Speaker 1: District seven. My District eight. By District nine. Motion is carried.
Speaker 2: Fantastic. Onward to 27.
Speaker 1: Please report from Parks, Recreation and Marine recommendation to receive a report and adopt the proposed Parks Recreation and Marine Department Strategic Plan 2022 to 2032 citywide.
Speaker 2: All right. Let's go ahead to the staff report.
Speaker 5: Yes. I will turn it over to Brant, Dennis and Meredith Reynolds for a staff report. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mr. Modica. Good evening, Vice Mayor. Members of City Council. Served three years of engaging, listening and learning. We're honored to present the final parks, make Long Beach the prime strategic plan this evening. This is an effort that's been informed by a considerable number of partners and stakeholders. And despite being interrupted by a pandemic, this provided a unique opportunity to reexamine the important role of parks in community resiliency and recovery. Next slide, please. The plan guides operational staffing and budgeting decisions for the department over the next ten years. This plan contains goals, outcomes and actions for how the department prioritizes our work, how we organize our staff, how we decide where to invest, and how we partner with our community with equity as an overarching theme. A department strategic plan is different than a park system's master plan or a plan that addresses the types of programing for a particular user group. Although these are important and are referenced in the plan, I'll now turn it over to Park Planning and Partnerships Bureau Manager Nancy Bates. And you're and Deputy City Manager Meredith Reynolds, who had served in that capacity before moving to the city manager's office. They'll be co-presenting tonight's brief presentation. Next slide, please.
Speaker 3: So just to provide you a little bit of information of what's in the plan, the strategic plan is to organized, to provide a history of our community and a context for our department in the past, present and future. We then focus on the community's feedback, which contributed towards our statement of possibility and values, which we'll get to in a few fights. And lastly, the plan outlines eight goals that will help us achieve our statement of possibility. Next slide, please. So we have a lot to be proud of as a department and as a city. Just to give you an example, out of the 100 most populous cities in the country, we ranked 31st in that Trust for Public Land Park Score Index, which is a pretty significant accomplishment. But at the same time, we have a long way to go when it comes to Parks to Park Equity, while we have 6.6 acres of parks per 1000 residents in our city. We know that the ratio is much lower for central, west and north Long Beach, where there's a combination of of a few things where you have fewer and smaller parks and also high density neighborhoods. This is why equity is such a strong theme that's woven throughout our our strategic plan. Next slide, please. I'll turn this over to Meredith. Thank you. From the beginning, the park's community engagement effort was grounded in best practices, was planned to be accessible and inclusive and centered community voice . And what began with a very personal approach with in-person outreach at park events in the summer of 2019, became a full pivot to curated virtual engagements after a period of hiatus, while staff was reassigned to support the city's pandemic response in all, the department and engagement efforts connected to close to 400 community groups had over 1600 people take our survey. We deployed posters and service stations at community centers and promoted surveys and listening sessions on social media. We even had a strategic plan engagement band visit over 30 community events. And all of this was done in the city's four languages to maximize language access. Next slide, please. In the virtual space, we collected surveys and park stories in multiple languages. We had our user groups data and dedicated listening sessions where we shared progress with opportunities for feedback on draft goals and objectives. We engaged in various social media outlets and connected with trusted community partners, asking them to share the opportunity to participate in their specific networks. We also recognize that many staff still face a digital divide and divide as creative ways for community members to engage from a safe distance. We added lawn signs with QR codes that connected visitors to online engagement tools while they were safely visiting parks. We set up cardboard service stations at learning hubs to reach those who visited these spaces. We produced a Part Stories podcast series featuring some of the department's partners and city staff to share how our department plans partners and produces programing and manages our operations. And we engage the Parks and Recreation Commission on several instances to share drafts of our progress. Next slide, please. As a considerable amount of planning went into creating an intentional and meaningful engagement process and participant experience, which was intended to cast a wide net in a way that anyone could feel included, heard and valued. This process also had a series of opportunities for input, but participation from department staff who are experts in their field, as well as opportunities for leadership of the department to explore strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We acknowledge that the interruption of the pandemic had a significant impact on our best laid plans for in-person engagement during the pandemic . The engagement process was considerably augmented out of an abundance of caution for people's safety, and we instead shifted to virtual spaces to listen and engage. This engagement process provided our team with the opportunity to reengage with those we've had relationships with for many years, to reduce our re-introduce ourselves to those we have limited contact with, and to establish connections with those who were new to us. Each of these instances was an opportunity to demonstrate the value of the community's knowledge, and we took each interaction as an opportunity to build trust with these partners. Next slide, please. Our process included consulting, consulting other adopted city planners to ensure the goals in these other arenas of city work were incorporated. We know that land use, mobility, climate action, housing, digital inclusion, youth, seniors, animals and racial equity are all interconnected and there are intersectional aspects of all of our work. Our process also included researching best practices for similar efforts across the country and from coast to coast. Our pure organizations are engaged in impactful work that we learned from and were able to infuse this learning in the plan. Many of these plans had a strong, inclusive community engagement effort, centered equity and community voice, and called for strong support. A partner systems to address issues like climate change, support, mental and physical health and result in greater park equity. Next slide, please. In March 2020, when the first cases of COVID were present in Long Beach, Park, staff roles pivoted to shutting down operations at the city's 167 parks and shifted to new operational models. Our parks and open spaces were never so appreciated or heavily used because of the pandemic. And while many other places were closed, our parks remain open. Our park and beach maintenance teams devise new parks and beach sanitizing schedules. Signage was placed and replaced, communicating the ever changing COVID guidelines. Our community ambassadors were deployed for the safe use of parks. Virtual programing was developed to shift programing online, and our learning hubs provided a safe and free learning space to complete distance learning. Hundreds of staff shifted to work from home schedules or deployed to support other city departments, including standing up and staffing shelters, operating vaccination clinics, eating and contact tracing, and even developing the city's COVID testing program . During one of the city's most pressing emergencies, department staff met the moment being versatile, resilient and capable of supporting the community when they needed it most. Next slide, please, and I'll turn it back to Nancy. So not too long ago, the city council approved one time dollars dollars towards park maintenance. And those dollars were very much needed. But in the long term, we really do need structural dollars to properly maintain our parks at a level that the community expects and deserves. And as you can see from this chart, we fall short compared to the statewide dollars available per acre in terms of park maintenance. Also want to add that park maintenance was a very high on the list of concerns and feedback that we received from our residents. Next slide, please. So in addition to the rounds of surgeries that Meredith outlined, we went back one more time after we prepared the draft strategic plan to collect one more round of surveys in the four languages. And we collected close to 70 responses at that time, and this helped us further refine the strategic plan. And I also want to add that we continue to hear feedback on our strategic plan, and I would encourage residents to continue to reach out to us with whatever questions and comments that they have. Even if the plan is adopted tonight, it doesn't mean that we stop listening to the needs and concerns of our residents and visitors to our city. Next slide, please. Now, speaking of our statement of possibility, it is that we make our parks and beaches safe, welcoming spaces for our residents and visitors. Putting people at the center of all we do, including our park users, partners and team members to creative to create inclusive, enriching, healthy communities for all to thrive. And this is something that we've really developed from all the outreach efforts that were described in our presentation. And these are based on very specific values that include being effective, thoughtful, transparent, resilient, collaborative, respectful and nurturing among other values. Next slide, please. So the strategic plan itself is organized into.
Speaker 0: Eight goals, with.
