The City of Long Beach is offering Cambodian residents the chance to give their feedback on the planned Cambodian American Cultural Center (CACC) by taking an online survey.
Residents can take the survey until Monday, Sept. 5 at 5 p.m.
The survey includes prompts such as:
- Please select your top 5 historical/important Cambodian people
- Please select your top 5 historical/important buildings/locations
- Please select your top 5 historical/important events/holidays/ceremonies
- What themes and priorities are important for the CACC?
- What are programs, services, classes, or exhibits you would include at the CACC?
The visioning process for the CACC began in September 2021 after a unanimous vote by the Long Beach City Council. The item was drafted by Suely Saro, Long Beach’s first Cambodian American councilmember.
Although the City approved the visioning process, a budget analysis found that the cultural center could cost over $50,000 with no funding sources were identified as of yet. The council said it may have to allocate additional resources or use its reserve funds.
A timeline for completion of the cultural center has not been announced yet.
Long Beach has the highest rate of Cambodian residents of any area outside of Cambodia, making up roughly 4% of the city’s population, according to Asia Matters for America. Many Cambodian people were forced to flee their homeland due to the violence and instability caused by the Khmer Rouge. Some refugees spent years in camps before finally being able to come to the United States.
In the 1950s and ‘60s, the United States and Cambodia had a student exchange program in which Cambodian students attended California schools. Some students stayed in California after receiving their degrees, and these former students eventually formed the Cambodian Association of America based in Long Beach.
When their countrymen began arriving to California as refugees in the ‘70s, the services offered by Cambodian Association of America attracted many refugees to the Long Beach area, according to Respectability.org.
“Given how arts and culture was almost completely lost during the genocide, it’s so important to many of our Cambodian elders that our culture and history are not lost,” Saro said in September 2021 during a city council meeting. “But that it’s not only celebrated and promoted, but preserved so the next generation—such as myself—of Cambodian Americans can learn and understand.”
A kick-off event for the CACC planning process was held in MacArthur Park on Aug. 20, where the City handed out physical copies of the survey.
To take the survey online, visit https://tinyurl.com/5n6da3p8.
