Signal T
Vol. 35 No. 10
R
I
B
U
N
New Applebee’s opening in Signal Hill by early October; residential projects in the pipeline
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
Staff Writer
A new Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill is quickly taking shape and will be the latest new business to open up in Signal Hill this year. Meanwhile, new residential projects are in the works. Developers have already constructed the outside frame of the new restaurant to be located at 899 E. Spring St. at the Signal Hill Gateway Center between Atlantic and California avenues. Representatives for Signal Hill Petroleum (SHP), which owns the property, announced last month that the family-friendly restaurant, where guests will be able to get a view of the local skyline from inside, is scheduled to open by early October. Ashley Schaffer, SHP property manager, said the new tenant has received all approvals from the City Council for the project to proceed, including permits for the restaurant to sell alcoholic beverages. Apple American Group representatives
have stated that the company once hoped to have an outside patio but the site is not big enough for outside seating without taking away parking spaces. Representatives have said that the restaurant will have windows on three sides of the building for guests to get a nice view. The company, known for restaurants with a broad menu ranging from meat and seafood to pasta, sandwiches, salads and soups, plans to roll out a number of new locations in the Los Angeles area, according to representatives. SHP has received interest from three to four new tenants to take up the final vacant parcel at the Gateway Center, Schaffer said. Though she couldn’t reveal any names since lease negotiations are currently underway, Schaffer said the remaining PAD (planned area development) is expected to include multiple tenants that “the City will enjoy having and will round out that center nicely,” providing “convenient” options for customers from nearby hospitals and surrounding areas.
Long Beach Register gears up to debut Aug. 19
CJ Dablo Staff Writer
Media outlets have been calling it a “newspaper war.” The Long Beach Register, a newspaper that will offer local news six days a week, is set to publish its first issue on Monday, Aug. 19. It’s a move that will directly compete with the Press-Telegram, the other daily newspaper geared towards the Long Beach area. There’s a tinge of irony when branding this distinctly unfriendly rivalry between competitors as any kind of “war.” Neither side seems to embrace the title. Both the Long Beach Register and the Press-Telegram have significant financial backing. The Long Beach Register will be run by the people behind the Orange County Register, which is owned by Freedom Communications Inc. Its owners, Aaron Kushner and Eric Spitz, last year launched an ambitious plan to invest heavily in print media, expanding their newsroom and providing their
digital content on a subscription basis. The Long Beach Register’s publisher, Ian Lamont, acknowledges that this is the first time Kushner and Spitz are launching a newspaper outside of Orange County and the first time they’ve started a newspaper from scratch. Lamont says that his company believes that content is a commodity and that they are investing a great deal to generate content. “Newspapers for a long time have basically felt that they generated content in order to create advertising products,” Lamont said in a telephone interview, “and therefore they gave away their content digitally, and it made no sense to charge somebody to get content in print form but get it free online.” The Long Beach Register’s print edition will have two sections focused on local news and sports in the greater Long Beach area and will be packaged with the Orange County Register for delivery to subscribers. The Long
Weekly Weather Forecast
see REGISTER page 14
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Low clouds, then sunshine
Clouds, then sun
Lo 61°
Lo 62°
Lo 62°
Lo 64°
Lo 64°
See page 11
August 9, 2013
Sean Belk/Signal Tribune
Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill is expected to open in Signal Hill by early October, and the outside frame of the building has already been erected. Property owner Signal Hill Petroleum states that three to four other businesses have expressed interest in becoming new tenants at the Signal Hill Gateway Center along Spring Street.
Staff Writer
A victim advocate working closely with Long Beach police detectives, Carla Aguilar has seen the effects of domestic violence in families first-hand. She once encountered a 19-year-old girl who had suffered a broken nose and various other injuries from her boyfriend. Aguilar began taking down the victim’s address to help her file a restraining order when the girl began to back out of the situation. Aguilar said, “Her mom had experienced this and she had seen it all her life.” Aguilar said it’s all too common. In many cases, domestic violence may be “normalized” in abusive households, often getting passed on from generation to generation. For victims, however, the problem is never addressed. But today, there’s more assistance available to help victims in need, said Aguilar, who works for the WomenShelter of Long Beach in cooperation with the Long Beach Police Department’s Domestic Abuse Response Team (D.A.R.T.). For the past four years, Aguilar has been stationed at the police department’s headquarters at 400 W. Broadway
73° 76° 79° 83° 82° This week’s Weekly Weather Forecast sponsored by: Low clouds, then sunshine
Untitled by Annie Stromquist
Sean Belk
Tuesday
Partly sunny
“Birds Fly By Flapping Their Wings” by Jeff McMillan
Despite recent spike in reports, Long Beach police say domestic violence is a ‘heavily under-reported’ crime see PROJECTS page 14
August 9 through August 13, 2013
Low clouds, then sunshine
“Mother’s Day” by Riley Wilkinson
E
SERVING BIXBY KNOLLS, CALIFORNIA HEIGHTS, LOS CERRITOS, WRIGLEY AND THE CITY OF SIGNAL HILL
Sean Belk
From left: “Monarchs and Milkweed” by Dorte Christjansen
Sean Belk/Signal Tribune
Last year, the Long Beach Police Department saw the most domestic reports of felonies and misdemeanors in six years. However, police officials say domestic violence is still an “under-reported” crime. The WomenShelter of Long Beach’s Domestic Violence Resource Center, located at 930 Pacific Ave., offers services for non-sheltered victims.
downtown, and she goes out with police to calls to direct potential victims to the right legal avenues or counseling. The shelter’s doors are open to men and women, including those in the LGBTQ community, and children as young as 7 years old.
Depending on the case, victims may seek assistance at the organization’s emergency shelter– an eight-bedroom, 29-bed facility at an undisclosed location that provides a 30-to-45-day shelter for victims and their families, or the see VIOLENCE page 15
CONCERTS IN THE PARK Wednesday Evenings at 6:30pm Signal Hill Park, 2175 Cherry Avenue
August 14 - Doobies, Inc. Doobie Bros. Tribute Concert Sponsors
Signal Hill Petroleum • Graner Oil Company • Supervisor Don Knabe Mesa Environmental Services • Aleshire & Wynder • EDCO Kluger Architects • Signal Tribune Newspaper
Information: 562-989-7330