Speaker 3: 24 outcomes that yield 160 action items that are based on what we heard from the Community Stakeholders, survey respondents and also Parks, Recreation and Marine staff. Next find. While you can view all the full details of the plan in the plan itself. For anyone listening, just wanted to outline what those are. And our first goal is to provide safe, accessible public spaces, while our second goal is to offer meaningful recreational programing and events. Third, we have prioritized health equity across the city. Next slide, please. We also want to build innovating and lasting relationships. That's our fourth goal. And fifth, we have connect internally with the community clearly and transparently. Our sixth goal is to establish an environmentally sustainable park ecosystem. Next slide, please. And seventh, we have ensured a diverse and dynamic workforce. And lastly, we have as our goal, to create a financially secure and resilient operation. Next slide, please. And with then with this, I will turn it over to Director Denis.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Nancy and Meredith. I'm very pleased on the efficiency that you walk through with very extensive strategic plan. I do want to share that our next steps in implementing the strategic plan will involve breaking down the outcomes and strategies into short, medium and long term phases that can be implemented over the next decade, starting with this current year. We will report to our Parks and Recreation Commission on an annual basis. With that, I want to thank the Commission for their ongoing support throughout the plans, development and their future support as we move into the implementation phase. I also want to thank the staff and all the community members who got us to where we are today and also City Fabric, who was our consultant on this project. This concludes our presentation and we welcome any questions or comments that you may have at this time. So thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Brant and Nancy and Meredith. We're going to go to public comment first before we go to council comment.
Speaker 4: Our first speaker is Denise Bernard Yearwood.
Speaker 0: Hi.
Speaker 3: Good evening right there. I'm a resident of Buffalo and I saw the report we on the west side of me, three or four plans and I have the report. So in regards to this, I believe the government underestimated the funds they needed to acquire additional hardware. So I.
Speaker 0: Think that means more and.
Speaker 3: More participating see as the benefit of the physical.
Speaker 0: And mental health of the president. So I.
Speaker 3: Think by allowing lands along the river as he developed for.
Speaker 0: Moving his facility.
Speaker 3: Possibly further statement, support for settling.
Speaker 0: In for air as proposed by the City Park Coalition. Do we.
Speaker 3: Consider developing the.
Speaker 0: Complex at 37 to 1 along the river?
Speaker 3: I've read their statement that using grant funds where the land and I believe.
Speaker 0: There is a platform, there.
Speaker 3: Are plans.
Speaker 0: For the L.A. River basin. So I.
Speaker 3: Strongly urge you to amend the plans.
Speaker 0: By.
Speaker 4: Our next speaker is an Cantrell.
Speaker 3: But evening in Cantrell.
Speaker 0: Speaking for the River Park Coalition, this document makes clear that Long Beach needs to budget more funds for maintenance and acquisition of Parkland. River Park Coalition agrees with the goal goals. Quote Every Long Beach resident has walkable and bikeable access to a neighborhood park and established park equity acquisition guidelines for securing land, for developing new parks and open spaces in park poor communities, unquote. River Park Coalition would like to suggest this solution for acquiring park land on the L.A. River. The city should settle the Civic Place, Sequoia lawsuit and do an environmental impact report with the alternative river. Using this land is park land purchased the land from the owners using grants. This will help fulfill several of the strategic plan goals. Add more parkland in a park deprived area and as this is pongal land, fulfill the goal to amplify and degenerate people, cultural practices.
Speaker 2: And.
Speaker 0: Connections to the land. This park would be an ideal opportunity to educate on the history and connection of Indigenous people to Long Beach. I urge you to take this last opportunity to obtain this property. Parkland. I'd also like to add that to make Parks safer, I would urge you to bring back the Rangers. Thank you.
Speaker 4: Our next speaker is Anna Christianson.
Speaker 0: Unmuted.
Speaker 4: Yes. You're on mute.
Speaker 0: Hello.
Speaker 4: We can hear you.
Speaker 0: Okay. This is from the lawsuit of Weapons Task Force Sierra Club. Re Indigenous peoples acknowledge the Hodgeman tribe, not only the Tongva as indigenous to Long Beach as they share the Territory, act as caretakers and vendors of the land and waters and regard football as their sacred site. Acknowledge that Long Beach is now also home to tribal peoples from throughout the United States and North Central and South America, as well as the Pacific Islands, knowledge that the sacred sites above that includes the lows through those wetlands, a knowledge that from a tribal perspective, taking care of the land means ensuring that it can support life for future generations to come. Not only humans, but the whole web of life return parklands to our high human tribe, at least some of them, and enter into management agreements with these entities. Acquire tribal, cultural and burial sites within the city and preserve them as natural spaces, place known sites on city property into open spaces and parklands . We climate change. Do not add or expand paved areas, buildings, artificial turf, playing fields, plastic grass, seawalls, or the port of Long Beach under open land and waters in the Highlands area or coastal zone communities subject to inundation due to sea level rise. Do not add more concession stands re bit venues at the expense of open space repair. The Belmont Pier Re equity prioritize acquiring land and making park improvements in underserved communities. DeLay or deny new projects located in overserved communities until park equity goals have been met. Teach everybody to swim for free. Do not rely on the U.S. pools for the general public's use for wildlife and bird. Appear to prioritize making habitat for birds and wildlife in park maintenance and acquisition plans, including along the L.A. and San Gabriel River and in the Lower Cerritos wetlands. Folk don't focus only on public access and recreational opportunities, utilizing concessions, especially vet fees for revenue streams or maintaining marine infrastructure and services to maintain boats which focus on the entire ecosystem. Plant trees and groundcover that supports birds and wildlife. Reestablish native species. Don't keep trimming trees every single year, erasing wildlife and bird habitats. Don't permit fireworks shows that pollute air and water to harm marine life and disrupt nesting birds, causing them to abandon their nests. Don't use herbicides to maintain parks, marinas or green belt and don't support restoration projects that erase and replace existing wetlands and tribal areas like the LC plan for the Lowe's to be those wetlands we go carting your employees. Please do finally provide your 450 part time seasonal employees with health benefits, including paid maternity leave. So thank you.
Speaker 4: Our next speaker is Roger Martin Holman. Our next speaker is David Hall.
Speaker 2: Hi, this is David Hall. Well, Motor City members of the council, I do support the Parks Recreation Marine Strategic Plan. I think it goes far in addressing the lack of our parkland in West Long Beach and downtown Long Beach and along the Los Angeles River. I think that parks benefit everybody in the community and we really need parks not only for the youth, but for others, for recreation. We also need parks to improve the air quality, especially in the park communities. You know, what's interesting, I think, is that Councilman Richard Richardson, in the background, you have Martin Luther King. And I think that's great because the city manager did a report a year ago for the City Council on Parks across Long Beach, and the inequality of Parkland dates back to the days of segregation. And I think the disparity in Parkland needs to be addressed, and I think we need to remedy it. And I really think this strategic plan will go far in correcting this injustice and bringing parks to the people who need it on the West Side and in our park communities. So thank you very much to the Park Department. Great job and I encourage you to support this plan. Thank you.
Speaker 4: Our next speaker is David Sonata. Your time begins now.
