July 2009 Archives

TOP: View of Pacific Ave. looking north from Ocean Blvd. in the early 20th. century. Lincoln Park is on the left with the old public library in the center of the park. The building blocking Pacific Ave. is the city hall. In the background, center, you can see the steeple of the First Congregational Church in front of the Willmore Building.

BOTTOM: View of Pacific Ave. looking north from Ocean Blvd. on July 31, 2009. Lincoln Park is on the left. The roof of the public library in the lower left of the photo. You can see the steeple of the First Congregational Church in front of the Willmore Building.

TOP: View from Lincoln Park looking east down First Street in Downtown Long Beach in the 1920s. The Security Building, background on left, and the Metropolitan building are still standing today.

BOTTOM: View from Lincoln Park looking east down First Street in July 2009.

Jose Siminig, left, Jose Loza, mural conservator, center, and Leo Salgado work on a mural on the side of a trafic signal control box at the corner of Santa Fe Ave. and Pacific Coast Highway. The City of Long Beach's proposed FY '10 budget will, "Eliminate the Mural Arts Project" except for $10,000 to maintain murals that have already been painted. Leo Salgado and Jose Siminig helped design this artwork. See more pictures>>

Long Beach budget sat on a wall... Long Beach budget had a great fall... And all the kings horses and all the kings men tried to but her back together again. At least it seemed like all the kings men were in the conference room in the 13th. floor of city hall as Mayor Bob Foster, Police Chief Anthony Batts and Pat West, city manager, and a host of others released the annual city bugdet. See more pictures | Read the story

Want to know where the most polluted water in the city is? It's right where Angel Reyes is playing in the Pacific Ocean at Molino Ave and Ocean Blvd... at least according to The Natural Resources Defense Council's annual survey of water quality. See more pictures>>

Model Amanda Fields models an embellished dress with a quilt jacket during a fashion show at the International Quilt Festival See more pictures>>

Rev. Pedro Villarroya, left, joins Bishop Alexander Salazar as he blesses new St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop at the former site of Al Greenwood's Bedspread Kingdom on the Pacific Coast Highway. See more pictures>>

This is the fourth picture in a series of 'snapshots' taken around Long Beach with a faux-instamatic camera.

Racers paddle their outrigger canoes through Marine Stadium in Long Beach, Calif. on July 18, 2009. Clubs and individuals in 36 classes competed in six-person, two-person and individual outrigger canoes, rowing on a 500-meter straightaway course. See more pictures>>

The Long Beach city hall has not been transported to the Mojave desert, and no, it's not the setting for a futuristic movie where global warming has overtaken our seaside city - it's a view of 333 Ocean from what used to be a lush green park on the roof of the main branch of the Long Beach Public Library. Besides leaking, the library is seismically unfit due to the weight on the roof. The city plans to remove 10 million pounds of dirt in the closed park in the hopes that it will relieve some stress on the top of the structure.
See more photos>>

Dakota Warren laughs after putting at hat on her father, Staff Sgt. Robert Warren, at Long Beach Airport. More than 270 National Guard soldiers of the 1498th Transportation Company arrived at the airport after a 12-month tour in Kuwait and Iraq. See more photos>>

During their deployment, the soldiers conducted logistical missions transporting materials throughout Iraq. Utilizing the Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET), the largest truck in the Army inventory, members of the 1498th transported various equipment and supplies, including essential provisions, equipment and inoperable materials and tanks hit by improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The 1498th Transportation Company provided HET support throughout
the Iraq and Kuwait Theater of Operations completing 123 combat logistics patrols, 24 transportation missions within Kuwait and 35 lead HET missions, hauling more than 180,000 tons and traveling more than 1.9 million miles.

"Guarding the Peninsula" Third in a series of faux instamatic "snapshots" taken in Long Beach, Calif.

Alma Zaragoza, left, and Paola Padilla, both 10, share a laugh as they keep cool under a water mushroom at the wading pool at Mayfair Park in Lakewood, Calif. See more pictures>>

This is the second in a series of 'snapshots' taken around Long Beach with a faux instamatic camera.

