from the West Side or central Long Beach. So thinking about Eldorado Park, you're in from West Side, Central Long Beach. Maybe we should have cooking classes there. Or just like I mentioned before, if we have a high unemployment area and a pocket of 90813, which we know city wide has been an issue, maybe we should have resume classes there. And I know we understand that, which is great and I'm looking forward to seeing that come to fruition. Just some things to highlight before I will ask for support on moving this forward and thinking you again for your work. So the department's strategic plan and what we see here and communication, I think are great efforts and I look to continue supporting those efforts to ensure we create a more equitable plan. And not only that, but just talking about equity a bit more, because I think, to be honest, I think you're the first director that's we're laughing here. But it's great because you've said both equity and community benefits, which has been a mainstay of this council for some time. So we appreciate that. And the created creativity around positioning park programing as the beneficiary of the coastal zone permitting process, I think that is a really creative way that we could look at in funding gaps for programs. Lastly, the Peps program, which I know partnerships which has been big with Council Woman Mango, she's brought up multiple times adopting a park and talking about how do we streamline the process for nonprofits citywide. You know, all of our council districts somewhere along the line, many community organizations are the ones oftentimes activating our parks, whether it's yoga classes or whether it's whatever it might be, summer and music classes. Those organizations are doing the work and we have to just decrease the red tape and in issues that they have when they want to come to our. And hold a workshop or conduct these activities. So anything we can do to continue doing that work I'm completely supportive of and I appreciate it's been indicated here in the report. Other than that, I just I look forward to my colleagues questions, ideas, if you'd like to make this more robust. But again, I think our Parks and Rec staff and are on our team for really moving forward with this. Thank you again.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Congresswoman Gonzalez, Councilman Brice?
Speaker 6: Yes, I also as Councilmember Gonzalez mentioned, when you said community benefits and when you said equity, I think it just really shows how much we've changed as a city. And the fact that we've talked about it a lot and to have directors talk about it I think is wonderful. Your presentation did a wonderful job about showing the greenspace that is in each area and also how many people live near those areas. So I think that that is that density is a key issue. I want to say that I really like the approach of a one system which I know is challenging with a city of our size and highlighting that, yes, we have a cooking class in one area and maybe we need another one in a second area. But also that that conversation around how do we get people down to our sailing classes, you know, how do we look at this as one whole system while also tailoring needs to each area based on poverty needs. And so I really appreciate that you have done a job of highlighting every single aspect that comes in contact with our parks from from youth to seniors. And the fact that it is around the resume building is around jobs, it's around creativity and innovation. And so I was really pleased to see all of those comments throughout this presentation. I am happy, very happy to see that you have on here also a link online for people to donate to our parks system where there's a need. I know that one of the conversations that I've been wanting to have is around how do we get maybe corporate sponsorship? And I'll start saying we're naming a park after them. But, you know, at Bixby Park, where we have so many needs, we do have corporate sponsors that have said, yeah, we would like to come in like Spaulding, and that we don't necessarily have a policy that's in place yet. And I know we haven't taken that up yet, but echoing that with you, I think is really exciting. And I'll just highlight one more time around the memo due process with our friends of the Parks. I know that this is something that you're going to be looking at in the strategic plan, but for those residents that are watching and listening, having an email you that's most transparent, that we have knowledge and access to who the boards are and understanding how much money are they bringing in and where the needs are so that we can really be a partner with them to invest in our parks again, are just thrilled to see a presentation on equity from a director that has has jumped in all the way. Really appreciate you very, very much. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Congresswoman Richardson.