Speaker 2: Good evening, counsel. My name is Davids and I have the honor to serve as the chair of the Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine Department. Tonight, along with my fellow commissioners and staff, we are excited to present support with comments and act on our city's long awaited strategic plan that will lead us forward as a city. The Commission applauds the hard work and commitment staff has provided in working with and listening to our city's neighborhoods, underserved communities, and partnering with all departments of the city in keeping park equity open and open space in the forefront while maintaining our high quality of life, safety and healthy choices throughout our park system. With that said, our outcomes from this plan will not allow for the status quo. It is imperative we work with our communities to improve upon facilities and programs and serve our public to the best of our ability. This is a lot to unpack in this plan, but it has been 20 plus years since Council last received a strategic plan for our Parks Department and is needed to continue to maintain and build on park equity, improve our focus on maintenance of our parks, and continue to provide valued programing and open space with our partners in the communities across the city. The importance of our park and beach system and its services show where the public lived during these challenges. Challenging times of pandemic. Parks and beaches are where the public enjoyed family or family open space, mental health and programs for all ages. While the department keeps us safe, sane, healthy throughout our day, this is an asset we cannot ignore. At present, we are below the local and national average cost per acre for maintenance of park operations. Maintenance must continually be addressed by council and take a turn toward increased funding and council support to protect one of the city's largest assets. With 33,125 acres and 167 parks. In our system, we stand tall as a diverse city. Who knows the importance in providing park and beach access equally to all our citizens and programs of education of value to all ages. Tonight, together with my fellow commissioners and the PRM staff, we ask each of you to embrace this roadmap and collectively ask you to receive an app, not just file on the goals and objectives this strategic plan provides with equity and maintenance as top priorities. We ask you in your monthly meetings with director Dennis and during the budget process to invest in our neighborhoods and communities, address the inequities that continue to exist in our city, and work toward improving additional funding and available grants for maintenance to improve our park and marine facilities. Let's keep our park system up to the standards our city deserves. We respectfully ask the Council to support, discuss and approve this new and engaged strategic plan and receive and continue to act on its content moving forward. Thank you for your time. Go.
Speaker 4: Our final speaker is Roger Martin Holman.
Speaker 2: All right. Thank you very much. Can you hear me okay?
Speaker 4: Yes, we can hear you.
Speaker 2: Great. Thank you so much. And thank you, Vice Mayor and members of the city council for hearing us tonight and for your attention to this. I'd like to state that I'm here to align my self with the comments by Ms.. And Control that were made earlier, and also to speak to the total imbalance of Park Space in Long Beach, West Side, specifically, because that's where I live for among other reasons. But we get the worst of port pollution, perhaps with the exception of downtown, and we have very, very little parking space per resident. And we. And we're sitting here while space that is the last possible opportunity for getting more open park SpaceX is on a chopping block and it's really disheartening and frustrating and I'm hoping the city council can do something. But again, I would just like to say that the remarks in this country are certainly important. And thank you all.
Speaker 4: That concludes public comment.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you. I'll take you back behind the rail. I did offer some brief comments and we have a long list of council speakers. But thanks to everyone who spoke on public comment and all the hundreds of residents participated in this process over the last, you know, over the last couple of years. And thanks to that, I think, you know, it's noticeable to me what your values are through this presentation and this report. I think, you know, I think it's, you know, strategic plans are important. They help to institutionalize, you know, the values and the strategy so that every time a leader comes in, a new staff member comes in and the council member comes in, there's always something to work with. You have a general idea of where the organization is heading in part, you know, incredibly important, you know, to the community members and council members. I think what happened was, you know, what happened when we transitioned Highland Park, you know, made more investments into more of a regional center with, you know, senior programing youth program. Health programing makes a big difference. And I know that's incredibly important to a lot of folks. I also know that over the years, you know, I've heard things from some staff and others. When you raise issues like this, there's a big disparity in parks and open space. I've heard things like, hey, you know, we have a, you know, a quiet moratorium on new parks because we don't have money to maintain them. I understand the maintenance issue. We certainly have to do that. But I like this plan, this plant and doesn't hide it. They say right out the gate, we have a problem in north central west Long Beach. Here's what it looks like and it attributed to to history. Like the last person who spoke talked about the history. All of these decisions were human decisions, you know, based on land use, where freeways are built, you know, what zoning looks like, land use, all of that created the disparity that we have today. So I believe that strategic planning, you know, things, general plans, all of those things are mechanisms that can be used to sort of right the wrongs of the past and help chart a more inclusive future. So from this standpoint, I like that this plan leans into equity and doesn't hide from and so so I want to thank staff. There's there's obviously a lot here. I got a chance to peruse it but I got to spend more time with the strategic plan. But from what I see, I think, you know, if we go after, you know, what's called out as the sort of larger vision statement instead of only goals, we can make a real difference . So those are my general thoughts on the plan. Our first person cued up is Councilwoman Sara.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Vice Mayor. Just to add to what you shared, I want to thank Brant, Meredith and Nancy, as well as all of the PR and staff and all those involved with getting the strategic plan together in the past three year. I know it's been a challenge doing the community engagement during the pandemic, especially when you're trying to get them out in multiple languages in the midst of the pandemic. And I just also want to appreciate that equity was mentioned as that being central as part of this plan, and that I think it's really important that we think about it in addition to the climate change issue, that's also crucial. Prime is also a crucial partner. And in addition to our Health and Human Services Department in violence prevention and strengthening our neighborhood in our community. So I had a chance to read through it and appreciate the way the goals and the outcomes are aligned. And I think that is a good way for us to provide guidance in the way that we can move towards all the goals. And also for me, I look towards how do we ensure equity in all of the parks in central Long Beach. And I appreciate, I think that we've already started implementing or using that as a guide to doing to helping to improve our parks from Brent's leadership and improving communications to Senator Lena Gonzales, ensuring that their state funding, as well as our other legislator that ensure that there's investment into our parks. So with that said, I wanted to ask a few question and I would make one observation in that with that equity being central to, I think, the framework for this report, I think it's also interesting the number, the demographic of those who filled out the survey. So I'll speak to page 135, which the question part 25, it's question 35, which is how much total combined money that all members of your household earn in 2018. And over 50% came from the $100,000 or more income level, while less tend to less. I will say 10% or less are $99,999 income level or less. And so my question is when how could we have done better to ensure we had more equitable response from across our different community members and how? And then the second is, how do we ensure that while we have a predominantly number of certain kind of people filling out the survey, that it's at least equitably inform how this report was written? Those are my two questions. I want to add a third, but I will wait to see if I have to queue up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, thank you. Council ministers Brant. So I do appreciate your your question. And I know there were a lot of factors at the mid-point in our outreach and I realize that when we had attempted to bring this strategic plan for accounts. So last July for a variety of reasons, I think for the best reasons, we did have a numerous months to work with all nine of the council offices to really look at avenues or ways that we could reach all corners of the community. So I do want to credit a lot of the messaging and cooperation with all of the council offices that I think we did glean a lot of input from many of the community members that early on, you know, even the digital divide. I think when we relied a lot on electronic surveys, that that was an obstacle for many. But I also know that through a lot of our stakeholder groups and focus groups that had representations of a lot of the corners of the community, the senior community and youth, that those were reflected in a lot of the goals and the values that were generated. It's just that in those circumstances it wasn't as easy to capture, I guess, the family household income levels, although I do feel confident that a lot of those voices were clearly heard by representatives within a lot of those stakeholder groups.
Speaker 3: Okay. Do I have time to ask one more question? This will be my last question. Or should I queue up again because there's no timer? And I'll just ask you really quick is how can we ensure what's the process to getting ongoing feedback? I think Nancy shared earlier that we're able to our community members are able to like is that in an email process or is that just call? And Nancy, how do we make sure there's ongoing feedback even though we have a strategic plan now?
