After twenty years of holding their annual conference in Monterey, California, TED (a nonprofit organization focused on Technology, Entertainment, and Design) moved to Long Beach in 2009 seeking larger accommodations for their growing event. The city has sought to put its best foot forward as the downtown Terrace Theater prepares to host the second TED conference this February. While covering the standard bases (hoisting banners on light posts, repainting curbs), Long Beach should also focus on rolling out a carpet more specifically tailored to the world’s leading innovators of technology, entertainment and design. Through such initiatives, the city can make participants in this year’s conference—from David Byre to Bill Gates and Elie Wiesel—feel more welcome.

Long Beach has certainly made similar efforts to accommodate other major events. In 2006, the city council passed dog-breeding legislation ahead of hosting the American Kennel Club’s annual show in Long Beach. Three years ago, when Long Beach was the finish line for the Amgen Tour of California bike race, the city rolled out a series of bike initiatives that arguably launched its continuing effort to become the “most bike-friendly city in the nation.” We cannot forgot that the Shoreline area downtown was designed almost entirely for the one week in April when the Long Beach Grand Prix takes place.

Many attendees can now stay in hotels refurbished or built from scratch since last year’s TED conference; new restaurants and venues will provide entertainment outside the four-day conference. Streetscape improvements along the Promenade and new lighting along First Street and portions of Ocean Boulevard will provide greater comfort for their pedestrian experience. These are all great additions to the downtown area, but with the visionary nature of the TED conference as an inspiration, we should push for even greater innovation in terms of both private development and public infrastructure.

The government of Long Beach, as well as the city’s many nonprofit groups and dedicated citizens, have shown themselves to be innovative in many ways, from the Water Department’s desalination project to the city’s emerging bike program. Indeed, the bike program has become something of a standout: in the past year, Long Beach has drawn national attention for its innovative bike infrastructure improvements. These efforts will continue over the next year, including a new Bikestation adjacent to the Promenade. This new Bikestation will be the latest incarnation of Long Beach’s original Bikestation, the first in the United States and repeated in many other cities since.

While not every visitor to Long Beach is interested in bicycling, some visitors do come to experience these new facilities. If not already on the agenda for this year’s conference, the organizers of TED should consider bike tours to take advantage of these new bike facilities.

Last month (December 2009), Long Beach was awarded a million dollars to complete design schematics for realigning the Interstate 710 Freeway as it travels over the Los Angeles River into the downtown area. The plan is to unite the northbound and southbound lanes of the freeway along the east bank of the river; as a result, a large portion of Cesar Chavez Park would no longer be isolated between the lanes of the freeway. Particularly if combined with the proposed thirty-acre Drake Park Greenbelt on the other side of the river, the overall result would be a pair of stellar neighborhood parks — a real regional-scale amenity. This realignment presents the opportunity to redefine the existing freeway into a beautiful tree-lined boulevard much like the Embarcadero in San Francisco. This would create a more grand entry for everyone visiting downtown Long Beach, including of course attendees of the TED conference.

With the 2009 reopening of the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum across the street from the Museum of Latin American Art, the corner of Alamitos Avenue and 6th Street becomes one of the most significant cultural nodes in Long Beach. If the city would develop Armory Park, we would have a real focal point for this important destination. In fact, the Armory Park proposal would not just remove the most dangerous intersection in the city; it would create an acre of badly needed open space and serve as a gateway into the downtown area.

The current public-private partnership being utilized to build a new County Courthouse along Broadway could be expanded to redevelop the entire Civic Center as well as one of downtown’s central public spaces: the Terrace Theater Plaza, which serves as the TED conference’s front porch. Renovating the plaza into something comparable to Millennium Park in Chicago or Union Square in San Francisco would dramatically improve the conference experience.

Given that we seem to be facing a situation of indefinite delay with regard to developing the southeast corner of Ocean Boulevard and Pine Avenue, we could revisit the possibility of finding a new use for the Jergins Tunnel. From 1928 until 1967, this Art Deco pedestrian tunnel underneath Ocean Boulevard was a major feature of downtown Long Beach. Currently sealed off at both ends, the tunnel could be reopened and converted into an exhibition space or meeting facility, perhaps even an addition to the Convention Center complex. Indeed, an entry pavilion built at the tunnel’s south end in Victory Park would be just a block away from the Terrace Theater, providing a unique venue for the TED conference.

In October of this year, CSU Long Beach will host 5D: The Future of Immersive Design, a major international digital media conference. Using the conference as its foundation, CSULB could establish a Digital Media Lab downtown using long-vacant commercial spaces. Such an innovative academic center could draw digital media companies downtown, from video game developers to computer animators. Obviously, such a vision would appeal to many participants at the TED conference.

While not an exhaustive list, these are all examples of innovative concepts that could leave an impression on TED attendees. If any of them seem familiar, it may be because I have discussed all of them in previous posts (follow the following hyperlinks should you wish to see the original articles):

– Great Park
– Armory Park
– Terrace Theater Plaza
– Jergins Tunnel Reuse
– Downtown Campus

In reality, Long Beach does not need TED to be innovative: in part, TED came to Long Beach in recognition of the innovation that already exists in this city. My goal is simply to use this annual conference as a springboard for renewing our commitment to some worthy projects (not just these). Unlike, city efforts for some events (specifically Grand Prix) these projects could benefit all visitors, workers and residents of Long Beach throughout the year.