THEN: IN 2008 the Long Beach Board of Education voted to censure board member Michael Shane Ellis and to urge him to resign

NOW: Long Beach School Board member Michael Shane Ellis has missed six of his last seven school board meetings, and has been absent from one-fifth of all meetings since he was elected... for eight weeks, Ellis did not respond to phone calls and e-mails from district officials... He has not responded to repeated phone calls and e-mails from the Press-Telegram. He called district staff before the July 7 meeting to say he would attend, but he didn't show up. Read Kevin Butler's story>>

TOP: View of the Long Beach Arena in 19__. The Arena has hosted various entertainment and professional and college sporting events, including the volleyball events of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. Entertainers like Frank Sinatra, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Metallica, Kiss, Led Zeppelin and Grateful Dead have also headlined here. Long Beach Arena was the site of the first National Hockey League game involving an expansion team, as the Los Angeles Kings and the Philadelphia Flyers, both expansion teams, played on October 14, 1967. The Kings won, 4-2. The Kings played in Long Beach for the first half of their expansion season while the Forum was being completed. On the left is the Municipal Auditorium that was built in 1932 that hosted events including Liberace in 1947, and the comeback performance of Judy Garland in 1955. In its heyday, the auditorium held twice as many events annualy then any other in the United States, include 600 free events each year.

BOTTOM: View of the Long Beach Arena in 2009. The Arena The Arena was home to the former Long Beach Ice Dogs team, which played professional ice hockey in the ECHL. The Ice Dogs ceased operations of the team in 2007. Along the exterior wall of the drum-shaped Arena is "Planet Ocean", one of environmental artist Wyland's Whaling Walls, which was dedicated on July 9, 1992. At 116,000 square feet (11,000 m?), it is the world's largest mural (according to the Guinness Book of Records). The mural depicts migratory gray whales and other aquatic life that can be found in the waters off Long Beach. In celebration of Earth Day in 2009, Wyland touched up the existing Whaling Wall and added a large mural of the earth on the roof of the arena. On the left is Parker's Lighthouse at Shoreline Village and the Hyatt Hotel.

This is the first in a series of 'snapshots' taken with a faux-instamatic camera around Long Beach, Calif.

The 61st. Annual Catalina Water Ski Race on July 11, 2009. The annual race pits water skiers against one another on the open sea from Long Beach to Catalina, then back to Long Beach - about 52 miles. See pictures / buy reprints>>

Hunter Cairns with his grandfather, Jack Lee, in Lakewood, Calif. Cairns was playing baseball for Los Alamitos High School when a ball struck his heart. The impact of the ball on his chest It caused his heart to stop beating. Its a rare condition called commotio cordis and only has a 15 percent survival rate. Jack Lee, a retired Long Beach Firefighter, help perform CPR on his grandson to save his life. See more photos>>

This 1969 Lincoln Continental crashed in to a tree near Park Ave and Anaheim Street in Long Beach, Calif. on July 8, 2009. Witnesses said the young driver was drag racing against a black Jetta heading East on Federation Drive and failed to make a right turn on to Park Ave. There were no injuries. See more pictures>>

TOP: The Masonic Temple in the 800 block of Locust Ave in Downtown Long Beach, Calif. in the early 1900s. When the building was in its heyday in the mid-1920s it housed multiple ballrooms, secret passageways and a dramatic theater stage. BOTTOM: The former Masonic Temple building now sits in the middle of the Temple Lofts, an 84 unit condo complex with a north and south tower.

Ok, ok, ok. so it's not 'the' Michael Jackson, just an impersonator. He performed at the game between innings because it was Michael Jackson Remembrance Night at Blair Field. Not only was there an faux MJ, but when it came time to play the National Anthem it was a recording of the Jackson 5 from 1970. Also, Arby I, the team's mascot, was wearing one glove.

Thomas Jefferson (Ken Riedel), left, Ben Franklin (Phil Soinski) and John Adams (Peter Small) pose with A Ramage Press at the Printing Museum in Carson, Calif. The press was built in 1806 and is one of three in the country. According to the museum, the last time anything was printed on the press was 106 years ago. On July 4, 2009, the machine will be used to print the Declaration of Independence. Click here for more info>>

Former Navy SEAL Leapfrog parachutist Geoff Reeves comes in for a landing at the Queen Mary Events Park. Reeves jumped from Airship Venture's Zeppelin "Eureka" at about 3,000 feet above Long Beach Harbor. SEE MORE PICTURES>> | SEE THE HELMET CAM VIDEO>>

Aerial view of the Downtown Long Beach Marina from Airship Venture's Zeppelin "Eureka". SEE MORE PICTURES>>