Mayor Rex Richardson used Long Beach’s 2024 State of the City to announce a temporary amphitheater along the coast, small business developments and student housing initiatives.
On Tuesday night, following an extremely short Long Beach City Council meeting, city officials and residents gathered in Downtown Long Beach for the 2024 State of the City.
Mayor Rex Richardson spoke to a crowd that nearly filled the Long Beach Terrace Theater about the past year’s accomplishments and goals for 2024, mainly surrounding homelessness, housing, infrastructure and park improvements, tourism, businesses and arts and culture, much of which stems from $740 million in improvements for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics.
Long Beach City College student Maleka Lassiter delivered the inaugural Youth State of the City, highlighting accomplishments from local youth throughout the year such as the Wilson High School swimming team and the Jordan High School boy’s basketball team both taking home state titles.
The biggest announcement of the night was a temporary amphitheater with 8,000 to 10,000 seats that will be built in the Queen Mary parking lot, and Richardson was hopeful to host musical acts by 2025 with plans for a larger permanent amphitheater in the future.
“Music is coming back to Long Beach sooner than we think,” Richardson said, referencing the many music icons who have performed in the city in previous decades such as The Doors, Sublime, The Rolling Stones and more.
Other projects Richardson hinted at included housing developments made for Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) and Long Beach City College (LBCC) students as part of the Long Beach Housing Promise. The program was announced in late 2023 with no details, but Richardson said both campuses “have projects underway.”
Long Beach saw a 2.5% increase in students experiencing homelessness, according to the 2023 Point in Time Count.
The Signal Tribune reached out to CSULB and LBCC representatives for updates on their projects and is waiting for a reply.
Richardson highlighted Long Beach’s accomplishments during the year, plus the local emergency proclamation aimed to reduce the number of people experiencing or in danger of homelessness. The City Council will vote on whether to end the proclamation in February.
Some of the highlights included:
- Long Beach now has a total of over 2,300 shelter beds. In the 2023 Point in Time Count, volunteers found and identified 3,447 homeless people in Long Beach.
- Long Beach has 553 Accessory Dwelling Units approved.
- There are 4,500 housing units “in the pipeline,” though Richardson did not specify what this meant.
- Long Beach has issued 100% of its Emergency Housing Vouchers.
Richardson also introduced a five-year goal to end youth homelessness in Long Beach. The city identified more than 200 people under 24 years old experiencing homelessness in the 2023 Point in Time Count.
While speaking about Long Beach’s economy, Richardson largely focused on businesses and tourism, including the temporary amphitheater in the Queen Mary parking lot. He introduced several technological and transportation companies that are moving into Long Beach, such as AIBOT, Auriga, Ex Labs, JetZero and Bio Gas Engineering.
Richardson also announced two programs that will assist small businesses this year. The first is an “inclusive business navigator program” in partnership with ORALE (Organizing Rooted in Abolition, Liberation, and Empowerment) to help Latine residents receive their business licenses.
Long Beach will also introduce Level Up LB, an “extreme small business makeover program.” The program will select 25 local businesses to receive support through marketing, planning, financing and help applying for City contracts. Those businesses will also be eligible for up to $10,000 in micro-grants.
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