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“About four years ago, I found a bike frame in my neighbors’ front yard that they were giving away, and well, it’s been all downhill from there!” recalls Long Beach resident Jason Wood, aka “Woody.” He had no idea what he—and his bike—were getting into. With his outgoing personality and friendly smile, Wood has since become a popular figure, earning the nickname the “Mayor of Downtown.” “I’m known as the weird guy who will talk to anybody,” he says.
Born and raised in Norwalk, Wood moved to Long Beach 11 years ago. “I remember my first time driving through the city and seeing all the lights and thinking, ‘This is my home,’” he explains. In addition to working as a stagehand for such festivals as Coachella, last month Wood launched a fun, healthy and innovative way to earn some cash on the side. With “Take It Away, Biker,” his twofold advertising and courier business, Wood pedals through town on errands for his clients. “You got dry cleaning? We’ll pick it up! Got a headache at work? We’ll pick up some aspirin for ya!” he explains. Joining him on his assignments is a makeshift billboard that he totes behind him, open to those seeking to advertise their businesses.
Wood recently added his friend Zack to the team. “Zack has been phenomenal in taking over the biking and allowing me to take courier calls,” Wood says. On a recent weekend the two completed nearly 100 runs, biking anywhere from downtown over to Cal State Long Beach. “The good thing about this is that it’s completely green, and no one else is doing anything like it,” he says. Plus, it’s a surefire way to stand out: “I like being a weirdo. I don’t want to be like everybody else!” CAITLIN HOLLIDAY
:::Long Beach agencies have reported a 60 percent increase in needy families waiting for food assistance. We Love Long Beach and Food Finders have teamed up for a pre-Thanksgiving food drive aimed at engaging the residents of Long Beach and encouraging them to give back to their neighbors in need:::
List of Food Drive Drop Off Locations:
Business Partners In Belmont Shore (On 2nd Street)
-Thank you Belmont Shore Business Association
- 2nd Street Optical: 4810 2nd Street
- Eden Boutique: 4900 2nd Street
- Gazette Newspapers: 5225 2nd Street
- Jenny G: 4804 2nd Street
- La Strada 4716 2nd Street
- Olives Gourmet Grocery: 5000 2nd Street
- Shlemmer Investments: 201 Covina, #1
- Paul Sahlin Tiffanys: 5235 2nd Street
- Sign, Seal & Deliver: 203 Argonne Ave, Ste B
- SkinFit Spa: 203 Glendora (Upstairs)
- Subway: 5353, Ste A (Buy One Six Inch, Get One Free)
Across from The Market Place:
- Whole Foods Market: 6550 E Pacific Coast Hwy
Participating Businesses on 4th Street (Between Junipero & Cherry)
- 4th and Vine Wine Shop- 2142 E. 4th St.
- Assistance League of Long Beach- 2100 E. 4th St.
- Atlantic Studio- 2310 E. 4th St.
- Lil Devils Boutique- 2218 E. 4th St.
- Meow- 2210 E. 4th St.
- North Alamitos Beach Association (drop box at Portfolio) 2300 E. 4th St.
- Open Book Store-2226 E. 4th St.
- Portfolio Coffeehouse-2300 E. 4th St.
- Scuda- 2001 E 4th St
- The Vintage Collective- 2122 E. 4th St.
- World Evolution- 2038 E 4th St.
East Village
- Catalyst Community- 430 E 1st St
- Cheta- 126 Linden Ave
- Long Beach Fixed Gear- 435 E 1st St
- Sipology- 448 E. Broadway
- Village Grind- 443 E 1st St
- Zephyr- 340 E 4th St
On Broadway
- JW Goodsons Salon- 2205 E. Broadway
- The Pizza Place & Garden Cafe- 1431 E Broadway
Downtown/The Pike
- Long Beach Clothing Company-130 Bay St
- Long Beach Magazine: 100 West Broadway, Suite 620 (Bring in a can, get 50% off the cover price of our latest issue. (1 issue per donation)
- Visualade- 405 Pine Ave
Bixby Knolls
- Averyboo Arts: 3908 Atlantic Ave
- Baja Sonora- 3502 Atlantic Ave
Los Altos
- Toorak Coffee- 5555 Stearns St. #103 (Bring in a can good and get a free coffee w/ any purchase.)
Long Beach agencies have reported a 60 percent increase in needy families waiting for food assistance. We Love Long Beach and Food Finders have teamed up for a pre-Thanksgiving food drive aimed at engaging the residents of Long Beach and encouraging them to give back to their neighbors in need.
Come join us for a free breakfast in Bixby Knolls. We believe that it is a great way to get to know your neighbors. A neighborhood that knows one another is a neighborhood that serves and helps one another. So please spread the word! Thank You!
With nearly 500,000 people, Long Beach is the 6th largest city in the California. Yet, thanks to the city’s extraordinary collection of neighborhoods, many still say it feels like “small town America.”
This marvelous approach to “communities within a community” gives Long Beach locals the best of both worlds — a connection to a thriving metropolis and a sense of neighborhood pride.
To celebrate the wonderful neighborhoods that make Long Beach special, EverythingLongBeach.com is hosting the Long Beach Neighborhoods Essay Contest September 18 through October 2.
How to Enter
Write a short essay that describes any Long Beach neighborhood and its unique characteristics. Neighborhood essays might include a description of the area’s residents, architectural characteristics, business or shopping districts, historic sites, community activities, cultural celebrations, urban legends or any other interesting features.
Entries should be between 300 and 500 words. Submissions will be judged on “interestingness,” creativity, and how well the author is able to include neighborhood facts, history or trivia. A winning essay will educate, enlighten and entice residents to learn more about Long Beach Neighborhoods. Entries with significant grammar or spelling errors will be disqualified.
