Love/Hate Long Beach

Unless you've truly been living in a bubble I'm sure you have realized that Long Beach is making a major push towards improving its bicycle infastructure. So of course that means that if our efforts are successful you'll see many more bikes on the road taking advantage of all the fabulous bike routes and amenities including the all important bike rack. The problem is that some braniac inside the city has decided that we're the most uncreative community on the planet so we'll need some truly lame bike racks to represent us.

I'm not even sure where to start as there are so many ridiculous examples to choose from. From carrots to tea cups we've turned into Disneyland for bike racks showcasing our cornacopia of crap. It's the equivalent of designing with corel draw or some other amateur program that you wouldn't think any real professional would use.

As a resident of this city and a long time bicycle enthusiast I applaud our efforts to become more bicycle friendly but I'm embarrased by the bike rack component.I mean really, we have enough shit to deal with that drags down our reputation but what the hell, let's add a bunch of fuckin' stupid bike racks to the list.

So who do we blame for the blunder? Rumor as it the top offender is Sumire Gant, who i believe serves as the cities transportation officer. Supposedly she had a bunch of money to spend on bike racks from the fed and she decided to order them all from some ridiculous catalog and then force feed them to our neighborhoods.

Without further adieu, here is a short list of my top offenders. Feel free to share your own as I know many more exist within the city.

THE TEA CUP
I start out with my favorite offender. This teacup design is located in front of Portfolio Coffee House and represents the definition of form over function, which doesn't make sense for a bike rack. If you look closely at this shot you'll notice the bike lock isn't actually locked on and all you would have to do if you wanted to steal the bike is lift it up. Does this rack really need the steam coming off the cup since it serves no actual function??!!

OPOMETRIST SHOP
One of the problems with the racks is that supposedly the store owners are being allowed to choose which rack they would like outside their shop. So if you're an optometrist you're in luck, there's a rack for that.Is this really a decision that we should leave up to the storeowners, i think not.

CUPCAKE
Got a cupcake shop, we've got a rack for you. Oh my god, like, it's totally got frosting on it. Isn't it cute!

DOG BONE
I guess the city wanted to throw this pet shop owner a bone. Haha, get it, get it? Yes, that joke is almost as lame as this rack.

YOGA
This one just might win the most unfunctional bike rack award.

HEALTH FOOD STORE
A carrot, I get it. That's healthy. What i don't get is how lazy this decision making process is.

GUITAR
The actual part where you can lock your bike to it is really low so this one was also a front-runner for the most unfunctional award, coming in close second to the stupid yoga poser.

SOCCER
I'm getting tired of writing something witty and it's just pissing me off more.

TENNIS RACKET
Ditto, ditto, ditto.

SUNFLOWER
This one is so neat...not!

BULL?
This one is a little strange. It's located in front of a 98c store on Long Beach Blvd so I'm not sure what that's all about. It's the carcass of a bull I believe and it's really not that pleasant to look at, go figure. There are a few more like this around the city but different confusing designs that get more use as jungle gyms by local kids then as bike racks.

Seriously Long Beach, you need to step up your game in areas like this. We have a huge university in our grasp and I guarantee the students would shit out a handful of ideas in one day that are better then any of these.

It's not that Long Beach doesn't get its hands on any quality contemporary art shows, but let's just say that they're few and far between. This Saturday night is a show that will be sure to tip the scales.

Future Road Maps is a long term project by Neil Harrison and Matt Wignall to travel throughout the USA and document the sociology, topography and dynamics of contemporary American living. The first Future Road Maps photo exhibit will take place May 7th, at GALLERY 1233, in Long Beach, CA. If you're not familiar with that gallery it's because it's not usually a gallery, just trust me on it.

For more info on FRM and to view some of their work head over to http://futureroadmaps.tumblr.com/

The 2nd annual vintage clothing & street fashion world gathering “Inspiration” is happening in Long Beach today and tomorrow. I have to admit that i don't know much about the show and I didn't make last year's show but from what i've seen it looks pretty amazing. I've also heard a little buzz through some trusted resources so I'm really looking forward to checking it out. I'm surprised that i haven't heard more about this event through some of the local press channels in Long Beach as I think it's something really cool for Long Beach to host.

For more info on the Inspiration show you can visit their site at http://inspirationla.com/. The ticket price is $25 but you're also getting some great live music including Ray Barbee and the Mattson 2, which i always love.

Here is some more info on the event that i grabbed from their site. If all goes well i plan to post some coverage from the show next week.

