Letters to the Editor

Artificial Turf

Another boondoggle by this gang that can’t even shoot themselves properly. Ms. Mungo likely has her hand in a cookie jar for this artificial turf, a product that has little practicable use and causes injury to small, developing bodies. But never mind; this “clown”cil prefers to spend our money on worthless, infantile projects that benefit them, not us.

Anne Proffit

 

LBPD Manpower

I agree completely with writer Noelle Chalmers about shortage of police manpower. [Letters 11/20/20] We warned the City of Long Beach mayor and council repeatedly of the consequences of defunding our Police Department.

Certainly, the Police Department is not the blame here; they are doing the best they can. Politicians think they know better than the experts when in fact they do not.

But as always, our politicians constantly cave in to pressures and demands by groups such as BLM and others that quite frankly don’t give a damn about crime or how it effects our law-abiding citizens. As long as the police are shorthanded, these types of crimes and issues are going to occur.

Case and point, Minnesota also defunded their police department, now they are scrambling to bring in or hire more police officers from outside Minnesota. To add to writer Chalmers’ story, the tenants where I reside have been experiencing the same issues.

Why are our politicians so hardheaded? It’s like everything else: – some people, especially our elected officials, choose to find out the hard way.

Mark Alonzo

 

Restaurants Closed

Staff can deliver food, bring it to the car or take no touch orders over the phone instead of waiting on tables. Let’s ditch the wining and dining to have sit down service for now. We are in a pandemic.

Not a great time to be a prima donna over restaurant services and quite frankly many of these restaurants have not been business saavy or community oriented when providing essential food that is sensible for take-out and bringing it to you safely.

We have been in this for eight months now and I refuse to walk in, weave through the crowd to touch keypads for a transaction. Some places still do not accept payment over the phone. Ridiculous. This shows they don’t care about the staff as well.

Charlie Trujillo

 

Hospital Closed

Starting tonight, Local Long Beach Restaurants and out-of-work employees are paying the cost for Mayor Garcia selling our hospital to his big campaign donor at the risk of the city’s health.

Mayor Garcia: “I’m shutting down dining in Long Beach because we don’t have enough hospitals!”

Restaurant Employees: “What about the one you promised to open two years ago?”

Mayor Garcia: “Shut up about that and listen to the science.”

Franklin Sims
via Facebook

 

We fought hard to no avail to keep that hospital open. I can’t say the name of the corporation that ran the hospital, but it also owns a large acute care hospital on Atlantic Avenue and they are all about profit not patients.

They made a sweetheart deal with the city to run CHLB paying a negligible amount per year but then decided to shutter the hospital because they are not making a profit, leaving the residents in the East LB area without an ER.

I imagine patients from the East LB area died from the increased travel time to their sister hospital on Atlantic Avenue after CHLB closed. It’s all about profit and business in Long Beach.

Elizabeth C Castillo
via Facebook

 

Lockdown Protest

Our play on the Oscar winning film “3 billboards” was a success. If we could afford three actual billboards we would have done it, but placing three large U-Haul trucks outside councilmember’s homes for two days was an economical yet humorous way to send a very serious message:

“Stand up for business and against the lockdowns or move out! We will pay for the moving trucks.”

Put together in less than 48 hours, our attempt to bring attention and levity to a very serious situation resonated online. A dozen folks showed up on short notice during Thanksgiving evening. We ate dinner on the parkways, danced and passed the microphone between bites. Statements were civil, logical and humorous at times. We wanted people to share their ideas and encourage them to do the right thing and save our dying businesses.

We plan to grow support and grow our presence as we continue to oppose the County of Los Angeles’ and Long Beach Health Department’s decision to close outdoor dining and instituting a curfew without data that demonstrates transmissions at outdoor dining establishments.

We want the Long Beach Health Officer to look at logical alternatives. We plan to visit more electeds in the coming weeks but started with the three councilmembers we believe have supported and listened to servers, cooks and restaurant owners who are working to stay open.

Councilwoman Mungo was the only one who came out and talked with us after our presentation. She listened to some of our ideas and discussed the work her and her colleagues have done in partnership with the restaurant association and other groups who are fighting alongside her to provide solutions. She agreed, more must be done.

Everyone has their style and way of asking for change. We would have preferred to make our case at a council meeting but the timing of this new Health Order didn’t allow us that opportunity for several weeks. We needed to act now. People can’t survive three weeks without income and without their freedom to run a business. We needed to voice our ideas and goals.

Hosting our mini-outdoor dining Thanksgiving on short notice, we knew attendance wouldn’t be huge, but it represented the start of more clever, humorous and outside the box style of confronting a health order that is throwing the baby out with the bath water. We are a passionate group that wants to join with others that want to make change.

People vent their frustrations and express their positions in different ways including, writing letters, speaking at council meetings and marching, but most do nothing or complain online. We get creative and organize niche protests that address important issues and hopefully make you laugh. We hope everyone’s anticipation is high for our next round where we will focus on three different council members. It may or may not harken back to Uncle Eddie’s RV.

Matt Fleischmann & Tony Nieri

 

Bass for US Senate

Karen Bass is a near perfect political fit to meet the needs of the California constituency and should be appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat that will be left vacant by Kamala Harris’s ascendance to the vice presidency of our nation. Not only does her vast and varied experience in both state and federal government speak to her ability to affect much needed change, her promotion to the U.S. Senate would provide a more formidable platform for advocacy of her people oriented policies.

Ms. Bass’s interests in social justice and politics began early in her life. In middle school Ms. Bass volunteered to assist in Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Ms. Bass went on to a career in public service and politics. She served as 67th Speaker of the California State Assembly. She won the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2010 for her leadership during the Great Recession and now serves as the congressional representative of California’s 37th congressional district. Plus, Ms. Bass was elected chair of the Congressional Black Caucus during the 116th Congress.

What’s more, Ms. Bass’s background in healthcare as a physician assistant gives her professional and specialized knowledge on a most pressing issue in American politics: Healthcare. Moreover, Ms. Bass earned a master’s degree in social work (MSW) from the University of Southern California, where she also served as a clinical instructor in the Physician Assistant Program.

Ms. Bass is attuned to the suffering of so many Californians. In the 1980s, Ms. Bass along with other community organizers founded Community Coalition, with a mission to transform social and economic conditions in South Los Angeles that contribute to addiction, crime, poverty and violence. Ms. Bass’s commitment to service and progressive social programs is a perfect antidote to the manipulative, self-serving politicos to whom our federal government has for too long been subjected.

Her record of leadership and her personal affability make Karen Bass the obvious choice to represent California in the U.S. Senate. This would be a large step forward in Ms. Bass’s political career and a giant leap forward for us Californians who would greatly benefit from her position as a United States Senator.

Governor Newsom, the choice is clear: Appoint Karen Bass to the U.S. Senate.

Ben Miles

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