Speaker 2: That's that's the next one. This is brand again. So I think on our website and this is our commitment to the Parks and Recreation Commission that we'll be assembling, you know, an annual report on really a daily if not weekly basis. So I think most likely on our website, we'll make sure there's a link for continued dialog and input from the community because this will be a work in progress for lots of obvious reasons. And I think, you know, two or three years ago kind of the nature of how the strategic plan was developing certainly took a whole different approach as we were reimagining our own programing and our own operations because of the pandemic. And I think since we're not out of that yet, you know, as we enter into the new normal, I think we're going to find a lot of new approaches and a new ideas. I know even within the past year, we've had a lot of newer interest in some of our recreational aspects of what we do. There's been a voice for rugby and pickleball. There's a new sport called Tech Ball. Our seniors want to be more active and we really have to be very cognizant of the health protocols, but also think about ways that we can keep people healthy and that so we'll be open to, you know, a lot of the new trends and a lot of the opportunities. But I think our department has always prided itself in being a good listener to the community and really, you know, all nine council offices, as we've learned from month to month, have been the best, the best venue, our best liaison connection to a lot of residents who really care about the importance of parks and recreation, to build a healthy community and all those great qualities of life that make Long Beach attractive.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, friend.
Speaker 2: Thank you. All right. Thank you. Yes, that was a very long 5 minutes. Next, Councilman Austin. Thank you. And, you know, there's a lot of good content going on here and a lot of good comments and good questions. And so I want to just first say that Parks really do make our city, they make Long Beach. And this strategic plan is very impressive to me on many levels. I want to thank our staff for their hard work with the Parks Recreation Marine Commissioners. But more importantly, I want to thank the community who participated in this engagement process, which I think should be really uplifted and saluted for all of the work that has gone into this. No other department in our city is equipped to do this type of engagement, in my opinion, like Parks and Recreation. And so they have the the the access and the day to day interaction with so many folks in our city and a very, very diverse and representative diversity in every, every way. I think this strategic plan, it really helps to define our mission that comes to our parks and rec parks for the next several years. In the end, it will help us create new opportunities for programing and access across the city. With with equity as the foundation comes to mind. And I'm really, really impressed with that. I'm glad to see that there was some emphasis on maintenance, because I know that that is an issue that my constituents care deeply about. We do have great parks. We should look at our parks as assets in care for those assets. And so to the extent we can budget and plan more resources to go toward maintenance, I think that's that's a that's something that we as a council need to take on and deliver for for the city. And, you know, there was considerable public comment related to park equity and in acquiring more park space. I just wanted to say, I know this council and my office working with our state legislators and really with our county board of supervisors, Janice Hahn, we were able to secure 11 acres along the river that will be dedicated for park space. And I want to make sure that that is you know, that's not missed here. That's not a missed opportunity here. That is, and $3 million from the state of California to help with the planning and development of that space. So that is that significant progress that we shouldn't overlook in as we move forward. Again, I really just want to salute the engagement process here. The time that has gone into getting this. This is a three years process. And to park and rec directors move on. The staff that had anything to do with this this great document. And it's something that we can definitely build on for years to come. Thanks. Right. Thank you. Before we go to the next one, madam. It seems like a few people that queued up either weren't recognized. So after we get done with this, I just want to let folks know I'm going to go back. If you can identify that list when we're done, we're going to bring them up so that they can see. You understand that? Madam Court.
Speaker 1: So the individuals who have their hand raised currently, you'd like to call on them after the comments from the council?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get it. We've changed our format a little bit today, so some folks didn't have the rules. Let's just make sure that they're ready. You can cut off the secret list now, but those people who have their hands raised in queue, please make sure that they get a chance after we're done with this for deliberations when we vote. Okay. Next, Councilman Price.
Speaker 3: Okay. Thank you very much. So a couple of things. First of all, a huge thanks to our Prem staff for the presentation tonight. And Meredith, it was nice to have you back for your guest appearance tonight and our Parks and Rec commissioners for all of their participation in this process.
Speaker 0: I think it's been really great.
Speaker 3: There's a couple of things. So in looking at the priorities, I mean, I think. It's really disheartening to see.
Speaker 0: That our maintenance budget is below what the national standard is.
Speaker 3: That's really disappointing to me because I think having safe and clean parks should be a core function of the city.
Speaker 0: And so I think it's.
Speaker 3: Important for us to to figure out I mean, when I looked.
Speaker 0: At the priorities that were listed in the report.
Speaker 3: Maintaining an efficient.
Speaker 0: And fiscally sustainable budget, or I forget which words were used was really like the last priority.
Speaker 3: I think we should figure out how much money it's going to take to create safe park spaces and maintain them.
Speaker 0: And that that that fiscal responsibility for that effort for the city should really be a lot.
Speaker 3: Higher up, in my opinion, because if we can't afford to maintain the parks and have safe parks.
Speaker 0: We're really not utilizing that space and allowing it to be utilized by residents in the way that it should be. So I really want to.
Speaker 3: Talk about that.
Speaker 0: Priority as being an important one. We want to make sure that our residents are feeling safe in going to the park. I think.
Speaker 3: Programing, I mean, when we're talking about concepts.
Speaker 0: Of equity and access programing is really, really important, especially for our youth, but also for our seniors. I think every park in the city should have opportunities for engagement for.
Speaker 3: Our youth and our.
Speaker 0: Seniors. Those are our two most vulnerable communities in terms of isolation.
Speaker 3: And the mental health and public health impacts that come along.
Speaker 0: And they don't have that that recreation and that that stimulus of interacting with others.
Speaker 3: That should be a major priority. And I think that's something that's called out in the report. But really, when we talk about.
Speaker 0: Health and we talk about access and and equity, we really need to be focused on making sure we have programing options available at all of our parks. We've talked a lot about undeveloped land. That's been a topic that's come up a lot to our council. And I appreciate Councilman Austin's comments regarding the efforts and the progress that has been made. I'll highlight how I will.
Speaker 3: Highlight also that Assemblyman O'Donnell also has helped us in developing.
Speaker 0: A helping develop some open spaces that weren't previously usable. And hopefully those will be very positive projects. And I look.
Speaker 3: Forward to that. But I'm wondering I'm not sure if there's a motion on this. Vice Mayor Is there a motion yet on this?
Speaker 2: Uh, I don't. I don't believe I heard a motion with Council on the Soros bill. First made one. The verdict. Was that emotion or not? I don't believe that.
Speaker 3: I didn't make a motion.
Speaker 2: I don't want to. Bryce, there's no motion on the floor.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I would make a motion to receive and file. But in addition, I know that the council members representing the.
Speaker 0: Areas where we've talked about a lack of park space are probably plugged into this. But I think for city wide we're hearing enough about it. But in addition.
Speaker 3: To receiving a file, I'd like to direct the city manager to come back to council within 30 to 60 days, whatever is feasible for him. On the feasibility of engaging stakeholders and creating an.
