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“Hold On,” woodcuts with vintage wallpaper, acrylic and stain See page 15 Serving Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos, Wrigley and the City of Signal Hill
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
VOL. 37 NO. 28
December 11, 2015
Key figures
Signal Hill City Council approves $2-million park development grant Micayla Vermeeren Contributing Writer
Mayor Robert Garcia (right) presented a key to the city to Bobbie Smith, noted by the city leaders as the first African-American elected to serve on the Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education. Smith still remains an active advocate for civil rights, according to a press release from the mayor’s office.
Photos by CJ Dablo/Signal Tribune
Gloria and George Deukmejian, former Calif. Governor, were honored on Dec. 8 at Long Beach City Hall when Mayor Robert Garcia presented them with keys to the city in thanks for their civic and charitable work
Future of food production lies in sea, says UCSB marine ecologist Denny Cristales Editorial Assistant
As worldwide consumption is projected to double by the year 2050, the future of food production lies in the sea, with climate change and sustainable fisheries playing key roles, said marine ecologist Steve Gaines of UC Santa Barbara in a Dec. 4 lecture at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. Food consumption has nearly doubled already since the 1980s, Gaines said. And with history potentially repeating itself, places for production are sparse. In his presentation, he showcased a graph that detailed how portions of land feasible for food production are already being utilized. There is simply no other place to go but the sea, he said. “Food impacts us in so many positive ways,” Gaines said. “It keeps us alive. It’s something we celebrate holidays with, with special kinds of food. We have really important connections to food in our everyday lives. But food also connects us to the environment. It connects us that way by some of the impacts that it takes to produce food.” Pinpointing the cause A component in finding a solution to the food-production problem is looking at how much food is actually consumed worldwide, he said. Gaines explored this increased food consumption by first highlighting the main source of food intake– animal protein. The total amount of protein consumption on the planet has been changing, he said. Along with that increase has been seafood, such as wild cod, which has gone from 27 percent of worldwide consumption to 31 percent from 1980 to 2015.
All the numbers are projected to go up even further, Gaines said, and correlated with that increase is the growing population of people. It’s an obvious connection, Gaines said, but it’s one he put into perspective through the use of two global maps that were proportional to population and wealth, respectively, and compared statistics of the present day to the potential growth in 2050. The standouts were the continents of Africa and Asia. Africa is projected to have the most significant population increase within the next 30-plus years. But there is another factor beyond just population growth. Gaines said that as people become wealthier, they have a tendency to consume more animal protein than is required for the average diet. That’s where Asia comes in. Gaines said that although there will be an increase of growth and wealth in the developed world, the big area that is relevant is the continent of Asia, particularly China and India. The substantial growth of people trying to get out of the lowest levels of poverty and moving into more middle-class incomes will lead to that dramatic increase of animal protein, Gaines said. “The growth in wealth in the developing world is going to be a major driver of increased consumption of animal protein,” he said. “But this brings up some major questions: Where is that food going to come from? And what does that mean for the planet?” A greenhouse problem Gaines’s conclusion on producing this extra food on land was that all options were “pretty
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Denny Cristales/Signal Tribune
Marine ecologist Steve Gaines from UC Santa Barbara gives a lecture at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium on Dec. 4 about the future of food consumption and production, and how its future lies with sustainable seafood.
see COUNCIL page 18 Bundts_JB_Layout 1 12/1/14 1:42 PM Page 1
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December 11 through December 15 2015
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Park development funds In a unanimous affirmative vote during a meeting of Signal Hill City Council on Dec. 8, council members adopted a resolution approving an application for a grant aimed at actualizing the View Park plan and constructing a recycled water line and pump station. The application is requesting $2 million from the Proposition 1 San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy Grant to enhance an existing fund of $500,000 from the City of Signal Hill. In total, the $2.5 million will help unify two separate land parcels into a single park creation project located near Cherry Avenue and Burnett Street, encompassing 1.85 acres, and improve water sustainability efforts for Signal Hill. One parcel contains an existing park owned and operated by Signal Hill, while the other is open land available for full development. Long Beach owns the open land parcel, but the City “ha[s] indicated to [Signal Hill] they are interested in a long-term lease, so we are currently working with the terms of that lease,” said Public Works Director Steve Myrter. Vice Mayor Lori Woods expressed disapproval at the fact that Long Beach is not donating the land for the project, and she requested a 99-year lease at a rate of one dollar per year to be presented to Long Beach officials. A recycled-water extension system will be constructed concurrently with the parks to help bring non-potable water further into the city. As currently proposed, the 24inch pipeline will help bring in an additional 40 acre-feet of water per year, a term of measurement which Councilmember Edward Wilson asked to be explained further. Myrter said that a single acre-foot of water is equivalent to 336,000 gallons, which accounts for roughly 5 percent of the city’s annual water
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