By Nick Diamantides
Staff Writer
A shooting in Somerset Park and a plan to change its name have upset so many residents in the park’s vicinity that now there is talk about reactivating two neighborhood associations which have been dormant for years. Three neighborhood meetings have taken place since the end of July, and interest in reviving the associations seems to be growing.
Days after the non-fatal July shooting, community activists organized a meeting in the park with: 7th District Long Beach City Councilwoman Tonia Reyes-Uranga; 8th District Councilwoman Rae Gabelich; Long Beach Police Department North Division Commander Billy Quach; Police Lt. Jeffray Liberman; and several officials of the Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine.
During that first meeting, on July 27, residents expressed their concerns about the shooting and requested a greater police presence in the neighborhood. Most of them also strongly voiced their opposition to a plan to rename the park after Chrissy Marshall, a long-time parks department employee who had recently passed away. At a second meeting at the Long Beach Health Department’s Miller Family Education Center on September 17, no city officials were present, so residents discussed neighborhood issues among themselves.
The third meeting occurred on September 30 at the Miller Center. Reyes-Uranga, Quach, and about 70 residents attended. “The consensus at that meeting was to still honor Chrissy Marshall, but not by naming the park after her,” Reyes-Uranga said. She explained that a majority of those at the meeting voted to have the city name the park’s patio area “Chrissy Marshall Plaza,” and install a bench and a plaque with her name in the park. The majority also voted to have the city erect a canopy over the park’s two buildings that would also cover the plaza named for Marshall. “The canopy will be professionally constructed and will allow children in the park to play in a shady area,” Reyes-Uranga said. “The city had been thinking about erecting the canopy for a while but put the project on the back burner.” She added that the community’s renewed interest in Somerset Park has pushed that project forward and the canopy designating Chrissy Marshall Plaza will probably be erected in the near future.
Reyes-Uranga explained that the council decided to change the park’s name to Chrissy Marshall Park. “It was the result of a memo from Dee Andrews and myself,” she said, adding that she and Councilman Andrews presented it to the council several months ago, and the council referred the matter to its Housing and Neighborhoods Committee, as well as to the Long Beach Parks Commission. “The Parks Commission heard it, and there was no opposition there, and the Housing and Neighborhoods Committee heard it, and there was no opposition there,” Reyes-Uranga said. “Then it went back to the city council for confirmation (in early August), and that’s when we heard from the community that some people were opposed to the name change.”
Reyes-Uranga explained that at the council meeting she felt that most people favored the name change, so she voted with a majority of the council for the change. “That’s when people started organizing and distributing fliers against the name change,” she said, explaining that the strong opposition from residents living in the neighborhoods surrounding the park persuaded her to change her mind about renaming the park.
Now Reyes-Uranga and her staff are working with the parks department to plan the construction of the canopy and the creation of Chrissy Marshall Plaza, but the councilwoman has no plans to make a motion for the council to withdraw the planned name change in the immediate future. “There has to be a council action to rescind the name change, but that doesn’t have to happen right away,” she said. “I want to make sure that we have honored Chrissy by naming the plaza after her before I ask my colleagues on the council to rescind the name change.”
Meanwhile, Uranga is glad that the controversy has inspired residents living near the park to get more actively involved in their neighborhoods. “There used to be two neighborhood associations that were very active in that area— the Bixby Highlands and the Bixby Terrace associations,” she said. “They have been dormant for quite a while, but now there is renewed interest in starting them up again.”
Claudette Powers, a community activist who lives across the street from Somerset Park, said she too is pleased with the renewed interest in the associations. “We are seeing a lot of people who want to be actively involved in keeping the park and their neighborhoods safe,” she said. “It’s always a good thing when people want to work together to improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods and when they organize to make sure that their elected officials are hearing their voice.”
Reyes-Uranga agreed. “It is much easier for council members to be in touch with the needs of specific neighborhoods when those neighborhoods have an association,” she said. “It’s also much easier for us to get the word out on what the city is planning to do when we can contact the neighborhood associations and ask them to inform their members on specific matters.”
Powers said that a meeting to discuss issues in the Bixby Terrace (south of Carson Street) and Bixby Highlands (north of Carson Street) areas, and to discuss the reactivation of the two neighborhood associations, is planned for October 28, but a meeting place has not yet been determined. Powers added that anyone wishing to attend the meeting should email her at 4peacecpowers@verizon.net.