Submit your essay online! Enter the Long Beach Neighborhood Essay Contest. Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. October 2, 2009.
If you have any questions, contact us by email at contest@everythinglongbeach.com.
The Judging
One finalist will be chosen from each neighborhood that receives entries (one finalist from Bixby Knolls, one finalist from Belmont Shore, etc). All finalists will have their essay published on EverythingLongBeach.com.
Finalists will be announced online October 12 and the public will be invited to vote for their favorite essays October 12-17. Winners will be announced online October 18.
The Prizes
The Grand Prize winner will walk away with $100 cash!
Additional winners will receive prizes from an array of Long Beach businesses including:
- Indulgence Day Spa — V.I.P package good for multiple visits
- Fern’s Garden — Jacob’s Musical Cascade Chimes ($49.95 value)
- Buono’s Pizza — $25 gift certificate
- Portfolio Coffeehouse — $25 gift certificate
- Johnny Rebs — $25 gift certificate
- The Found Theatre — two tickets for any one Found Theatre production
- Long Beach Depot for Creative Reuse — $25 gift certificate
Prizes are still being accepted from local businesses. If your Long Beach business or organization would like to donate a prize, send an email to contest@everythinglongbeach.com.
Come join our free fitness class with trainer Jed Miller. It is a twenty person limit so please sign up today!
Come get to know your neighbors! And 25% of the bill goes to We Love Long Beach!!! We want this City to be Great!!!
Sixty years ago, when Autrilla Scott, then a resident of Hope, Arkansas, agreed to babysit a four-year-old boy named Billy, she had no idea the young toddler would grow up to become the 42nd president of the United States. “He was a cute little boy. I let him do whatever he wanted to,” recalls Scott, who moved to Long Beach with her husband, Olen, in 1955.
On Feb. 24, 1996, as President Clinton arrived at Long Beach’s Jackie Robinson Academy to support LBUSD’s newly-introduced school-uniform policy, Scott reconnected with “Billy.” “I didn’t know what to say to him. I almost fainted,” says Scott. (She did remind Clinton that his stepdad never paid her for her childcare services, however.)
Scott and her husband raised two children in Long Beach, where she worked as a rehabilitation nurse at the VA Hospital. Her 30 years at the hospital remain significant to her. “I got to help all kinds of people, from veterans that were mute to a hit man on the run from the law,” she recalls.
A tour of Scott’s home in the 6th District reveals wall after wall filled with awards, certificates, plaques and photos of family members and personal heroes like Martin Luther King, Jr. A longtime city activist, Scott recognizes that we are still far from reconciling our nation’s challenges with poverty and racial injustice: “We need to learn to share and be fair.” // SCOTT JONES
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(Please leave a comment about what you thought about the event.)
Here is a video from our famous We Love Long Beach Neighborhood BBQ at Marine Stadium. It was a gorgeous day by the water, who could ask for anything more? We had over 500 neighbors come out to enjoy live music, free hamburgers, free art for kids, Bro Futurists, Graham Street Press and lots more. Ten local non profits were also represented with all of the great stories of how they are doing their part to make this city so beautiful. Local bands like Sam Outlaw, Two Guns, and Deep Sea Diver delivered outstanding performances and added texture to the day. Thank you to everyone that participated and partnered to make this event so memorable.
We believe that we as a community have room to grow closer to one another in trust and love. The busyness of our live has caused us to drift further and further from one another. We Love Long Beach exists in order to know and serve the people, the neighborhoods, and the city of Long Beach. One of our goals is to ignite the gifts and passions of each person in our neighborhoods in order to stengthen the whole of our city, hence We Love Long Beach. Whether its conversation, or conservation, whether it is going green, or going out to serve… every person can and must play a role in this community in order for Long Beach to be a truly great city! If you have any questions or ideas please email us: info@welovelb.org
We need everyone to play their role for this city to flourish!
Thank you Adam Ferry, Robin Jones and Legends for making this event what it was. Thank you Kate Jones for creating this helpful video!
Scott Jones
Founder and Director of WLLB
John Williams’ big bull revelation began almost 20 years ago. At age eight, he visited Rawhide Ranch with a few friends and entered his first sheep-riding competition simply because he thought it would be a fun thing to try. Williams ended up winning the contest two weeks in a row. Recently, he graduated from the ovine to the bovine.
An hour after his first bull-riding pep talk, Williams found himself straddling a 1,300-pound monster with rope in hand. “They didn’t tell me anything except hang on tight,” he recalls. Nevertheless, in Williams’ first attempt he lasted the full eight seconds. One might call it beginner’s luck, but he puts it a different way: “I was scared shitless!”
After Williams’ fourth ride, he was lying face down, knocked out with a mild concussion. “When someone asks if I am afraid of getting hurt, the honest response is that it’s not if I’m going to get hurt but when and how bad.”
Every Wednesday night, Williams makes the trek to Norco, where he practices his sport with other aspiring bull riders. “The other riders don’t respect me yet because I am new at this and I am from the city,” Williams says. “But I can hopefully change their minds through my weekly improvement.” One practice usually costs him 40 dollars for three rides on three different bulls. “A good ride is when everything clicks—when the bull’s movements are in synch with my own, and I am completely focused,” he explains.
Williams’ goals are fairly straightforward: he wants to go pro in four years. With his first competition coming up November 4 and 5 in San Dimas, he has his eye on the prize: “This sport is 90 percent mental. You can’t just sit on a bull and question if this is a good idea. You just gotta go.” // SCOTT JONES
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