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VOL. 35 NO. 15 APRIL 12, 2012 Follow us on

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ANNUAL TOYOTA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH SPECIAL SECTION

PROFESSOR HONORED FOR STYLE ............ Page 12A

POLY STUDENT ECON EXPERT ................... Page 22A

LBCC VOLLEYBALL TEAM SPECIAL ............... Page 1B

A PINCH OF SALT ........................... Page 2A

BUSINESS BEAT .............................. Page 28A

MUSICAL NOTES ............................ Page 31A

ON WITH THE SHOW ..................... Page 29A

PROFILES IN DINING ....................... Page 23A

BY ASHLEIGH OLDLANDEDITOR

The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is a boon to the city’s economy, even if it doesn’t always make an immediate im-pact on the businesses inside or near the racetrack, said down-town business owners. “The Grand Prix is an out-standing example of how an event can produce positive re-sults for the downtown area, the city and region,” said Downtown Long Beach Associates President and CEO Kraig Kojian. “This 38-year-old event draws nearly 175,000 people to our downtown

over the course of the weekend and produces a $22-$25 million economic impact for the city.” Kojian also emphasized that the event is a way to highlight the downtown area, and Long Beach in general, to potential investors. And while business owners in downtown Long Beach seem to unanimously support hosting the

Businesses Feel PushFrom Grand Prix Crowd

(Continued on Page 35A)

BY JONATHAN VAN DYKESTAFF WRITER

Oh Rocky, what could have been — shame on me for having the disease of more. I think we all have that ex-treme buddy (you don’t?) that keeps pushing the limits, the kind Red Bull would gladly sponsor if he signs his life away. Extreme sports were made on this foundation, the idea that maybe it’s not crazy for Travis Pastrana to jump over Rainbow Harbor and across the ocean on New Year’s Eve — the idea that each thrill must be topped.. How else can I explain my twinges of disappointment on the Toyota Grand Prix of Long

Writer Wants More Adrenaline In Ride


—Gazette photo by William JohnsonBUCKLE UP. Staff writer Jonathan Van Dyke gets instructions before his ride in a Grand Prix pace car.

BY HARRY SALTZGAVEREXECUTIVE EDITOR

Incumbents cruised to victory in both education board races and the Second City Council District Tuesday night, but the big story was the near dead heat in the race for the Fourth District City Council seat. When the dust cleared and the unoffi cial results posted at 11:55 p.m. Tuesday, a mere 40 votes separated Daryl Supernaw in fi rst and John Watkins in third. Per-haps more importantly, incum-bent Patrick O’Donnell held a razor-thin four-vote lead for the all-important second place. City Clerk Larry Herrera said that fi nal results won’t be known for “at least a few” days. There are 1,302 mail-in ballots still to be processed (in all races) in ad-dition to 541 provisional ballots to be studied. In all but the Fourth District, that fi nal count appears to be lit-tle more than formality. In the Second District City Council race, incumbent and cur-rent Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal easily outdistanced competitors Janet Ballantyne and Mike Kam-er, with 61.56% of the vote. Bal-lantyne managed 30.1% while Kamer was in single digits at 8.34%. The only open seat up for grabs was in the Eighth District City Council race. Challenger Lillian

Kawasaki had a slight lead after the mail-in ballots were counted, but Al Austin took the lead when the fi rst precincts reported and never relinquished it. Austin received 55.18% of the vote to Kawasaki’s 42.99%. Gus-tavo Rivera, whose name was on the ballot but who did not cam-paign, got 65 votes, or 1.83%. Incumbent and current board president Felton Williams kept his seat on the Long Beach Uni-fi ed School District board in Dis-trict 2, defeating Ricardo Linarez

AUSTIN IN EIGHTH

Incumbents WinIn Three Of Four

Thunder Thursday, Page 10A

Free Friday Ticket,Page 11B

Second Council District Ballantyne 668 Kamer 185✔ Lowenthal 1,366

Fourth Council District✖ O’Donnell 1,063✖Supernaw 1,099✖ Watkins 1,059

Eighth Council District✔ Austin 1,960 Kawasaki 1,527

LBUSD District 4 Linarez 1,114✔ Williams 1,794

LBCC District 4 Keiser 2,145✔ Otto 4,460

✖ Recount Expected* Results with 100% precincts

Election 2012


—Gazette photo by Geronimo QuitorianoTHANKING SUPPORTERS. Fourth District Councilman Patrick O’Donnell talks to friends Tuesday night while waiting for the election results.


All three candidates for the Fourth District City Council seat think they are going to be in a runoff election this June. Only two are right. But after the last ballot was counted Tuesday night, it was impossible to say which two. Daryl Supernaw fi nished fi rst on Tuesday, with 1,099 votes. John Watkins fi nished third, with 40 votes less (1,059). Right now, incumbent and write-in candidate Patrick O’Donnell clings to the all-im-portant second spot with 1,063 votes, just four more than Watkins.

“I defi nitely consider this a victory,” O’Donnell said Wednesday morning. “I’m proud that the voters have sent me into the general election.” That conclusion is far from certain, however. City Clerk Larry Herrera said that citywide there are still 722 mail-in ballots received Monday that must be counted, plus another 580 turned in Tuesday. There also are 541 provisional ballots to be checked. Herrera said there is no way to know how many of those ballots were cast for the Fourth District City Council seat. There were fi ve races Tuesday, and the Fourth District’s 3,221 ballots accounted for about 18.8% of the total vote.

Fourth District Race In Dead Heat


PAGE 2A | GRUNION GAZETTE | April 12, 2012GAZETTE COMMENTARY

Have you ever had that sinking feeling? Yes, like everyone else in the world, I’m talking about the Ti-tanic. One hundred years ago Sunday, the ship struck an ice-berg and sunk like a rock, killing about 1,500 of the 2,223 people on board. This tragedy has fascinated people since the day it occurred. The news coverage back in 1912 was incredible — comparable in many ways to the beginning of World War II or the attacks of 9-11, at least on the fi rst day. I think records were broken when it came to the size of headlines. The reasons behind the endless fascination with the ship and its tragic end are more complex than the death of 1,517 people, or the loss of the $7.5 million it cost to build. Let’s talk a bit about the most obvious — the lesson in the cost of hubris. The Titanic has become synonymous with what happens to prideful braggarts. It was, af-ter all, the unsinkable ship. Many people thought then (heck, I’ll bet many people still think today) that the iceberg that punched a hole in the hull was a direct mes-sage from God, reminding man-kind exactly who was infallible and who wasn’t. There’s just something about the vision of the upper class dressed to the nines, dancing the night away as disaster approach-es, that captures our working-class imagination. There’s just a touch of, “they deserved it,” isn’t there?

And the stories — oh, the sto-ries. I was fi rst introduced to the Titanic as a young Colorado boy with the making of the movie “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” The 1964 musical is really about a girl who marries a Colorado guy who strikes it rich as a sil-ver miner. The Titanic scene that gave Margaret Brown her unfor-gettable nickname is only fi ve or 10 minutes long (and includes what may be the worst special ef-fect of a ship sinking ever seen on the big screen). But the movie defi ned for the impressionable youngster I was what it meant to be a Coloradan — someone capable, able to han-dle themselves in crisis and more than willing to help those willing to help themselves. I’d like to think it helped shape the person I came to be. Then there was the Titanic ri-poff, “The Poseidon Adventure.” Sure, the ship had a different name, and the writers decided it would be cool to have it sink on New Year’s Eve, but everyone knew what it was all about. Af-ter all, can you think of any other luxury cruise ships that have sunk? (Actually, there have been a few.) I was a whole eight years older when Shelley Winters and Er-

nest Borgnine sat down to din-ner on the Poseidon, but I was just as impressionable. Shelley Winters was the spitting image of my mom, down to the whin-ing surface and the steel charac-ter beneath. I always wanted to be Borgnine, even though I was probably more the Red Buttons character. So you’d think that when a movie actually called “Titan-ic” came out, I’d be all over it, wouldn’t you? Well, I’m actu-ally one of the three people in the country who hasn’t seen the James Cameron opus. I didn’t see it when it came out in 1997, I left the DVD cover seal unbroken, and I refuse to plunk down the $20 or whatev-er it would take to see it in 3D. I’ve got no good reason why I’ve avoided the fl ick, although I’m not a big fan of romances. Every-thing I’ve heard is that it’s a good movie, and I’ve even managed the “I’m the king of the world” thing on the Queen Mary. I guess it just feels a little ex-ploitive — as if the other movies weren’t. More important, I’ve got a distinct set of Titanic memo-ries, and I guess I don’t want to have them messed up. Now that I’ve said this, I have no doubt my lovely wife will pull the DVD out on Sunday after we get home from the races. And I have no doubt what I’ll feel when she does. That sinking feeling.

Economic problems? What economic problems? Don’t need no stinkin’ economic problems. At least that’s the case this weekend, as the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach roars into town. For the 38th straight year, the boys and their expensive toys will take over the streets around the Convention Center. And a couple hundred thousand folks will fi nd the cash to come watch all or part of it. According to Mike Clark, the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach’s marketing director, com-panies have come back to Long Beach with a vengeance this year, both as exhibitors in the Lifestyle Expo and as hosts buying up the pricey seats to impress clients. Some of those companies stuck with the Grand Prix during the recent lean years as the reces-sion settled in, but many were cutting wherever they could, and that included participating in or sponsoring what essentially is entertainment. Sponsorship — both of the event and the racing teams participating in the Grand Prix — also had been hit and now are rebounding a bit. This is just the latest of many economic bumps in the road the Grand Prix Association has man-aged to survive over the years. Some required a severe change of course — when founder Chris Pook made the decision to stop running with that pricey Formula One circuit and went with Indy-Car, for example — while others — such as the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks — required hanging on tight and keeping the foot on the gas. Throughout, the Grand Prix’s hallmark has been a willingness to make changes while main-taining the essence of the event. There always has been expen-sive, fast cars racing around the streets. The key, even the genius, of Pook, Jim Michaelian and the rest has been to surround those races with the spectacle that keeps the crowd coming back. True, Long Beach has become the second most important open-wheel race in the country, with only the Indianapolis 500 draw-ing more fans and more attention. But it’s a fair bet that a good half of those people walking through the gates this weekend couldn’t even defi ne open-wheel racing. It takes the whole package — ce-lebrities, outside entertainment, many things to experience and just a plan good time — to bring in the casual fan. There’s no doubt that the race

is a disruption to some, but this certainly is a case of the long-term good outweighing the tem-porary inconvenience. Beyond the literally millions of dollars the weekend pours into the city over the weekend, the marketing aspect is invaluable. Ask people around the country what they think of when you say Long Beach, Calif., and you’ll likely hear one of three things — the Queen Mary, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and gangster rap (thanks, Snoop Dogg). When Pook set out to sell the city leaders on the idea of a street race in 1977, he argued that it would become a positive symbol to a city that was known then primarily for its Navy Base. They had to cover up signs for the XXX-rated movies and tattoo parlors in the early years in hopes of being at least presentable for the television cameras.

Today, thanks in many ways to the Grand Prix itself, the NBC cameras that will be covering the main race live on Sunday will be showing a sparkling downtown, a fountain in front of a world-class aquarium, sailboats moored at the city marina and that other icon, the Queen Mary. Just ask Steve Goodling at the Conven-tion & Visitors Bureau what that’s worth. As the commercial says, “Priceless.” Of course, the TV cameras will be counting on a continuation of “Pook Weather” — blue skies and sunshine when the green fl ag comes down. It can be a bit of a gamble in the middle of April, even in Southern California, but Pook had a streak of good weath-er luck that went beyond the pale. Michaelian weather hasn’t been bad, either, but he has had his share of rainy Fridays and Saturdays before the Sunday sunshine. At least as of this writ-ing, that pattern could repeat this weekend. But the sun will shine on Long Beach this Sunday. Call it the Grand Prix sun. It always rises, and for Long Beach, that’s a very good thing.

Grand Prix Defi esEconomic Slump

“The Grand Prix’s hallmark has been

a willingness to make changes while

maintaining the essence.”

