Public Comment Correspondence‐ Michelle Baker
From: Michelle Baker [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 3, 2022 12:58 PM
To: CityClerk <[email protected]>; City Manager <[email protected]>; Brent Dennis <[email protected]>; Mayor <[email protected]>; Douglas Haubert <[email protected]>; Rex Richardson <[email protected]>; City Auditor's Office <[email protected]>
Subject: Please mail this article and comments for City Council Mtg‐Tuesday Jan 4
‐EXTERNAL‐
Good morning City Clerk and Council Members,
When are you going to allow telephonic comments again at City Council Meetings?
Please see the below article on LBACS... this is a crisis when they are short staffed by 15 people ... this shelter has closed to the public, services 5 additional cities and doesn't have enough people to take care of the animals. The auditor reported several years ago that the animals were not being taken care of, it's probably worse now because the shelter is so short staffed and we don't know what is going on in there because it's so secretive. Statistics are not being published monthly and management has decided to change the operating procedures without City Council approval.
Why is an open city shelter still closed to the public???? We need to think outside the box to fill those positions ASAP. Please consider more volunteers from the misdemeanor program that Mr. Haubert and Mr. Richardson started. We need a special session on the shelter because no way are the animals getting proper care when that many positions are open.
It is also your duty to notify the cities that contract with LBACS of this dire situation.
Article is below.
https://lbpost.com/news/hi‐lo/pets/a‐shout‐out‐for‐workers‐at‐the‐short‐staffed‐long‐beach‐animal‐ shelter?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2EQFVR5qVaYaWOHJz3TyUdScpouIg whBcP0O8hPPg0_xpzkvgKRa6R_mE#Echobox=1641059688
Sent from my iPhone
Public Comment Correspondence – Charlotte M Blaire
From: Charlotte M Blaire [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2021 12:47 AM
Subject: Illegal Fireworks
-EXTERNAL-
Good day Honorable Mayor, City Manager, Asst City Manager, Esteemed Council, Police Chief, Commander, Fire Chief, Heroic Prosecutor and the entire Fireworks Committee,
Let me get straight to the point: Those of you who continue to turn a blind eye to the extreme dangers of illegal fireworks have hung your colleagues, who actually care about the issue, out to dry for too long.
Inaction has emboldened gangs to continue to make huge profits by selling fireworks.
As you know, a lot of gang activity is financed by the sales of fireworks.* Drug sales are taking a back seat to fireworks sales, because of the risk/reward factor.
Please make a sincere effort to stop this problem.
As long as the gangs are making money, shootings and other gang-related crimes will continue to surge.
There is no good reason not to take action and enforce the existing law against fireworks.
Enforce fines, impound cars if fines are not paid; use the tools that are available to you since many judges are too lazy and ignorant to care.
I have called Long Beach home ever since I came here from another country, as a teenager.
Since then, I have proudly lived, worked and played in Long Beach.
When it came time to buy a home, over a decade ago, I bought here because I loved my diverse city, and because fireworks were illegal.
Now I am forced to sell what I had assumed would be my home forever, where I'm surrounded by loving, kind, generous, wonderful neighbors. I have to leave because my pets can't handle the fireworks, and my dad is ailing and needs to move in with me, but due to his PTSD, he can't live with me in my current home's location.
I was one of those people who started contacting City officials when fireworks first started increasing, long before the pandemic started.
If you want an idea of what we go through in many parts of the city, listen to my call to the Comm Center on Christmas Eve; you can hardly hear my voice because the illegal explosive fireworks are so loud.
(Shout out to the Comm Center operator, who was kind during my utter despair.) In certain parts of the city, which seem to be cared for less than other parts of the city, the fireworks explosions continue year-round.
But, you all know that.
I am angry and I am heartbroken that I have to leave a place I love.
I am one of those residents who have made my neighborhood a better place by being involved.
I know very few of you care about me, or that I am leaving.
But, Long Beach still earns money by attracting tourists... and reputation for a tourist city is everything.
The more of us good citizens who leave the city, the more the city's reputation will become damaged.
And the city's eventual demise will all be on the city officials who have chosen to do absolutely nothing.
Many people have left our town solely due to fireworks.
