To mark his first anniversary in office, Garcia met with editorial boards from local media outlets, including those of the Signal Tribune, who met with him Monday afternoon in a conference room outside his office on the 14th floor of City Hall, to discuss his primary areas of concentration within the city: education, economic development, civic innovation and sustainable living.
Garcia highlighted what he viewed as accomplishments in the last year and described some of his plans for making further advancements in those four areas.
Discussing economic development, Garcia first noted that all the national indicators, including the unemployment rate, are “in the right direction,” which, he said, was already the case when he entered office as mayor.
“So, I think we’ve taken advantage of a few things,” he said. “Number one— as part of my first budget, I restarted Economic Development, which is now a fully staffed department in the city… Launched a bunch of development projects in the city, including the civic center project, which is complete, as far as the project we’re working with. The Queen Mary— we’re putting together a task force to develop that, as you guys probably know. And we put on the market the first six parcels, just a month ago, for redevelopment that we had to eliminate because of the State.”
To that last point, Garcia said he hosted a developers conference to showcase opportunities for development.
He also said he has worked to build bridges within port industries.
“For example, when I came into office, the port wasn’t at a great place,” he said. “There had been a lot of back-and-forth in the last couple of years, a lot of mistrust with the City… I worked really hard to establish trust. The port has been very smooth. Everyone’s working on the same page. We have a great new director [and] a commission that’s working together. And I think you can see the success. Port traffic is up, even over last year. Things are going great.”
Garcia also remarked that tourism is at a record high and that the Economic Development Commission is working on a 10-year blueprint for jobs and the local economy.
Other achievements include: the arrival of Virgin Galactic and Shimadzu at Douglas Park; the investment of more than $65 million at the Pike and the entry of Nike, the Gap, Forever 21 and H&M into that location; and Long Beach’s Innovation Team, which is funded by a $3-million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
When asked what businesses he would like to see in Long Beach, Garcia said an Apple Store, as well as a Chipotle closer to City Hall. Among the achievements in education the mayor mentioned was the fact that the City has joined the three main local educational institutions in the Long Beach College Promise to ensure that students have a clearly delineated path to higher education.
“Since then, we’ve launched a couple of other initiatives as part of that,” he said. “One has been this internship initiative [through] which we’re trying to double the amount of interns in the city. We’re very excited about that. We think we’re going to do that, and that’s been a partnership with the school district, the college and the university.”
Garcia said he has also called for universal preschool.
“We have already, just this year, compared to last, added 400 additional preschool slots for additional children,” he said. “And we think, by the end of the year, we’re going to have an additional 400 total.”
He said he expects that, within “a short amount of time,” that number will have increased to over 800 slots.
He also discussed the new preschool center expected to be opened in Long Beach, for which half of the funds for the $14-million project have been raised.
Garcia has also partnered with a nonprofit, Vision to Learn, to acquire reading glasses for students from low-income families who need them.
“We’ve been giving out hundreds and hundreds of free glasses to low-income kids,” he said.
In discussing civic innovation and sustainable living, Garcia said he tries to foster a community that is “civically minded and that’s innovative, thinking about the future.” The mayor cited filling 120 commission positions, launching the City’s new website and doubling its social-media communi- cation as some recent accomplishments.
“The city’s got to be a forward-thinking city,” he said. “So, we’ve really focused on civic innovation.”
Garcia said he has also asked the Aquarium of the Pacific to develop a climate-change action plan.
“We’re a coastal city,” he said. “We’re going to have serious challenges in the future if we don’t really focus on that.”
He also noted that homelessness is down by 18 percent in Long Beach compared to last year, indicating that 301 previously homeless veterans have been provided permanent housing.
“The overarching theme, I think, is that… my style has been to be collaborative,” Garcia said. “I try to be inclusive. I believe in ‘you listen to all sides’ even if you have disagreements. And I think that’s what I campaigned on, and that’s what I have been doing. I think most people are excited about the future and they’re optimistic about the city. I do consider myself our city’s chief ambassador, and it’s been a very good first year. I feel very good about it.”