Sinking Feeling Found In Movies

BY RANDY GORDON During tough economic times, UniteHere is again attempting to put the city of Long Beach at a competitive disadvantage. They will lead you to believe they are merely asking for a livable wage for hotel workers in the city. However, there are many impor-tant points they neglect to make to voters. The unions are not only asking for a minimum compensation of $13 per hour for employees of hotels with 100 rooms or more, which many of the hotels in Long Beach already exceed in average total compensation to an employ-ee, they are asking for far more. UniteHere is asking, in addi-tion to a minimum compensation and benefi ts package for fulltime employees, for an automatic minimum raise of 2% each year. But that’s not all! The union-led movement will require a mini-mum of fi ve sick days each year without certifi cation of illness and an additional fi ve days off that can be accrued and cashed in after the completion of a calendar year for a lump sum payment. Want more? So does Unite-Here! They also want the entirety of the service charges collected by hotels to be remitted back to the employees, with the excep-tion of supervisory and manage-ment employees, each pay period in addition to the worker’s com-pensation. What does all this mean for Long Beach hotels? Millions of

dollars in lost revenue in the fi rst year and a snowball of lost rev-enue each year following. What does this mean for our commu-nity? It means fewer jobs due to hotels having to lay off employ-ees to make their bottom line. It means fewer conventions and visitors, as the hotels will have to raise room rates, making the city less competitive when try-ing to attract visitors and events. It means less economic opportu-nity for the restaurants and small businesses that rely on tourism to support their operations, which then in turn again means fewer job opportunities for the citizens of Long Beach! The further infuriating part about this attempt to pull the wool over voters’ eyes is that Long Beach hotels already show their employees considerable fairness and great working condi-tions. All employees working 32 hours a week or more get great benefi ts. Hotel employees get fed for free multiple times during a work shift. Many employees of hotels receive major discounts on room rates when traveling. And as previously stated, the average compensation for most hotels in Long Beach is comparable to the $13 that UniteHere is asking for.

What more can unions ask for than safe working environments, fair compensation and job secu-rity? Apparently, a great deal! We all know what effect union greed has had on great American industry in recent history. The unions aren’t looking out for our communities, our citizens, or the vitality of our economy. Great American cities such as Detroit have been devastated by these types of union initiatives. When will the mayhem stop? Citizens of Long Beach, we need to protect the vitality of our com-munity. We need to preserve the jobs we have and promote oppor-tunities to create more. We need put a stop to the greed that has put this great nation in dire con-straints now more than ever. We need to ask these organi-zations; when will the light bulb go off? When will enough be enough? Gordon Gekko, from the movie “Wall Street,” may have said, “Greed is Good,” but this greed is not good for the future of Long Beach and the vitality of our economy. Let’s stand togeth-er and put a stop to this terrible initiative! Randy Gordon is president and CEO of the Greater Long Beach Chamber of Commerce

Unions Threaten Tourist Business

April 12, 2012 | GRUNION GAZETTE | PAGE 3A

Dangerous IdeaTo The Editor, I would like to add my com-ments to a resident’s letter about the Park Avenue/Vista round-about. I totally agree that it’s made it an unsafe corner. And to make matters worse, the plants grow-ing in the middle are now getting high enough to block the view of other cars from any directions, let alone pedestrians or cyclists. I fi nd it hard to believe that the safety of anyone was a reason for the change at the corner.

Teri SimsBelmont Shore

Downtown BattleTo The Editor, The attempt by the Downtown Long Beach Associates (DLBA) to extort an assessment from non-business homeowners in our dis-trict is unconscionable.

It gets its support from busi-ness licenses, district assessments collected through property taxes, fees from the RDA, parking meter sharing revenue and other sourc-es. With the statewide demise of RDAs, DLBA will lose revenue and is looking for another source to replace that loss of revenue. Homeowners in our district de-rive no benefi t from the DLBA. Homeowners pay property tax, which goes to the support of city services benefi ting both home-owners and businesses. The DLBA is not a government entity and cannot, and should not, be able to assess residents just be-cause it has lost a revenue source. DLBA is not too big to fail, and if DLBA cannot exist with the sup-port from existing sources, so be it. It’s not our job as homeowners to prop up a private organization that has trouble operating within its budget.

Most of the businesses in down-town Long Beach that DLBA claims to benefi t are of question-able benefi t to East Village resi-dents unless they frequent clubs and restaurants, or heavily invest in the works of local artists. Saddling East Village home-owners with an assessment to help support the DLBA is outra-geous given the current crisis in the economy along with our lo-cal real estate situation. Many residences in 90802 are either

in foreclosure or have seen their property values sink to less than an existing mortgage, or both. Homeowners in the East Vil-lage are already facing chal-lenges. The assessment would place an additional burden on lo-cal homeowners who are retired or are on a fi xed income. Private homeowners are the last group any city offi cial should look to in order to raise taxes.

Richard MercurioEast Village

Long Beach Airport offi cials released new estimates last week for the economic impact of the airport. Additionally, passenger traffi c is up. Previously, it was reported that LGB was responsible for providing 16,000 jobs annually (directly and indirectly) as well as generating $4.2 billion an-nually. Those numbers are now estimated to be much larger than that, providing an estimated 18,000 jobs and $6.2 billion an-nually. “We are getting better and better,” said Long Beach Air-port Director Mario Rodriguez. “Airlines and passengers are focusing on this little jewel (the airport). This is a positive story for Long Beach — we are gen-erating more jobs and money for the city while staying within the noise ordinance.” Additionally, Rodriguez re-ported that passenger traffi c at LGB was up 11.1% in February this year, and passenger traffi c is up 13% this quarter compared to the same quarter last year. “We are getting larger planes, and there are fewer empty seats on them,” Rodriguez said. In 2011, the airport broke its passenger record by providing service to more than 3 million passengers. Rodriguez said the airport is on track to have even more passengers this year than last year.

—Ashleigh Oldland

Airport Traffi cStill Flies High

PAGE 4A | GRUNION GAZETTE | April 12, 2012

BY STEPHANIE MINASIANSTAFF WRITER

All of the incumbent candi-dates running in the Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education and the Long Beach City College Board of Trustees elections will take their seats for another term, after Tuesday’s election results became known. LBUSD’s current Board President, Dr. Felton Williams, won his race with 1,271 votes (61.94%), with his opponent Ri-cardo Linarez getting 781 votes (38.06%) for District 2, which includes part of the Wilmore His-

toric District, Washington Neigh-borhood, Wrigley Area, Westside Long Beach, Central Long Beach and a portion of Los Cerritos. Williams joined the school board in 2004, and has spent 36 years in education. He started his career at California State Univer-sity, Long Beach, as a staff ana-lyst in the office of Instructional Services. He went on to imple-ment the graduate program in public policy at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and was the assistant to the president there for 15 years. “I think we ran a very strong

district race campaign and good number of people stepped up across the city,” Williams said. “It was special for me to see so many people come out to support me and to help make sure that we move this election forward. “The people in District 2 rec-ognize the challenge we face and tough decisions that have to be made. It’s not a pretty picture of the budget, but despite this, peo-ple come to work every day and make sure that these kids get the best education, and you can’t ask for more than that.” Linarez is a 36-year-old father of two, who spent eight years in the United States Marine Corps before returning to work as a public servant. He has been a member and chairman of the Citizen Police Complaint Com-mission; a member of the Central Project Area Committee; and was a field representative from 2009 to 2010 for the Seventh District City Council office. “We ran a good campaign,” Li-narez said. “From the beginning, it was all about making educa-tion for our kids a priority. I feel strongly about that and I am go-ing to continue to work to do that. I’d like to thank everyone for voting and for the support. I am a parent, and as long as we need a voice for our parents, I will be there to do so.” For LBUSD’s District 4, in-cumbent Jon Meyer won with 3,526 votes (75.17%) against Naomi Rainey, who pulled out of the race the day after the fil-ing period ended, but received 1,165 votes (24.83%). District 4 includes Naples, Belmont Shore and some parts of East Long Beach. Meyer was elected to the school board in 2003, and is a re-tired coach, teacher and adminis-trator in the district. LBCC also will see its Fourth Area incumbent retake his seat for another term. Doug Otto, who is presently the board president, garnered 3,363 votes (66.67%), while opponent Davina Keiser received 1,681 votes (33.33%). The college’s Fourth Area in-cludes parts of East Long Beach, Belmont Shore and Avalon. Otto, a private practice attor-ney, husband and father of five, said he decided to run for a third term to continue to push to make community college accessible to students during these tough eco-nomic times. Keiser is a mother of two, who has worked in the district for 30 years. She is a mathematics teacher at Wilson High School.

School Reps Remain Same

There will be an open house at the Emergency Communica-tions and Operating Center from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 16, at 2990 Redondo Ave. The event is part of Fifth Dis-trict City Councilwoman Ger-rie Schipske’s Open Up Long Beach project, which tries to make more information about city government available. There will be a tour and a dis-cussion about fire responses. Space is limited, so RSVPs are required. Call 570-6932.

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A new dean will be coming to the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) at California State Uni-versity, Long Beach, starting July 1, officials announced.

David L. Wallace was appoint-ed by CSULB officials to replace retiring CLA dean Gerald Ripo-sa. “I am delighted that Dr. David Wallace has accepted our offer to become the new dean of the Col-lege of Liberal Arts,” said Don Para, CSULB’s provost and se-nior vice president for academic affairs. “With 28 departments and programs, the College of Liberal Arts is the largest at Cal State Long Beach.”

Wallace currently serves as chair of the Department of Writ-ing and Rhetoric at the Univer-sity of Central Florida (UCF). He has published research about the teaching of first-year composi-tion for 25 years, including three books and more than 25 articles and book chapters.

He has been an award-winning teacher at both Iowa State Uni-versity and UCF, where he also won an award for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Wallace said that he is thrilled to be part of CSULB and that he is looking forward to continuing the work to ensure CLA students receive a quality education.

“Three things immediately

attracted me to Cal State Long Beach and the College of Liberal Arts,” Wallace said. “First, the university has an enviable record of making affordable and excel-lent higher education available to first-generation college students and others for whom a college education might otherwise be inaccessible. Second, the college plays a critical role in insuring that CSULB students receive a well-rounded college education that prepares them for both their professional and civic lives. “Third, CLA’s clear commit-ment to academic programs that study the history and lived ex-periences of a number of groups who have been historically mar-ginalized in American society makes the college a national leader in this important aspect of higher education.” Prior to his current position, Wallace was the chair of UCF’s Department of English. He has received research grants from the Spencer Foundation and the National Council of Teachers of English and served as a research fellow for the National Center for the Study of Writing and Litera-cy. Wallace was raised in the coal mining hills of western Penn-sylvania, and received an M.A. in rhetoric and linguistics from Indiana University of Pennsylva-nia and a Ph.D. in rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University.

New Dean Named To HeadCollege Of Liberal Arts



Port of Long Beach officials are ready to move into a new home as soon as possible.

Last week, the port sent out an official RFI (request for informa-tion) that must be returned by 3

p.m., Friday, April 20. In the RFI, parameters for what officials are looking for in a new headquarters are parsed out. While the idea of the port mov-ing to a new headquarters is not new, and actually came to a dead-locked vote within the last year,

the idea has shifted to a more im-mediate place — port officials are looking to move within the next year, either to somewhere perma-nent, or to an interim spot. “What I’m told is that there is urgency to get us out of here (925 Harbor Plaza) as soon as possi-

ble,” said Art Wong, port assistant director of communications. An opinion in mid-March from the state Fair Political Practices Commission has cleared the way for Susan Wise, president of the Long Beach Harbor Commission, to participate in the process. Wise, who is an attorney, re-cused herself from any headquar-ters discussions last year, when port officials were negotiating to purchase the World Trade Center complex. Wise has an office in the Trade Center building, as does her husband, and City Attorney Robert Shannon recommended that she avoid potential conflict of interest charges by staying out of the debate. But when the commission deadlocked 2-2 (Thomas Field and Nick Sramek in favor, Doug Drummond and Rich Dines op-posed) on the decision whether to purchase the property, World Trade Center owners Legacy Partners appealed to the FPPC for a formal ruling on the potential conflict. The state panel declined

to rule on the third party request, but indicated that they would re-view the matter if Wise asked di-rectly. That request was made on Wise’s behalf through the city at-torney’s office. In a hearing on Oct. 10, 2011, that resulted in the first tie vote over purchasing the World Trade Center, attorney Skip Keesal ar-gued that the Harbor Commission should instead consider moving to his Union Bank Building and/or build a new headquarters as part of his proposed development in downtown Long Beach. The new RFI states that port officials want to move into a large building (or two buildings very closely aligned) of at least 170,000 square feet gross build-ing area and with a minimum of 568 parking spaces. The building would need to be available by July and it would need to be in Long Beach within a 20-minute drive to the Harbor District. While legwork had been done during the previous discussions, there was a need to start the pro-cess over completely, Wong said. “I don’t think (Wise) was ever allowed to enter the full discus-sion of what the options were, so to be fair to her, the commission-ers agreed that we would start the process over,” he said. Seismic safety reports are one of several reasons officials are looking to move quickly, Wong said. At least one former applicant will be submitting — the World Trade Center will be an option. “We have received the RFI and we will file with the port’s instructions and submit the re-quired information by their due date,” said Gregg Hall, managing director at Legacy Partners. “We are excited to be a part of the pro-cess and we are happy that a full commission will be reviewing all the alternatives.”