Speaker 0: Open park space plan for the undeveloped areas of land and the areas that we've identified as needing more park space. Which which, per the report in the comments tonight, would be central, west and north Long Beach, just to kind of see where we are with that. I know that's something that we've asked the city manager to look into and work on, but it would be nice to get a report back at this juncture now that we have our strategic plan in place. But I have no additional comment.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Next is councilwoman. They.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Vice Mayor. And I would like to second Councilmember Price's motion. And first of all, thank you so, so much to our Parks and Rec, the Marine Department staff. I know that this has been a long time coming, but I'm super excited that we're here. I'm really happy to see all of the all of this the excitement around this strategic plan. I think this is fantastic. One of the things that I I also want to point out is that we acknowledge in this strategic plan, we acknowledge that we are on hunger land. And that makes me very, very proud that we actually were able to put it into our strategic plan. And a lot of people till this day don't know that. So it's very important to have something like that in there. I'm also very proud of the community input that was given. I'm so excited of all the collaboration that went on, especially from our commissioners as well. So thank you. Thank you for all of that. I think that it is very important that we that we acknowledge what a big, big high having open space in our community is , especially in these last two years, where that's where most of the community felt. See, and when we were forced to be inside, that was so good to be able to have some space to go and be able to social distance and be able to enjoy fresh air as much as we could. So I'm very happy about this. I do share the same sentiments when it comes to the maintenance of our parks. I think that we definitely need to make that a priority because I really think that safety and the maintenance of our parks go hand-in-hand because if you have a clean park, I really do believe that it encourages more safety around the park. So I really I'm glad that that that was brought up. I think it's very important. I also think it's very important that we bring up a lot of our I mean, that it was brought up that programing is essential, especially for our youth and our seniors. I think that that is a fantastic point, and that is usually who is able to take advantage of such programs that we offer. And I think we you know, we have such great programing and looking at the programing through equity lens is going to be highly important. And so I'm very happy to see that in this plan. Also, I you know, I wanted to make sure that everybody knows that, you know, all the hard work that has gone into this. And yet, yes, like it was mentioned, we are doing good, but there is a lot of work to do. And I am very confident that by adopting this plan, we can move forward and make our parks even more safer, more welcoming, and definitely more space for our residents to come and enjoy. So very, very happy to support the strategic plan for this for for the Department of Parks Rec and.
Speaker 0: Thank you.
Speaker 2: All right. Thank you. Next is council member supernova. Okay. Thank you. I have. First of all, great report and very impressive 151 page report. And kudos to the Fort District residents who read it and gave me some questions from the report. And I have I'll put it down to two questions. And the first one has to do with the SWOT analysis that Meredith mentioned. So if Meredith still there was 100% of the data derived from the general public in this report. SWOT analysis should.
Speaker 3: And the membership for the SWOT analysis was a staff activity. So the particular attachments that are included with the plan were made up of input from the department's leadership team, site supervisors and general staff across the different bureaus. We asked similar questions as part of our community engagement sessions, just not in the same framework of a SWOT analysis. So those questions could be a little bit more user friendly for the public that has incredible knowledge, but maybe not intimate staff knowledge.
Speaker 2: Okay. Thank you for that. So this puts the next comment in perspective then. Since the SWOT analysis came from staff, I had questions about placing City Council in the threat category. So if you want to check page 131, it's not that we're doing a bad job that we're going to call it in the column of weaknesses. We're actually a threat. So if you look under a Community Recreation Services Bureau. Some of the threats include climate change gangs, drug dealers, drug users, vandalism and city council. So I won't put you on the spot to answer tonight. It is a long report. There's a lot of stuff to look at here. But if you could get back to us, what what staff's thinking was in coming up with that scenario, that would be very helpful for us to do a better job of what we do. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo.
Speaker 0: Thank you. I want to thank the staff and the community for their participation. There's been a lot of comments and a lot of important things have already been said. But I think that one of the things I've talked extensively about with the community and with our current director is that once the strategic plan is done, I think we really need to talk about our Parks master plan in terms of not just the spaces that are undeveloped, but as we look forward in determining which playgrounds need to be replaced, which playgrounds need to be fixed, where we need additional field space, all of those things and the types of amenities that are invested in. I think we really need to look at the city and the parks more like businesses do. So you might be super close to something, but the flow of traffic and the way that people drive and the amenities that they visit have a lot to do with different types of patterns that we've learned a lot about through our economic development department. And so I'd love to see us next steps move forward with understanding what amenities should be at what parks, and whether are our early education parks, what are our older kids parks? What amenities can be adjacent to each other for parents who have kids of multiple age groups? Where are the best places to just have open space? Where are the best places to offer classes? Where are the seniors coming to and from? Where are the bus stops that get people there and so on and so forth? So I know Brett and I have talked about this a lot and I've resisted putting forward an agenda item until this would come forward, because I know we've all got a lot that we're digesting and that this was a big project. But I look forward to a very robust discussion about those things because council offices and districts they change. But the way people drive to and from schools work where you can take your kids to a park on the way home from school or work, how that all fits together, where practices are, where classes are offered and there's a lot to it. And I think we need to do a really thorough job of understanding that. And as we make these major investments and then we can also see we're working on the all inclusive playground at Eldorado, where would the next one be? What does that amenity look like? We've talked a lot about adding certain inclusivity swings at certain parks. There needs to be a reason behind a system of why we choose what we choose and where to make really good investments for the future. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Right next is Councilman Allen.
Speaker 0: I thank you, vice mayor. And just also a big. Thank you to Brant and to Meredith and Nancy and just all the community for their involvement. The strategic plan is comprehensive and it outlined all the fantastic achievements of the city. So just a big congratulations for getting to this point. And I know it was a big lift. I saw in the plan that Bixby Park was the second most popular park in the city, and it's nowhere near the largest park. So I think it just goes to show how vital the urban park and open spaces are important to our residents. And I'm also sure as a result of COVID, that it's much more appreciated and used. I also wanted to say that these survey results validate what I've seen of the condition of our apart and and also the beach equipment. It needs some love. And I also want to say really quickly, I just a big thank you to assembly member Patrick O'Donnell. I just have to give him a shout out for our 850,000 for Bixby Park that he was able to secure from from the state. That money is going to go a long way in transforming that park very soon. In a big way. Also I want to say to the staff, thank you for responding to all my various questions about how you conducted and incorporated the public outreach plan. I had a lot of similar questions as a Councilwoman Alfaro, so I do appreciate all the details and the presentation on Slide 14. You see that goal. One Seek to ensure that all residents have safe, walkable or bikeable access to neighborhood park, which includes adding new park space and poor areas. So thank you for that. I do have a quick question. Can you can you just share with me a little bit more about future opportunities to offer concession agreements, some parks, and what those opportunities might look like and how that can help us maintain safe, clean and accessible parks.