The Signal Tribune emailed 10 identical questions to the six District 1 candidates — Deb Kahookele, Lori Logan, Mary Zendejas, Brock Goleman, Tamika Wagner-Osio and Anthony Bryson — and gave them one week to respond. We only received responses from Bryson and Goleman at the time of publication.
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These responses are copied verbatim from candidate Goleman.
1. What issues do you think are most important in your district, and how do you plan to address those issues?
District One’s most important focus should be strengthening city internal capabilities that create a high-quality, stable system of government services. From safety and city finances to traffic harms, our city has some execution problems. We need to move from good to excellent.
Acting as we do now, we are unprepared for unknown disruptions to neighborhood order and peace. Using the powers of the office, I will start by making recommendations to the city auditing, accounting, and management departments to do a full financial, best-practices, updated technology, procedures, and customer complaint diagnosis to gauge how modern, elite, and financially smart our city services are.
Sharing this report and audits with the residents, I will move forward to vote to push our city toward strength, growth, and excellence in each individual area to increase happiness. First, council must dig up the true obstacles to good management, then we can talk more details.
2. Would you rezone any areas of your district? If so, in what way?
With careful input consideration of the residents and impacted communities, yes. I support zoning that promotes growth of multi-family residential, shopping, and commercial development around public transportation. It would be a dream for residents from around the region to be able to hop on the Metro and easily commute to and from Long Beach for work, socializing, or a good time.
Also, I strongly support zoning that requires middle-class and affordable units to be created in new developments and towers. This would help alleviate Long Beach’s housing pressures. As always, I strongly review these initiatives with the oversight that strategies do not create polarized crime, spillover blight, neighborhood encroachment, or overpopulation. I will recommend that odd parcels and easements be turned into unique microparks. I’d like a city of microparks that connect through our trails, bike paths, and walking paths.
3. Do you feel councilmembers in District 1 have historically done a sufficient job in listening and responding to concerns from its residents? If not, what would you do differently?
The past councilmembers made a spirited effort within the realm of their understanding. COVID, homelessness, and financial meltdown policies proved that the D1 Council means well but are slow to understand, listen, and represent with relatable oversight and action. Our streets are unacceptable with homelessness, we’re financially weak, and the answers given are basically, ‘Oh, we’re on it, the economy should return, and with some tweaking we will make it.’
Meanwhile, residents suffer through it like a Dust Bowl summer. Not cool. My motivations are different. Residents will always see that I do the job through recommendations and limited authority of the council office. I am always scanning to fix and shine light into city departments that, when left alone, cause problems that make residents reactive. The details can only be unlocked on the job. As a citizen, it is very tough to get a full diagnostic of system failures.
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4. What do you think the City should be doing to make residents feel safe with the increased aggression of ICE agents?
This is a nonpartisan role, and I’m a centrist Democrat. In my opinion, the city has a duty to protect every living thing in the jurisdiction. Undoc and ICE. Therefore, the city should continue to do what it does, enforce safety and legal rights all around.
Further, roaming federal agents are unsightly. Imagine being out for a peaceful beach walk or church visit and witnessing our neighbors being taken. I’d love to say open borders are nostalgic like the ’80s, when there was no fence and someone could walk straight through San Ysidro to make a better life, but things are bad now with drugs, crime, and overpopulation.
I believe in strong borders and votes to consider allowing ICE to take the worst of the worst from our jails and peaceful lives. Still, I’d like to see the city negotiate more citizenship since the borders are secure, rather than inflame ICE.
5. Do you support the recent implementation of the nearly $800,000 fence around the Billie Jean King Library? Additionally, what measures should the City be taking to care for homeless residents downtown while ensuring the safety of residents at parks and libraries?
No. $800k is too much for that fence. It’s another prime example of shopping-spree spending, $500k here, a million there, $10 million in fraud over there, it adds up. While I like the enclosed deck space to protect events and gatherings, it’s claustrophobic. Look carefully at the beautiful modern design. It’s built for a flow through and around the park and downtown landscape.
