Long Beach, News

Cambodia Town combats neighborhood crime in meeting

In the small dark auditorium of the Gamboa Theater in Cambodia Town, local residents helped decide how to reduce crime with Development Project Manager Alem Hagos at the Anaheim, Orange, Cherry and Seventh Street Neighborhood Association meeting Wednesday night.    

“Right now 11th Street and 10th Street on Orange Avenue by Lincoln High School are the most important areas to address,” AOC7 President Andre Beasley said. “The residents are very scared of what is going on now as far as shootings and other criminal activity around the bars.”  

The AOC7 is a neighborhood association that mainly represents the First, Second, Fourth and Sixth districts in Long Beach.

It was founded four years ago by Beasley, who wanted to make a difference in the Long Beach community. While growing up in Los Angeles, he became familiar with bad neighborhoods and said he thinks it’s important to take action against the criminal activity taking place in Cambodia Town.

In October 2012, the city council created the 2017 Action Development Plan, a 5-year consolidated strategy decided by gathering input from community members. Every year, new goals and priorities have to be set, and Hagos, who is working for the city of Long Beach, joined the meeting to carry out a public service program development exercise and to raise awareness about the action plan development workshop on April 16.


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The development exercise gave the participating residents a taste of what the workshop would focus on. They were given the opportunity to estimate what percentage of the federal funding should be spent on each public service program for the budget in 2017.

The participants were also given the opportunity to suggest three new additional public service activities for the upcoming year’s budget. In the current budget for this year’s public service programs decided by community members who participated in last year’s action plan development workshop, 50 percent of the federal funding is spent on youth activities, including recreational and after-school programs.

Because community members perceive graffiti as a big problem in Cambodia Town, they decided that 25 percent of the current budget should be spent on graffiti removal programs, while 18 percent should go to the Neighborhood Resource Center at 100 W. Broadway.

For homeless comprehensive services, the current budget gave 5 percent to the local Multi-Service Center, while the remaining 2 percent was divided evenly between mural restoration services and the neighborhood leadership training program.               

“We are trying to see what goals we are meeting already and if we can re-prioritize some of the money to what the community wants,” Hagos said.

For next year’s budget, carry-over funds were available for public infrastructure projects, community facilities and economic development projects were available. The participants were given the opportunity to allocate what percentage of these funds should be spent on certain programs.

Allowable projects for these funds included indoor community centers, libraries, outdoor parks, recreational facilities, senior centers, sidewalk and street improvements, small-scale neighborhood beautification improvements, accessibility improvements and facade improvements along business corridors.    

“We have carry-over funds that we have not committed yet,” Hagos said. “We have about $1.5 million that we can use for public infrastructure within the next couple of years, and we need your input to figure out what this community needs.”

Another guest at the meeting was candidate Joen Garnica, who is running for city council for the Second District of Long Beach. She grew up in the Washington neighborhood of the First District, where her mother taught her to help people who were less fortunate. Serving has therefore been important to Garnica since her childhood. She believes that the community meetings are important to unify different districts.        

“I am really excited to work hand in hand with residents across the districts,” Garnica said. “I have worked hard to implement new solutions in my neighborhood that I cannot wait to take district-wide. I have never really had a fire in my belly to be an elected official. But I have always had a fire in my belly to serve.”

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