Long Beach, Ca: The Making Of A Tourist Town

Parks & Recreation, Sept, 2000 by Daniel Wegner

The Long Beach Municipal Band has been supported by the city since 1909, and approximately 5,000 people attend these concerts each week during the summer season. In addition, the city-supported Long Beach Jr. Concert Marching Band represents Long Beach in state and national competitions. It has been voted the number one band in California for the past 30 years.

Visitors looking for a quiet retreat from urban life need look no further than the El Dorado Nature Center, Long Beach's 102 acre nature preserve. Hikers can enjoy an extensive system of paved and dirt trails that wind around two lakes and a stream. Canopied trees shade the trails, birds sing, foxes cross the meadow, and herons and egrets perch bankside. The Nature Center is also home to a variety of trees and plant life including oaks, redwoods, and alders. The center of the Nature Preserve is a museum, providing visitors with an introduction to the environment through hands-on displays.

Those who want to find serenity in a beautifully landscaped setting can find it at the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden on the campus of California State University, Long Beach. The Garden hosts a variety of events--many of which reflect Asian culture. Visitors from all over the world flock to this Oriental haven. But if the a freshly manicured green and the stroke of a nine iron are more to one's liking, visitors seeking an outdoor experience are able to use any of the city's five municipal golf courses.

Many Keys to Success

From beachside paths to river trails, cyclists can find their niche in Long Beach. Because of its extensive bike path system, the city became the site of the nation's first commuter bike station. Modeled after successful European and Japanese examples, the Bikestation is a bicycle storage and rental facility that provides an important link to other modes of public transportation, including the Blue Line to Downtown Los Angeles.

Also emitting a European influence is Long Beach's Shoreline Village. Modeled after villas found in a small Italian fishing village and a replica of an early California seaport, Shoreline Village includes unique dining, shopping, and waterfront activities for the whole family to enjoy. Merchants report that sales revenues have jumped an astonishing 80 percent since 1995 when renovations began, and 25 percent during the last full calendar year. This distinctive shopping district has enjoyed nearly 100 percent occupancy since early summer 1998. Renovation has been the key to success.

The former Hippodrome Skating Rink (built in 1920), and a once thriving movie studio, combined to become the Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA)--the only museum in the West to focus exclusively on the contemporary art of Mexico, Central and South America, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean--opened in 1996 and officially unveiled the development of the East Village Arts District in downtown Long Beach.

This 20,000 square foot building houses the Robert Gumbiner Foundation collection of Latin American art, galleries for temporary exhibitions, the museum gallery and store, a research library, and areas to accommodate lectures and performances. The 10,000 square foot building adjacent to the museum will soon become a multipurpose entertainment and performing arts center where special programs and events will round out MoLAA's exhibition schedule. MoLAA anchors one corner of the East Village Arts District, an area of the city currently undergoing redevelopment as an arts community with studios, galleries, restaurants, and other art-related businesses.