Long Beach Port Officials Seek Home Base “What I’m told is that there is an urgency to get us out of here as soon as possible.”

—Art Wong



Myriad drama-loving teenag-ers will make their way to the Theatre Arts Department at Cali-fornia State University, Long Beach, for TheatreFest. CSULB will host students from 25 high schools from Los Angeles and Orange counties this Friday and Saturday, April 13 and 14, to get involved in professionally taught workshops, performances and competitions. The graduate theater manage-ment students from California Repertory Company started TheatreFest in 1999. The goal is to bring students together in a healthy, challenging environ-ment to hone their craft as well as interact and work with others who share the same interest, said coordinator Mira Greene.

“TheatreFest is as much a cele-bration of the talents and accom-plishments of high school theater performers and designers as it is a competition,” Greene added. “While competition goes on in-doors, there’s music, dancing,

games and picnicking outside on the lawn. The format encour-ages interaction and cooperation between students from attending schools.” The festival gives students an opportunity to showcase their own talents, despite the tough fis-cal times in California schools. The high schools participating in the festival are dedicated to sup-porting their arts programs. During the festival, students will compete to win awards in categories such as comedic and dramatic scenes and monologues, musical theater, improvisation and technical theater. Schools also can win the prestigious Spir-it Award for participating in all of the weekend’s activities and Spirit Games. The judges will include vol-unteer graduate students, profes-sionals, faculty and staff from CSULB’s Theater Department. “We hope that students gain confidence in themselves as they learn from our accomplished faculty and from their peers,” Greene said.

CSULB Hosts TheatreFest The Flossie Lewis Center hosts its annual awards luncheon at noon Wednesday, April 25, at The Grand, 4101 E. Willow St. First District Councilman Rob-ert Garcia will receive the 2012 Public Service Award and the

2012 Flossie Lewis Partnership Award goes to Dignity Health. Guest speaker is Mike Pinera, from Iron Butterfly, and for-mer Mayor Beverly O’Neill is the mistress of ceremonies. The center, which offers support ser-

vices to alcoholics and substance abusers, is named after O’Neill’s mother. The luncheon is preceded by a silent auction at 11 a.m. Tickets are $55 and are available by call-ing 435-7350.

Flossie Lewis Center Presents Annual Awards Luncheon

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Plans for a tunnel between the future Long Beach Courthouse and the city jail may be revealed

to the City Council in May — but how to fund the nearly $5 million project remains up in the air. As the new courthouse con-struction continues, the time to

begin construction on a tunnel to transport inmates to and from it nears. The City Council allocated $1 million of oil money to the project last year, and at least some of that has gone toward getting design plans ready and receiving California Environmental Quality Act clearance, which happened in March.

During negotiations for the new courthouse, the funding of the tunnel ended up falling to the city — estimates of its cost come in at about $5 million, but are not finalized. The new courthouse is scheduled for ribbon-cutting in September 2013. “There is a portion of the tunnel that needs to be completed early

in order to match the completion of the courthouse,” said Michael Conway, Department of Public Works director. “We want those elements related to the terminus of the tunnel moving concur- rently with the efforts of finishing the courthouse side.” The proposal that will go to the City Council is not finished yet, Conway said, and his department will work closely with the city manager’s office to plan the proj-ect. There is a possibility it will be broken up into several parts. Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, who has been outspoken about her disappoint-ment on the city being respon-sible for the costs, said she is hopeful the city will look at every possible alternative. “Since this is for a jail, and it will handle people coming back and forth from there, maybe we can get some funding (through the county),” she said. Schipske was referring to the fact that Los Angeles County has received some state money due to the recent release of state prison-ers from overcrowding in the jail system. “It’s frustrating because we’re talking about $5 million in funds versus deficits we’ve been deal-ing with for each year,” Schipske said. “I think it’s worth a shot to ask the county. That money was supposed to be for upgrading jails.” The City Council previously was told that traditional transpor-tation of inmates through bus or other vehicle was very expensive over the long-haul — Schipske said she would still like to see those numbers completely parsed out. “Everything I’ve heard from our police chief and command staff has made it pretty clear why we need the tunnel,” First Dis-trict Councilman Robert Garcia said. “Would we have liked this to be included with the master planning of the courthouse? Yes, but it wasn’t. This is a challenge we have to meet, and we have to do the safe and financially sound thing at this point.” The initial $1 million came from oil revenue, and Garcia said that it was possible those types of funds would again be looked at to give more money to the proj-ect — but he also would look to exhaust alternative possibilities.

Time For Courthouse Tunnel Decision Upcoming



It’s tough to miss. The future Long Beach Court-house has sprung up from with-in the downtown in a matter of months, and another milestone for construction is just around the corner, officials said.

“Topping out — when you get to the highest steel beam, the fi-nal height of the building — is scheduled for later this month,” said Stephen Reinstein, CEO of Long Beach Judicial Partners. “That will be another major ac-complishment.” The state’s Administrative Of-fice of the Courts (AOC) and private entity Long Beach Judi-cial Partners (LBJP) completed a project agreement that allowed for a spring 2011 groundbreaking on the new $490 million court-house. The Long Beach Courthouse will serve the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. The state will be paying an average of $52 million a year to LBJP during a unique 35-year project agreement (includes design, construction, operation and maintenance), pro-vided the company meets certain stipulations outlined in the agree-ment. After the 35 years, the state takes full control. Construction began in spring 2011 on a six-acre plot of land be-tween Broadway, Maine Avenue, Third Street and Magnolia Ave-nue. The main building will be L-shaped and 531,000 square feet,

with an emphasis on open space and calming atmosphere, design-ers said. It will have two sections — five stories and four stories — with 31 courtrooms, additional space for offices of county jus-tice agencies, commercial office space and retail space compatible with court uses. A nearby parking structure will be renovated for 900 spaces. Clark Construction is building the project. The current courthouse build-ing, which was built in 1959, is located at 415 W. Ocean Blvd. Reinstein estimated that the entire construction process of the courthouse was about 30% to 40% complete. “Depending on what day you ask me, we are on or ahead of schedule,” he said. “Things have been going very smoothly — no bumps in the road at all.” During mid-April, workers will begin to install the curtain wall, which is the enclosure that sur-rounds the building — its outside and windows. “We want to finish and have the building enclosed by October or November,” Reinstein said. “It goes up pretty fast and it will dra-matically change the face of the building. You will really begin to see what this will look like.” Getting the exterior done in that amount of time also is important to avoid the rainier winter season, he added. The entire courthouse is scheduled for a ribbon-cutting in September 2013. Just down the way, Reinstein

said the courthouse parking structure, 101 Magnolia Ave., renovation is about 65% to 70% complete. The structure has been made seismically sound and in-stallation of a new elevator is un-derway. The city must foot the bill for a tunnel that will lead from the Long Beach City Jail to the new courthouse. It is estimated that the tunnel will cost $5 million. The city already allocated money toward design plans and taking the steps necessary to get environmental clearance for the tunnel — which was completed in March. According to Michael

Conway, Public Works Depart-ment director, he and City Man-ager Patrick West will prepare a proposal for the beginning of the tunnel — the side starting at the

new Long Beach Courthouse — to give to the City Council at the beginning of May. It is not yet known where the money will come from to fund it.

Topping Building Out On Horizon

—Gazette photo by Jonathan Van DykeCOMING ALONG. Construction workers put the last beams in place this month for the Long Beach Courthouse.

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There will be a Grand Prix at-mosphere just up the hill from the actual event today (Thursday) — and this year race fans should be able to see more of the madness than ever before. Tecate Thunder Thursday re-turns to downtown Long Beach for a 12th year to delight early Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach tourists and city residents alike, officials said. The event is a presentation of the Downtown Long Beach Associates and the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach. “Over the last 12 years, this free, family-friendly event has become a staple of Grand Prix weekend, offering race fans, visi-tors and residents the opportunity to preview some of the exciting activities that will be featured as part of the weekend’s lineup,” DLBA President and CEO Kraig Kojian said in a statement. This year, officials have worked to make some of Thunder

Thursday’s main events easier to see than ever before, said Gina Dartt, DLBA marketing and spe-cial events manager. “The event has grown so much over the years and we’ve had so many people crammed onto the downtown streets,” she said. “We wanted to make the viewing space larger where the freestyle and motocross events take place. This year, they will be in a new location, with the focal point of the action at the intersection (of Pine Avenue and Broadway) for a greater amount of viewing op-portunities.” Organizers said that attendees will witness gravity-defying mo-torcycle jumps, back flips, stunts, motocross performances, race and celebrity car displays and au-tograph opportunities. The event will take place on Pine Avenue between First and Third streets, as well as on Broadway between Pacific Avenue and Long Beach Boulevard. DJ Abel will provide music

throughout the night near the driver autographing and inter-view area. The band Acoustic Saints also will have a perfor-mance area. At the main intersection, there will be a repeating program. At 6:45 p.m., there will be the Pro-fessional Pit Stop Competition, where dueling IZOD IndyCar teams will go head to head. At 7:05 p.m., there will be a Moto-cross Freestyle Show featuring Marc Burnett and FreestyleMX. At 7:30 p.m., the main stage closes with motorcycle daredevil stunts by Tony Carbajal. That sequence repeats at 7:45 p.m., 8:05 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. “The repeat is really good since people can come right out after work and enjoy the early pro-gram, and then the others from out of town or who work late can still catch everything a little later during the second round,” said Elizabeth Leider, DLBA commu-nications manager.

Thunder Thursday Hits Pine Avenue

—Gazette photo by Jonathan Van DykeBACK TOGETHER AGAIN. A pit crew performs during last year’s Professional Pit Stop Competition.




Residents on the east side of Long Beach will not be left out of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach festivities — business owners won’t let it happen, and they’re making it more fun and practical than ever to participate. For years, there have been al-ternate means to get downtown for racing weekend — people can go by boat and bus from East Long Beach, while receiving food and drink deals.

Back in 1979, Legends began its bus/shuttle service, former owner and current McKenna’s on the Bay General Manager John Morris said. That service still will be offered, but starting last year, McKenna’s began an alter-native — going to the Grand Prix via the sea.

“We decided that instead of re-treading and using buses, that we would charter the Aqualink boats and connect up with the Grand Prix that way,” Morris said. “I didn’t want to conflict with the Legends package that I had start-ed way back when, so now we have both of them. Our package was very successful last year.”

McKenna’s is offering a three-day $175 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Package for April 13-15. The package gets each person reserved seating at Grandstand 40, round-trip Aqua-link transportation (Saturday and Sunday only) with a cocktail, a Sunday brunch voucher and free parking at McKenna’s. People can call 342-9411 for reserva-tions.

People who already have tick-ets can pay $10 each day to ride the Aqualink, which goes back and forth every half hour.