----

The 2nd annual vintage clothing & street fashion world gathering “Inspiration” will be hosted by Rin Tanaka, the author of the “My Freedamn!” book series.   Under the big theme of his life, “vintage fashion,” this event will be held at one of the coolest vintage event halls, the Queen Mary, located at Long Beach Port, California.  This famous old passenger liner (built in 1936!) is open as a hotel now, but on February 11th and 12th, 2011, this huge indoor space (capacity: over 3,000 people) will be filled with many vintage clothing & street fashion fans from around the world!

During this two-day show, a total of 120 exhibitors (90 in the 2010 show) will set up unique and very special booths displaying their own inspiration: 30 fashion brand exhibitions, 30 artist booths and 60 vintage fashion dealer booths.  The business concept in this vintage atmosphere is to “buy and sell inspiration.”  Actually, many street apparel products, mainly vintage American fashions manufactured from the 1910s to the 1980s, will be displayed everywhere in this hall.  Fashion fans will get amazing opportunities to view so many hard-to-find vintage items.  Most items will be “for sale,” except for special exhibition decorations.

The main targets of this show are worldwide vintage fashion enthusiasts and fashion designers, not only from all 50 states but also from Japan, Canada, European counties and other places worldwide!

When i first caught this article from the LB Post about The Pike hoping that some historic signs will help recessitate their dead shopping center http://www.lbpost.com/news/ryan/11061 i have to admit that i checked the calendar to see if it was April Fools Day, which of course it wasn't.

The story in a nutshell points out how The Pike sucks, how they've lost some of their key tenants including Gangworks, LB Clothing and V2O and how the foot traffic continues to get worse over time. But have no fear, the management at The Pike has a solution, rehash the past.

Specifically their solution is to put up a bunch of big posters on the outside of the structure that will remind people of what The Pike used to be like back in its heyday, which i believe was about 70 yrs ago. Their general manager Jeff Miyaoka throws out some lame propaganda about how the best days for The Pike are still to come and a bunch of other BS that i have to doubt he even honestly believes.

Here's a newsflash for you Jeff, you're fuckin' clueless!! The Pike is one of the worst wastes of great space this city has seen. Let me also remind everyone that The Pike was another failed RDA project. There is so much wrong with the project i don't even know where to start. Seriously, the best thing that could happen to The Pike is for it to be ripped down so that we could start fresh with a new idea.

So if you feel the same as I do, lets do this. Don't go to The Pike. In fact, tell everyone you know not to visit that place. Best case scenario for everyone in Long Beach is that business gets so bad that all the stores and restaurants close up shop and hightail it out of there.

The plastic bag ban is on the city council agenda tonight. For more info you can visit http://www.lbpost.com/news/ryan/10768.

I'm all for banning plastic bags within LB and have been for a long time. I think most reasonable clued in people already use reusable bags and are conscious of our environment. For the rest of the general population i think they'll thank you in the long run for being led down the right path.

Lead that horse to water and make it drink. If you agree give a shout out to your local council member and let them know what you think.

I recently stumbled across this independent film that has been made about the breakwater. The title of the film is Mother Wants Her Beauty Back, very fitting.

I don't really know much about this film or the guy that made it, Grant Eads, but it's a great little indie film that you can tell was made with passion. I'm not here to review it, just to share it. What i will say is that the most intriguing part of the film for me was towards the end when the filmmaker travels out to the pesky breakwater by canoe. He captures a shot taken from standing on top of the breakwater that showcases both sides of the monstrosity. It's interesting to see the ocean side so full of life and movement juxtaposed against the Long Beach side that just sits there like a pool of dirty bathwater, lifeless and gross. It's almost as if the ocean current just wants to break through to spread joy to the shores of Long Beach but it's unable. Kind of depressing.

I would like to assume that everyone reading this blog hates the breakwater as much as i do and if not, well, you suck and should go waste your time on someone elses blog. Props to Grant Eads for making the film. If you dig the project spread the word that mother wants her beauty back!

This definitely isn't the first time i've heard such a claim about the LBC. To be fair, if you were working in some type of economic development position within the city, how much time would you spend on the boutique level guys? Would you care about that little shop on the corner, or would you be more interested in the Walmarts, Targets and Best Buys. Afterall, they drive the most tax revenue for the city right? You would probably have to stich together like 200 small businesses to come close to the tax revenue that big bad Walmart drives. 