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Thank you, Councilwoman Allen. That's really a great question. I think, you know, the past year, our entire leadership team has really utilized the pandemic to to look at all of our parks and our services with new opportunities. We've really reimagined a lot of the things that historically maybe the community has expected, but there's been a lot of really exciting best practices sprouting up from the pandemic in parks systems all across the country. So I do want to give credit to Nancy and her team, actually, Meredith, when she was our bureau manager for our planning and partnerships and initiated a lot of conversations with potential concessionaires, we did do an RFI to see what kind of interest we received scores of really creative possibilities that could be introduced into parks in north to south, east and west, and we'll be embarking on an RFP process shortly to really put a lot more substance to that . But we really do believe that by introducing a lot of those kind of visitor amenities in our parks, and it's really about serving the public so that they not only come to our parks with they enjoy their time there with their family or just individually. And some of the newer recreational opportunities can really enliven some of our parks where we do have challenges, where when we can introduce more positive activity. It really is very, very transformative. It makes our parks more welcoming, more appreciated, respected and actually safer. So I'm glad you asked that question. And we do have a lot of those initiatives moving forward. So thank you so much. All right, campers, remember your anger. Thank you. I've been listening to this with somewhat of a. Mixed emotions here. In the sense that while my website district has been mentioned quite a bit in terms of being park poor, we do have a West Side plan to get more parking space out there. Land. Land is hard to get, but it doesn't mean that we don't have the effort out there to try to create more land. One of the reasons why I voted against the the storage facility and the sequel Environmental Impact Report, there was a vote or two to accept the negative declaration because I felt that if we had a full square air study, it might have come out a little different so that we could create a little bit more park space in that area. I'd like to thank Supervisor Hahn for coming through and having identified that in those 11 acres that the Council member Austin mentioned, that we could create more park space. I'm not sure where that status is. I know that the Parks Recreation Department has come before and and trying to create the the total plan as to what parks are really park space in perpetuity. I continue to work with Parks Recreation to create more space to create more parks, especially in the West Long Beach area, because that's what we need, that we need and and we need, of course, funding and also looking into that. I've been. Several times. I'm talking to our assembly speaker and our representatives in Sacramento about identifying some funding so that we create more parking space as we need a year Long Beach. And hopefully we will continue we're going to continue those efforts until we get a real positive response, because that's where that's where the fight is. The fight is funding, and it's not there now, but it doesn't mean that it's not going to be there tomorrow. So we continue to work with that and hopefully we can make a difference. That's not to say that this is not a good report. It's not a good a strategic plan. It is. But of course, I hope that we look at it from the fact that it's a document that it contains, that it can be adapted and that it can evolve to include a lot of other issues that we've got going here. One of the things that was mentioned before was that we were able to get some. Funding from us. Assemblymember O'Donnell for Bixby Park. I had a. I had a. A playground that burned down at the Admiral Kid Park. And unfortunately, those moneys weren't available for that. Although we do have we do have efforts to get some funding for that. But we have to go the route of having a a fundraiser for any donations. We shouldn't have to do that every time there's a playground destroyed. We have to have a plan so that when we have our our playgrounds damaged, that we can replace them fairly quickly and not have to wait an insurmountable amount of time to have that equipment replaced. So maybe in the future we can look at how we can incorporate some kind of funding mechanism in a strategic plan that would provide some funding in a in a, in a regular basis to address these kinds of issues where we have equipment that needs to be replaced or upgraded so that we don't have to keep our kids away for the park and not being able to take advantage of those facilities as well as the other facilities that we have in other programs. So for example, seniors lunch programs, home study, progress, homework sections, those types of things. So and I'll leave it at that for now. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilman. And they have.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Vice Mayor. I also wanted to point out. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Donna, for making those points. I also wanted to share and maybe start to share a little bit more details on the development that is happening on in the first District along the 710 with the Drake Chavez extension and the wetlands. I think that that's such an exciting time for for us right now to have that to have that coming and that plan that's been there and it's finally gotten some some funding. So it's coming alive. And also, we have the new Lincoln Park. This going to be opened very, very shortly. So really excited about that. So that maybe if you could just briefly touch on on the development of those plans that we have in place already.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure. That's a great topic, Councilwoman Zydus, and thank you for your leadership and and, you know, linking us to a lot of great community partners. So certainly within the Drake Chavez masterplan or Footprints, there's a lot of exciting movements I know that I'll be must project, which is congruent to that area. And you know, with the reconfiguration of of the bridge, the Shoemaker Bridge and the shoreline redevelopment or realignment, it opens up really a brand new canvas to create an even greater sense of place and open space for the West Side. Yeah, certainly. It's no secret we're very, very excited about the advent of celebrating and dedicating the new Lincoln Park in a few weeks. You know, unfortunately, with with COVID, it's going to kind of reign us in with what we can actually do. But I think, you know, we'll make a virtual celebration and shout out the good news to the community for what I think will be, you know, a flagship of pride and certainly one of the best urban parks in the nation here to to complement the really world class development around Civic Center. And, you know, the Billie Jean King Library, it's really the nucleus of a great destination. And I think we're very proud with even our smaller parks, you know, in and around the West Side, that there's a lot of really great things happening. I'm really happy with what's happening at the Armory and the adjacent minor park. I think that's really important. I know with redistricting, a lot of boundaries have shifted some of the parts of interest between you and your colleagues. But we we continue to look at it as a citywide park system, serving a really great community. And regardless of where the boundaries are, I know each of you are very dedicated and you understand the importance that Parks have been to the community, especially during during the pandemic. We a lot of great things happening, a lot of wonderful opportunities on the horizon. And so I'm glad you raised a question. Thank you so much. This is. Thank you, Councilwoman Ciro.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think I wanted to clarify them the motion on the table at the moment. I think I heard Councilmember Price sharing that it's direct. The city managed to create kind of a report on open space is that the motion could.
Speaker 2: Now they go ahead.
Speaker 3: Face amendments under developed. Okay. I just want to make sure that we don't create more plans when we have them, because we did I think Meredith did the before she left to go into I think to recover working on recovery when I think she created a three alarm beach park acquisition feasibility report that that identified all of the potential opportunity. And there's been several other reports that's been done around and just vision plans for spaces and parks like the Drake Chavez the vision plan to know the there's like the river the lower L.A. River revitalization plan that identify opportunity spaces adjacent to the river, uptown open space. So so I definitely, you know, and supportive of making sure we identify them. I think that we have and they've been listed here. I think there's over 120 something sites. So I just didn't want to make I just want to make sure we're not doing more redundant. And it's really looking into, I think what Councilmember Durango was speaking to is looking at our funding, making sure we are funding and in prioritizing what we want to do. So that's just what I just want. Make sure we don't do it doesn't work and we have the plan already.
Speaker 2: Councilman Austin. Thank you. I'll be really brief. I just want to follow up on those councilmembers and there's a couple of points that she made, but also just, I think. We also need to highlight some of the good work that has actually happened over the last ten years or so in some of these areas that we have identified as areas of need. Specifically with the Dominguez Gap, the forest wetlands. Know it's about 70 acres right there of park space that have been developed. It's passive use park space along a river that has been developed over the last ten years because of the city council's dedication and recognizing a need there. And so and I said on the lower L.A. River Task Force hand up to this work with a number of different cities and stakeholders in the a year long process, looking at opportunities, as you know, from miles and miles of L.A. River. Nowhere no cities have developed like the city of Long Beach has. And not only that, I know Little Springs is also another area which significant acreage has been developed in the central are more city and as part space. So in the eighth district alone, 40 acres of new park space and of passive as well as active recreation space has been developed. So I think it's important that we also highlight and celebrate our successes as a city, but also understand that we still have a lot of opportunity to grow. And so I highlighted 11 more acres of opportunity space for here in the city. And I see that that that's just an opportunity. Right. I just highlighted that in an area that we're also focusing on. So again, to our Parks and Recreation staff, you all did a great feasibility report about a year ago, came back with good information. I think we build on that document. We build on this strategic plan, and we will build an equitable future for our city. Thank you. Right. Thank you. That concludes council comment. We still have six people that that are in line to speak. I want to go to staff quickly, you know, in hearing the conversation. I think we want to just make sure that, you know, we acknowledge the good things that have happened, the progress being made. We also don't want to go back and start to reengage stakeholders around work that's already done. Council is a day sorry that you know, as it relates to outreach, we've done a lot of outreach, the uptown open space plan. I mean, they've got an American Planning Association word for outreach and identified an inventory of every vacant parcel just in District nine. But I know that there's additional work like what Meredith has done and others, but we don't want to do is imply that that work had been done. I think we're at the place now because we've done so much in terms of identifying inventory, as far as identifying vision and engaging the community. What we need for the city to do and it's Grant and his budget is to put his money where his mouth is. That's what we truly need to do is now pull the trigger and develop these parks in open spaces. And we've seen some great success, but we need to do more, particularly if we know that we have another state budget surplus and there may be additional investments coming down. We know that there was a conversation about earmarks. I'm not sure if that's going to happen either. But we just need to make sure as we apply for funds, it reflects what this document actually says and that we're building on the things that are already outlined. Let's go to public comment.
