Elements of Urbanism: Long Beach

[Metro Jacksonville]

Elements of Urbanism: Long Beach



Metro Jacksonville visits the downtown of a dominant maritime center in the shadow of America's second largest city: Long Beach.


Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-sep-elements-of-urbanism-long-beach

[Noone]

Ennis and Nicole nice work.
Very clean. Felt the vibrancy everywhere.

[hooplady]

"Public Parking - Two Hours Free"

What the...blasphemy!!!

[Ocklawaha]

April 9, 1961, the last Red Car ran from Los Angeles to Long Beach on the old Pacific Electric Railway...Thank you GENERAL MOTORS. On July 14, 1990 the electric cars were back in downtown Long Beach, 29 years and 3 months later. The new cars carried a red stripe, a salute to the Pacific Electric, and finally a set of cars were actually painted in PE colors...back by popular demand. Jacksonville lost it's electric railway on December 12, 1936, are we REALLY that much dumber?

My dad was stationed aboard the USS Utah, BB31 in Long Beach Harbor during the great earthquake. Mom, my sisters and the rest of the family were all safe and dad was assigned to Naval Patrols that roamed through the wreckage. Though I was born and spent my early years in the east, my Long Beach roots are deep. At an early age my first train ride was on the Big Red Cars of the Pacific Electric Railway from Los Angeles to 'American Avenue' (today's Long Beach Blvd) in downtown Long Beach. My mind was permanently wrapped around steel rails and copper wire ever since.  After the age of 14, when I wasn't in Florida, I was completing my misspent youth in North Long Beach, East Harding at Cherry Avenue to be more exact. I'd say downtown didn't really fall off the map until about 1970, and at that time it rapidly went to hell. I got my desert property while living nearby just for the sanity it offered... LONE SANITY. I remember well the sleazy 'theaters' and 'book stores' that overtook downtown and if I ever doubted the skid, a trip to one of the west's premiere train stores, operated by a guy I nicknamed 'Doomsday,' would quickly set the record straight. The Naval Station and Naval Shipyard closed on 30, Sept. 1994, the property was sold/leased to China Ocean Shipping.

The loss of the Pike is sad, but it was a mere run down shadow of it's former glory. Not unlike Coney Island, Atlantic City, Daytona Beach or even a large version of Jacksonville Beaches Boardwalk, the pike was a giant waterfront carnival. Jacksonville's vanished after the 1960 hurricanes, while The Pike was restored after the earthquake (a few of them in fact) and appears to be saluted with the new "Pike at Rainbow Harbor."

I'd argue with the walk score as virtually EVERY street in the city is lined with sidewalks, and some have protected trails. The most amazing thing a Floridian notices in Southern California is that everytime a pedestrian gets anywhere near a street, ALL TRAFFIC STOPS! Wish we could import some of the highway courtesy to Jacksonville.

The Aquarium, Convention Center and Waterfront Village are the type of things I'd like to see in downtown Jacksonville. The Shipyards and JEA Property in addition to Brooklyn, LaVilla, and 'Peyton's Flexible Lawn' (formerly known as the Kids Campus) are ripe for this sort of infill. The highway crazed Los Angeles basin figured out a formula to urban success years ago...just add rail.

OCKLAWAHA

[iloveionia]

ENNIS!!!!!!!
You were in Long Beach and didn't contact me???

Great article.
Long Beach is a great city to live in, and I only really learned this after spending extended time in Jacksonville.  LOL. 

[Ocklawaha]

So you gave up on Jacksonville and headed west? I think we lost ZOO to San Diego fairly recently also. Next time I'm out in 29 Palms I want to get over and visit the old town myself... Wonder how many of my old haunts are still around? Got to say Long Beach was a great place to live. Ennis started this and now you Ionia... PLEASE don't temp me too much, I might want to get out of the 19Th century again myself.

OCKLAWAHA

[Keith-N-Jax]

Seems like a real cool place to visit.Just looking at thoses pics you could feel the sense of being active and alive.

[thelakelander]

ENNIS!!!!!!!
You were in Long Beach and didn't contact me???

Great article.
Long Beach is a great city to live in, and I only really learned this after spending extended time in Jacksonville.  LOL. 

It was a last minute thing. I had a few hours to burn after a train ride into LA's Union Station so I decided to take the blue line to the Long Beach waterfront.

[tufsu1]

hey Lake...don't you have to be up at 7am tomorrow?

[iloveionia]

Ock.  I grew up in New England and moved to SoCA after graduating college.  I bought in Historic Springfield beginning in 2007.  I maintain my primary residence here in LB and spend 3-4 months in Jax through-out the year.

Ennis. . . . .fine. . .I'll let you slide. . . .when you took the Blue Line to Long Beach you went past and later circled my high school on 8th/Long Beach Blvd: Renaissance High School for the Arts.  I am the Activities Director there.

The Pike is all new in these last 5 or a bit more years.  Pine Street was the place to be for nightlife.  Unfortunately, when they built the Pike, they neglected to make any connection to Pine and in essence killed Pine Avenue.  There are plenty of places to park for free in Long Beach and we also boast free public transporation (in addition to paid bus rides.)  The only parking structure I can think of is the one behind/next to the Walmart on 5th/Pine/LB Blvd. We don't have abandoned blight like downtown Jax.  And if we do, the RDA dresses it up and makes it look appealing.  The Passport bus (red) and I don't remember the name but we all call it the "purple bus" are both free.  They take you all over Long Beach south of PCH and to Belmont Shore from Downtown.  The nightlife is still on Pine, a handful of places on Broadway heading towards Belmont Shore, and then on 2nd Street in the Shore.  Belmont Shore is high end and very nice.  Even quaint.
 
As locals, we don't really go to the Queen Mary, though they do have a pretty good Halloween Haunted House for the month of October, yet I've never been!  The Aquarium is very nice and adds new exhibits regularly.  Admission is close to $20/person.  All the condo complexes at the Pike are new and I'm not sure that they are lived in completely.  It just doesn't seem possible.  They are expensive to buy. 

We take the Blue Line if we are going to any part of Downtown LA and aren't coming back with heavy wares.  Next month we'll take it up to USC to watch the Stanford v. USC football game.  You can buy a $6 all day pass that lets you ride any color line (hmmmm, there is blue, red, and green)  and gives you a ride any city bus in the county of Los Angeles.  That said, don't think it's anything like NYC or Chicago public transportation, it's not even close.

One summation of Long Beach to Jax is the disconnectedness Jax has.  I suppose that is due to the annexing off to the county.  It's just too big, (Jax) period.  Long Beach is a connected community, that while it has it's neighborhoods, doesn't feel that large at all.  Plus, our council members really facilitate activities in their communities that bring people together, keep the neighborhoods safe, and clean the hoods up. 

Long Beach is an affordable (by SoCA standards anyway) beach community.  We are 20 minutes to LAX, 20 minutes to John Wayne Airport in Orange County.  Within an hour I can truly get to the most magical places in the USA, and I'm not talking about Disneyland.   Ask me and I've probably been, if not, I could, it is that easy. 

While I absolutely love Historic Springfield, and remember with great fondness where I grew up in rural Vermont, I do enjoy very much Long Beach and Southern California.  It is expensive and the people are arrogant and self-centered, but if you can get beyond that, it's a pleasant place to live.