Legends, however, still will be offering its traditional weekend

shuttle trips on a double decker bus. “As in years past, since about the time they’ve had the race here, we’ll have Grandstand 26,” said Eric Johnson, who owns Legends and the Auld Dubliner downtown. The Legends package will cost $150 for three-day passes for April 13-15. That package will get each person round-trip trans-portation (Saturday and Sunday only) on the double decker leav-ing from Legends and a brunch-style breakfast Saturday and Sun-day morning “Also, we’re doing something a little different by including a wristband to the Auld Dubliner for discounts on food and bever-ages,” Johnson said. “There’s no better place on the track to us, obviously, then Auld Dubliner, to watch the race. We don’t raise our prices during the Grand Prix. Much like the Aqualink, race attendees who already have their own tickets can still go on the bus for $10 each day. It goes back and forth in half-hour intervals from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sat-urday and Sunday. The Big Red Bus also is tak-ing a trip to and from the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, April 15. For the $100 price, people will receive double decker transportation, a pre and post-race pint at Gallagher’s Irish Pub, a beachfront tailgate, a BBQ lunch at Alfredo’s Beachfront Bar/Restaurant, appetizers on the bus and general admission to the races. The party bus allows for BYOB (bring your own beer). It will leave from Tilted Kilt at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday and return at about 5 p.m. Reservations can be made at [email protected] or by calling 852-9888.

East Long Beach OffersGrand Prix Packages

The night is capped off at 9 p.m. by the Tecate Miss Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Pag-eant, which will crown one of the weekend’s main ambassadors.

Officials said that downtown business owners look forward to the bump in business from the event as well as during the entire weekend. Tecate Thunder Thursday will close Pine Avenue from First Street to Third Street and Broad-

way from Pacific Avenue to Long Beach Boulevard from 1 p.m. to midnight on Thursday, April 12. For more information and park-ing options, visit www.down-townlongbeach.org. It will take place from 6:30 to 10 p.m. and the cost if free.

(Continued from Page 10A)

Thunder



Thomas Gufrey likes to open his lectures with a bang. The long-time chemistry lectur-er at California State University, Long Beach, was recently named one of America’s top undergradu-ate professors by the Princeton

Review in its guidebook, “The Best 300 Professors,” published in partnership with RateMyPro-fessor.com. Students who take Gufrey’s Chemistry 100 class will soon learn that it is no ordinary science class. He is known on campus as the singing professor because of

his ability to change the lyrics of pop songs to chemistry jargon to make the subject more fun, fresh and interactive for his students. He said he likes to use safe, exploding clay balls, made from gunpowder and material found in sparklers, to spice up some of his lectures. “I’ve always liked music,” Gu-frey said. “That has given me a link to pop culture. As a lecturer, you want to be nice and kind, but firm enough to not get walked all over. It’s such a delight teaching chemistry, especially to young kids.” He started his teaching career in 1968 at La Salle High School, near Pasadena. After a few years in the high school sector, Gufrey

decided to go for his master’s de-gree from California State Uni-versity, Los Angeles, and began teaching part-time at CSULA and CSULB. Gufrey also taught for nearly 30 years at Marymount College in Palos Verdes, while still teaching at CSULB. He officially retired a couple years ago, but for the last 25 years continued to teach his in-troductory chemistry course he’s become famous for. “My goal is to unbury my stu-dents’ hidden love of chemistry,” Gufrey said. “I run the class with a lot of humor, songs and explo-sions to keep them focused. I like to show them how chemistry is not the evil monster it sounds like it is.” The award was given to faculty members at 122 colleges across the country based on their high praises and reviews from their students on RateMyProfessor.com. While he said he is honored to receive this award, he said his fel-low colleagues in the department who teach higher-level chemis-try courses are just as deserving of recognition. At the same time, though, he said he tries to teach students a little about life in gen-eral and what he thinks is impor-tant.

“First, I try to tell them that be-ing a decent human being is the most important thing. That is re-ally what matters to me in life, “ he said. “It’s not what fame you get, or money or power, but treat-ing your fellow human beings de-cently. “Second, I think everyone in class should appreciate how lucky we are to be in this country with the opportunities it gives us. At the end of the day, we are all so blessed to enjoy the precious freedoms that frankly most of the world doesn’t have.” Gufrey said that he presently has no plans of leaving his post teaching Chemistry 100, and will continue to instruct young-sters using his quirky songs and demonstrations for as long as his health is upstanding. For more information on “The Best 300 Professors,” visit www.princetonreview.com/best-pro-fessors.aspx.

Kooky Chemistry Lecturer Is One Of The Best

THOMAS GUFREY



What’s on tap tonight at Clan-cy’s Irish Pub and Restaurant might not be what you’d expect at a traditional watering hole. That’s because Clancy’s, led by owner Mark L. Dana, started offering wine on tap this year, be-coming one of the fi rst establish-ments in Long Beach to do so. Already, there are a dozen wine varieties (with more expected this summer) pouring out of the taps at Clancy’s — in addition to craft beer taps. “At Clancy’s, we are open to change and new ideas and we never stop trying to improve this business,” Dana said while sip-ping a glass of white wine from the tap. “We are offering wine on tap to our customers now, be-fore other businesses jump on the bandwagon. Once the customers start to ask for it, it’s too late.” Wine on tap is appealing to Dana, he said, because the tap allows Clancy’s to operate as a more sustainable, eco-friendly business. Using wine on tap eliminates the need for glass bot-tles, and less wine is left over and wasted after customers purchase wine by the glass. Wine on tap also requires less packaging and storage space — each stainless steel keg of wine can hold about 26 bottles of wine each (or 130 glasses). Plus, offering wine on tap is

better for customers, Dana said. Because there’s no cork, it takes less time for the server to bring the order to the table — there’s no bottle opening required. Also, Dana said the fl avor of wine on tap lasts longer and the wine stays fresher than it would if an open bottle is re-corked. “Wine on tap doesn’t go bad and start to taste like vinegar,” the business owner explained. “The taste is always consistent.” After one month of offering the wine on tap, Dana said wine sales at Clancy’s had tripled. Being on the forefront of trends and change is something Dana said he strives for as a busi-ness owner. Since he quit his ca-reer as a lawyer fi ve years ago to purchase Clancy’s and become an entrepreneur, Dana has com-pleted two remodels of the space at 803 E. Broadway in downtown Long Beach, which originally was built as a Texaco Station in the 1930s. “I want Clancy’s to have an authentic Irish feel, and I also embrace the concept of a gastro pub,” Dana said. “We offer tra-ditional Irish dishes, we recently added a variety of craft beers (including some craft beers im-ported from Ireland) to our menu, and we are going to start pairing different wines on tap with our food.” For details about Clancy’s, call 437-1836.

Clancy’s Begins To OfferWine On Tap For Patrons

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“Oh my,” gasped 87-year-old Lilia Kelley as she walked into the house she has owned since the 1970s. It was hardly recogniz-able; thanks to a $50,000 reno-vation donated by the national public service organization 3in4 Need More and sponsored by One Reverse Mortgage.

Kelley’s son and primary care-giver John Simich entered the contest for a home makeover to update the house and provide safe amenities for seniors last year, and was stunned when he dis-covered he was the winner. The makeover was a complete sur-prise to Kelley, who was away for two weeks until the unveiling last Friday.

Dr. Marion Somers, spokes-woman for 3in4 Need More and an expert in elder care, has trav-eled across the country in her ret-ro Greyhound bus to raise aware-ness of the need for better care for America’s senior citizens.

Somers said that more than 70% of Americans past the age of 65 will need long-term care services as they get older, which can cost thousands of dollars each month.

“Many times, people don’t know what is available to them,” Somers said. “That’s my goal — to have this happen more across America.” For Simich and his mother, this gift means the hope of a better and easier life together.

“They came in here to make my mom’s life a whole lot easi-er,” Simich said. “I was laid off about a year ago, so it’s been kind of rough. I’ve tried to maintain the house and her living condi-tions, but this opportunity arose and I accepted it with open arms.”

Simich, who moonlights as

“Fifi La Rue” in a Kiss tribute band, added that the house was not in the proper condition for an elderly woman suffering from the early signs of dementia. When 3in4 Need More stepped in to help, they also sought the as-sistance of Freidmans Appliances owner Bob Atkins, who donated a brand-new General Electric washer and dryer to the home. “GE donated the products, and we facilitated the installation,” Atkins said. “I believe we have a huge crisis in this country with 72 million people in this country coming up underneath us, who are all baby boomers, and there’s no one who will be able to take care of them. We need to learn how to do this in the home.” Not only did Kelley receive a new washer and dryer, but the house was repainted, the kitchen was remodeled, the backyard was cleaned up, hand rails were added wherever they were needed and her bathroom was completely gutted and replaced with state-of-

the-art facilities designed exclu-sively for the use of seniors. The bathroom was installed by San Francisco designer and owner of BathPacks Jane Regan, who also is a certified Aging-in-Place Specialist. She included

ADA compliant features in the bathroom, and installed grab bars, a hand shower with a fold down seat for Kelley to sit on, a wall-hinged sink and a toilet with a washlet for easier cleaning. “This will be a huge help for John and his mom,” Regan said. “It’s so important for people in this stage of their lives to be safe in their homes.” Simich and Kelley will be able

to spend more time “rocking out” together, now that the home is equipped to make life much sim-pler for the two of them, Somers added. “I’m so happy,” Kelley said with a smile as she glanced across her new kitchen. “My heart is just pumping.” For more information about 3in4 Need More, visit www.3in4- needmore.com.

Local Man, Elderly Mother Surprised With Home Makeover

—Photo courtesy of 3in4 Need MoreGOOD TIMES AHEAD. Long Beach’s John Simich and his mother Lilia Kelley were the recent recipients of a home makeover, thanks to 3in4 Need More. The home is now equipped with safe features for seniors.

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Show me the money.Finances dominate the agenda

for next week’s City Council meeting.

Before the regular meeting begins, the council will convene a special meeting to hear City Manager Pat West’s report on po-tential tax measures as revenue-

raising options, and discuss the next steps if the council wants to pursue any of those options. Eighth District Councilwoman Rae Gabelich long has advocated going to the voters to seek an in-crease in the Utility Users Tax. That tax is levied on natural gas, water, electricity, telephones and more. A referendum in 2000 low-ered the tax rate from 10% to 5%

over a period of three years. Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske has advocated increasing the oil production tax on land-based oil wells. At the last discussion, no one seemed certain whether such an increase would require a general election. If the council were to decide it wants to seek a tax increase re-quiring an election, it would have to act by the first part of August to get on the November 2012 presi-dential election ballot. City Clerk Larry Herrera has estimated that

a special election could cost the city up to $400,000. The public meeting is sched-uled to begin at 5 p.m. and will include time for public comment. There is no recommendation for action to be taken. Cost of special elections also will be discussed in the regular meeting. Schipske and Gabelich have added an item to consider requiring elected city officials

to post a performance bond or similar actions to protect the city from costs if the elected official doesn’t complete his or her full term. In her letter to the council, Schipke notes that the city has had to conduct three special elec-tions for City Council seats since 2006 (Dan Baker resigned for personal reasons in 2006, Laura Richardson resigned in 2007 to take a seat in the state Assembly, followed by Bonnie Lowenthal doing the same in 2009). Those elections cost the city a total of about $900,000. When she announced the re-quest, Schipske said she would seek approval for a Public Of-ficial Performance Bond. How-ever, the agenda item now asks that the city manager and city at-torney provide information about requirements to put in place to protect the public from special election costs. In other action next Tuesday, the council is scheduled to: Request the Health Depart-ment to craft a policy for restau-rant owners to allow pet dogs on outdoor restaurant patios. Establish an employee well-ness committee to encourage em-ployees to use wellness programs offered by the city’s insurance provider. Support participation in the Los Angeles Regional Collabora-tive for Climate Action and Sus-tainability. Seek changes in state law to make it easier to collect de-linquent parking citations and amend city ordinances to require any and all parking citations be paid before releasing towed ve-hicles to owners. Award an annual contract worth up to $860,000 to Kelterite Corporation of Downey for as-phalt concrete. Adopt contract specifications for grounds and landscape main-tenance in Queensway Bay areas and award a contract for up to $424,070 to Greentech Land-scape Inc. to do the work. Accept a grant of nearly $2.5 million for a lead-based paint hazard control program. •EarlierTuesday,at3:30p.m.,the council is scheduled to meet as the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency.

Council Weighs Revenue OptionsApril 17, 2012



Long Beach’s most park-starved area received good news late last week. It was announced that the city won about $5.3 million in state grant money to go toward the future Armory Park and also to the joining of Drake and Cesar Chavez parks.