Speaker 7: Thank you, Vice Mayor. So in following this conversation on on equity in our city, I want to concur what I've already heard tonight. I'll raise up two things just quickly in this report. I think we have to address systems, so we need geographic diversity on the Parks Commission with North Long Beach and the lack of open space , you know, 1.1 acres per 10,000 residents, we have to make sure that that area is represented on our Parks and Recreation Commission. And I know that that right now it's the way our policy is set up. There is no geographic requirement. So it's not on the commissioners, but it is on us to acknowledge that, you know, systems do contribute to inequities. So that's number one. Number two, as we move forward in this strategy, I think it's smart for you to infuse equity into your your your Parks and rec strategic plan as discussed. But I'd like to see some measurable, like tangible measurables that help us understand which needles we're specifically looking to move. How can I take this to my residents and say and boil it down to what this means? Does this mean that we're going to receive more access to contract classes? Does this mean that we're it's going to be a more equitable distribution of, you know, resources to develop more open space opportunities? Does this mean that we're going to, you know, direct our work to identifying grants and resources to move the needle a bit? That's what we want to understand. What are some tangible things that we can, some tangible measurements that we can track as we move forward. But that said, I think this is really important work. I think Councilwoman Gonzalez and everyone who's been a part of this conversation and. Our staff in the office equity. And I look forward to future iterations of what's to come. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Next counts among all players.
Speaker 2: Yes. I want to thank the Parks Rec team for all their work on this. I know that you guys have spent a considerable amount of time over the last few weeks. I appreciate the number of meetings that you've been willing to have with me and my residents and the friends of groups. A couple of things. I appreciate the need for additional park space. It's always great to do that. I think that as we bring that park space online, we have to talk about where is the money to maintain it come from. Because what we have not done is maintain our parks. And one of the things that I want to make sure is measurable in our strategic plan is what is the level of park system of maintenance that we expect to deliver to our community? Because what we don't want to do is just have a new park of the week. And then right now everyone from all over the city is rushing to the eighth District because they have the coolest new park. But as that park gets desegregated over time, what funds are available to make sure that it's maintained? There are lots of mechanisms in place for starting new parks. There's a fund for that. But as you do that, if your park abatements budget is X and you've added. 20% more parks and you haven't added 20% more maintenance funding. And then you have a. A drought and now you need 30% more water. That's where we ended up last year. And so I don't want to see us in those positions. I think we need to start thinking about reserves for our parks as well, so that in certain years, as we have good years of there's lots of water that perhaps we set somebody aside that could only be used in a year that has a drought year or things like that. Then finally, I just want to say that. The communication is a huge part of it. What Councilman Gonzales mentioned is something that I've known since the first month I was on the job when I was elected in June of 2014. I quickly was invited to pop water and soccer and all the different groups. And a majority of the kids in the programs on the East Side are not from the east side, but a majority of the park space is on the east side, so people have to commute to get there. We have to do a much better job of linking our parks through our our bus system. I know that when my brother was was a youth, he was actively a part of the bus system. And that wasn't something that my mom learned about until my parents got divorced. And we had to be able to move around the city and get to soccer practice and get to these places. And now I was a kid learning the bus system and. A lot of the routes are not conducive to getting the people where they need to go. They're conducive to maybe getting people to the jobs they have, which is great and important. But we have to talk about all three levels of systems. If all the seniors live here and all the senior program, be this here, we either need to move the senior programing and then communicate that to the people because a lot of where people know where to enroll comes from tradition. So often I was talking to the North Long Beach Pap Water Group. I help them fundraise that I go to their events and they've always practiced in El Dorado Park, even though they're the North Long Beach Pap Water Group. And so they came to me and said, we need better maintenance of these parks because this is where we're practicing. The parks on our side of town are actually in better condition. But the the tradition of where you get your park permit has been the tradition for so long. Your first right of refusal of the certain fields is what it is. And so we have to talk about that. And most importantly, we need to talk about rest. We need to have passive park, space and park rest regularly because the playability of parks over time is segregated by the amount of use. And I think that you've addressed all of these in your park plan. I look forward to continuing to support resources. And then just as a final component to Councilman Pearce has called it, the Pep's program is for sponsorship. So if Spaulding wants to do that now, that is available. The policy was passed by this council 18 to 24 months ago. We just need to have that person on board who will work with Poppy, the Parks Rec Department in the commission, and kind of facilitate it. So if there's a contact person at a specific park in mind, I know that a couple of them have bubbled up, but they just haven't made it to the forefront. And so I think that those times are here and now and and I think that as we talk about what these things cost, similar to the way in which you can do something at the library, you should absolutely be able to name a soccer field or a baseball field for a designated amount of time. For a designated amount of money. And that money should be proportional to what it costs to maintain it at a level that you'd want your team name on it. And an example of that is right now, the Kings are going to be refurbishing a space for us in the city, and we're very lucky for that. But the Kings to put their name on something, what's a certain level of a field? They're going to be paid for the resurfacing to do that, and we need more and more partners to be able to step up and do that. Target has been producing lots of commercials about it online. Get on the phone, call Target and tell them we want a soccer field named after Target and we want them to refurbish it. Long Beach, because those are creative ways to continue to support our park programs. So once again, thank you to our commissioners. Thank you to our staff, thank you to our management team. And I really appreciate this moving forward and the extensive effort that's been put in.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilwoman Mungo comes when I say.
