Letters to the Editor

Fence Solves Nothing

Long Beach is preparing to spend $790,000 on a wrought‑iron fence around the Billie Jean King Main Library. Supporters call it a safety upgrade, but the fence does only one thing: it pushes unhoused residents a short distance from where they were before. It doesn’t reduce homelessness; it simply rearranges it.

The city’s own numbers show shelters at 98% capacity and interim housing at 97%, with people waiting nearly 50 days for a bed. With nowhere for people to go, fencing off the terrace just moves the problem a few feet down the sidewalk.

The timing raises its own questions. Although the project was budgeted years ago, it is suddenly being promoted and fast‑tracked just months before the June election. When a long‑planned project becomes a campaign talking point, residents can reasonably wonder whether the goal is public safety or political visibility.

If the city truly wanted to keep the area clean and accessible, it could invest the same resources into maintaining a safe perimeter without spending nearly a million dollars on a permanent barrier. A fence cannot create shelter beds, shorten wait times, or provide services. It can only make the crisis less visible.

Long Beach deserves solutions that address homelessness, not expensive projects that shift it 20 feet at a time.

Dwayne Sharpe

Garcia Effective

Merry Colvin is unhappy with Robert Garcia and what she labels “the Broadway disaster,” even going so far as to mention “corruption” and “the war in Iran.” [March 20 letters] There is no indication that he is corrupt or in any way responsible for our unwarranted war.

Further, she seems unaware that our representative, who has been in Congress for only three short years, has brought more than $15 million in federal funds to Long Beach for childcare, infrastructure and park improvements, among other community enhancements.

And still further, he has incredibly been elected Ranking Member of the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In that role he is investigating wrongful detention of U.S. citizens, the murder of American citizens by federal agents, and corruption charges among highly placed individuals in the president’s circle.

During my 70 years in Long Beach I know of no other elected official who has done so much so quickly to benefit this community and the public at large.

Gordon Cohn