I know this because I've run the Long Beach Against Illegal Fireworks Facebook Group since its inception in May 2020, and plenty of people in the group are extremely disappointed that they had to move away, or are going to do so.
Yes, fireworks are a problem in some other cities too, but not all cities.
I have many friends in other Southern California cities who never experience fireworks, except on the 4th of July.
It is the stance of their local city officials that has caused fireworks not to be a problem in those unaffected cities.
Here in Long Beach, residents have been given the excuse that nothing can be done about fireworks, because the problem exists in other cities, but wait.... burglaries, shootings, assault, graffiti, etc,, occur in other cities.
Does that mean that Long Beach will do nothing about those crimes because they happen in other cities?
Please do not use that confounding excuse again.
I have voted for every proposition that has caused my taxes to be increased, believing it would make the city a better place.
But the city has failed to use my tax dollars in a meaningful way.
Before closing, let me say it again...
Please stop the big professional fireworks shows here in the city.
The air and noise pollution, and terror to wildlfe, that is caused by professional fireworks is unnecessary, when we have other options like laser shows, "silent" fireworks and drone shows.
I've sent most of you links in the past to articles about other cities who have successfully used all these options for their 4th of July shows. Please consider those alternatives.
Lastly, could LBPD hand out citations for fireworks on New Year's Eve? The city could use that money.
The residents could enjoy celebrating without frightening explosions.
No untrained person should be lighting illegal fireworks bombs in a densely populated city; we have had enough fires caused by fireworks.
Please send a police unit or two into Carmelitos Housing just north of Del Amo, between Orange and Atlantic; you will be able to hand out citations there. I beg you to enforce the illegal fireworks law within the walls of that complex.
Our lives are disrupted nightly by fireworks exploding everywhere in my general area, and the 4th of July is an especially indescribable nightmare due to the lawbreakers detonating their bombs all night within Carmelitos.
Despondently,
Charlotte M Blaire
District 8, bordering Carmelitos
*Press Release 27 June 2017: Stated Police Chief Robert Luna, “The community needs to understand that when they purchase fireworks from unauthorized sources such as this, they are essentially putting money into the pockets of street gangs and supporting their illicit activities.”
Public Comment Correspondence – Theresa Hew
From: Les Hew [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2021 3:48 PM
To: Mayor <[email protected]>; City Manager <[email protected]>; CityClerk <[email protected]>; Council District 1 <[email protected]>; Council District 2 <[email protected]>; Council District 3 <[email protected]>; Council District 4 <[email protected]>; Council District 5 <[email protected]>; Council District 6 <[email protected]>; Council District 7 <[email protected]>; Council District 8 <[email protected]>; Council District 9 <[email protected]>; Linda Tatum <[email protected]>; Robert Luna <[email protected]>; Wally Hebeish <[email protected]>; Xavier Espino <[email protected]>; Prosecutor <[email protected]>; Art Sanchez <[email protected]>; Gary Anderson <[email protected]>
Subject: New Year's Eve and Illegal Fireworks
-EXTERNAL-
Good Afternoon Mayor, City Council Members, Police Chief and Other City Officials,
New Year's Eve is fast approaching and with it anxiety about the launching of illegal fireworks and mortar. As you all well know, the illegal fireworks are all year long now due to lack of enforcement of laws. Just last week on December 23rd, two mortars were launched from the usual area near my home: Linden Avenue and 37th Street. The scofflaws use the alley behind the Petroleum Club to do their illegal deeds. My neighbor and I called these into the Police Non-Emergency Dispatch and were told patrol cars would be notified.
Our city residents need your commitment to issue more citations on New Year's Eve. Besides the hotspot noted above, the police need to be stationed at Carmelitos. That location has illegal fireworks and mortar shot off all year long! We need peace and the city needs money. Fine them! Enforce the laws! We have good, solid residents who are moving out of Long beach due to this out of control problem and no serious enforcement. Elections for certain city council districts and mayor are next year. The handling or mishandling of this issue is number one on many residents' list of issues. Now is the time to care and be noticed for it. Or not care and be noticed for it. Your choice. Just know there will be consequences come election time.
Thank You,
Theresa Hew
5th District Resident
Member of Long Beach Against Illegal Fireworks on Facebook (1,700 members)