Speaker 7: Thank you very much and thank you of Mr. Mowat for a very comprehensive presentation. I think this is this is great work and we certainly I think we're taking steps in the right direction. I, for one, appreciate how this conversation has evolved about park equity. Didn't start out so, so civil. I was it was a lot of uncertainty around it. But like I said, I'm glad that we're headed in the right direction in terms of the decorum as well as is the approach. I think this is a this is a comprehensive approach that takes into consideration just about everything I to represent a district at a programing. It was evident and made evident in the last of Parks Recreation, a marine report on on equity. I still have a great deal of poverty in my district and particularly in North Long Beach communities. And however, I'm very thankful of the strides that have been made recently. To add greenspace in North Long Beach, dozens of acres of greenspace and investment in parks upgrades in the district. And I think that that also needs to be balanced out and considered. You know, we talk about new parks, we talk about green space. You know, not not every park needs to be programed. And I recognize that I said it here before. You know, there are parks that we have that, you know, if you try to program them, you're going to have a problem with the neighbors. You know, so one size doesn't necessarily fit all here. And so I do give a great deal of discretion and credence to the professionals who are who run our parks. The last time I checked and I will say this, our parks are still winning. Our Parks Recreation Marine Department is still winning awards on a national level for the delivery of services on and on and on again. And that's because we have awesome partners. And I love the fact that we are talking about, you know, continuing to build and leverage the partnerships that we have, partners of parks. I know there's some some exciting things happening with that data support organization. And I saw something here that really jumped out at me looking at partners, partnering with Colombia's unified school district. And I think that is certainly in line with the the the aims, the goals of this this this council, as we have recently, you know, we generated the Joint Use Committee with Long Beach Unified. And we'll certainly be discussing these items on the agenda, you know, with with the with our Long Beach Unified Partners as well. I think engaging neighborhood groups and adopting parks is is right where we need to be. And and making sure, like you said, this comprehensive approach engages everybody and takes into account and to our entire population, including, of course, most importantly, our youth, but but also our senior citizens who who contribute so greatly to the city. So I'm actually looking forward to this. As I understand it, this is a strategic approach. This is a beginning, right, of a process that will will engage several community stakeholders and partners. And a plan will come back to us at a later date. Correct. Thank you very much. I just wanted to make sure we were clear.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Councilman. I assume Councilman Supra, now.
Speaker 4: Thank you. And to staff, thank you for an excellent report. Really enjoyed it. The only downside was the fourth district parks were included in it. So I'd like to make a request right now, and that is if you want to just deliver it from the fourth District Office. And that is I'd like to see a crunched the numbers on AWS of a park the corner of 14th and Zaba. I think those.
Speaker 9: Density numbers will probably rival MacArthur Park. 90804 is one of the most.
Speaker 4: Dense areas of the city.
Speaker 9: And I mentioned that because. When the numbers get that high and then you have a part that is challenged with access.
Speaker 4: Because of any variety of issues, then it's a double whammy. Then you have more people not being able to get to that park. So I would like to kind of address things that that very basic level. We had a situation at Whaley Park.
Speaker 9: When Cal State Long Beach changed their parking policy for.
Speaker 4: Freshmen. Suddenly, the students.
Speaker 9: Parked all around the park 24 seven over.
