Speaker 0: Councilwoman Price. Councilwoman Mongo. Ocean cares.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Item 17, please. I'm Phil Bridge.
Speaker 0: Item 17 This communication from Councilwoman Price Recommendation two closed a pedestrian bridge at Emefiele Avenue in order to address persistent crime and public safety issues.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce.
Speaker 5: Thank you. I do want to hear from the public on this. I know there are members of the public here, but before I do that, I want to state that the motion is actually different than the agenda item. Rather than requesting a closure of the bridge. We're going to be requesting pin code for the gate so that people, anyone requesting the code can get the code and be able to access both neighborhoods through the gate. And that's the proposal on the floor tonight. And I want to hear from the public about it, and we can talk a little bit about it. But I know there are competing standpoints and concerns with with the bridge access. And so we want to make sure that we address those concerns while providing access to anyone who should want to have it. So with that, if it's okay with you, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to go to the public comment, but I wanted to make sure everyone knew that it wasn't a bridge closure that we were talking about at this juncture.
Speaker 1: Thank you. And there's no need to stand, folks. I do have the public the the list. And so I will call you in the call the first few folks up. Okay. So the speaker's list and because we have more than ten, it will be it will be 90 seconds. So in this order, Mr. Goodhew, Zari Morrell, Dan Lowenthal, Amelia Ghareeb and Ron King are the first five speakers to please come forward in that order. And if I mispronounce your name, I apologize. So please, please line up. It's Mr. Goodhue, Zoe Morrell, Dan Lowenthal, Amelia Ghareeb and Ron King. Please come forward. Thank you. It's good to hear.
Speaker 4: It makes eminent sense. Move forward with it. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Next speaker.
Speaker 10: Hey, how are you doing? How are you, man? How you doing, customer? Christ. My name is Dr. Zoe Morrell and I actually live in Park Estates and I love living there and had always felt safe. However, the two most important things to me are my daughter's one day. Luckily, I have a practice in a usually in Los Angeles, I have a practice now in Los Alamitos. I got a call that somebody, a skinhead who looked like he was high on drugs, was throwing rocks at my house, called the police. And obviously this is a low priority item. Ten, 15 minutes went by. I got another call. No one was there. I actually went home. Went home. And that person was across the street, had tried to break into my house. I am not a person who has weapons. I'm a surgeon and I had a sledgehammer. So I went to try to disarm this guy with a sledgehammer. I called my across the street neighbor, who's also a physician. He happened to come home, called the cops again, who I respect and really appreciate. Still, no one was there. We had to physically disarm this person as he was breaking in to my across the street neighbor's house. Now, unbeknownst to me, his daughter was home. I only thought if my daughters were home, his daughter was home and she runs out after she keeps calling the police. Until we told them that he had a weapon. She wanted them to know that the two black guys actually were the ones who were the heroes and that we were the ones with the weapon trying to disarm this gentleman so that we would not get injured. This is really an issue because my daughters, I love to have them walk around the block. My my youngest started a dog walking business. I can't have her do that anymore. My other one babysits kids throughout the neighborhood. I can't have her do that anymore because they don't feel safe and it is unsafe. And I really think that disclosure will help solve that problem.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, sir.
Speaker 2: SLAUGHTER Which is a long thought.
Speaker 4: Thank you. Good evening. It's an honor to be here. Thank you, Councilwoman Price, for all of your hard work. I strongly support this item. The I think context is important. When Park Estates was built in 1948, there was no bridge. There was no access from Atherton about ten or 11 years after that.
Speaker 9: There previously had been a creek behind Park Estates that ran parallel.
Speaker 4: To Atherton on the south side of Atherton. The county came in and built a storm drain. At that time, they granted a six foot easement from Atherton to reach the.
Speaker 9: Storm drain, and they.
Speaker 4: Did a cement bridge over.
Speaker 9: The storm drain. Both of those things were for access for the maintenance workers, not for public access into park.
Speaker 4: Estates, but it became.
Speaker 9: Commonly used for that purpose. That is not necessarily problematic, except two things have developed since that time. One is that there's a little alcove.
Speaker 4: Next to the bridge. It's entirely unlit, it's hidden, it's out of you can't be viewed.
Speaker 9: By law enforcement, and it's become a magnet of criminal activity. There are commonly syringes can be found there. Remnants of packages that are stolen from the neighborhood can be found there. People sleep there. The second thing is the bridge provides ingress and egress into the neighborhood for burglaries to be committed.
Speaker 4: My home was burglarized. I put up a sophisticated.
Speaker 9: Video surveillance system.
Speaker 4: It was probably torn down. The home was burglarized again. My neighbor's home was burglarized.
Speaker 9: And the commonality of all of these burglaries is each instance the person comes from across the bridge.
Speaker 4: Enters through a window, burglarized is the.
