For his seventh State of the City event, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia stuck with tradition as much as possible. As always, he spoke at the Terrace Theatre (although this time sans audience) after a bunch of kids recited the Pledge of Allegiance (this time prerecorded). And as always, Musical Theatre West opened the show. This year’s song choice, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, is one they’ve done before — a perfect set-up for Garcia’s main theme: Someday I’ll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me….
While optimism and the presumption of a better future are standard issue for Garcia’s annual address, from his relatively brief remarks one might wonder especially this year whether he’s taking too much for granted. Even his introduction by Long Beach Health Officer Anissa Davis contained a snatch of dubious optimism: “We are at the tail end of what has been a very trying time.” While it’s possible Davis was referring to the Trump presidency, it was a strange statement to hear from the city’s chief health officer in the midst of record highs for COVID-19 infection and death, with hospitals (as Garcia would note minutes later) near or at capacity and an end nowhere in sight.
But although Garcia has never been much for publicly acknowledging the negative in any but the vaguest terms, even he was compelled to open his 25-minute speech (probably his shortest State of the City ever) by acknowledging the challenge of the present.
“This is a pivotal moment for our city and country,” he said, “one of those rare times that can define us as a people. […] Few moments in our history have required so much of us.”
Garcia knows whereof he speaks, having lost both his mother and stepfather to COVID-19, two of nearly 500 such deaths to date in Long Beach. 
“Sadly, we will see many more losses in the weeks and months ahead,” he lamented. “[… But] here is the thing about loss: it is painful, but it can make you stronger. I have never felt more determined or more confident leading the city through this crisis.”
Calling Long Beach “a national model” for COVID testing (over 550,000 so far — a big number for a city with a population of 467,000 and far higher than the national average) and vaccination (over 13,000), Garcia announced that next week police officers, grocery and food distribution workers, and persons aged 75+ will begin receiving vaccinations, with the Long Beach Convention Center temporarily converted into a vaccine distribution center. Teachers and persons 65+ will be added to the list the following week.
Garcia also promoted the forthcoming launch of VaxLB, “a new online portal where you can enter your e-mail and information [and the City will] alert you when it is your turn to get vaccinated. […] This will streamline our process and give folks peace of mind to know they are in our vaccination system. Nothing like this has been done before, not here, not anywhere” — an exaggerated claim, to say the least, as numerous cities and counties across the country already have online vaccination scheduling up and running.
In discussing the pandemic’s “heartbreaking and devastating” economic impact (“It is out of respect for life and caring for people in our community that we made tough but necessary decisions” because “as a city, we follow the science and listen to the experts”), Garcia stated that he is working with the incoming Biden administration “on a massive relief bill that would directly benefit cities like Long Beach. I am very optimistic that in the weeks ahead that Congress will adopt a recovery package that could include tens of millions [of dollars] directly for our city.”
Garcia also noted that next week the city council is slated to “adopt a Hero’s [sic] Pay Initiative to make sure grocers and workers at large supermarket chains are paying our hardworking grocers an additional four dollars an hour during this health crisis”; and that he has asked the council “to set aside at least $10 million for restaurants, gymnasiums, and personal services, which could be increased, and tens of millions more to directly assist other small businesses across our city.”
Most curious omission of the night? Despite stepping up to the podium wearing a mask, Garcia did not utter the word “mask” even once, let alone encourage his constituents to do their part to minimize the spread or brook the topic of seriously enforcing the city/county’s mask mandate.
Moving on to other topics, Garcia touched upon the civil outcry on the streets of Long Beach in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police last May, affirming that “Black lives matter […] to the city, and they matter to me. […] We must acknowledge that structural racism exists in all of our institutions — in policing, in education, in the workplace, and in healthcare.” As evidence that Long Beach is doing just that, he pointed to the City’s Racial Equity & Reconciliation Initiative, which he said “outlines over 100 initiatives and goals to take on structural racism and promote equity.”
While Garcia briefly mentioned the need for “important reforms within our police department,” he said literally nothing about exactly what needs reforming, merely stating that such reform is “already on its way,” touting “declines in officer involved shootings, citizen complaints, and use of force incidents.”
Garcia spent far more time on “the housing and homelessness crisis, [which] has only grown worse due to COVID-19 […] and a stunning lack of action by the federal government.” Among the measures Garcia hopes will ameliorate homelessness in Long Beach — which rose 7% in 2020 — are the acquisition of three motel properties for conversion into housing units (part of California’s Project Homekey) and a recently passed “inclusionary housing ordinance that will require every new development built in the city to include affordable units.” He also proposed “a $15 million tenant assistance program [to] help renters get caught up on their rents and avert mass evictions across our city.”
“Directly link[ing]” housing insecurity “and the spread of disease […] to our climate crisis,” Garcia declared that Long Beach “must end our dependence on oil and move away from funding key critical services with that revenue”; and claimed the City’s recently approved Climate Action and Adaptation Plan “is one of the most rigorous and ambitious municipal climate plans in the country and will serve for our city as a blueprint to address the major impacts of climate change in Long Beach.”
Despite closing with a condemnation of last week’s assault on the Capitol — “an attempted coup on our democracy and a direct attack on our country and our values” — there was no getting out from under the shadow of COVID-19. But while noting that “this health crisis isn’t over” and labelling the disease “the single biggest threat to life our city,” he declared — as he does every year — that “the state of the city is strong” and “Long Beach will remain the best city in the world.”
But after 2020 and in light of the murky present, even Long Beach’s most prominent ray of sunshine was compelled to make a gloomy admission: “But it will never be the same.”