S IGNA L T R IBU N E Serving Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos, Wrigley and Signal Hill VOL. XXXVIII NO. 41
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
October 7, 2016
A 9th-district kind of block party
‘Person of interest’ in shooting deaths of woman and her child upgraded to suspect
Activate Uptown provides business boom and community engagement along the Artesia Corridor. Denny Cristales
Detectives used surveillance video to track individual from crime scene.
Editorial Assistant
Street closures are normally reserved for construction, accidents or everyday inconveniences, but for the people of north Long Beach, the disruption of vehicular traffic on Artesia Boulevard instead meant family fun, as the uptown area was host to an open-streets festival. On Saturday, Oct. 1, the 9th council district of Long Beach was host to Activate Uptown, a free open-streets block party that featured live musical performances, food, activities, giveaways and various booths. The streets were cleared along Artesia Boulevard, between Atlantic and Orange avenues, for residents to walk, bike, skate and play. Part of Myrtle Avenue was still open to traffic. “Residents didn’t know what to expect because we’ve never done anything like this before– close down Artesia Boulevard and make it into a destination for a day,” said Vice Mayor Rex Richardson in a phone interview Tuesday. “The residents were pleasantly surprised, and I was very pleased at the level of excitement from everyone involved... everyone really demonstrated their gratitude to the community for putting together an event like this.” The event was sponsored by Richardson’s office, SCAG’s Go Human Campaign, California Endowment, Clean Transportation Funding - MSRC and Frontier Real Estate Investments. Event organizers targeted Artesia Boulevard– which is frequently referred to as the Artesia Corridor– in an attempt to “activate” the area and the Uptown district. Activate Uptown featured an assortment of food trucks, vendors, face painting, chalk art, live mural displays, three venues of live music and a basketball court for exhibition play. The three music venues were: Village Fest– hip-hop; Uptown Rock & Soul Stage–rock ‘n’ roll; and New Blues Stage– blues. Featured artists included Bernie Pearl, Seatbelt, Bootleg Orchestra and MC Supernatural. MC Supernatural exemplified his freestyle abilities in his performance– “Right there, seeing the symbol of Batman, with the mic in my hand when I do my thing. Yo, I fly in my plane like I was Bruce Wayne.” He ad-libbed his dialogue based off his own observations of the audience. Basketball exhibition games were on display and featured competition between youth, the Long Beach Firefighters Asso-
Cory Bilicko Managing Editor
sports,” he said. “Kids love that stuff. So, what did we do? We put basketball in the middle of the street.” Tasha Hunter, Uptown Business District manager, said in an email interview Wednesday that local residents were enthused with the way the event turned out. “Activate Uptown was everything we wanted it to be and more,” Hunter said.
The Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) on Wednesday upgraded a man it had deemed “a person of interest” to “suspect” in two Aug. 6 murders after detectives reviewed surveillance video that enabled them to track him from the murder scene, police said. The suspect is wanted in connection with the shooting deaths of 26-year-old Carina Mancera and her 4-year-old daughter Jennabel Anaya, both of Long Beach. The murders occurred around 10:15pm on Aug. 6, in the area of 9th Street and Locust Avenue. When officers arrived shortly thereafter, they found that Mancera and Courtesy LBPD Anaya had been A screen shot of vidstruck by gunfire, eo shared by the Long according to po- Beach Police Departlice. ment shows a man Long Beach police believe is reFire Department sponsible for the Aug. personnel pro- 6 shooting deaths of nounced Mancera 26-year-old Carideceased at the na Mancera and her scene. Her daugh- 4-year-old daughter ter was transport- Jennabel Anaya. This ed to a local hos- week, police upgraded pital in critical him from being a “percondition but was son of interest” in the pronounced de- case to “suspect.” ceased early the next morning. A preliminary investigation determined the two victims and the child’s father, Luis Anaya, 27, had just arrived home, and they were walking to their nearby residence, when the shooting occurred. The perpetrator had also targeted Anaya but missed.
see UPTOWN page 15
see SUSPECT page 11
Photos by Denny Cristales | Signal Tribune
Musical performers– such as MC Supernatural, pictured here– headlined three different music venues along Artesia Boulevard as part of Activate Uptown Saturday, Oct. 1. The free open-streets block party closed down the street and allowed residents to ride their bikes or skateboards and participate in activities.
Residents were able to conceptualize any type of visual on the open pavement on Artesia Boulevard as part of a chalk-art activity this past Saturday.
ciation and the Southern California Fraternity League and athletes from the Venice Basketball League in a dunk contest. Setting up basketball in the middle of the street was initially an idea that was met with bewilderment, according to Richardson. But, the vice mayor insisted it was a vital element for engagement. “If you really want people to come to this event, you’ve got to do programming that the people like– soccer, basketball– youth
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