Happy Easter 2.0

We've starting spring off with a heat wave here. I'm cutting my blog short this week because I've spent entirely too much time trying to create an audioblog via Gabcast. My family and I went to a lovely Easter service at Covenant Presbyterian Church. Pastors Rob and Adele Langworthy spread the good word with their usual enthusiastic style and the flower laden 8-foot cross was unusually beautiful this year.


Gabcast! Beachify #2

Water, Water Everywhere, As Long as It's Monday, Thursday or Saturday

Just a short blog this week to remind you that Long Beach is serious about its water restrictions. Check it out! They’ve even got a “Report a Water Waster” form on their website.

I got so scared I wrote the word water on my calendar on all the legal watering days from now through December, which put a serious dent in my blogging time. Writing water over and over like that I was suddenly guilt-stricken by the awareness that I was also washing clothes washing dishes and planning a long soak in the tub. I did not feel guilty about my 8-ounce glass of water though. I am proud, proud, proud of my water drinking habit.

Anyway, some of the key points to remember besides the designated watering days is that you should water before 9 AM or after 4 PM are:

• Use a special pressurized cleaning device to clean sidewalks and patios



• Use sprinklers from 10 to 15 minutes.



• Be sure your sprinklers operate efficiently and don't overflow into the street.



• If you use a hose to wash your car, attach a water shut-off nozzle.

These are all fairly easy and common sense practices, and here’s the Long Beach City Ordinance if you’re a detail freak. Remember, the water you save may be your own.

Pow Wow . . . And How

I had a chance to visit the 38th Annual Pow Wow held on the central quad of the CSULB this weekend. The weather was perfect for spectators, maybe a little on the warm side for the feather dancers. If you didn’t make it this year, mark your calendars for 2009. Parking and admission is free and there’s enough food and Native American arts and crafts booths to fill up a pleasant afternoon. The dancing and the drums are the real attractions though. So bring a chair, and enjoy five hours of delightful music, costumes and traditional tribal dances. I find it so inspiring to see the generations dancing together.

There’s a few ground rules at Pow Wows. First, the dancers have specially designated areas where they can stand or sit. Keep away. Also, be aware of little people behind you and don’t block their sight lines. The native people I’ve met there are very easy going and rarely speak out if you’re in their way. Most importantly, ask before you take people’s pictures. Some people don’t like it because it goes against their spiritual traditions. Other people expect a gratuity for the picture.

Wouldn’t you know it? I forgot my camera, but if you’re in the mood, Pow Wows and the Gathering of Nations both have great photos.

And now for all you poetry lovers out there:

POW WOW

Come share the living power of your art.
Give breath to earth and shape the wind to make
The rhythms that you dance to in your heart.

A blood red cry of anguish can impart
The birth of war or death of love’s last ache.
Come share the living power of your art.

Now feel the pulsing drum. Become a part
Of all that’s ever lived. You can’t forsake
The rhythms that you dance to in your heart.

Bright patterned weaves of chanting voices thwart
The lonely howl a single soul can make.
Come share the living power of your art.

The eagle soars. Coyote laughs. The smart
Old storyteller’s words somehow partake
In rhythms that you dance to in your heart.

Come sing, come dance, for mother earth’s sweet sake.
The giver of all life’s own life’s at stake.
Come share the living power of your art,
The rhythms that you dance to in your heart.

Latest on Seadip: The city has produced a video with a brief recap of the history of development in Southeastern Long Beach and some good color-coded maps. Watch it on YouTube. Then you can complete the survey at the city’s SEADIP webpage.

Let’s get the DIP out of SEADIP!

Much to my surprise and delight, I recently found an appeal for action from a neighbor among the reams of flyers for tree trimmers, maid services and pizza delivery bargains that litter my doorstep regularly. Kerrie Aley dropped off a copy of the survey the Long Beach Planning Department has issued about development in southeast Long Beach along with a heartfelt letter. “Your input is critical,” she writes. “Please mail back the survey to the City by March 31, 2008." My husband dug into the survey with energy I rarely see in him after a long day of work, including a few of his own spontaneous recommendations to the City.

You can rant or vent or just check off a few boxes by downloading the survey and mailing it to the Planning Department by March 31, 2008. While you’re there you can sign up for email for updates on Planning Department decisions on the area involved, roughly bounded by 7th Street, Marine Stadium, and the Orange County border.

Most people know about the controversy about building a Home Depot at Loynes and Studebaker on the edge of a large tract of undeveloped land. The city has had its eye on the area for years under the aegis of SEADIP (Southeast Area Development and Improvement Plan). After embroiling downtown and northeast Long Beach in various sweetheart deals with large retail outfits that start big and slowly collapse under the weight of their own ambitions, the city appears ready to pave over another quarter of the city. This would be objectionable enough given the track record of past failures, but the area involved here is one of the last viable wetlands in Southern California. My son Tony took the photo above that shows the mix of industry and nature that now exists.

The good news is that a Superior Court judge invalidated the City’s environmental impact report for the Home Depot Center which will delay that project. More information on the decision can be found at the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust website, which includes lots of background information and a cool video.The bad news is that plans for another mixed use condo/retail/ restaurant complex is underway and recommendations from the SEADIP Task Force that may relax requirements for traffic studies in future development.

The report issued by the Los Cerritos Wetlands Study Group in 2005 has some juicy tidbits about the perilous condition of the area. The wetlands once covered 1,500 acres stretching from Cal State Long Beach south and encompassing all of Belmont Shore (that’s one expensive swamp!). Over the years, many toxic substances, some of them carcinogens, have been dumped there and no estimate has ever been made about how much a clean-up would cost.

Jurisdiction over the area is shared by the cities of Long Beach and Seal Beach as well as Los Angeles County, and none of them have stepped up to the plate to enforce any standards. Happily, the natural cycles of the ecosystem can break down many of the toxic elements if monitored and maintained.

Anyone who’s enjoyed the roller coaster effect while driving on Loynes won’t be surprised that the Study Group believed that subsidence was affecting both Loynes and the south part of Studebaker. It recommended that commercial trucks be prohibited. California’s Environmental website CERES has some interesting historical maps and a valuable factsheet about the wetlands.

Three years ago, the Los Cerritos Wetlands Study Group concluded that “one thing is patently clear. . . the taxpaying citizens of District 3 have a strong desire to preserve and restore the Los Cerritos Wetlands." With coordinated effort, we can build on the success of Bolsa Chica wetlands and Colorado Lagoon and restore this rare natural resource into another source of Long Beach pride.