Speaker 4: The weekend and everything, and suddenly not only the neighbors couldn't get to the park, but we talk about that factor of people coming from the west side or the east side, and there was no place to park. Very simple solution we put into our parking bingo in a problem. So I'm looking at for some simple solutions where we have issues that are preventing the neighbors from utilizing the park. And I would love to see.
Speaker 9: PRM involved in that process. We have PD, we.
Speaker 4: Have homeless outreach. We have the city prosecutor's office. But really, PRM is kind of the eyes and ears right there. You have staff.
Speaker 9: There all the time, and.
Speaker 4: I know I'm a little bit off topic here, but the greatest equity programs in the world are of no use if if the residents don't have access to the park. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilman Miranda.
Speaker 8: Thank you, Mayor. And I want to add my my voice to the compliment state. Mr. Miller is receiving care out of the. You're a quick study. Very good. I recall not too long ago where I say you got to stop using the term that you're new to the city, where this report right here shows that you've really made a great effort to go out and see all our parks, make a quick assessment, and determine what needs to be done to ensure that there's equity and equality in all our parks. I'm especially pleased to see that you're looking at creating more opportunities for contract. Contract programs in parks especially are lacking in some of those and some of those areas, such as dance or even the resume writing. So it's it's comprehensive. I'm very glad to see that you jumped right in and you go in hard and and you came up with a report that I think we all can be very, very happy to see because you're headed in the right direction. I think all the comments that I've heard so far from my colleagues is that this is going in a direction that we need to see. Well, one point that I that I missed here earlier and it's fairly new, I guess, and it'll be, I guess, in future reports we're looking at at a new park, if you will, to be activated. Will Springs Park. That's still evolving, as we know, and we're still trying to look at ways to get a a community resource center there, or at least to a reception center there so that people can know what the what the park is all about, its history and and what's available there and walking paths and all that. So, I mean, hopefully in another report, we can look at Will Springs and include that in in this area here, because it's greenspace and it's another opportunity for our residents to enjoy open space. Nature walks, as well as being able to learn a little bit more about the history of Long Beach and why it's called Willow Springs Park. It's a very little known fact there. So I see that we have some members of the Parks Recreation Commission here. Welcome. Glad to see you here. And that shows our support that you have with our Parks, Recreation and Marine Department and the people who work there. And I see that some of the staff is still here. Of course, they probably need to be here. They have to be here to support the director, but that's neither here nor there. But I'm glad to see that you're all here to support this item and to support this report, because I think it's obviously one that's headed in the right direction. And we this is not something that we're going to shelve. I think this needs to be a live document or a living document like this is a terminal we need to use so that it could evolve and and change as we move along and make those changes into our park system to make sure that we address all our needs in the communities. And you're absolutely right. That comes from basically what we were taught. We're about access. And that's that's a big issue with me everywhere and everything that I've done that I do. It's about making sure that our communities have access to all the opportunities that we offer here in the city of Long Beach . So thank you, Mr. Watt, for this report and I'm looking forward to working with you even further as we go, as we move along.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Congressman. Uranium. Councilman, Mongo.
