Bits 'n' Pieces

Pier Wind Public Comments Sought

The Port of Long Beach is hosting a Jan. 10 event to provide information about and gather input for the upcoming environmental review for Pier Wind, a proposed 400-acre terminal designed to facilitate the assembly and deployment of offshore wind turbines.

If approved, the proposed Pier Wind project would be the largest facility of its kind on the West Coast and would help California meet its goals for renewable energy sources.

The event will start with an open house, where port staff will be available to answer questions and share information about Pier Wind. Afterward, a scoping meeting will provide an overview of the proposed project and an explanation of the environmental review process.

On Wednesday, Jan. 10, the open house starts at 5 p.m. at the Port of Long Beach Administration Building’s 1st Floor Multipurpose Room, 415 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, 90802. At 6 p.m., the scoping meeting will be held at the adjacent Bob Foster Civic Chambers in the Long Beach Civic Center, 411 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, 90802.

Comments will be gathered for input about the scope and content of the proposed project’s upcoming Environmental Impact Report and Environmental Impact Statement.

The Notice for Preparation and Initial Study for the project is available at www.polb.com/ceqa. The public has 45 days to submit comments before the close of the comment period at 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 19.

Midtown BID New Executive Director

The Midtown Business and Property Owners Association (MBPOA) announced the appointment of Avis Atkins as executive director of the Midtown Business Improvement District (BID).

A political activist and social justice advocate, Atkins earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University Long Beach, majoring in psychology, sociology, and human development. Her academic journey continued at Harvard University, where she earned two master’s degrees.

The MBPOA news release stated that “Atkins’ dedication to social justice, her extensive board experience and her impressive academic background make her the ideal leader to drive the mission of the Midtown Business Improvement District forward. Her appointment as the executive director represents a significant step toward achieving the BID’s goals of fostering economic growth, enhancing safety, and promoting inclusivity in the Midtown area.”

Schipske Announces Bid for 4th Council District

Gerrie Schipske announced her bid for the newly drawn 4th Council District and released the following statement:

“I am running for the 4th Council District:

4 Safer Neighborhoods and Parks. I will work to fully fund our police, fire, and park ranger services. I will work to establish a “Neighborhood Legal Corps” that will help residents rid neighborhoods of things that make a neighborhood unsafe.

4 Taxpayer Relief and Fiscal Accountability. I will continue my work to protect the taxpayers and utility ratepayers of Long Beach. It’s time to end the 5% Utility Users Tax that is tagged onto utility bills. We need to lower our sales tax to attract more business and customers. We need a comprehensive “fiscal accountability” report that shows where the money is being spent quarterly.

4 Open & Ethical Government. I will continue my work to open city government and stop the use of officeholder accounts for political purposes. This year-round political fundraising violates the city “Campaign Finance” law.

4 Work for the residents of the 4th Council District and not the special interests.”

Schipske previously represented the former 5th Council District. The district was redrawn in 2021 and now includes a large portion of the area Schipske represented. The 2024 election will be the first-time voters can select a councilmember for the new district. The primary will be held March 5, 2024.

Schipske is a well-known public advocate who most recently helped win two major cases against the city’s attempt to assess fees on water pipelines and to raise utility rates and transfer millions of dollars to the city general fund. The court found that the transfer violated the State Constitution. The city had to return millions of dollars to ratepayers. As a Public Advocate, Schipske also writes the “City Watch LB” column for the Beachcomber to inform readers about local government.

Schipske reports that she is concerned about the very bad decisions made by the City Council over the past few years, including the selling of Long Beach Community Hospital, the raising of water rates, the increasing of city council office budgets, allowing city councilmembers to use officeholder accounts for political campaigns, and the waiver of hundreds of thousands of property tax dollars to assist a developer.

“The city raised its sales tax and every fee it could think of,” notes Schipske, “then it gave the greenlight to councilmembers to use their officeholder accounts for political campaigns, increase Council office budgets and give away hundreds of thousands of dollars of property taxes to help bail out a developer. This has to stop.”

Schipske says she is also concerned that the City Council will not release or deal with a report that indicates a high level of burnout among paramedics in the Long Beach Fire Department.

“Public safety should be the first priority of City Council,” says Schipske. “They need to be open and honest about what is happening to our firefighters and how it might impact their ability to respond.”

Concerned about the lack of staff and the explosion of 9-1-1 calls for medical services, Schipske is launching www.lb911ready.com to provide information on how residents can help prevent delays in responses.

Schipske says she will not begin fundraising until after the holiday season. “I think it’s tacky asking for a campaign contribution while people are planning their holidays. We’ll start in January 2024.”

A primary election will be held on March 5, 2024. The candidate receiving 50%+ votes will be declared the winner. If no candidate receives 50%+ votes, the top two vote getters will advance to the November general election. There are currently 34,758 registered voters in the 4th Council District.

LBCC Ranks Among Top 5

The Campaign for College Opportunity announced their 2023 Champions of Higher Education and out of California’s 116 community colleges, Long Beach City College (LBCC) has been ranked fifth in the state for the number of students to earn Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADTs).

For students who attend community college on their path to earning a four-year degree, it is generally intended that students complete their transfer to a four-year university after the first two years of their journey. However, the roadmap to successful transfer was often unclear for many students, causing that time to be significantly prolonged, and causing many more to abandon their goal.

With the urging of Campaign for College Opportunity, the California state legislature took action. In 2010, California passed Senate Bill 1440 (Padilla), which instructed California community colleges to develop ADTs, creating a clear pathway to transfer eligibility.

Earning the associate degree for Transfer provides a number of benefits for LBCC students planning to transfer to the Cal State University (CSU) system, such as:

Guaranteed admission into a university within the CSU system with a “similar” major (no guarantee to a specific campus)

Earn an associate degree for completing transfer requirements

Grants priority consideration when applying to impacted majors and/or campuses

Guarantees a 60 (LBCC) 60 (CSU) unit pathway to CSU graduation

Those who earn the ADT, transfer to the CSU with junior status

ADT degree holders from LBCC earn their bachelor’s degrees nearly twice as fast from CSUs.

Since its implementation, the number of California students earning ADTs has continued to increase and was more than 11% higher in the 2021-22 academic year than it was in 2015-16. More importantly, due largely to the implementation of ADTs, students that successfully transfer are now increasingly more likely to do so within the expected two years of enrollment.

In the 2015-16 academic year, only 21% of students transferred within two years, but in the 2021-22 academic year, California has seen this number increase to 31%.