🌱 ERF For MacArthur Park, Twain Homeless + Fresh Start Event

Happy Friday, neighbors; today is Tolkien Reading Day! Here's everything happening around town today.

Will the City be successful in dissolving long-term encampments? Also, you might be able to get rid of your old criminal convictions. Finally, Measure M is illegal.

First, today's weather:

Partly sunny and beautiful. High: 77 Low: 57.

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Here are the top five stories today in Long Beach:

1. California has a State’s Encampment Resolution Funding (ERF), and LB will receive $1.3 million “to focus on comprehensive outreach, supportive services, and shelter services for the encampment site clustered in Cambodia Town around MacArthur Park and the Mark Twain Neighborhood Library.” As of Wednesday, “the Health Department has made 184 outreach visits, responded to 143 community calls and housed 109 people.” (LB Local News)
2. LB City Prosecutor Doug Haubert wants you to have a fresh start. On April 12, his office will host a workshop for those with “an old cannabis conviction or a minor conviction” they need to get cleaned up. You get to “sit down with attorneys and paralegals to help you expunge your criminal conviction.” (City Prosecutor Doug Haubert)
3. In 2018, LB voters passed Measure M. It allowed the City to move surplus utility revenues to its general fund. However, critics sued and said it violated 1996’s Proposition 218, which specifies that “utility fees can be used only to deliver the commodity.” Winding its way through the courts, the CA Supreme Court refused on Wednesday to overturn a lower court’s ruling, which means that LB has to repay $48.8 million it had already earmarked for other expenditures. (Press-Telegram)
4. The California State University's Board of Trustees announced Wednesday that the CSU system will no longer require candidates for undergraduate admission to provide SAT or ACT test information as a measure of acceptance. However, the school will use these test results to determine placement after admission, particularly in math and English. (Patch)
5. Bored & Hungry is coming to LB. Slated to open as a 90-day pop-up on April 9, it features the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT recently sold on OpenSea. This project will start out as a typical burger joint, with the popular Ape being the brand. However, the owner hopes "to have a Bitcoin ATM in the restaurant, for example, and he’s looking into ways to take cryptocurrency as payment." (Nationals Restaurant News, Input)

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Today in Long Beach:

• Half-Priced Friday at the Long Beach Museum of Art (11 AM to 5 PM)
• Private Ocean View Wine Tasting for 2 on a Lovely Boat in Long Beach Harbor (1 PM to 3 PM)
• Glass Bottom Boat EcoTour at Shoreline Village (1:30 PM to 6 PM)
• Musical Theatre West Presents Spamilton: An American Parody at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center (8 PM)
• Friday Vibes With DJ Od In Da House at Cafe Sevilla of Long Beach (10 PM)

From my notebook:

• Long Beach Police Department Quality of Life officers, in partnership with the Long Beach Department of Health & Human Services (LBDHHS) — visited members of the community who are experiencing homelessness to provide them with useful information and resources. (Facebook)
• Someone stole a Los Altos East's neighbor's Persian cat! He pulled up in a gray pickup truck, and in the video, you can hear a lady in the truck say let's take her. Does anyone know these people? (Nextdoor)
• A Rose Park South neighbor needs an experienced teacher to help a woman entering her student teacher phase of her credential in foreign language. She needs help in: passing the CA TPA Cycle 1 and 2, building lesson plans, and more. (Nextdoor)
• Our East Village neighbor works at Mental Health America and helps with housing and other services for homeless, mentally challenged, and disabled persons. They are in need of clothes, shoes, amenities such as hygiene items, etc. (Nextdoor)

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Thanks for following along and staying informed. I'll see you soon!

— Sylvia Cochran

About me: Sylvia Cochran works out of sunny Southern California and has been freelance writing full-time since 2005. She loves dogs, cats, books, plays Best Fiends (don't judge), embraces social justice, and tries to live out Micah 6:8.