Speaker 2: I thought it was great that one of my colleagues mentioned how aware our new director is of the parks. If you don't already follow him on Facebook and you have not been to all of our parks on a regular basis, he is at a park taking photos of the park, participating in or talking to participants at the parks. I've lived here almost my whole life. That was a quick exception to go away to college and I've been to all of our parks over time, but in such a short amount of time for you to have been to so many parks is very impressive. And then to follow up on something Austin said about the Joint Use Committee, I would love to see us get to a place where Long Beach Unified and the City have a better access policy. I know that right now there's differences between pools and fields and there's lots of opportunities where the principals have the discretion there. Oddly, Park Reservation system is very their online field reservation system is very different than ours. There's no congruency. And so what happens now is we allocate fields based on. A formula and that their allocation of fields is not based on a formula. And so there are winners and losers that we could really prevent if we had a better relationship. And I know that part of the relationships challenge is our on our side related to timing, because the timing of how many fields are needed is based on the timing of when the enrollments are, which really doesn't give us a lot of communication opportunities in that short little window between when we find out how many kids are in each program and when the season starts. And so for that, I look forward to any opportunities and solutions that I know Long Beach is ready and willing to be supportive of that. Understanding that principals change and move regularly. And so that's part of the the complexity of it all. And same with our, our our sister sports system commissioners change regularly as well. So thank you to everyone. Great presentation. And again, thank you, everyone for being here.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Councilman Michael, I first of all, I'd like to just say I'd like to thank Councilwoman Gonzalez to bring this item forward, because in a lot of our communities, our parks are a lifeline. And I just can find that, you know, this is where you go to gather and find out how to get together , come together. And this is what's so important about, you know, our new director here, he and his staff. You guys are very, very hard workers. And I say once this was brought forward, this you he just went all out. And I just want to thank you, because the first time I met this individual, you know, I met him at Vets Park and, you know, and the residents. So I felt even though there was a lot of work to do, I knew we were in the right direction because I'm looking forward to a masterplan citywide for MacArthur's Park, which we've had many conversations about. And I just want to thank you for getting on top of these things so fast. And and you and your staff, you guys are really wonderful. And I want to thank you guys for being so hard, such hard workers and working with the community. We have so many parks and you have such a large responsibility. But thank you again for being so supportive. And with that, the web and the community, I mean by coming.
Speaker 9: Yes. Certainly is a great presentation. The one picture you had up there that showed and I realize it was designed prior to you being there is that building makes sure that is high definition in this case me. But make sure it's an ADA accessible period. Also, it would be best to advise people relative to the waterfront areas. Remember that you do not fish off the company pier. Some people fail to understand that. Even some. Council members had also their full array of services offered by the commendable Parks Department. Psychiatric care is not one of them. So if you if one has some psychiatric problems or if you have a friend that knows one. If you have a friend that needs it, recommend they go and take it to the Health Department. A park facility is no more appropriate than that, than a city council seat being used to tell, you know, somebody to impart their tale of woe and so forth. But overall, absolutely tremendous job and the presentation. And again, given the short time that you've been here.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker.
Speaker 2: Good evening, Vice Mayor. Council members, our new director and the Parks Commissioners. My name is Michelle Aaron Eckhoff. I am the co-chair of Craftsman Village Historic District, and I'm here tonight to speak about park equity for our neighborhood and for all the other neighborhoods in our city that have been underserved. Our little park, Craftsman Village Park, was a dream of our neighborhood about ten years ago. The residents of Pressman Village worked together with our first district council member, who was Bonnie Lowenthal at the time, and then Robert Garcia, and then finally Lena Gonzales and the Parks Recreation Department to create a beautiful park, a park for our neighbors to enjoy. With a very robust effort by parks in writing grants to help fund the project, our park was completed in 2013. For the last two summers, we have been very fortunate to have the financial support of Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez. She provided our park with a summer recreation program for children ages 5 to 12. In addition to this, she partnered with our historic district this summer to provide a movie in the park for all of us to enjoy. Much to our surprise and amazement. We had a very large turnout for this event. Over 110 residents enjoyed a movie under the stars. Families gathered shared company and camaraderie. Create creating a bond that will continue. And I want to go off script just for a moment and say that our last Craftsman Village historic district meeting, we had a record turnout of 30 plus people. And I really feel it's due to the fact that we had that beautiful evening that night, and it brought out more people to that meeting. So it really does have a lasting effect, the effect that continues. Councilwoman Gonzalez provided the funding for the permit for this movie in the park and the insurance. And one of our residents completely donated all of his equipment and expertize to make this a night of pure magic. Gladys Kiser from Parkes helped with the logistics a little bit and we were all set. Overwhelmingly, our residents asked for another such event and regular programing at our park. We are asking our council to support specifically programing at Craftsman Village Park, a regular summer recreation program for our youth, and two movie nights next summer. More broadly, Craftsman Village supports other neighborhoods all across Long Beach who who deserve equal access to a recreation program. Thank you all and goodnight.
