LONG BEACH - Depending on your point of view, Long Beach can be an imposing monolith of a city, vast and impersonal. Or it can be a mosaic, a glittering collection of people and neighborhoods that gives the city its unique character and vibe.

Certainly many of the residents subscribe to the latter view and it’s a personality that the city likes to promote.

The Department of Planning and Building releases an annual directory of citywide and neighborhood organizations. Each year about 150 neighborhood organizations are listed. And those are just the ones that choose to release contact information.

At least 25 of those groups have Web sites through which neighbors stay connected. Others are linked through social networking sites and still others connect in the old-school style of printing up newsletters and dropping them off door to door.

Some of the neighborhood groups are old and well-entrenched, maybe overly so, and others are new and vibrant.

In the latter category is We Love Long Beach, a neighborhood group that sprung from Belmont Shore just last year and was recognized with an honorable mention award from Neighborhoods USA, a nonprofit group that advocates for community involvement.

Founded by Scott Jones and his sister, Robin, We Love Long Beach was started when the siblings realized that although they had a network of friends, they didn’t know the people to whom they were closest. Literally, their neighbors.

That led themto host a breakfast that was attended by 50 neighbors.”One neighbor who lived eight doors down hugged me and it was the first time we had met,” said Scott Jones, who found the connection deeply affecting.

Since then, the Joneses have hosted or helped organize a variety of events, including barbecues of up to 700.

“We realized there’s a longing to know neighbors on a deeper level,” Scott Jones said.

The We Love Long Beach founder says his goal now is to take the group to a level above a mere social get-togethers.

“Our main thing is not just to know them, but to serve alongside of neighbors,” Jones said.

The idea of service has been an emerging trend among a number of neighborhood groups in the recent economic climate, according to Margaret Madden, of the Neighborhood Resource Center on Atlantic Avenue.

The NRC serves as a clearinghouse of information and a meeting place that helps neighbors connect and organize.

Madden says the Resource Center has started an ongoing food drive with various neighborhood groups and makes monthly donations to Food Finders in Long Beach.

“Our neighborhood groups care about people and want to be a part of any solutions,” Madden said.

“We often think of Long Beach as a city of neighborhoods, I believe that’s our strength,” said Dennis Thys, Director of the Department of Community Development.

As the economy continues to struggle and budget deficits widen, community groups may be asked to pick up the slack for cutbacks in services.

Last Halloween, for example, when the city of Long Beach announced that it could no longer fund several popular Halloween events, a number of neighborhood groups rallied officially and unofficially to fill in.

However, Annie Greenfeld, president of the Wrigley Association, says it would be a mistake for the city to try to put too much on the plates of neighborhood groups.

“We’re already extended to the max with the volunteer hours put in,” Greenfeld said.

It is perhaps fitting that a city that touts its diversity would be defined by an eclectic melange of neighborhoods.

John Thomas, of the Bluff Heights Neighborhood Association, describes the neighborhood associations as conduits to the City Council district offices and city staff.

“It really helps the city staff to have an association to engage and work with the residents,” Thomas said. “The neighborhood associations are like a conduit and a glue that keeps residents informed and moving in the same direction.”

Greenfeld says it will be even more important in tough budgetary times to keep lines of communication open.

“I think we need to work closer with council offices,” Greenfeld said. “I would love to see us have more meetings and transparency.”

Thomas says it’s no accident the neighborhoods that struggle the most often have weak or nonexistent neighborhood associations.

“They’re wondering, ‘How can we be more empowered and engaged and get people moving in a positive direction?”‘ Thomas said.

When organizations and residents are involved, there is a kind of trickle-up effect to city government.

Thys says many residents are “really engaged in helping the city make improvements and really want to be involved in the process.”

Developers and those who want to do business with the city are often encouraged to go into the community and get its take first.

It is the rare project big or small that doesn’t get a fairly thorough vetting from the neighborhoods before it moves forward.

Just ask anyone who has tried to install vinyl windows in his or her home in a historic neighborhood.

While this may not be the most effective way to do business, it certainly is democratic.

“It’s healthy that we have the opportunity to have that opportunity for that dialogue and discussion,” Thys said.

Long Beach’s neighborhood groups range from large, longtime well-organized groups to block-long neighborhood watches and single-building condominium complex associations.

“The neighborhoods are a lot more savvy and sophisticated in Long Beach than you see in many other areas of the country,” Madden said.

With the help of the Neighborhood Resource Center and by tapping into city, state and federal funding sources, many local neighborhood groups are writing winning grant proposals, publishing newsletters and earning national recognition.

Long Beach neighborhoods have won 12 national awards in the past eight years from Neighborhoods USA, a nonprofit group that aims to strengthen and promote neighborhood organizations.

“When you see the recognition we’ve received nationally in recent years by neighborhoods USA, I think that’s a testament to the strong neighborhoods we have,” Thys said.

Dave San Jose’s Coolidge Triangle neighborhood group was reinvigorated and spurred to action when homes in the area were threatened by a proposed freeway expansion project. With the help of other neighborhoods, residents in Coolidge were able to get freeway plans altered. The neighborhood group has been able to maintain a residual benefit of the bonding experience.

“We live in a society where neighbors don’t talk to each other,” San Jose said. “Something has to connect people and an association can bring people together.”

As Thys puts it, “as an overall goal, we want to improve the quality of life in Long Beach, and that’s the same whether you’re in a neighborhood or City Hall.”

In the end, it’s all about bringing people together, whether it is to clean alleys, plant trees, provide activities for children, bring cultures together or stop the demolition of homes. It’s about finding a hometown in the city where we live.

By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer