Councilmember Gary DeLong has great taste in food. Two of his favorite Long Beach restaurants are two of mine—Hof’s Hut and George’s Greek Deli. Recently, DeLong answered questions about the Sea Port Marina Development, City Council teamwork and that pesky recall effort.
Q: Since your election, what has been your greatest accomplishment?
I realize you asked for only one accomplishment, but I’d like to address two categories (Infrastructure and Environment). Both are important to 3rd District residents, but they are clearly different endeavors.
The first is Infrastructure improvements. My staff (Anne Cramer, Julie Maleki and Joe Toney) and I have worked closer with the various 3rd District neighborhood associations and individual residents than ever before. We’ve collaborated on setting priorities for sidewalk replacements, street repaving and various other improvements. The result has been increased investment in the community, and more bang for the buck because we are focused on addressing neighborhood priorities. I am proud of my staff and believe that we are providing superior customer service to the residents and businesses in the 3rd District.
The second item is improving the water quality in Alamitos Bay. By partnering with Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, we have been successful in diverting over 1,000,000 gallons of polluted storm drain water every month into the Sewer system, rather than the Bay. The results have been remarkable. In the Summer of 2006 we received mostly “D’s” and “F’s” in Heal the Bay water quality test scores, and in 2007 we earned mostly “A’s” and “B’s”. And we’re not done. Our next effort will be improving the water quality in the Naples canals, along our beaches, and hopefully finding solutions to our LA River pollution problem.
From both an infrastructure and environment perspective, just last week City Manager Pat West and I met with Senator Lowenthal and CalTrans to discuss improving the appearance of one of our eastern gateways – the area around 7th Street and Studebaker. I am hopeful that the community will see landscape improvements beginning in July 2008, with significant improvements within the next 12 – 18 months afterwards as we attempt to access a federal funding program.
Q: What has been your biggest disappointment?
My biggest disappointment is the lack of teamwork on the 14th Floor. Let me be clear here – I am not criticizing any of my colleagues. It is an environment problem. If you replaced all 9 councilmembers, you would end up with a similar result. While most of us have good relations with each other, the environment does not encourage us to work together to solve problems. I think the Mayor has shown leadership in bringing us together on important issues, but he can’t take every issue on.
Q: What do you have to say to those residents that would like to see you recalled?
Fortunately residents that truly are interested in a recall appear to be a very small minority. However, the silver lining is that I have been overwhelmed with emails, phone calls, and people coming up to me when I’m out in the community asking what they can do to help. I wasn’t sure people noticed all the subtle improvements we’ve been making; the solving of constituent issues one at a time while keeping a big picture perspective on the significant challenges we face as a city. I am humbled by the sincere and generous offers of support and since many of them are your readers, I would like to publicly thank them – it has encouraged me to work even harder on their behalf.
Because I am a moderate it’s not surprising that extremists are often disappointed with my positions. Also, I tend to be candid in my public comments. What you see is what you get, and I often do not worry about the “political correctness” of a position I may take. I will not pander to those few people that have the loudest voices, but instead, will continue to reach out into the 3rd District community, and listen to a wide variety of opinions. Plus, I don’t mind a little controversy now and then . . .
I was elected by a large majority of 3rd District residents, most of whom are part of the “silent majority”, and I never forget to keep their interests at the forefront.
Q: What are your thoughts about Lennar pulling out of the Sea Port Marina site? What do you see for the future of that development?
Although I believe Lennar is a top quality developer, I could never come around to supporting the proposed project. It was just too much density for that location, required too many variances and would have generated significant traffic impacts. However, I am encouraged by the concept that is currently being discussed – a boutique hotel supported by some high-end retail and upscale restaurants. Of course, any development will require significant infrastructure investment by the developer to ensure than additional traffic is properly mitigated.
3rd District residents have indicated to me that they want the existing dilapidated Seaport Marina Hotel replaced, but they will only support appropriately sized development.
I’m disappointed that Lennar pulled out of the project because they have an excellent reputation and have been great to work with.
Q: What’s the status of the proposed Home Depot in your district?
The proposed Home Depot project is now in the jurisdiction of the Coastal Commission. I think it is difficult to predict whether or not the Coastal Commission will approve the project, but it is likely that some development will occur on that parcel in the near future. If the Home Depot project is declined by the Coastal Commission, I expect to see some type of General Industrial use that conforms with existing zoning codes.
Q: What do you think is Long Beach’s biggest challenge? How do you plan to address it?
It’s hard to narrow it down to just one. But, if I have to, it has to be our financial situation. A tenuously balanced budget affects Public Safety, funding for our streets and sidewalks, quality of life investments in our award winning Parks, Rec & Marine department, etc. A lack of money negatively impacts everything we do.
But, I’m still not convinced that a tax increase is the answer. We need to continue to optimize City operations and reduce our service delivery costs. We need to focus on creating a more business friendly environment in Long Beach. An environment that will stimulate economic growth and job creation, which will then generate more tax revenues for the City to invest in our community.
We are fortunate to have an excellent Police Department, beginning with Chief Batts and his Command Staff, and continuing down through the ranks. I am particularly pleased with Commander Cindy Renaud who is responsible for the East division. Not only is she an excellent law enforcement officer, but she listens to community concerns and responds. Commander Renaud recognizes that not only is it important to do the big things well, like reducing crime year after year, but it is important to be responsive to all of the small things that impact a resident’s quality of life. Due to the efforts of the LBPD, violent crime continues to decline, and now they are being challenged to continue delivering excellent service to the community with a budget that is tighter than ever.
Q: You have been a critic of the city’s Public Works department, do you see any improvements?
You’re right, I have been a critic of Public Works. It has cost too much to do too little. Although there are many reasons that Pat West was chosen to be our City Manager, clearly one of the reasons is that he recognized our Public Works department was broken and needed to be fixed. Pat has a “can-do” attitude that I believe will result in a significant culture change at City Hall. We are moving to an environment where common sense will prevail. If it makes sense, just do it. In the past, the City has often been so fixated on the “process” that it has lost site of the fact that we need to deliver cost effective results in a timely manner to our residents.
Public Works is improving, but we still have a long way to go.
Q: What are your favorite Long Beach restaurants?
Lashers, Hof’s Hut, McKenna’s, George’s Greek Restaurant and of course, Legends are among my favorites. My favorite downtown restaurants are La Traviata and Smooth’s.