Speaker 9: Home, and then escapes back across the bridge undetected because it's just.
Speaker 4: So out of you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr.. Thank you. Thank you so much. Our next speaker, I mean.
Speaker 5: Good evening. My name is Amelia Greve. I am a resident of Sovereign Park Estates, which is a 156 unit owner, occupied cooperative apartments directly next to that bridge that we've heard so much about. I depend on that bridge to safely walk. My dog is a woman alone. My elder elderly neighbors depend on that bridge to go to church, to go to social areas, to.
Speaker 7: Go over the crooked duck, to get their exercise.
Speaker 5: I am that's my all that is our residents only access to safe, walkable areas. We don't have crosswalks across Atherton. All we have is traffic and E-Scooters. I do not have $1,000,000 home. I am a public school teacher, but I have that bridge and I have a safe.
Speaker 7: Place to.
Speaker 5: Walk and so do my residents. I strongly urge you to please keep it open for our neighborhood. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Ron King.
Speaker 4: Hi. I too live in the Park Estates area, and this Alfred L filled bridge. It's about nine homes up from me or down from me, actually. And I noticed that when I first moved in the area, I saw this, you know, on a just a walk around the neighborhood. I saw this bridge. I thought, this is kind of odd. I walked over and it just goes over to the next street, goes over the wash area, the flood control area. And that was about it. But things also I noticed that after 20 some odd years of living, there is the crime. Escalated. And we live in an area right there in that area that there's no through roads or whatnot. You either live there, you don't, or you're just totally lost. And I wasn't surprised about the crime escalating. So the crime found me. My car was parked in in the driveway, probably. 30 yards from the street. And my fault. I didn't lock the door, but I got up the next day and it had been vandalized and everything thrown out of the car. Had some samples from my employment thrown all over my all over my driveway in the front yard. I thought that was quite odd. So time passed and whatnot. And this, this last year we were burglarized, which I thought, this is this is just crazy. But I will say this in closing, and that is the only traffic people I see. Disturbing people, per se. I mean, I said the good, the bad. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Time. Time's up. Six where I go. I want to keep the time timely.
Speaker 4: If my time's up. Yes, I didn't look.
Speaker 1: Thank you, sir. Let me go ahead. The next five speakers are Melissa Paulson, Garrett DiGiorgio, Ted Bruder, Tyler Paulsen and Ruth one. Please come forward in that order. Melissa Paulsen. Gary Director. Georgio Ted Aberdare. Tyler Paulson and Ruth one.
Speaker 5: Hello. I'm a resident of Park Estates.
Speaker 9: I just want to say that I strongly support this measure for the safety of my home and my family.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Speaker, please.
Speaker 4: Hi. My name's Gary DiGiorgio. I live 12 doors down from this opening. I just want to say that, uh.
Speaker 10: Progressively things have gotten worse in the neighborhood.
Speaker 4: My home has been burglarized. They've caught individuals directly in front of my home breaking into cars.
Speaker 10: And it's just it's a slippery slope and it's getting worse. Having worked in law enforcement for 25 years.
Speaker 6: I will tell you that.
Speaker 10: In terms of first responders, fire is not coming through there to save anybody. From a police perspective.
Speaker 4: It would enable them to hold a perimeter for.
Speaker 10: People who are in that community. For those that say, hey, I use it to walk through regularly, I would say that we have three other entry points. It would be a five minute more of a walk, which.
Speaker 4: I think is the councilwoman said earlier. Walking is healthy. It's good for everyone. So I would I would just ask that.
Speaker 10: You know, we definitely look at having a keycard or a complete closure. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Unit speaker, please.
Speaker 4: Good evening. My name is Ted Brunner. I am the track rep for that tract that has the entrance on Allen Field. I am also the president of the Park Estates Homeowners Association. I started this discussion with Suzy and Jack and Craig from Department of Public Works. About a year and a half ago, talking about all of the crime issues that we have and what can we do to control access. And at the time, we when we met out with Craig at the site and talked about putting up a PED gate, pedestrian gate with key code access or some kind of turnstile, something to control, ingress. Egress, so that we could keep the I can't bend it, but that's really what there are the homeless people and the addicts that come into park states. They have one path that comes through right by my house. I live right next door to that guy and they and I have my church member walking into three times. He stole my bike, jumped over my fence in broad daylight with people home next door to steal my bike. So these people have no shame. They don't have any threat. They don't they don't look at anything and say this is a bad deal. So we need to regulate access. And I'm not talking about cutting it off and sealing it. My proposal after item of proposal, it would be a hard closure for three months to change habits and then put the PED kid up to replace the hard closure so that everyone that belongs there can get in and then have the police department be in charge of handing out key cards. Criminals are not going to go to the PD to get a keycard and then you can just have them come in and out.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Our next speaker, please.