“Our focus on park space is paying off — these are both huge wins for Long Beach residents and I can’t wait to see these fin-ished projects,” Mayor Bob Fos-ter said in a statement.

More than 400 applicants sub-mitted looking for $1.3 billion in project money — the Statewide Parks Program only had $150 million to give.

“We have really experienced folks in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine who have done this a lot,” said Anna Men-diola, parks development officer. “Also they look really closely at this grant program for the specific amount of available park space within a half-mile radius of the project and at median household incomes of the people in the area. You can’t really make that up or massage those numbers.” For the Armory Park project, there is no park space within a half-mile radius of the site. A new .84-acre urban park will be devel-oped in conjunction with traffic improvements. It is located at the triangle of intersections linking Martin Luther King Junior Ave-

nue, Seventh Street and Alamitos Avenue. The city already received about $1 million for traffic control miti-gations. That will be used in con-junction with the park money for new traffic signals, while sealing off Martin Luther King Junior Avenue between Sixth and Sev-enth streets for the future park. “It’s very important in this neighborhood to find park space,” Mendiola said. “We’re always looking for opportunities where we have no park space — wheth-er that be mini-lots or in this case, there’s sort of some abandoned street space.” Armory Park will include a new playground, half-court bas-ketball court, exercise equipment and some skate elements. It also will feature an art garden, sustain-able landscaping and a multi-use plaza and amphitheater. “It’s our most park-starved are in the city, but also, it eliminates what our traffic engineers call one of the most dangerous inter-sections in the city,” First District Councilman Robert Garcia said. “We’re very excited to get Ar-mory Park funded.” The other part of the money will go toward the gradual connection of Drake and Cesar Chavez parks — specifically two major soccer fields below and to the northwest of Drake. “This is the first phase of the master plan, specifically to build the soccer field portion of the park, because there is a great

need for that in the neighbor-hood,” Mendiola said. “There will be some supporting parking, some trails and landscaping and we have some slope and ADA is-

sues to deal with as well as light-ing (to be paid for with the grant money).” Mendiola said it will take the next few months to secure the

grant money, and that if every-thing falls into place perfectly (which is never expected), both parks would see this work fin-ished within two years.

Underserved Areas Helped By State Parks Grants

A new otter can call the Aquar-ium of the Pacific her home. The baby female sea otter was lost without her mother on Val-entine’s Day and was rescued off Del Monte Beach in North-ern California. Because she is unable to take care of herself in the wild, the Aquarium of the Pacific adopted the animal last month. Since her arrival on March 16, aquarium staff members have been working around the clock to care for the otter and feed her. The otter is estimated to be 9 to 10 weeks old. She will remain behind the scenes until she is large enough to join the aquar-ium’s other rescued otters.

New Otter CallsAquarium Home

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Dedicated to the memory and spirit of a pioneering animal advocate: Helen Sanders

$5 INVENTORY CLEARANCE of late model, pre-owned cats!

This week’s featured feline is Tony. He’s a strappin’, young guy who was dumped near where some feral cats live. It

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being a cuddly, laidback guy he has extra toes that look like cute little thumbs. He deserves a home inside – no more mean city streets for this boy! Can he go home with you?

For more information on this or other available cats, please visit

www.helensanderscatpaws.com to download an application or

call Annelle at 562.596.1552.

ADOPTIONS 12–4pm on Sunday at Petco, 8909 Adams Ave., Huntington Beach, CA!

For a limited time, adult cats over 1 year of age available for a reduced adoption fee of just $5 which includes microchip, spay/neuter,

vaccinations and complimentary vet visit!!!

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Six Long Beach women will be honored for their work in the community at the 14th annual Soroptimist International of Long

Beach Women Who Make a Dif-ference award luncheon set for Saturday, April 14. This year’s honorees include Judy Ross, Executive Director of Long Beach Nonprofit Partner-

ship, who is being honored in the category of Economic and Social Development; Daphne Ching-Jackson, Executive Director of Constellation Community Middle School, who is being honored in the category of Education; He-lene Calvet, MD, former Health Officer at the Long Beach Depart-ment of Health and Human Ser-vices and current Deputy Health Officer in the Orange County Health Care Agency, who is being honored in the category of Health & Human Service; Giovanna Martinez, Youth Services Co-ordinator at WomenShelter of Long Beach, who is being hon-ored in the Human Rights/Status of Women category; and Mary Barton, PhD, Principal at the Bar-ton Group, who is being honored in the category of International Goodwill & Understanding.

“What we do, by having this luncheon every year, is create awareness of who we are in the community and develop a pres-ence as being a community part-ner for women and girls,” said Anne Miller, who is the president Soroptimist International of Long Beach. “We create awareness of what we do throughout the world.” Also being recognized Satur-day is Pathways to Independence, an organization that works to provide education, health care, therapy and mentoring for young women in need. Pathways to In-dependence will be honored for Businesses and Organizations Advancing the Status of Women. A special Ruby Award will go to Tulynn Smylie, Executive Director of the WomenShelter of Long Beach, which provides

emergency shelter and other cri-sis services for victims of domes-tic violence and their children. The Long Beach Soroptimist chapter was founded in 1924 to improve the lives of Long Beach women and girls. Its volunteers work to raise money for schol-arships for area women, so they may further their education and skills to better the way they live and provide them with more op-portunities. “Our mission is to assist wom-en and girls around the world in any way we can,” Miller added. “What we do in Long Beach, is raise funds to gives scholarships to deserving women who need to further their education, so they can get a better job to support their families.” The winners of the Women Who Make a Difference awards are usually not members of the organization, but some do go on to join the Soroptimist Interna-tional of Long Beach. The awards luncheon will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at The Grand, 4101 E. Willow St. Tickets are available for $75 per person. Res-ervations can be made online at www.si-longbeach.org, and pay-ment will be accepted at-the-door. For more information about this event, call 596-6915.

Women Honored By Soroptimist International “We create awareness of what

we do throughout the world.”

Anne Miller

Good Food For Good Folks!

4120 E. Ocean Blvd(across from the Belmont Plaza Pool) 433-9317


Every day is magical for Long Beach artist and author Linda S. Gunn, who recently released her first book in a planned trilogy for children, called “Fairy Tales Can Come True.” The book follows three Long Beach girls (modeled after Gunn and her two sisters), with a strong emphasis on the middle sister Nina, who often escapes reality for her world of fantasy and ad-venture.

“When I was a kid, I lived in a dream world,” Gunn said. “I ob-served how things looked — the sunsets, shadows and streets. I al-ways wanted to be an artist, and when it came to school, I wasn’t always the best.”

She grew up listening to her grandfather’s stories of working as an animator for Walt Disney, which helped spark her love af-fair for fairytales and creating new fantasy worlds through wa-tercolor painting.

“I’ve had no formal training,” she said. “I learned watercolor by trial and error.”

While growing up on the west side of Long Beach, her creativity came out in the form of dancing, roller-skating and hula hooping. She eventually married her child-hood sweetheart, who she calls her real-life “Peter Pan,” and they raised two girls together.

She added that the character of Nina, who is based on herself, constantly tries to find ways to fly

away to Neverland to escape the limitations of the real world. Her fascination with the “Peter Pan” story has stayed with her throughout her life, and one of her paintings of the boy who re-fuses to grow up now hangs in the Peter Pan Wing of the Great Or-mond Street Hospital in London. After completing high school, Gunn took art classes at Long Beach City College, and although she never finished her degree, she found joy in learning from profes-sionals. When her children began elementary school, she found the time to go back to LBCC in 1981, where she took a watercolor class taught by Michael Daniel. “I repeated the class for sev-eral years, and as time wore on, I’d sit in on his class critiques,” she added. “I owe him buckets of gratitude for his expertise and unparalleled teaching skill.” Her paintings have gone on to be printed in books and maga-

zines across the world. She also has illustrated two books for N.D. Mansour, who is known as the re-tired CEO of the Mattel Corpora-tion. In 1995, with her artistic talents gaining strong momentum, Gunn founded the United States Chap-ter of the National Acrylic Paint-ers Association, until 2004 when it evolved into the International

Society of Acrylic Painters. With the release of her new book, Gunn said that she is thrilled to continue working on the trilogy, and hopes children will find it a fun and entertaining read. “This is a childhood fantasy that I always wanted to do,” she

said. “I read the book to a group of second-graders, who loved the book.” The book is available online on Amazon.com or BarnesandNo-ble.com. For more information, visit www.lindagunn.com or for a signed copy the book, email her at [email protected].


Author Pens Long Beach Fairytale For Children

—Photo courtesy of Linda S. GunnA BELIEVER. Long Beach author and artist Linda S. Gunn’s new children’s book “Fairytales Can Come True,” replicates her life as a child.



When he wakes up in the morn-ing, Braxton Greco is in the habit of checking his stocks and read-ing the day’s financial articles using newspaper and magazine apps on his phone.

But Greco’s no New York stockbroker — yet. He’s a 17-year-old student at Poly High School who took first place last month in the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Associa-tion (SIFMA) InvestWrite nation-al student essay competition. His

essay was chosen from a pool of 20,000. The assignment, which was done in tandem with an AP eco-nomics class at Poly, was to ana-lyze an investment scenario and write a long-term financial plan using real-world economic fac-tors and trends. Greco chose to write about five strategies that can help an investor decide whether a particular stock is a good invest-ment. He used the company Nike as a case study for what a good long-term investment would look like. “Given current market values and continuing worldwide eco-nomic volatility, I would place 60-70% of investments into lon-ger term, lower risk equities with high future returns, with strong holdings in Nike,” Greco’s es-say concludes. “The company’s

ability to stay profitable through difficult times, strong fundamen-tals and opportunity for tremen-dous future growth outweigh any short-term volatile risks.” His essay, which he said took him about one month’s worth of research and work to write, has won him a trophy as well as a trip this summer to Wall Street, where he will meet working pro-fessionals and visit the New York Stock Exchange. Greco said he is still surprised and honored to have won the competition, and he is looking forward to the trip this summer because it will help him get closer to working in New York City. “Hopefully, I’ll work on Wall Street someday,” the high school junior said. Greco participates in the PACE academic program in addition to

his role as a member of Poly’s tennis team, Model United Na-tions Club, Speech and Debate Team, Spanish Club and Interna-tional Studies Club. Greco wasn’t the only one at Poly to be recognized by SIFMA. The school, in collaboration with SIFMA, hosted an awards cer-emony to honor Greco as well as another student, Eric Gorze-man, who won fourth place in the competition. Also the two boys’ economics teacher, Daniel Adler, was recognized. Poly High School Principal Joe Carlson praised Greco and Gorzeman’s economics teacher, Adler, for providing a rich learn-ing environment for his students and spending time outside of the class day to help them bring classroom lessons to life. Greco said the class and his participation as president of Po-ly’s Stock Club, which is full of students who meet once a week to discuss the stock market and fi-nancial news, was a way to apply lessons from multiple subjects into a real-life scenario where those lessons could be useful.

Poly Student Nabs National Economics Award

A skateboard art show to ben-efit Autism in Long Beach is set for 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, April 14, at Long Beach Skate Co., 3142 E. Seventh St. The show will feature art by Duane Peters, Help Desk, Saint, Rhett Johnson, Jason Agan, Bishop, Tani Person, Jay, Fran-cis, Ian Bork and Tyler Thys. DJ Retro Slam will provide the mu-sic. A portion of the art sales will go to Autisim in Long Beach, founded in 2010. For informa-tion on the organization, visit www.autisminlongbeach.org.

