City Manager Addresses Long Beach Rotarians

Tom Modica was named Long Beach’s acting city manager in September 2019, then city manager in April 2020 “when everything seemed like it was going great.”

He spoke at a rare breakfast meeting of Long Beach Rotary October 1st, providing a 40-minute overview of the city’s accomplishments and challenges – far too many to detail in this space.

“We were just opening the library, we opened the new City Hall, things were on the up and up, the economy was really strong, homelessness was down, and crime was down. Things were going fantastic and then COVID hit,” he told the group of 50 attendees.

Long Beach was later recognized as a national leader in COVID both in response and recovery, thanks to an influx of dollars from the federal government. A lot of cities took that money and put it straight into their city budget. Long Beach targeted its dollars for business support, helping people pay their rent and providing food programs.

Modica said that tourism is a big revenue generator for Long Beach. In 2019 it was one of the best years ever. Then, in 2020, it was the worst year with 2021 being not much better. Today tourism is back and is actually higher than it was in 2019. “It's a $2 billion (economic impact) boost to the economy. It's actually $200 million above pre-pandemic levels,” he said.

Modica noted that the city is working to make housing more affordable by building skyward and the 864 accessory dwelling units (ADUs) that have been added. About 1,700 other housing units have been entitled with an equal number having been built thus far, including 250 affordable units.

“Another big area of focus for us is Space Beach,” he said. “In the last couple years, about $750 million in defense spending and aerospace companies has been poured into Long Beach. We now have 7 million square feet under roof of new space and advanced manufacturing, and that's 4,000 jobs that have been created. We're now the corporate headquarters of eight industry giants, which include Rocket Lab, Vast, Relativity Space, JetZero, and Boeing.”

He noted that most businesses in Long Beach are small, so the city created a number of assistance programs, such as Level Up Long Beach, BizCare, buying locally and focusing on local procurement. Local businesses receive an added 10% in points when projects go out to bid.

The Queen Mary was cited as a Long Beach asset that never made a profit in 40 years. Now it is being run by a private hotel operator, Evolution Hospitality, and it is making a profit of about $1.5 to $1.8 million annually.

Last year it had 400,000 guests and is on track for 450,000 in this year. He also mentioned the next-door amphitheater opening next year that’s a $15 million investment that will pay off conservatively at $28 million over five years. It will have about 40 concerts a year with 11,000 attendees.

Modica also touched on Measure A funds, which were mostly targeted for infrastructure repairs and public safety needs, now budgeted at about 40% and 60% respectively. Potholes are a frequent public concern, but some of the infrastructure expenses also go toward public building repairs such as the $25 million rehabbing of the police academy.

He said that police response times are improving and that the upgraded police academy buildings will be able to handle classes of up to 100 trainees.

The future is bright ahead with Long Beach hosting 4,000 U.S. mayors and (separately) 4,000 U.S. city managers next year, as well as the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics regionally, with 11 venues in Long Beach.

He likened the economic impact of the Olympics to having seven Super Bowls per day for 15 days and the Paralympics – with seven Long Beach venues – as five Super Bowls per day for 10 days.

Working with a FY26 budget of $3.7 billion, Modica and his 6,500-person workforce are up to the many challenges that lie ahead.