Speaker 4: Good evening, tyler polson. I am strongly in favor of this item. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Ruth one.
Speaker 7: I also echo that notion. I'm a Pakistani resident and a mom of two young boys, and they do a lot of.
Speaker 5: Outdoor.
Speaker 7: Activities at night. They're big tennis players, and I don't actually feel safe with the amount of suspicious people that I myself have personally witnessed that very much are very disheveled. They look intoxicated. I have called the police myself. I've taken pictures of them on my neighbor's property looking into their windows.
Speaker 5: And it's just a very uncomfortable.
Speaker 7: Feeling that you.
Speaker 5: Cannot be outside at night. So thank.
Speaker 1: You. Thank you very much. And last speakers are Will Willie Gaffney, Rebecca Corrie, Margaret Lehnert says Margaret Cohn, who killed Ingrid Nicolay and David Eastman. Please come forward in that order. Willie Gaffney. Rebecca Corrie. Margaret Keough, Ingrid Nicolay and David Eastman.
Speaker 10: Good evening. Thanks for hearing from me. I'm Dr. Willie Gaffney.
Speaker 6: I also am.
Speaker 2: A resident of Park.
Speaker 10: Estates. What you guys may not know is that there's now a homeless encampment of sorts down on Atherton, which is just outside of our community. It appears that these some of the homeless people are accessing our neighborhood due to this walk away, and we very much would like to have it. Limited access. I am a neighbor of Dr. Morrell. My home is the one that was actually burglarized that day. A gentleman didn't get in, but I worry because my daughter was at home. She's 21 and she typically will leave our home to walk the dog and won't set the alarm. Can you imagine what would have happened if he had actually gained access and had been inside of our home when she got back from walking the dog? Can you imagine what would have happened if I had been home when he broke the window and put his hand in? I would have responded with lethal force. That's pretty dangerous. Imagine what would have happened if my daughter hadn't alerted the policeman that the two black guys were armed and were two good guys holding a white gentleman who was unarmed on the street. If they come around the corner and open fire, that that would have been a horrible outcome or could have been a horrible outcome. Now, I strongly encourage you to limit.
Speaker 6: Access to these bridges.
Speaker 1: Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. If anyone else can, please just come forward and rest the speakers. Please come forward closer. Thank you.
Speaker 9: I'm Ingrid Nicolai. I've lived in the neighborhood over 30 years. Things have changed. And one thing that bothers me is that there are transients sleeping right down in there where the preschoolers. And whenever I walk through there, I'm thinking, these are kids that are two and three. I don't think they're four yet. But these people are walking through and talking to those kids. I don't think that's safe. I I've noticed that they're dropping all sorts of paraphernalia. They don't really. I've asked them to, you know, what are you doing? They said, it's none of your business. I can be here if you can be here. They're caring. I was upset when I saw driving down the block. Two or three of them who had stolen the tricycles from the preschool and their the bigger utility trikes. I should have stopped them, but I didn't. And I still feel bad about that. But the neighborhood is not safe having that open. They're all going through with bags. They're all riding their bikes. They're all going down the hill, turn in the corner to get out on Atherton. And I'm all in favor of putting a lock code on that gate.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you so much. Next picture, please.
Speaker 9: Hi, I'm Rebecca Corey. I'm in favor of the game with Ingrid. I've lived in the neighborhood 30 years.
Speaker 3: And we've had.
Speaker 9: Nothing but break ins, robberies, packages, mail checks, stolen tags off our car, you name it. It's happened time and time again and I'm in favor of it. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker, please.
Speaker 9: Hi, I'm Margaret Kuo and I also strongly support this item.
Speaker 3: I live.
Speaker 9: In on a street that is adjacent to the bridge and.
Speaker 5: Have had packages stolen and have my.
Speaker 9: Had my car broken into.
Speaker 7: And I would also.
Speaker 9: Emphasize that it's called the bridge, but it's not really.
Speaker 5: A bridge. It's a very irregular.
Speaker 9: Pathway that is dark and.
Speaker 5: Kind of covered.
Speaker 9: Over with trees and hedges. And it is a source of concern and anxiety and worry when it comes to my safety.
Speaker 3: And the safety of my son.
Speaker 5: So thank you for taking the time to.
Speaker 9: Listen to the residents.
Speaker 7: Requests and to the rest of the Council.
Speaker 9: I would hope that you would support this.
Speaker 5: Agenda item as well. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. And David Eastman.