Skateboard ArtFights Autism

BRAXTON GRECO

BY LARRY HILLRESTAURANT WRITER

Bai Plu, 2119 N. Bellfl ower Blvd., 343-2651. • Hours: Bai Plu is open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. • Location: Bai Plu is located on Bellfl ower between Stearns and Abbeyfi eld. There is plenty of onsite parking. • Food/Drinks: Bai Plu is an Asian fusion eatery combining sushi and other Japanese food, as well as Thai food with some Chi-nese cuisine here and there. The menu is extensive, one of the larg-est in Long Beach. Appetizers include Satay, Shrimp Tempura, BBQ Pork, BBQ Chicken, Fried Wonton, Spring Rolls, Shrimp Fried Won-ton, deep-fried Tofu and Wings of Angels. An array of soups includes Spicy Shrimp Soup, War Wonton, Wonton, Chop Suey Soup, Beef Stew and Tendon Soup, Rice Soup, Glass Noodle and Spicy Chicken Coconut Soup. Salads feature Papaya in different com-binations, Larb, Spicy Beef and Cucumber Salad. Thai curry dishes include Red Curry, Pa Nang, Massamun, Yel-low Curry, Roasted Duck, Pine-apple and Green Curry. Entrées feature Crying Tiger, Spicy Mussels, Pork Leg Stew, Beef Jerky, Honey Duck, Pia Rad Prik (pompano), Ginger Seafood, Chinese Broccoli combos, Deep-fried Tilapia, Pad Thai and Pad See Ew. Sushi rolls are the name of the game with Moonlight, Dragon, 911, Las Vegas, Sunset, Play-boy, Long Beach, Sweet Girl and

Rainbow Roll. There are sashimi combos, as well as sushi combos for lunch and dinner. • Atmosphere: The atmosphere is modern, bright, clean and com-fortable, with booths along the walls and tables for larger groups throughout the large dining room. • The Taste: Jennifer and I stopped for dinner. We’ve both been under the weather, sore throat and malaise, like everyone else it seems. We fi gured a few spicy Thai and Chinese dishes might just make us feel a little better. We were correct. We started with War Wonton Soup. I could live on Bai Plu’s War Wonton Soup. It is one of the best soups in Long Beach, con-sisting of a beautiful light broth with baby bok choy, chicken me-dallions, tender jumbo shrimp, sliced BBQ pork, a generous number of stuffed wonton and a scallop or two. So tasty and so soothing. Then came the heat. We sam-pled Sliced Beef Thai Salad, Thai Spicy Fried Rice with Chicken and Pad See Ew. We asked for medium. Be careful, if you’re not accustomed to spicy foods. Medium Thai is, perhaps, uncom-fortable for many. For us it was perfect. Bai Plu’s Spicy Fred Rice is amazing. Jennifer thought it the best in Long Beach. Sliced Thai chiles were tossed throughout the rice, adding a defi nite zing. The fl avor was very nice with a hint of coconut milk and Thai fl avors.

Bai Plu’s Thai Salad also is great. It is magnifi cently plated with generous servings of greens, cilantro, basil, tomato quarters, purple onions, sliced beef and that wonderful lime dressing. Finally we sampled our Pad See Ew. It’s Thai comfort food. Mac and Cheese with a kick. Bai Plu is setting the standard for Thai in Long Beach these days. I write that knowing that

there are many wonderful Thai eateries in town, but Bai Plu is the benchmark. The food is won-derful, the prices are reasonable, the service is great and getting in

and out is painless. It is one of our favorite haunts. • Price: Lunch or dinner for two averages at a reasonable $15 to $30.


Bit Of Spice Found At Bai Plu

—Gazettte photo by Doreen GunnessASIAN FUSION. Bai Plu, which boasts a modern, bright interior, serves sushi, Japanese, Chinese and Thai foods.

Bit Of Spice Found At Bai PluBit Of Spice Found At Bai PluBit Of Spice Found At Bai Plu


Two men will serve jail sen-tences in regards to a hate crime incident last Halloween. On Oct. 31, 2011, two gay men were leaving The Center Long Beach, when they were confront-ed by 19-year-old Marquise Lu-cas and 28-year-old Sierus Dun-bar. According to Deputy District Attorney Robert Hight, Lucas harassed the victims by using gay slurs. The situation scared them, so one victim attempted to take a picture of Lucas and Dunbar with his cellphone. Before he was able to, Lucas struck him in the face and kicked him while he was lay-ing hurt on the ground — he also stomped on the man’s hand as he tried to reach for his cellphone. When the other victim tried to help his friend, Dunbar knocked him out. According to officials, both

victims suffered moderate in-juries. One had a cut to his left eyebrow, a bruised hip and blunt trauma to his hand. The other victim had injuries to his mouth and some damaged teeth. Both Lucas and Dunbar fled the scene, but eventually were caught by Long Beach Police Department officers. On Thursday, April 5, the Dis-trict Attorney’s Office announced that both Lucas and Dunbar had pleaded no contest to one count each of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury. Lucas also admitted a hate crime allegation and a great bodily in-jury allegation — he was sen-tenced to six years in state prison. Dunbar admitted to a prior felony grand theft conviction — he was sentenced to four years in county jail.

—Jonathan Van Dyke

Hate Crime Lands Two In Jail

—Gazette photo by Kevin OulesTwo Formula Drift cars screech through a turn, leaving a large trail of smoke behind, as a large crowd watches on during last weekend’s main drift event.

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Residents of Long Beach help people all year through a variety of activities. Listed below are the results of some projects, as well as more opportunities to reach out. Long Beach Skate Co. will host a benefi t for Autism in Long Beach, from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, April 14, at the shop at 3142 E. Seventh St. Duane Peters will be the featured artist and DJ Retro Slam will provide music. The Forty-Niner Shops at CSULB are hosting the annual Bowling for Books fundraiser from 2 to 6 p.m. Friday, April 20, at Cal Bowl, 2500 E. Carson St. in Lakewood. The money raised goes to textbook scholarships. The deadline for registration is Friday, April 13. Go to www.ShopTheBeach.com, or call 985-7700. The parents group at Renais-sance High is hosting a dinner dance for the entire family at 6 p.m. Friday, April 20, at the Seal Beach Yacht Club, 255 Ma-rina Dr. in Seal Beach. It’s a ca-sual evening of dining, live jazz, dancing, a silent auction and more. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for ages 18 and younger. Money raised goes to the school’s video program. For tickets, visit www.rhsaparts.org. The Flossie Lewis Center hosts its awards luncheon at noon, Wednesday, April 25, at The

Grand, 4101 E. Willow St. Guest speaker is Mike Pinera, from Iron Butterfl y and former mayor Bev-erly O’Neill is the mistress of cer-emonies. The center, which offers support services to alcoholics and substance abusers, is named after O’Neill’s mother. The luncheon is preceded by a silent auction at 11 a.m. Tickets are $55 and are available by calling 435-7350. Donations for raffl e prizes are being accepted for the Sixth An-nual Brain Cancer Fundraiser in Memory of Hank Zavaleta, which takes place April 26. To get involved, call (714) 743-2567 or visit www.craniumcrusaders.org. “Asian Spring Festival” is the theme for Friends of Language fundraiser from 4 to 6 p.m. Sun-day, April 28, at the Long Beach City College Foundation of-fi ce, 4900 E. Conant St. Tickets are $40 and the money supports scholarship for students studying

a foreign language or English as a second language. Call 938-4767. The Library Roundup fund-raiser is now underway and ends on April 30. Fifth District City Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske asks that everyone collect their spare change and drop it off at the locations around town. The money goes to Friends of Long Beach Libraries on behalf of the Ruth Bach and El Dorado librar-ies. For a list of locations, call 570-6932. Between now and April 30, new and gently-used shoes my be dropped off for the nonprofi t Love to All, which will send them to an orphanage in Mexico. The project is a joint effort of Zoe Mena and State Farm Insurance Agenct Susie Atwood. Shoes may be dropped off at Atwood’s offi ce, 564 E. Second St., or call 802-4963 to arrange a pick-up. A benefi t performance of “Duck Sleuth” by the Act Out Dinner Theatre to benefi t the Long Beach Playhouse starts with a Champagne reception at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 5, at L’Opera, 110 Pine Ave. Tickets are $90. Call 494-1014, option 1.

“Forbidden Broadway: Great-est Hits, Volume 2” will be pre-sented April 14 through 29 by Musical Theatre West at the Car-penter Center. “Forbidden Volume Two” is a revue that combines the big moments and big mistakes from shows including “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Sound of Music,” “Rent,” “Les Miserables,” “An-nie” and “Cats.”

Shows are at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Satur-day and 2 p.m. Sunday. No 2 p.m. show on Saturday, April 14, and there is an additional perfor-mance at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 22. Tickets start at $20 and are available at the MTW box offi ce, 4350 E. Seventh St., by phone at 856-1999, ext. 4, or online at www.musical.org.

MTW Back To “Forbidden Broadway”

PAGE 26A | GRUNION GAZETTE | April 12, 2012HEALTH & BEAUTY


The city of Long Beach re-ceived more money to combat lead-based housing problems that

could harm children in the city. The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services will use a new $2.4 million fed-eral grant to work on eliminat-

ing health hazards that include lead-based paint and asthma and allergy triggers. The grant is for three years and came from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “This is a grant that essentially continues the work we’ve been doing since 1994 on lead-based paint reduction in homes,” said Nelson Kerr, the city’s environ-mental health manager. “Lead hazards can lead to serious health concerns in children, so this is a really great thing.” Long Beach was one of four California entities to win the grant and it has previously won $10 million in similar grants. “The Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control Program will help protect hundreds of families, including children, by rehabilitating 185 housing units of privately owned and low-income housing,” Vice Mayor and Second District Coun-cilwoman Suja Lowenthal said in a statement. About $2 million will go di-rectly to the lead abatement, and then about $180,000 will offer the Health Homes Program com-prehensive delivery of interven-tions intended to improve the health of children with asthma, reduce housing-related environ-mental hazards contributing to asthma and allergies and reduce safety hazards contributing to un-intentional injuries, officials said. The grant money is citywide, but targets mainly downtown, cen-tral and north communities in the city. “The city of Long Beach has a large number of pre-1950s homes, which may harbor health risks such as lead-based paint, pest infestation and mold,” said Dr. Mauro Torno, Interim City Health Officer. “These HUD pro-grams assist in identifying public health risks in the home and re-moving or controlling them.” According to Kerr, about 1,700 homes or units have been helped in the past. “There’s really no limit in terms of where we can apply the grant in the city, however, we’re really looking at older housing stock and low income areas,” he said. “These lead exposures tend to impact a disproportionate num-ber of low income residents.” Housing that was built before 1978 did not have the same lead paint ban standards in place as to-day, so those are the houses being targeted. There are about 60,000 units in the city that were built prior to that— there are about 13,000 units built prior to 1940, he said. The department hires inspec-tors specifically trained in lead hazard assessment and abate-ment, and officials will help fam-ilies temporarily relocate when work it being done. Officials said they are most concerned with reaching children — lead exposure can cause many different kinds of developmental consequences. Kerr added that the program is good for the economy, as it will train local workers, use local ven-dors and improve neighborhoods with housing upgrades. For more information, visit the website at www.longbeach.gov/health/eh.

City Receives Lead-Abatement Money

Must Present Ad - Expires 4/17/12

April 12, 2012 | GRUNION GAZETTE | PAGE 27AHEALTH & BEAUTY

—Photo courtesy United Cambodian CommunityRebecca Yem, a student who volunteers at the United Cambodian Community, is thanked by board member Tracy Colunga at an appreciation ceremony last month. More than 100 people were acknowledged for their work at the center.

CAMBODIAN VOLUNTEERS The Comedy Battle Royale comes to Long Beach Friday and Saturday, April 13 and 14, at the Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St. Competitors were selected

based on a video submission. There will be winners in both the improv and stand-up categories. Friday’s session is “comedy combat” and the audience will vote on the performers. The fi nals

will be on Saturday night. Shows are at 8 p.m. both nights. Tickets are $10. The winners in stand-up will receive $100 and improv $200. Winners will be offered fu-ture bookings at the Playhouse.

Comedy Battle Royale To Engage On Playhouse Stage


Shared Lineage The legendary Titanic has been sitting under the ocean for 100 years, and the anniversary of the tragedy is this Sunday, April 15.

Because of the Queen Mary’s shared lineage — and shared ap-pearance — Long Beach’s per-manently moored hotel and at-

traction is hosting a film festival and candlelight vigil on board the Queen Mary on Saturday, April 14. Hosted by the Steamship His-torical Society of America, there will be a “TITANIC” Film Festi-val (formal attire encouraged) at 4 and 9 p.m. in the Caronia Room. At 11:40 p.m., there will be a candlelight vigil (formal attire

encouraged) near lifeboat 23. For details, go to www.queen-mary.com.

