Beachcombing

Opinion polls reveal all sorts of interesting statistics. Now that we have our new website up and running, we’ve been doing some online polling but have been remiss in not sharing the results.

For instance, we recently asked readers what they thought about Long Beach being a sanctuary city (see related story on page one). More than 30 people voted and the majority, 66 percent, said they did not like the idea, 26 percent were in favor and the remaining 9 percent said maybe.

The neat thing about our online polling is that we can look into the source of each vote to confirm that someone is not stuffing the ballot box. This is accomplished by noting that the sources have different IP addresses, meaning different computers are being used.

Then we came up with the idea of an online poll asking readers what they thought about the April 29 Beach Streets event in East Long Beach. Surprisingly 66 percent of the 38 votes (so far) were positive, 19 percent were negative and 16 percent had no opinion.

When I braved the traffic jams that day to get to the post office I was shocked to see the few cars in the Los Altos parking lots, so it was obvious that those businesses were not going to be happy.

One reader noted that Hof’s Hut’s business was drastically down, See’s Candies had a brisk business giving away free candy and the local gas stations were selling more water and beer than gasoline. “Sears reported that they knew they were closing their doors, but they didn’t think it was going to be this soon,” he facetiously stated.

I also noted the low turnout on the streets, the huge area designated for the event and the amount of resources necessary to control traffic. That’s why the 66 percent positive response seemed to be in error, as well as the 80,000 crowd estimate provided by Councilman Supernaw. Another reader thought that estimate was “BS,” so we are not sure if that stood for Beach Streets.

In my opinion this event should have been limited to smaller areas, like the Los Altos Shopping Center or Spring Street, but not both at the same time. I also thought the communication was poor, since we only received one press release one month in advance and advertisements showing street closures and event centers were not forthcoming. The poor communications sentiment was echoed by several city officials.

Given all this, we’ll leave the online poll in place and ask you for your opinion on Beach Streets. Go to www.beachcomber.news, vote and provide your two cents worth as well.

This week we bid goodbye to our spring interns, Collin James and Kelley Pierce. Both performed their duties superbly. We now have openings for the summer session, so send me an email if interested: publisher@beachcomber.news.

Humor time. Here’s more of Donna’s witty tidbits, found on the internet:

• A man’s home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.
• Practice safe eating – always use condiments.
• Shotgun wedding – a case of wife or death.
• A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
• Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.
• Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
• Reading while sunbathing makes you well red.
• When two egotists meet, it’s an I for an I.
• What’s the definition of a will? (It’s a dead give away.)
• In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.
• She was engaged to a boyfriend with a wooden leg but broke it off.
• A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
• If you don’t pay your exorcist, you get repossessed
• The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.
• Local Area Network in Australia – the LAN down under.
• Every calendar’s days are numbered.
• A lot of money is tainted – taint yours and taint mine.
• A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.
• He had a photographic memory that was never developed.
• A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.
• Once you’ve seen one shopping center, you’ve seen a mall.
• Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.
• Santa’s helpers are subordinate clauses.
• Acupuncture is a jab well done.

publisher@beachcomber.news