Speaker 4: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. I'm also Resident Park Estates. I have been there for 25 years. For 25 years, I have talked about all the criminals who are coming in through the gate off of Bellflower and over the bridge from from Atherton. But nobody talks about all the criminals who are coming into the neighborhood on Los Lomas Street, which happens to be where I live. Basically, what we've heard is we've got crime in the neighborhood. Yes, we do less and less than most places in Long Beach. The the basic idea that those criminals are coming across the bridge is based on no facts whatsoever. We have anecdotal material. I have suggested in the comment section that we do a very extensive statistical study before we either get it or even pass out cards for it. And I would like to see the criteria for the cards before we do that, because it may limit people outside who do come into our neighborhood and actually provide us additional eyes on illegal things because they're nice people who like to walk in our neighborhood. I know if this seems like there's an awful lot of money to spend. The Park Estates Homeowner's Association does have some money for neighborhood security. I know I was on the board, I was the treasurer for a number of years and there's quite a bit of money there that if the city thinks it's too much money to ask, then I think the homeowners association can kick in. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Very much. That concludes public comment. A Councilwoman Price.
Speaker 5: Sort of what we're looking at. So, Eric, I'm not sure if you're back there, but if you could cue up the photos. Okay. So just to give everyone kind of a overview of where we're at, this is the Park Estates area. And you can see the main cross streets that are relevant to this discussion is Atherton. And the red line there, that's where the bridge is located. So I'm just going to go through a few photos here. There's the flood control channel and you can see the yellow delineates where the bridge is currently located or the walkway. This is the entry point to the walkway from Atherton. These are a few photos of the walkway that you can see so that you can see what walkway we're talking about here. I believe that Judge Lowenthal is correct, that this was not designed to be in the beginning a walkway. It was designed to be an access point for maintenance. However, it has turned into a walkway. And you can kind of see what the ground of it looks like and what the condition is. This is the cul de sac area that the walkway leads to in the Park Estates neighborhood. So generally, anyone who's on the street and a vehicle would be someone who's living in that street because it is a cul de sac area. This is the viewpoint of the bridge leading into the bridge from the Park Estates area. And again, another shot of that, and this is the flood control channel. So I'm glad to be discussing this topic tonight with the full city council. For background, this has been a location that countless residents have contacted my office about for the past four or five years. It comes up at community meetings. I actually had one of the residents who spoke tonight came to a concert in the park, and while everyone else was seated outside with their picnic blankets, enjoying the music, he came specifically to talk to me about this bridge. And after doing so, promptly left to go home because he wanted to make sure he had face to face contact with me. It's been the focus of discussions at so many community meetings and it's an interesting issue because it's very localized to two different neighborhoods, both in the third Council District and actually it affects the fourth Council District as well because a lot of residents there use it and want to continue to be able to use it. So with the competing concerns that we have in mind, I've been working all day today to try to figure out a compromise that we can put into play on a pilot basis so that we can have the opportunity to collect some data, do a little bit more, study an analysis, and really track what's been going on. So a couple of things to the folks who I represent who live in the apartment complex. I get it. Walking is my absolute favorite hobby and my refuge. If I didn't walk, I wouldn't be sane. And so I understand the need to have the ability to walk and have access to beautiful neighborhoods such as park estates, and be able to have the peace and not be on a major corridor. Limiting access to residents who want to walk in the area is not an issue, and that's not the concern. The concern is the invitation for, as I've shown here, with no lighting, an area where people can seek refuge and have easy access points to residential communities, which I don't think is something that anybody wanted or hoped to to have. So I'm proposing adding temporarily adding a gate with a pin code that could be used to open the gate. The pin code would be freely given to anyone who emails or calls. In fact, between now and when the gate is installed, we will have a sign out there. And I'm hoping that the residents from both park estates and the apartment complex will help me share with people that there's going to be an access code, because we want to make sure that people who want to use this for walking have the access code. So after that, we'll have a sign at the gate that has the number or email address to contact in order to get the access code. So we'll set that up so that anyone who wants to can have access to it. Will it be perfect? Probably not. It's the first time that we've done something like this. So this is an opportunity for us to experiment and see what works and what doesn't. And that's what the six month period will be about. It's an it's an attempt to try to compromise. What I am asking from the Park Estates residents is if you see something, say something. You have to contact the police. You have to contact the police when you see something. Because if what you're seeing is not supported in police data in terms of calls for service, then it's not something that the city can rely on to take further action. So we'll be we'll be studying what happens in the next 30 to 45 days before the gate is installed. We'll also be studying. What happens after that. So I'm asking my colleagues to support me in this item. This is a local neighborhood issue and I ask for your support.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Councilman Austin. Okay. Members, please cast your votes.
Speaker 0: Comes Mamasapano. As a member, Richardson. Bush and.
Speaker 3: Kerry.
Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you very much. Motion carries will move on to the next item. Thank you very much. And next item is going to be the firefighter and menu item 20, please.
Recommendation to request City Manager to close the pedestrian bridge at Elmfield Avenue in order to address persistent crime and public safety issues. This closure would include extensive notifications for the community to be made aware that this closure was being scheduled.

This closure should be implemented as a six-month pilot to collect data and assess impacts with the goal of improving public safety.