Bits 'n' Pieces

$1 Movies All Summer Long

Long Beach Towne Center and Edwards Long Beach Stadium 26 invite the public to enjoy $1 movies all summer long. The Regal Summer Movie Express program will offer $1 movies each Tuesday and Wednesday from June 12 through August 15.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Will Rogers Institute, a program that perpetuates the memory of Will Rogers by promoting and funding medical research of cardiopulmonary diseases, purchasing neonatal ventilator equipment for medical facilities across the country, and educating the general public on topics of health and fitness.

All movies selected for the Summer Movie Express program are rated PG. For more information, visit www.longbeachtownecenter.net.

Everyone Home Initiative

The City of Long Beach has launched a new initiative to address the statewide homelessness crisis and its impacts on Long Beach. Designed to build on the city’s comprehensive homeless assistance and affordable housing efforts already underway, Everyone Home Long Beach will look at innovative approaches to provide new pathways into homes and prevent residents from falling into homelessness.

Addressing the issue of homelessness is a leading priority for the City Council, city departments, city commissions, and the Long Beach Continuum of Care (CoC). As one of only three cities in Los Angeles County to operate its own CoC, Long Beach has seen a 41 percent decline in the homelessness population from 2011 to 2017.

Led by the Department of Health and Human Services, the CoC coordinates housing and funding for services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The city’s Multi-Service Center has over 13,000 visits each year. Nearly 3,100 people have been permanently housed since 2013, and 390 of them in 2017 were veterans.

Additionally, the city has worked diligently to ensure quality, affordable housing options in Long Beach. Over the past five years, the city created or has in the pipeline, over 1400 new affordable units.

To further these efforts, the city has convened a new Everyone Home Long Beach Taskforce comprised of chief executive officers and community leaders from major Long Beach institutions and organizations. The task force will review existing efforts to transition people back into housing and homeless services, identify new opportunities to support those who need housing, and develop solutions to prevent homelessness in the first place.

Click It or Ticket

As the unofficial start of summer, the Memorial Day holiday weekend is a busy time for Californians. Each year, the highways fill with families in vehicles, on their way to start their summer vacations. To help keep drivers and passengers safe, the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) is reminding motorists to Click It or Ticket. The national seat belt campaign will take place May 21 through June 3, concurrent with the busy travel season.

LBPD will deploy additional officers during the two-week campaign on special traffic patrols specifically to stop and ticket both drivers and passengers for failing to use the vehicle’s safety belt restraints. This will also include drivers who fail to secure children in the proper child restraint seats.

“Buckling up is such a simple task that can keep you and your family safe in the car,” said LBPD Lieutenant Kris Klein. “But it’s more than that. Buckling up is the law. Our law enforcement personnel see the consequences of not buckling up. We see the loss of life and injuries at the scene of a crash. Often, deaths could have been prevented and injuries reduced with the simple click of a seat belt. This should be automatic.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half (48 percent) of the passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2016 were unrestrained. At night from 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m., that number soared to 56 percent of those killed. That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. Police, Sheriff and the CHP will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations

New Director at LBCC

Lakewood City Council Member Jeff Wood has been named director of the superintendent-president’s office for Long Beach City College. He started on May 14.

Under the direction of the superintendent-president, Wood will serve as the chief of staff, overseeing and coordinating all administrative activities of the superintendent-president’s office and executive offices.

Jeff Wood possesses years of experience in so many matters pertaining to Long Beach City College’s goals,” said LBCC Superintendent-President Reagan F. Romali. “His knowledge and understanding of the legislative process, recruitment, community engagement, and budgeting experience really stood out when we searched for the right candidate.

Wood has served on the Lakewood City Council since 2011 and was mayor in 2015-2016. He chaired and served as a member of many standing Lakewood council committees including park development, intergovernmental relations, environmental management, community promotions and economic development.