Lakewood
News
Community 30,000 delivered to Lakewood and portions of Long Beach
Official publication of the Greater Lakewood Chamber of Commerce
Volume 30 Number 5
www.lakewoodnews.org / www.lakewoodchamber.com
May 2014
Hold on tight...Lakewood’s 68th Pan Am Spring into action and celebration is right around the corner! Lakewood’s longest-running community event begins its threeday celebration at Mayfair Park on Friday, May 9 at 5pm. The family-friendly Pan American Fiesta continues through the weekend and wraps up Sunday evening. The festival dates back to 1945 as a program to foster good relations with Lakewood’s Latin American neighbors. Lakewood’s tradition in that area was enhanced when the city named three city parks that were opened on the same day in 1957 after Latin American heroes (Simon Bolivar, Jose Del Valle and Jose San Martin). Today, Lakewood’s fiesta is the nation’s only community-wide celebration of the Pan-American culture outside
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of Washington, DC. The fun begins with carnival rides on Friday evening from 5pm to 10pm and continues on Saturday from 11am to 10pm, and on Sunday from 11am to 9pm. Food booths are open from 11am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday.
In honor of Lakewood’s 60th birthday, a special Pan American Fiesta collector’s pin will be sold at the three-day event for $1. It’s part of a seven-pin collection that is being unveiled throughout Lakewood’s 60th anniversary year. (Cont’d on pg. 10)
What do you mean Lakewood’s “Boring?”
On Saturday, May 31st from 10am to 3pm, the Greater Lakewood Chamber of Commerce will host its annual “Business Expo” in the exclusive Center Court at Lakewood Center. The 2014 Business Expo is the perfect opportunity for both local businesses and consumers in the surrounding areas to connect. The Expo is the only one of its kind to be supported by Lakewood Center and is an exclusive opportunity afforded only to the Greater Lakewood Chamber of Commerce. • Business Opportunities: Showcase and sell your goods and/ or services and reach an audience of thousands! The Expo allows vendors to actually sell their product right in the middle of the mall! Vendor booths can also be used for informational purposes; businesses can educate consumers about what their company has to offer. By providing marketing materials such as brochures,
flyers, business cards, etc. vendors can collect leads and referrals, which will stimulate the growth of local commerce in the Lakewood business community. • Consumer Opportunities Why should consumers and residents attend the Business Expo? Check out what local companies have to offer. The Expo is a great opportunity to explore local businesses while experiencing what goods and/ or services they have with the option to purchase or just get familiar with the company. An 8’ x 10’ space includes one sixfoot table with two chairs and the investment is only $150 for Lakewood Chamber Members, and $200 for Non-Chamber Members. (Electricity is available for an additional $15.) Call (562) 531-9733 for additional information, or to reserve your space.
The Lakewood Community News wants to know why you think Lakewood is NOT the most boring city in CA. Email news@lakewoodchamber.com or post your thoughts on www. lakewoodnews.org. Your responses will be published in the June issue.
A time to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for our country
Lakewood “went viral” on the Internet in April after being ranked #1 on a real estate website’s “top ten” list of most boring California cities. Movoto.com’s provocative and often humorous web stories include topics like “best places to retire in Kansas” and “nerdiest cities in America.” The articles do their job of drawing visitors to the Movoto website, which calls itself “the lighter side of real estate.” In this Lakewood Community News #24 Lakewood Center Mall Lakewood, CA 90712 (562) 531-9733
instance, the article drew over 300,000 hits to the site and drew the attention of TV news stations who ran tongue-in-cheek stories on Lakewood and the survey. But is Lakewood boring? Turns out Movoto was rating factors like how many nightclubs and live music venues a city has. The fewer of them, the more boring a city is. So maybe “boring” in the eyes of Movoto’s rating scale isn’t a PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE
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bad thing for a family-oriented, residential community like Lakewood. Lakewood residents spoke up loud and clear about their town after the Movoto story broke. On social media, hundreds of residents posted pro-Lakewood comments on Facebook, such as “Boring is not always a bad thing when you’re trying to raise a family!” Most took it in stride. Many posts included smiley face tags and quips about earning mostboring honors. The evening the story hit the web, Lakewood Mayor Todd Rogers spoke with CBS2/KCAL9 TV. “Lakewood is a great place to live,” Rogers said. “It’s a great bedroom community, and it’s a place where people are really proud to call home.”
Lakewood City Council Members will join with members of American Legion Post 496, Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Post 8615, Disabled American Veterans Chapter 19 and Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 756 for Lakewood’s annual Memorial Day Ceremony on Monday, May 26 at 11am at the Veterans Memorial at Del Valle Park (next to the jet plane). The memorial is located on Woodruff Avenue, between Henrilee Street and Arbor Road.
Lakewood residents are invited to join in this tribute to the men and women who have sacrificed their lives while serving in the United States armed forces, as well as members of our local veterans’ organizations who have died during the past year. The Memorial Day Ceremony includes the laying of wreaths at the Veterans Memorial as well as remarks from Lakewood’s mayor and other dignitaries. This year’s keynote speaker (Cont’d on pg. 9)