Speaker 9: Hello. Good evening, counsel. My name is Jim Danno. I'm here to talk about the new Parks and Rec. Director. Director Monet. I think you've done a fantastic job. And I say this because your actions speak louder than your words. I've seen you at two different events. You've been out serving the parks. And I really, truly believe that you're sincere in wanting to drive home the right direction of parks. And I really appreciate that. I would also commend the Council and what you're doing with partnering with local nonprofits. I think that there's a pool of money out there with different grants that can be reached. And if we can work together, we can help offset some of the costs that the parks are having. Also recently, I am now a card carrying AARP member and I would goldthorpe i would like to see more of senior activities at the parks, not just at senior centers, but things geared towards, you know, older people at the parks. With that being said, I thank you very, very much for what you're doing. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Next video.
Speaker 2: Good evening. Council and vice mayor and Park Staff. Park Commissioners My name is Kathleen Irvine. I'm first district resident and president of Willmar City Heritage Association. The first thing I want to do, of course, is thank Mr. Mowat for his wonderful work.
Speaker 3: I talked.
Speaker 2: To him a number of times.
Speaker 9: And like the.
Speaker 2: Previous speakers and this.
Speaker 9: And the.
Speaker 2: City council, I think that his work and his commitment in such a short period of time is really amazing. It is certainly something I would never have.
Speaker 3: Expected in the past.
Speaker 2: So I'm very surprised and very gratified. I appreciate Councilwoman Gonzales for bringing forth the Park Equity Challenge, and I look forward to working with park staff in improving things. I do not have children here. Most of our board do not. But we recognize the importance of our parks for our youth and that they are involved and have access when they can get in trouble, that there's someplace for them to go. So that's really one of our primary concerns, is that they have things that will assist them in getting jobs and entertaining them and keeping them out of trouble. So thank you, everybody, very much.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Next speaker.
Speaker 2: Good evening. Thank you. Honorable Vice Mayor, council members and director, mouat and all of the parks people who are here tonight. I'm Carol Sergey. I'm vice president of North Pine Neighborhood Alliance. And I live in the First District and I volunteer and care for the raised beds at Cesar Chavez Park that were so lovingly developed by Jim and Kathleen, who were just standing up here. And with the help of my neighbors and with neighbors and kids from the neighborhood, we are doing a great thing at this park. And I also host a weekly potluck lunch there. And I've met neighbors, staff and I enjoy building community there. I've really fallen in love with Cesar Chavez and I can see how important this park is to our neighborhood. The community center is a treasure, but it suffers from what most of our parks, city parks have or experienced broken equipment, lack of maintenance and a lack of programing, services, understaffing being closed on the weekends, a lack of bathroom on weekends, and no recycling program. Our neighborhood is experiencing rapid increases in population without park space that's so badly needed. But we have a rich network of parks in our city that can provide green time for all of Long Beach. And I'm looking forward to working with director Mouat to make all of this much better. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Next week.
Speaker 4: Good evening, Vice Mayor Andrews and City Council members and happy belated Indigenous Peoples Day. My name is Omar Cardenas, a resident of the sixth District and community organizer. With my goals and actions, I'm here to speak in support of the Park Equity Report and in the recommendations put forward. Our vision for a city is to foster a sense of ownership and pride among all our residents, from the youngest to the oldest, where public space is accessible to all and a vibrant energy is felt wherever you go, no matter which council district you live in or where you come from, whether you come from a low income family or an affluent household, everyone deserves the right to have a safe, welcoming and empowering space to go to in their communities that are equitably resource and uplift the needs of those who have the most need. I believe this Council has taken the steps in the right, have taken steps in the right direction to open up more parks and renovate existing ones. However, the reality is that we are a long way from reversing the devastating impacts of discriminatory policies like redlining. They have created intergenerational poverty and low income and working class communities. A study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition has shown that a vast majority of neighborhoods mark hazardous or coded in red and on maps have both by HUD and Homeowners Loan Corporation are much more likely than other areas to comprise of low income minority residents. Other studies show that two thirds of community of residents who live in these neighborhoods are inhabited by mostly black and Latinx families, compared to 91% of green neighborhoods that remain upper middle class income homes today and roughly 85% predominantly white. When putting this into perspective, it is quite alarming to see that from the 2017 Park Equity Report, we continue to see that examples of redlining, maybe it's a stretch, but that some communities are being less invested in than in others. Furthermore, community based organizations like Margaux's In Action and other smaller community based organizations working to access spaces at our parks can be extremely difficult given the burden of costs we often have to carry, in addition to oftentimes the million dollar insurance policies that are required to reserve space at parks, creating barriers to increase our engagement and service in this communities. I want to thank Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez and Director Mowat for championing for bravely championing this Park Equity Report. Their efforts are aligned with priorities of Long Beach residents. As you all know, the Long Beach Long Beach Invest in Youth Campaign recently released a report where over seven seven out of ten Long Beach residents support greater public funding for youth programs. And 78% believe that Moore Park programing should be a top priority for this council. In conclusion, we call on the mayor and the City Council to create more streamlined process for community based organizations to activate park space and prioritize park programing hours in communities that have been historically under invested and families have been asked to unjustly take on the financial burden and unrealistic, unrealistic cost of programs. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
Speaker 0: Good evening, everyone.