Count On St. Mary St. Mary Medical Center, which serves as the official emer-gency room for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, has been ranked in the top 5% of hospitals in the nation for emergency medi-cine, according to an Emergency Medicine in American Hospitals report released this month. Based on patient records from 2008 to 2010, the report focused on common life-threatening med-ical emergencies among patients, including conditions such as heart attack, stroke, pneumonia, chron-ic obstructive pulmonary disease and others. “As a major trauma center and disaster resource center for the area, our emergency services de-partment is very busy, taking in over 50,000 patients per year,” Gail Daly, St. Mary Medical Cen-

ter interim chief executive officer, said in a release.

King Taco’s Gift Underprivileged youngsters from Long Beach and Los Ange-les County are going to be in the grandstands this weekend thanks to donations from King Taco, the “Official Mexican Restaurant of the Toyota Grand Prix.” For five years, King Taco has been purchasing Sunday race grandstand tickets and distrib-uting them to youngsters from the Long Beach Boys and Girls Clubs, along with 28 other Boys and Girls Clubs in greater Los Angeles area as well as several YMCA and church groups. To date, more than 5,000 youth have enjoyed a day at the races thanks to King Taco. “For most of them, it’s their first time at the race,” Don Ro-driguez, executive director of the Long Beach Boys and Girls Club, said in a release. “In fact, for a lot of them it’s their first time at the beach, so they have a terrific time with the combination of sun, sea and the racing environment. It’s something they really enjoy.” King Taco also feeds the youngsters at the track. “It’s all about the kids,” Raul D. Martinez, King Taco vice president, said in a release. “We enjoy inviting kids from all walks of life to a fun-filled day. We’re privileged to be involved.” There is a King Taco located at 1841 Long Beach Blvd. For de-tails, visit www.kingtaco.com.

Free “Green” Burrito This Earth Day, April 22, Chi-potle Mexican Grill will reward eco-friendly customers with a free burrito, bowl, salad or order of tacos if they purchase a Chi-potle-branded, repurposed bill-board lunch bag from Chipotle’s online store, store.chipotle.com, between now and April 14. Chipotle will donate all of its proceeds from the sale of the bags to the Chipotle Cultivate Founda-tion, which launched in August 2011 and supports sustainable agriculture, family farming and culinary education. The lunch bags are made through a unique process called “upcyling,” in which Chipotle’s outdoor advertisements are giv-en a second life by transforming would-be waste into one-of-a-kind products. For every 20,000 lunch bags made from retired Chipotle sig-nage, landfills are spared some 78,000 square feet of billboard vinyl — enough material to cover 2.7 Olympic swimming pools, ac-cording to the website. The closest Chipotle Mexican Grill is at 1800 Ximeno Ave. The restaurant’s number is 597-0426.


When we heard that the Long Beach Playhouse was going to produce “Tartuffe” on its Main-stage, we said politely “that’s quite a challenge.” Inwardly, how-ever, a little voice was screaming, “you must be kidding.”

Written in 1664 by the legend-ary Moliere (the father of French farce), “Tartuffe” is an outrageous spoof that highlights the hypoc-risy of religious zealots — not to mention the injuries inflicted on naive believers who fall under their spell.

When “Tartuffe” was per-formed four centuries ago, it was denounced by none other than Moliere’s patron, Louis XIV. People then were very goosey about poking fun at religion in any capacity.

But times change, as we all know. Today, after being trans-lated into many languages, “Tar-tuffe” is Moliere’s most beloved comedy — one that has been per-formed by top-notch theater com-panies around the world.

But there’s a caveat. To tackle a serious subject like religion — and deliver it as broad farce — re-quires four prerequisites: superb direction, a playful French flair, precise timing and a seasoned, well-trained ensemble that knows exactly what it’s doing. Quite frankly, having seen “Tartuffe” many times, we doubted the Long Beach Playhouse could handle it on its Mainstage.

Last weekend, we ate crow. Kudos and “brava” to director Phyllis Gitlin. Using Richard Wilbur’s excellent translation (which rhymes in English just as it does in French), Gitlin coaxed professional performances out of her LBP cast to the delight of ev-eryone in the audience. All the madcap activity takes place in an elegant house and garden in 1760s Paris. Orgon, the wealthy head-of-the-household (Cort Huckabone), has befriend-ed Tartuffe (Tom Juarez), a penni-less “priest” who was wandering through the city, and invited him home. Tartuffe fawns all over Orgon and dotes on his every word; so in no time at all Orgon treats him like someone special, worthy of being idolized. Everyone else in the family sees right through Tartuffe, recognizing the phony cleric that he is. Everyone except Orgon’s hysterical mother (Teri Ciranna), who is also smitten by him. The smartest person in the house is Dorine. Loren McJannett Taylor almost steals the show ev-ery time she opens her mouth. As the feisty, outspoken maid, Do-rine sees what’s happening in the family and tries to save everyone from self-destruction. Orgon’s pretty daughter, Mari-anne (Hayley Jackson) is engaged to handsome Valere (Kyle Galla-gher); but when Orgon orders her

to break her engagement to Valere and marry Tartuffe, she is obedi-ent and acquiesces. But when the leach steps over the line and makes a pass at Elmire, Orgon’s wife (Brenda Kenworthy), he meets his match. Keep in mind that men were

masters who ruled the roost in 17th-century France; so even though Elmire is on to Tartuffe, she had to convince her husband that the man he idolizes is a lech-erous fraud. You’ll love every minute of this rollicking farce. (And Donna Frit-

sche’s costumes are absolutely delicious.) “Tartuffe” continues at the Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. on Sunday, through May 5. Call 494-1014 or go to www.lbplayhouse.org.Challenge Of Ancient Farce

Met By Long Beach Playhouse


What: Your new and used shoes Where: Bring them to the Su-sie Atwood State Farm office at 5624 E. Second St., or call 802-4ZOE and Zoe will pick the shoes up. When: Until April 30, 2012 You remember me because I ran two coat drives, a canned food drive and even a drive to collect used eyeglasses for peo-ple in developing countries. I am so thankful for your support of those campaigns. Now I am running a drive that really counts! My drive for new and gently used shoes starts to-day and Mr. Sheldon is watching. He is my health teacher at Rogers Middle School and he requires seventh graders to do a project that involves two hours of community service. I think this one will likely involve about 10 times that amount of time, but that’s fine by me. My project, the shoe drive, will work the way my previous drives have. Leave them at Susie Atwood’s office or call me for pickup. The only difference between this drive and all those before it: I get school credit for this one and I get to personally give out what you donate to people in need. So please help! Once I collect the shoes, I will take them to an orphanage in

Mexicali, Mexico. This orphan-age is supported by a nonprofit organization, Love to All, which regularly gives all sorts of items to several Mexican orphanages. You can see more about the orga-nization at www.lovetoall.org. I met the founder, Raul Lo-zano. He told me how he was always driving down to Mexican orphanages and that he was will-ing to have me accompany him. I was thrilled because I have al-ways wanted to see where all the stuff I collect for others actually goes. Usually, I bring all the stuff I collect in my drives to an office of a nonprofit and set it all down and leave and never see how it impacts people’s lives. Lozano drives to the orphanag-es about once a month so we will schedule a trip in May. (If you were wondering, yes, my mom is going with us.) Lozano has been helping others all his life. He first volunteered when he was 12 by sending candy bars. The pro-ceeds went to help Ethopia. He says I remind him of him-self because I have conducted drives beginning when I was 10 years old. “I love to be able to share blessings with the community,” he told me. Please join me in this work. If you are tired of my drives, please do this one for Mr. Sheldon.


There was a lot to like. You didn’t have to be affiliated with the Bob Cole Conservatory to enjoy the recent concert by the Cole Conservatory Symphony Orchestra under Johannes Müller-Stosch at the Carpenter Center. It was a simply pleasurable evening of fine music-making. If you regularly attend the con-certs by the Long Beach Sym-phony, you might also want to check out what the kids are doing at our local university. Make no mistake; the LBSO is made up of professionals and consistently de-liver a more elevated product than conservatory students are capable of. But the drop off in quality is not as much as you might think, the music is the same, the Car-penter is a more intimate venue (although the acoustics aren’t as good as at the Terrace Theater), and parking is cheaper and more accessible. The program consisted of Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto and Brahms Symphony No. 4. You might think that pro-gramming is a bit hackneyed, but the Cole students do a fair amount of unfamiliar and contemporary music during the year. Shun-Lin Chou, the head of the piano faculty at Cole, was the so-loist in the Rachmaninoff and he was impressive. I’ve heard this piece a bazillion times, but Chou

and Müller-Stosch found some new interpretations of familiar passages. Chou gave a com-pletely realized, expressive and powerful performance, worthy of an international stage. A slight memory lapse in the slow move-ment was no big deal; I’ve heard similar things at the LA Phil. And Rachmaninoff does tend to wan-der a bit harmonically. Yeah, the coordination between orchestra and soloist was some-times a hair off, but overall this was a fine performance of a tricky

work. The Brahms was good, too. Here the students were probably a little more out of their depth, but they still managed to summon moments of genuine passion and the general execution was good and tight. Impressive solo contri-butions were made in both pieces, especially by the young horn, oboe, clarinet, flute and timpani players. The audience was made up of conservatory students and their parents, with maybe a grandma and grandpa thrown in for good

measure. I was glad to note that nobody clapped between move-ments. Education is a wonderful thing. Intelligent program notes, by two of the symphony musicians, were a plus. Like I say, this was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

If you like symphonic music, you can hear some really good stuff at the Bob Cole Conservato-ry. Müller-Stosch has built a ter-rific program, and the Cole Con-servatory Symphony Orchestra is deserving of a large, and much wider, audience.

ConservatorySymphonyImpresses

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Herrera said it would take at least a few days to complete the final vote count. If the margins re-main as close as they are now, an automatic recount is likely.

Long Beach’s municipal code

calls for a city-sponsored recount if the difference between two can-didates is less than 50 votes and one-half of one percent of the to-tal vote. A candidate also can ask for a recount if the difference is larger, but then must pay for the recount if they lose. “I’m not really surprised by the

closeness of the race,” Supernaw said. “I’m just elated that I came out on top… I guess we’ll just continue on. I would have liked a break, but that wasn’t in the cards.” Vote results were open to inter-pretation. Watkins led the pack after mail-in ballots were count-ed, with 35.6% to Supernaw’s 34.7% and O’Donnell’s 29.7%. But the positions were reversed in votes from polling places, with O’Donnell significantly higher than his opponents. O’Donnell said his late surge boded well for the final result, while Watkins said the mail-ins should help him. Watkins blamed what he called a negative cam-paign from O’Donnell’s camp for his late stumble. “The campaign went from go-ing after issues to going after peo-ple,” Watkins said. “A lot of the mail-in ballots were cast before a lot of the negative campaign. I’m encouraged that the result relies on mail-in ballots.”

Only the top two vote-getters will be in the runoff election, with votes cast on June 12. If O’Donnell makes it into the run-

off, his name will appear on the ballot. That change in the city or-diance came after the last write-in campaign.

—Gazette photo by William JohnsonINTENSE TALK. Candidate John Watkins makes a point about the campaign to supporters Tuesday night.