Speaker 4: Dave Shukla, your three minute starts now.
Speaker 2: Good evening. I already to you. You can read it or not. But since we're talking about opportunity space, I like that concept a lot. Uh, it may be redundant given the conversation. I think it's very, very deliberative and, frankly, a productive council conversation. Kind of amazing. Um, but the one point that everyone seems to kind of keep in on, and I think that we should underscore is how we acquire. Convert and site land for park space. That's important. It's path constrained not just by things like state budget surpluses and funding cycles, but also some of our fiscal requirements. And, uh. You know, maybe those things align with existing development pressures. Maybe they don't. But as. Uh, Councilmember Arun said, you know these. These faces have got to make sense in 20 years scale, 100 years scale. Perpetuity scale. Um, and so, yeah, I, I, I just, uh, take this opportunity to shamelessly plug the cows in rulemaking because there's, there's a lot of oil and gas land that was, uh, kind of a parcel that quick and easy in our city's history. And unlike most states, we don't have these these setbacks for health and safety. If we were to, uh, based on some special analysis they did of AB 345 a couple of years ago, uh, just in Long Beach, we'd have more land than was bought up and sold back up through already a. It could be a lot of land. They don't make more land. You know, like in the Superman films, like Luigi Rizzo was trying to make more land. Like they don't make more land. You could get more land. So yeah, think about that. Might be a good time to convert to a livable economy. Uh, thank you.
Speaker 4: Our next speaker is Leslie Gerritsen.
Speaker 3: Hi. And myself. Thank you. What a great report with tremendous information. I'd like to quickly, quickly introduce myself. Leslie Garrett, then. I'm a resident from Reno. I am also a board member of River Park Coalition. And I know we had some wonderful.
Speaker 0: Speech.
Speaker 3: Tonight for those of you who may not be aware of the coalition we formed about a year and a half ago, and we're working diligently on greenspace with the West Side, specifically in response to 37 to 1 specific place. We do have pending litigation and we are very hopeful. And thank you for bringing it up. We really want to see that air. That being said, let me go ahead and talk a little bit about the report. I thought it was a tremendous job and we met a lot of work that went into place. I know in my community here in Rosarito, our park is utilized what we and fortunately work on the neighborhood list for outreach. So I want to make sure we have that going forward. In addition, one of the things that I really hit home for me was talking about the fact that 14,000 of our trees of 32,000 so have are disease dying or being removed. And what I read about the maintenance, which is a huge problem in our city based on looking at that report. So I'm curious when I read about the park impact fees for proposed housing developments in Long Beach. They are a source of funding that can be used for the park maintenance.
Speaker 0: There was a Quimby.
Speaker 3: Act passed in 1975 which required developers to set aside land or funds to pay fees for park improvements. So the first park impact fees, they were implemented in our city in 1989. However, these fees have not been increased since 2010. So I'm curious, why hasn't that happened? There's a lot of development going on. And the other question I have and don't expect an answer now. Where do those funds actually go? Did they go into the general fund or they go for maintenance? And the last what I wanted to make is the fact that there are already a lot of plans that have been in place. I know there was conversation about the lower L.A. River. We had some great meetings this time with Patrick O'Donnell, who's been a supporter of ours and also Councilmember Austin. I am really looking forward to seeing some of these plans to come into fruition. And I want to make sure I, as a community member involved in helping make this stuff happen in our community. So thank you very much to the Parks and Rec Department PRM for putting it together. I know it was a lot of work and I am excited to identify some of the deficiencies and looking forward to help over the next ten years of these plans. Construction.
Speaker 0: Thank you.
Speaker 4: But will the individual with the telephone number ending in 4013. Please press star six your time again to the.
Speaker 0: Hi. My name is. We're not in either. I am with the Hamilton Neighborhood Association. Our neighborhood borders paramount and this. Strategic plan is near and dear to our heart because we have zero accessible. Parkland or open space for the public. And I believe I speak for all the North End neighborhoods, starting as well as McKinley. When I speak to the fact we need as much open space and park space as we can get. And I really appreciate the effort that has been put into this by Parks and Rec, and I appreciate the level in which this has been presented. I also just want to end with as tag receive, and that's what we have to do now. We can't receive and file. We have to receive an act. We're desperate for open space. We're so desperate that we built we take little tiny areas of our neighborhoods. We throw a picnic table on it and a few trees, and we call it our open space and we maintain it as residents. We need this plan. We need it to come to fruition. We also have in plan a Hamilton loop that we have been working on for several years since 2014. It's supposed to open up the freeway areas around. The freight around the freeway from Atlantic to Kerry. Vice Mayor Rex Richardson has been a huge supporter with us on this. It's taken the collaboration of Caltrans, the county, the city. It's hard to get all these folks together, but I really appreciate the effort that's been put forth and that as well with these plans in place, the strategic strategic plan, as well as the 91 greenbelt plan, we will be able to at least have some open space. I hear people talking about maintenance. I agree with that too. But please just understand, there are parts of this city that have zero open space. Thank you for listening. Have a great day.
Speaker 4: Our next speaker is Mariella Salgado.
Speaker 3: Good evening. Thank you.
Speaker 0: I come to you as vice chair of the Parks Commission? We serve as an advisory board to you and our city regarding park lands, plans and improvements and other budgetary priorities. Our parks do not have unions or lobbyists to advocate for its needs or importance in the community. Yet it plays a crucial role in the health of our community, particularly for our youth, our 0 to 8 population and zero four seniors. As many experienced in the pandemic, our parks and open spaces became a focal point for health and will also highlight the importance it plays in providing afterschool and summer programing and child care for our families. Our park system is one families heavily rely on for recreational opportunities. Affordable programing and an important childcare provider for our workforce, particularly women. This department and our world of commissioners has equal importance and relevance as public safety. This plan lays the foundation for future priorities and investments. As such, I'd like to highlight the importance of our approach to advance health equity. A Goal within the Racial Reconciliation Report. You all voted unanimously to advance racial equity in language. This initiative also references Park Equity, recognizing the impact of open space on health for those who need it most. Hello.
Speaker 2: We can hear you.
Speaker 0: Oh, I'm sorry. Did you guys hear me earlier?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we heard you.
Speaker 0: Sorry. Um.
Speaker 3: In its current iteration.