Speaker 2: My name is Christine Pettit. I'm an executive director for Long Beach Forward. Our vision for Long Beach is that race and income do not determine one's future. It's a community where everyone is safe, connected and healthy. I really appreciate the leadership of Councilwoman Gonzalez in bringing this item forward initially and continuing this work, as well as the new leadership of our Parks Director taking this on and really reflecting the conversation. I'd also like to encourage a strong collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Equity. As you continue this work and really tonight, I want to encourage us to keep the spirit of the original item going throughout this conversation . In that initial presentation, we saw the disparities in the contract classes. We saw the disparity where you have high rates of unemployment and one in the central area of Long Beach in particular, and other areas in the city, but all the adult enrichment classes being held at Eldorado Park. And so it's really important. I think density is one way of looking at that, who's served, what the needs are. But we really need to keep these other kind of indicators, whether it's the the areas in terms of the zip code, what the employment rate and access to other opportunities are in those areas. And really just to stick to the intention of this item, another important one being streamlining the process, reducing the red tape for community organizations to activate parks and to be involved in the planning process. I was really happy to see items like community engagement and language access as priorities in the Parks Strategic Plan. And I've just seen so many examples, whether it be at MLK Park, MacArthur Park, Admiral Kidd, where there are community residents who are really wanting to make changes and activate those spaces and coming up with a lot of barriers. And so community involvement is very important to make sure that this is part of our process moving forward. Additionally, our organization worked with others to support. We do a lot of community events and I know in one particular instance and there have been several others where we were trying to hold a workshop at a park space and the cost was so prohibitive that we ended up, you know, using a church with no air conditioning in the middle of the summer. It was still packed, but it was not very comfortable. So it's really important that we have programing that's relevant, that's dispersed throughout the community, and we really need to keep the focus on equity. I'd like to see numbers about how we're really moving the needle in this conversation. Councilmember Richardson took the words right out of my mouth. We need to make sure that we're staying focused on how we're actually making change around equity in our city. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker.
Speaker 0: Charlotte Hi, my name is Mariella Salgado and I am also a commissioner for District One. I just wanted to say that I support the city and parks in the interdepartmental and collaborative approach. It's great to see a comprehensive approach to our park system. There's and I second some of what said here, there's a lot of opportunity here to leverage relationships. Like I saw Long Beach Unified School District. One of the things I always noticed is how come our students are kids don't know about the great things that are happening at the park and community partners. Some of the folks that have spoken here and build relationships to increase access to our park system and provide educational opportunities and programing to our children. I look forward as Commissioner to supporting an increase in inclusive, safe and accessible infrastructures within our parks to its residents and in my opinion, more importantly, our children.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You.