Plus, homeless people set up camp on the outside boundary anyway. It’s a clear case where, as councilmember, I would want police to instead move people along. Still, with respect for the homeless and those without the proclivity to make their lives better, I want the city to quit messing around about basic rights of service. This means I want dispersed city property full of cots with security guards patrolling. Cheap beds first, full-scale studios like Zephyr when it can be worked out.
6. What should the City do about the steady rise of traffic injuries, both for drivers and pedestrians?
The city should move forward with speed cameras. The state is on target by promoting this idea, and San Francisco saw a 72% reduction in speeding. PCH and other high-impact areas need them the most. No state has more pedestrian injuries than California, and it’s getting worse.
The California Office of Traffic Safety has a whole list of ways for drivers and pedestrians to be careful, including phone use, backing up, and looking left-right-left. Therefore, to the municipal code ordinance for STOP, I’d like to add look and listen at crosswalks.
Also, I’d like raised crosswalks in heavy foot-traffic areas to naturally slow cars and more flashing pedestrian beacons at dangerous intersections.
7. With the World Cup and Olympics approaching, what measures should the City take to ensure District 1 doesn’t see a rapid spike in short-term rentals that would ultimately result in less long-term housing?
With the World Cup and Olympics approaching, the city should support balanced tourism growth that benefits local restaurants, shops, and entertainment. But we also need reasonable limits so the house supply does not get suddenly compressed. The goal is to protect long-term housing for residents while still allowing homeowners to responsibly rent their property. I support caps on the number of short-term rentals in certain neighborhoods.
8. What responsibility should long-term vacant property owners have to actively maintain buildings that repeatedly impact surrounding residents, businesses and public safety?
Nuisance properties are dangerous. Vacant property owners have a duty of care to ensure their buildings do not become public nuisances. This responsibility involves maintaining strict physical security, controlling public safety hazards, and rapidly addressing blight, vandalism, and illegal trespassing that negatively impact surrounding residents and local businesses.
Long Beach should stay committed to increasingly enforce these responsibilities through proactive code enforcement and strict property ordinances. We already compel absentee landlords to maintain their properties through mandatory registration, security fencing, no-trespassing authorization with LBPD, rapid response to blight, and escalating penalties for non-compliance.
I support continuing and strengthening these enforcement strategies to protect neighborhoods, repel slums, and improve quality of life. Maybe we can even encourage them to plant some trees and plants!
9. Downtown Long Beach has several distinct neighborhoods with a strong local identity. What would you do to revitalize Downtown while still preserving the character of places like the East Village, Pine Avenue and surrounding historic areas?
Each area has its unique life, function, and needs. Pine, for example, if the Metro wasn’t such a rough experience, the commutability and therefore walkability would be greatly increased. This would greatly help revitalize the desire to be downtown and movement through downtown neighborhoods.
Keeping the unique nature of downtown neighborhoods will involve having a council that listens to neighborhood associations, looks around, partakes in the places, and is willing to identify unique benefits that residents will love. Oh, and power-washing the streets now and again.
Right now, residents’ main concern is still the fear of being attacked by someone wandering around. I would step up the police presence. I’ve called Metro’s CEO to create an innovative partnership to make riding safer. As we speak, I’m talking with residents about zoning that invites certain business types at the exclusion of others to add area character.
10. The Equity and Human Rights Commission has recommended the City adopt a Civil and Human Rights Investment Screening Policy. Do you support the adoption and implementation of this policy?
No. I like the idea and believe it is a noble cause, representing Long Beach and leadership’s good intentions, but financially it’s a dangerous idea. This feels like another idea coming out without financial literacy. Even the Financial Management Department said no-go, it’s too vague, has no world-class city proven model to compare to, and could cause a financial windfall of another $80 million.
The city and state already have enough pressure forcing them to appease political slants. This would give license to misguided, battle-hardened advocates already pushing too many politics over people, ideologies over necessary financial stewardship and realities.
Even though the idea of keeping city financial investments ethical is wonderful, it needs to be done in a way that grows municipal finance and dollars and is not subject to noncredible disqualification