Fourth District

Beach’s media day — something I’d been waiting forever for since fellow reporter Ashleigh Oldland came back beaming from the track last year. I was literally first in line for my pace car ride. I attribute this to over-eagerness, and also to the fact that my boss would call for my head if I didn’t make it back in time to put the Thursday paper out. I walked over to my (fair- ly) brand-spanking-new Toyota Camry. Rocky Moran (who said he had about five years experi-ence in the Toyota Atlantic Se-ries) would be my driver. The deal: I’d get two laps around the 1.97-mile Grand Prix course — the one that your fa-vorite drivers will be hitting up this Sunday for the big prize. This was a pace car, mind you, so Rocky told me the best we could hit was 120 mph. That was cool with me — my 1995 Jeep Chero-kee does not like accelerating and I’d only topped it off at like 90 mph on the barren wasteland of Wyoming highways in the past. “We take these cars to their limit — we push it,” he said. That’s what I wanted to hear from my driver. Let’s wreck some people — we’ve got a roll cage, so everything will be hun-ky-dory regardless. And vroom. Rocky and I pro-ceeded to do what all people must, and we lived our lives a quarter mile at a time for a good five minutes or more. Our little engine that could did, in fact, top out at the estimated 120 mph on the main straightaway. Rocky ag-gressively clowned the celebrity field, zigging in, out and around the likes of Adrien Brody, Brody

Jenner and Kim Coates. If I had been resting my hand outside the window, it would have been scraped off, as we were hugging the rails on every corner. But, then, it was done. I hadn’t quite felt it, really — definitely not the claim that we’d be hit-ting 1.5-gs on Turn 10. This was a good start, but I wanted more. It seemed as though just as I’d shaken off my helmet and gotten my bearings — ole Rocky had al-ready gone around the loop with a few more media-types. My jealousy seethed, as he came back in and half of the front of his Camry’s outer shell was missing! The reporter in tow was clinging onto the best of sou-venirs: The side mirror that had broken off. What had happened! Did they just fun scrape the side off? Did the reporter have to deftly (and awesomely) snatch the broken off mirror as it flew at his face in mid-100 mph turn? Sadly for this reporter, Rocky didn’t fly too close to the sun while I was in that fateful Toyota Camry. That reporter will get to describe how it felt to create a “caution” moment on the track — he’ll have a better understand-ing of the danger. Sure, a bit later I felt the thrill-ing unease in my stomach as I slid around in a Formula Drift car, accelerating much more ag-gressively and seemingly out of control at every turn. There was a thrill there, certainly. But I’ll never have my story about how I wrecked a car on the vaunted Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach course. I just missed it. Too much is never enough, am I right? — at least when it comes to thrill seekers, a part I played part-time on a pristine Tuesday morning.


Fast Ride


Toyota Grand Prix in Long Beach every year, a business’ position in or around the race circuit can either boost or sink sales during Grand Prix weekend.

“We are outside of the track, about a block away from the turn on Chestnut,” said Kari Barba, owner of Outer Limits Tattoo and Body Piercing (22 S. Chest-nut Place). “We love the races, the business it brings to the com-munity, but for us, it is difficult. Year-after-year, we discuss clos-ing for the weekend because we don’t get any walk-in traffic and our regular customers have a hard time parking and getting to our location.”

Barba said she has tried offer-ing special discounts to Grand Prix goers, but never has custom-ers come in during the Grand Prix weekend. Outer Limits has been open in downtown Long Beach for the past five years.

“We are one of those busi-ness that gets really hit during the Grand Prix, but we pray that some of those people who walk by us and see us when they are coming or going from the race will remember us and come back later,” she said.

At Kitchen Den Bar (KDB) at The Pike, one might assume that a bowling alley, karaoke, arcade games and a restaurant and bar would attract Grand Prix visi-tors to the location just outside the track, said Bennie Thomas, director of sales and marketing for KDB. However, Thomas said Grand Prix weekend is always slower than the norm.

Still, Thomas said KDB sup-ports the Grand Prix, and he said the event helps give exposure to The Pike and businesses such as KDB.

“It isn’t our normal weekend of revenue, but the benefit for us

is exposure,” Thomas said. “We embrace the Grand Prix each year, and we hope we can grow the business from it. We are hap-py to be in the city of Long Beach and we want to be supportive.” Located across from KDB at The Pike is Hooters, which moved from its location at 130 Pine Ave. to a larger venue at The Pike in March 2010 (in time for the 2010 Grand Prix), said Melis-sa Fry, outside sales and regional marketing for Hooters. At Hoot-ers, which still is located outside the track, Fry said business is great during Grand Prix weekend. “We are right next to it (the race course), and you can feel the en-ergy of it,” Fry said. “This was a big gathering area for people last year, and we expect it to be again. We are right behind the bleach-ers, and this is an escape from the sun and the noise. This is a huge weekend for us.” Fry said that despite the road closures and barricades that keep some customers from coming downtown during the Grand Prix, the event is “super-fun, controlled chaos” that Hooters welcomes each year. Across the water, the Hotel Maya — as well as many other hotels downtown — is sold out for Grand Prix weekend. Hotel General Manager Kristi Allen said the Grand Prix brings a lot of business to area hotels and is the signal of the start of the summer season at the Hotel Maya.

Allen added that Fuego restaurant at the Hotel Maya is a popular place for Grand Prix attendees to enjoy a meal or a drink. And, because the Aquabus will be trav-eling to and from the race to the Queen Mary and Hotel Maya, Al-len said she expects even more business at Fuego. Somewhat more removed from that “controlled chaos” of the Grand Prix is the new Potholder restaurant, which opened this month at 301 W. Broadway. The original Potholder is located at 3700 E. Broadway. Owner Kevin Pittsey said it was important to him to have the business open in time for the Grand Prix. “There’s so many people com-ing into town, and we want the fans and crews to come have breakfast with us,” Pittsey said, adding that the original Pothold-er has been a favorite breakfast stop for Grand Prix goers in the past. “(At the original Potholder) we have every Grand Prix poster since the early 1980s. We have pictures of drivers and crews … we have a racing mural on the wall that was done in the 1970s.” Inside the track, Shoreline Village merchants try to attract Grand Prix attendees into their businesses, said Pam Botis, inter-im property manager at Shoreline Village. “This is not our biggest busi-ness event of the year, but people attending the Grand Prix do come

here seeking our shops,” Botis said. “We offer the tenants in Shoreline Village an opportunity to have a tent in the parking lot pass through area, and several of our tenants will be out there showing off their best wares. We also invite some nonprofits to have a tent as well.” Botis added that the Grand Prix, even if it is not always a best-sell-ing weekend for businesses inside the track, is beneficial to the city as a whole. “People associate Long Beach with the Grand Prix, and it is a positive in the overall scheme of bringing people here and show-ing them what we have to offer in Rainbow Harbor,” she said. Also within the race track is the Auld Dubliner (71 S. Pine Ave.), an Irish pub owned by Eric John-son that opened in 2004 the week

before the Grand Prix. “The Grand Prix is fun,” John-son said. “We see a lot of the same people come back year after year.” The Auld Dubliner was origi-nally outside the Grand Prix race area, but Johnson said he worked with Grand Prix officials so that the restaurant could be included inside the race circuit in 2005. It has remained inside the circuit ever since. “The drawback (of being inside the circuit) is that customers have to have a ticket to see us, but has been a much better experience for us,” Johnson said. “This is a great place to watch the race, maybe the best place. “This puts us on the map with a different group of people who ordinarily might not have found us.”


Businesses

by a 23-point margin, 61.69% to 38.31%. In District 4, incumbent Jon Meyer was on a ballot with Naomi Rainey, although Rainey pulled out of the race the day after the filing period ended. She still received 1,539 votes (25.26%), but Meyer returned to the board with 4,554 votes (74.74%). Finally, incumbent Doug Otto won another term on the Long Beach Community College Board of Trustees, defeating Da-vina Keiser by more than a two-

to-one margin, 4,460 to 2,145. Turnout was miniscule in the off-year election, with 11.28% of the eligible voters casting ballots citywide. The Eighth District had the highest turnout, with 15.45%, while the Fourth District had 14.32% voting. Those numbers should go up slightly when the rest of the mail-in and provision-al ballots are counted. Mail-in ballots outnumbered votes cast at precincts by nearly a two-to-one margin. As of Tues-day, 17,057 ballots had been counted, with more than 11,000 of those mailed in.


Results

SUTTON, Robert Louis, 1940-2012Robert Louis Sutton, 71, of Long Beach, passed away March 15. He was born in Long Beach and was an aerospace machinist. He is survived by daughter, Marianne. Interment is at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

FITCHES, Betty, 1925-2012Betty Fitches, 86, of Lakewood, passed away March 16. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is survived by her daughter, Carolee. There was a service at the LDS Church in Bellflower. Interment is at Downey District Cemetery in Downey. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

JAMANILA, Richard, 1968-2012Richard Jamanila, 44, of Long Beach, passed away March 17. He was born in Guam and worked as an auto mechanic. He is survived by his sister, Kimberly, Rosas. Interment is at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

VOELTZ, Leland, 1926-2012Leland Voeltz, 85, of Rancho Palos Verdes, passed away March 17. A native Californian, he worked as a production manager. He is survived by his son, Stewart. Interment is private. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

STAHL, George W., 1965-2012George W. Stahl, 46, of Los Angeles, passed away March 17. He was born in New York and was an art director for media. He is survived by his mother Adlinde. Interment is at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, N.Y. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

BRIGGS, Victoria, 1951-2012Victoria Briggs, 60, of Lake Isabella, passed away March 18. She was born in Taylor, Mich., and worked as cook in a retirement home. She is survived by her daughter, Laura Cribbs. Interment is private. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

BANJAVIC, Ronald James1947-2012

Ronald James Banjavic, 64, of Marina Del Ray, passed away March 19. He was born in Marina Del Ray and was a medical practice manager. Interment is at Memorial Park Cemetery in Staunton, Ill. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

YONESATO, Tsuruzo, 1924-2012Tsurozo Yonesato, 87, of Huntington Beach, passed away March 19. He was born in Ogden Utah, and was the owner of a metal finishing business. He is survived by his wife, Reiko. Interment is at El Toro Memorial Park in Lake Forest. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

RAFFLE, Alicia Mae, 1925-2012Alicia Mae Raffle, 86, of Long Huntington Beach, passed away March 24. She was born in Australia and is survived by her daughter, Margo Kohut. Interment is private. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

GAETH, Thomas Ralph, 1950-2012Thomas Ralph Gaeth, 61, of Lakewood, passed away March 24. He was born in Sturgeon Bay, Wisc., and worked in the aerospace industry. He is survived by his wife, Kathleen. Interment is at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

MENDIETA, Gerda, 1939-2012Gerda Mendieta, 72, of Long Beach, passed away March 22. She was born in Nicaragua and worked as a dentistry business manager. She is survived by her son, Gerardo. Interment is private. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

NAVARRO, Adrian, 1957-2012Adrian Navarro, 55, of San Gabriel, passed away March 24. He was born in Texas and worked as a water line installer for the city of Los Angeles. He is survived by his mother, Marie Elena. Interment is private. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

PRECIADO, Alvaro, 1927-2012Alvaro Preciado, 84, of Seal Beach, passed away March 21. He was born in Columbia and was a lawyer. He is survived by his daughter, Anna Baltimore. Interment is private. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

FALZARANO, Virginia, 1924-2012Virginia Falzarano, 87, of Long Beach, passed away March 27. She was born in Massachusetts and worked as an insurance and trust company supervisor. She is surived by her son, James. Interment is private. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

HAMILTON, Betty A., 1922-2012Betty A. Hamilton, 90, of Long Beach, passed away March 23. She was born in Pennsylvania and was a Registered Nurse. She is survived by her daughter, Sally. Interment is at Saint Clair Cemetery in Greensburg, Penn.

SURINCK, Kathryn, 1951-2012Kathryn Surinck, 60, of Bellflower, passed away March 24. She was born in Burbank and worked as an insurance agent. She is survived by her son, Jay. Interment is private. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

ASBERRY, Lawrence Joseph Sr.1957-2012

Lawrence Joseph Asberry Sr., of Los Angeles, passed away March 26. He was born in Compton and worked as an automobile mechanic. He is survived by his sister, Patrysha Oubre. Interment is at Grace Memorial Park in Plaquemine, La. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

ARMSTRONG, Barbara, 1923-2012Barbara Armstrong, 88, of Anaheim, passed away March 27. She was born in Utah. She is survived by her son, William. Interment is private. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

NUNN, Birdie Joy, 1915-2012Birdie Joy Nunn, 96, of Garden Grove, passed away March 20. She was born in Roundup, Mont., and was an accountant. She is survived by her daughter, Diana Carey. Interment is a Valley View Gardens in Westminster. The family was assisted by McKenzie Mortuary.

Today’s ObituariesArmstrong, BarbaraAsberry, Lawrence J. Sr.Banjavic, Ronald J.Briggs, VictoriaFalzarano, VirginiaFitches, BettyGaeth, Thomas RalphHamilton, Betty A.Jamanila, RichardMendieta, Gerda

Navarro, AdrianNunn, Birdie JoyPreciado, AlvaroRaffle, Alicia MaeStahl, Geroge W.Surinck, KathrynSutton, Robert LouisVoeltz, LelandYonesato, Tsuruzo

To submit material, call: Kurt Eichsteadtat 562-209-2094, e-mail to

[email protected], go online towww.gazettes.com or fax to 562-434-8826


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