Speaker 2: Karen Reside, resident of First District. And I'm also honored to be almost an eight year volunteer of partners of Parks Corado. Thank you so much for this comprehensive report. We've really needed something like this for a long time. I work almost every day with the dedicated park staff. I have never seen staff give so much to our community and be so unrecognized. Lena, thank you for bringing this forward. Parks are such a vital part of our community and we need more of them and we need more activities, particularly in the low income neighborhoods. I also want to reiterate the fee barriers and also parks. We pay taxes on our parks. We all do. We all support our parks. So asking for fees on top of it sometimes, as Christine mentioned, through the work I do with the Long Beach Gray Panthers, sometimes that's a barrier, too. So it's it's not just within the community. It's with our groups and bringing our communities together. So I want to mention those things and please include teams in the planning process for their particular programs. Through my work with with the Boys and Girls Clubs, teens will not participate unless they are engaged in the programing planning and its programing that they want. And it's absolutely critical that they have a place, a safe place and our parks, so that they can create and grow on their own. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker.
Speaker 4: Good evening. My name is Andrew Carroll, second district. I was happy to attend the sort of reopening of the East Village Arts Park that was helped to fight for. I'm very encouraged by the conversation here tonight. Very happy to see the new director as well. I'd like to add, I can't resist bringing this up when I hear about. Economic inequalities, and I think especially given the history within Long Beach of economic segregation. I like to remind if we're worried about money money echoing counter one Mungo's comment and also Councilmember Joe Rubinoff that the parks can be as great as they can be . But if we don't have access or if we don't have money to continue maintaining them, then it almost it's going to make the efforts twice as hard for us if we're interested in funding. I just like to bring this up because it's kind of my pet issue. As we know, certain parts of Long Beach in which the parks are better will by and large have higher property values as we make improvements to our parks. It is statistically very likely that property values in the surrounding area will go up. This could sadly, ironically, work to price people out of the.
Speaker 9: Areas that parks.
Speaker 4: Are in. This has happened with gentrification and other issues like that. So I would encourage the city to continue to look into finding a way to capture the value that reify itself in property values as parks become more valuable. That is public investment, public money. Parks belong to the public, but the money ends up in the private pockets of landowners through rent. So there is ways to catch this. The Belmont Shore area already does this with its parking, for example, and there are ways to get around Prop 13 with catchment areas. And I would encourage Long Beach to continue looking into that. This is probably not the best forum for me to bring that up. I should probably actually attend a, you know, Parks meeting one day and just sort of talk. But I just wanted to take the time to say that. So thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Miss. Councilwoman Munger.
Speaker 2: Yes. I wanted to address two additional items that were a part of the discussion tonight. One of the things that was talked about was fees. And I know that as a big part of what's going on in Parks and Rec, we're doing a fee study in 2015 after being elected to the Council. I specifically asked Finance Department for in future bringing forward our fees to state what is the cost of what we're providing, what is the cost that we are charging to the participant and that a column to show the subvention. So an example might be we allow sometime in the summer for a dollar per child, but the cost to run a pool at 250 children a day is actually closer to $12 a child. And so that subvention rate would be one I'm sorry, one over 12. So just figuring out what that looks like, because I think that one of the things that we often forget is the costs associated with that. And so I think that across the board, there might be things that we've been subjected that maybe we didn't want to add, other things that we think we should be. 17 And I think that that's where where the core of the question comes from. And then we talked a little bit about metered said recycling programs, that additional park programs that could be available at different parks. If you have park programs or specific contract classes that you're interested in and you have a specific group of individuals where you can say, I know that if you give yoga in this park, we'll get 12 participants. That's really where we've had the success with some of our contract classes. The instructors are always very eager if they know they can get the participant levels. And so if you are already having those meetings in your community and you know which specific classes those are reticent email, please feel free to call. I have a lot of contact with a lot of the instructors because a lot of them already teach at Eldorado Park, so they reach out to me quite often. They are looking to add a second park, but they don't really have a gauge or understanding of which park should be that second park. And making those choices can often be bad business decisions because if the community that that gets yoga is actually the community that wanted resumés, then they have a class with two participants that they lose money. And so if you already have an engaged base that they're really eager to help and I'm happy to help as well. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Councilwoman Gonzalez.
Speaker 0: I just want to close this up by saying thank you again for everybody coming today. And I look forward to connecting with the Invest and Youth campaign and all of our groups to start really talking about what those programs will look like. So thank you again.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. I see I have a first and second which has two votes.
Recommendation to receive and file a report on approaches to Park Equity in the City of Long Beach.  (Citywide)