Speaker 0: Our commission recommended the park in health equity goal number three to be the primary goal. Its current iteration stays safe and accessible public spaces as a primary goal and in my opinion, maintains the status quo. This plan presents an opportunity for you all to ensure there is a prioritization of projects, investments and programing to address historical disinvestment policies and systems that have negatively impacted a majority of our residents across the city. To change the future of park investments, where residents in Long Beach have access to nearly 16 times the park space and those living in Watts, Long Beach and park plants like my car park and masterplan aquatic recreation in North Beach no longer remain in planning phases for 22 to 30 years. As a first District resident, our Drake Jarvis Master Plan is well over 25 years old. I also want to add an important plan that was included in the strategic plan is the city's early childhood education strategic plan that promotes the well-being of our 0 to 8 population. This plan was not included in this plan, and it should. You see, this plan discusses the importance of increasing the quality of programs delivered to young children, remove barriers to quality, educate early education and access to green spaces regardless of ability and geography. Park investments promote positive outcomes for our city. Our parks plays a vital role in meeting so many of our city goals, from health initiatives to economic empowerment and make eating more equitable. You bear the responsibility for.
Speaker 3: Promoting.
Speaker 0: Equitable access to resources and services to minimize the disparities our residents experience. I hope you will consider our Parks Commission recommendation to place equity as the primary goal. Hamilton neighborhood as a comment was submitted earlier. Should have given space. But I won't if we do.
Speaker 4: Thank you. Our next speaker is Rae Garbage.
Speaker 0: Good evening. Thank you very much. I am a member of Carp Citizens about responsible planning, Long Beach Reform, Coalition and Neighborhoods First. I also served on the Parks and Rec Commission from 1985 to 1993, and we have the same story. We have the same challenges. We had the same issues. I look at listen to you, and I appreciate so much the work that goes into it. But I think what we really have to look at is to stop repeating the problems or glossing over them. And then what happens is you get to a budget time and you have to me, you city council have to make budget cuts. And if I understand it correctly, I think we're somewhere between 13 and 30 million deficit this year. But regardless, those cuts have to be made and they seem to be made on the backs of Parks and Rec rather consistently over the years. The water budget has not been added to for Parks and Rec and they pay their own water bill. The cemeteries, when they were added, they went on the responsibility of Parks and Rec with no increase in their budget. That's something that I really, really ask you as council members to pay attention to when you come up to the next budget period. We have places in our city Eldorado Park Area three. The ponds and the walkways are atrocious. They are not accessible. They're dangerous. Those should have been fixed years ago. Shire Park, the pond that has not been functioning as intended for years since I was on the Parks and Rec Commission, the bathrooms in our parks and our beaches should not be locked, but they should be maintained. And I know it's all about money. It's all comes down to the dollars. So how we spend it, you know, maybe those priorities need to change. Also, I was reviewing the 2021 salaries last summer, and I found that we have a number of mid-level management people in Parks and Rec with fewer worker bees, so the work doesn't get done. So we contract with check that instead of having those people on board that really love their work and took pride in taking care of their city. You know, I know I'm about out of time. So, you know, we've lost ten and a half acres, in my opinion, with the Boy Scout Park. We've lost acreage at that. The biggest gap opportunity for both storage. And now there's another seventh District residential project in the pipeline that could be Parkland. So I hope that you will look at that when when Councilmember Urunga said land is hard to get. It is hard to get, but we have a lot what we did have a lot of surplus city owned properties that can become pocket parks, not quick sales without some benefit to Long Beach residents. And the Trust for Public Lands was a great organization that we tried to work with. Of course, when when times were tough, when we were in the Great Depression area, it was hard. They didn't have the they didn't have the money available to them as well. We also were.
Speaker 4: Thank you. That speaker is Laura Summer.
Speaker 3: Yes. My name is Laura Soma. Thank you very much for this second chance of public comment. I would like to point your to page 33 of this plan. There are three excellent maps on the plan, the first one being the Long Beach Red Lighting. The 34 years of redlining that Long Beach experienced during the building years of postwar. And then the second map is people of color in Long Beach. And then the third map is called Park Equity. The only correction I'd make on this page is I would title that park in quality because but these three images, I think, tell the story of this entire clan.
Speaker 0: And I think the remedies.
Speaker 3: Are pretty clear that we do that. The city does need to support park development in the west, central and north. I do support the motion to have a city manager come back and report if plans are already in place. I believe those can be part of the report, but we do have 25 acres, I think currently under a proposal to become an RV park. And turning back to the map with people of color. I'm just looking at this. That community want a park or does the community really want an RV storage?
Speaker 0: And I think that's a big outstanding question.
Speaker 3: I'll read a quote from the strategic plan here. It says, There is lack of equity in terms of park space and open land versus East Long Beach. There's so much need in the west, central and north Long Beach. Where there are more residents living in denser neighborhoods that each deserve their own Eldorado Park. And I will close with page 102. One of the first actions is to establish Park Equity acquisition. But it says guidelines. But I believe one of those.
Speaker 0: Guidelines is to acquire.
Speaker 3: The park land before. It's built in and covered with concrete. And I think that's why it's applicable. When you're going to build an RV park on 25 acres, you might want to step back and really consider the real purpose. Should that be parkland for the community? And then it does say also here in this slide, just partner with the county. And, you know, the county of Los Angeles did a lot of redlining on their own. It was a cause. It was a nationwide, horrible phenomenon. But the county I believe the county would thank you.
Speaker 4: Well, the individual with the telephone number ending in 7340. Your time begins now. Please press star six.
Speaker 0: Thank you. This is Karen Recite. I'm president of the Long Beach Gray Panthers. And we appreciate park staff. We see them go above the board, above board and be on their job every single day. And we're we're not in favor of adopting this plan right now because I'm going to address some senior issues. We feel that there there are gaps that are missing that need to be included in the plan. And we really appreciate your ability to be open in discussing these issues. If we're talking about equity, you know, there's very little mention of the YouTube community. They do use our parks quite heavily or the disabled community, and most of our parks are not really accessible. So these issues need to be included in the plan. We don't think the goals are specific enough. You know, what gets written in is what's going to get done, and if it's not written in, it won't get done . Are we going to have police in our parks? Are we going to park rangers? I can't go in and out the front door of the senior center because we have people, some.
Speaker 2: Of them drug users.
Speaker 0: And it's not safe. So seniors are particularly targets for people that are looking to do damage. And the there's not really a lot of discussion about what's going to happen with seniors as one of the newest partners for the Parks and Rec. So we've been in space at the senior center for four months. We have handed out 400 warm coats to seniors that have to stand out in the cold to get their food during food distribution days. And they didn't have coats. So we got them coats. Working with the National Council of Jewish Women and Chase Bank, we distributed help distribute. We paid for 168 Thanksgiving meals. So seniors that came to the senior centers have a Thanksgiving dinner in partnership with Partners Apart, we have distributed 276 dining cards in over 250 grocery cards, and we've done that at 40 senior centers. We have held a senior center safety forum with the police, got the police more engaged with the senior center and keeping the seniors safe. And we had over 100 attendees and everybody received lunch. We distributed over 1000 caps and scarves to seniors all across the community. And these are things that nobody talks about. The grocery cards I could give out probably ten times the grocery cards that we have money for.
Speaker 4: Thank you. That concludes public comment.
Speaker 2: All right. Let's move to the n roll, please.
Speaker 1: That concludes public comment.
Speaker 2: I spoke to a local police.
Speaker 1: District one. My district to.
Speaker 0: I.
Speaker 1: District three.
Speaker 3: II.
Speaker 1: District four.
Speaker 2: I.
Speaker 1: District five. I. District six. I. District seven. Art District eight.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: District nine?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Recommendation to receive a report and adopt the proposed Parks, Recreation and Marine Department Strategic Plan 2022-2032.  (Citywide)