But here's the thing, we need diversity in our shopping Long Beach. Not sure if you've noticed but most LB residents like myself would rather shop at the small, unique and specialized. It's a reflection of our personality, it's part of the LB DNA. Not to mention that diversity in general is a key to having a healthy local economy. Not to mention that now isn't the time to be hunting for big business since the economy sucks and not much is happening in that space. Let's do some economic farming, lets help the small businesses grow.

What seems to be happening in my opinion is that from the top down we're not supporting small business enough. We all know how it is, if you work within an environment whose leadership only cares about the big fish—which in this case would be big business—why would you care about the little guys. It all comes down to leadership. I'm talking about you Mayor Bob Foster and you city manager Pat West and you council members. Maybe you do care, but we don't get a reputation for nothing. Perception is reality, didn't somebody famous once say that?

Ya ya, the street food/truck fest has come and gone. But that doesn't mean it's not worth still chatting about. I had a chance to attend the fest and walked away with some mixed thoughts.

First off i had a bad experience at the door before i even entered the event. I brought a small umbrella for our group to enjoy but was told that no umbrellas are allowed. WTF right? Did it say that on your website, no. Sorry that i'm trying to provide some shade. As it turns out besides the natural shade provided by the trees surrounding the park, the main inside area barely had any shade and only a few umbrellas were provided. But whatever, over it at this point, just had to get that out.

Place was pretty crowded, which equals good for the promoters but not so good for the hungry foodies. Some of the trucks had substantial lines. Who knew so many people were so koo-koo for grilled cheese. If i would have known that i would have skipped college.

This isn't a food blog so i'm not gonna get all Yelp on your ass. But let me just say that the best thing i had was the little churro balls from the Border Grill truck were AMAAAAAZING!! Almost makes we want to stalk them on twitter like all the other koo-koos.

After splitting up to stand in various lines our little group finally connected on the grass to chat about various topics while listening to the hippie jam band that was playing. One of the topics was the fest itself. We found it amusing that events like the fest represent the opposite of what food trucks were designed to do. They're mainly about providing fast food to smaller groups of people while jumping around from spot to spot looking for more small groups of people to serve. They're certainly not designed to service such large crowds from an infastructure standpoint considering the small cooking space and limited quantity of food. To sum up our thoughts, we imagined a different setup that allowed us to still sample all the food while not having to waste most of your day standing in line checking your twitter account. While the trucks are cool, what we really wanted was the food and more quality time lounging on the grass with friends. Another idea, utilize technology more. One truck had a 1/2 hour order line followed by a half hour wait for the food = a long damn hour of hunger. At least give me the option of being texted when my food is done.

So those are my thoughts. Agree, disagree, have your own story? Bring it.

A little while back a viewer of the blog posted a message on FB about how the Taste of Downtown East Village event basically sucked. Food ran out, bad planning, etc, etc. Let's hope that things go better for the Long Beach Street Food Fest that is happening tomorrow in the LBC at Rainbow Lagoon Park in the downtown. 

I attended, sorry, i tried to attend a food truck festival in LA a a couple months back and it was a crazy crowd scene with a line snaked up and around the block. We decided against baking in line, which was a good move as we found out later that food ran out, people were pissed, etc.

The rise of the 'roach coach' has come along strong over the last couple of years and i'm excited that someone brought this idea to Long Beach. I'll be attending and the jury is still out for whether or not i'll love it or hate it, but either way i'm glad it's coming. Sometimes you have to get that first event out of the chamber and learn from the experience in order to nail it the next time.

Ride your bike out and get your picnic on and let me know if your experience was good or bad. Maybe i'll do a post-event post.

Unless you just don't get out much, you've probably noticed the efforts that Long Beach has been making towards becoming a more bicycle friendly community. While i still think this city has a long way to go and we're jumping on the bandwagon a little late in the game, i appreciate the efforts.

The efforts seem to come from a combination of places. On one end you have the bureaucratic efforts being driven by politicians that put out propaganda like the site Bike Long Beach where most of the content self-serving political jarble. On the other end you have sites that are driven by locals such as Long Beach Cyclists that keep it real and have a much better handle on the real bike culture happening around the LBC. I realize we need both and i don't mind the balance. You can probably get an idea of which one i lean towards the most.

Long Beach Cyclists are hosting a ride tonight that starts at Portfolio and heads up North into Bixby Knolls to a gastropub called The Factory that i haven't checked out yet. The rest of the info is below. Check it out if you can but most importantly get out there and ride. The weather is great and LB for the most part is flat so the riding is pretty mellow.

If you have other local bike resources to mention throw them in the comments below or on Love/Hate's Facebook Page