WBALB January 2023 Meeting Review

Areas of Focus

  • Top 3 Issues for WBALB

    • Homeless/RV parking

    • Truck/Trailer Parking

    • Enforcement of no parking signs and increase in finesOfficer Cozine shared recent crime trends: Thieves are removing and selling fire hydrants.

Catalytic converter theft: Older model Toyota Prius’ and Toyota Tundra’s have a high Cat. Converter theft rate. Call in any suspicious vehicles. Recently a white Dodge Charger and a dark SUV were spotted during Catalytic converter thefts.
There will be an action plan in place for property crimes. Cannabis businesses are getting burglarized – Senate is passing a bill targeting businesses that sell cannabis t provide proof that they purchased it legally.
Sean Bernhoft (Acting Chief of Staff) updated on the 7th District: Councilman Roberto Uranga is back from leave as of 1/17/23. He is taking meetings, and doing better besides a few side effects, post-stroke.
A state of Emergency has been called for Homelessness in Long Beach, making it easier for the city to get contracts approved, move money around, and require more places to house the homeless. This also calls for more safe parking, interim housing, and clean-up. The emergency declaration is for 6 months. The city has a new portal for homelessness longbeach.gov/homelessness for homeless awareness and updates.
The sidewalk vending community will be taking a survey asking what they would like in the city’s new ordinances. https://www.longbeach.gov/finance/business-license/sidewalk-vending-and-food-truck/
Natural Gas is $3.81 a therm currently. This past summer it was $0.51/therm so there has been an unprecedented increase. Prepare to easily see an increase of hundreds of dollars per month. Long Beach was able to tap into reserves, which helped lower the price temporarily.
2024 Budget Meetings are starting and can be found at https://www.longbeach.gov/pages/city-news/fiscal-year-2024-proposed-budget/.
  • The Port of Long Bach has a zero-emissions goal. Electric vehicles will bring more trailers. Discussion on Trucks – having them in the WBALB area is not the best use for them.
  • Martin Porter voted as new WBALB Chairman of the Board.