S IGNA L T R I BU N E Serving Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos, Wrigley and Signal Hill VOL. XXXIX NO. 52
Weekly Community Newspaper
www.signaltribune.com
December 22, 2017
The end of the Internet as we know it? After last week’s FCC vote ending net neutrality, elected officials weigh in on the issue.
Cory Bilicko | Signal Tribune
Assisted by volunteers, local residents “shop” for gifts for children in their families Wednesday morning during the Long Beach Salvation Army’s Toy-n-Joy Shop at its headquarters on Long Beach Boulevard.
‘Spreading love, joy, cheer– and even a little peace’ Salvation Army Toy-n-Joy pop-up helps families in need ‘shop’ for holiday gifts for kids. Cory Bilicko Managing Editor
Sergio Garcia, who runs a local Salvation Army Toy-n-Joy Shop that lets low-income families pick out free toys for their children, acknowledges that some folks will criticize an organization for placing emphasis on material possessions during the holidays. However, the corps officer also understands that having a certain toy, or a new toy, or any toy for that matter, can mean the world to a child.
So, when Garcia oversees the dozens of staff members and volunteers who assist local residents in need in selecting toys, games and stocking stuffers for the children in their families, he does so with that societal context in mind. Perhaps he also sees the staying power in such a long-lasting program; he remembers the Salvation Army hosting a similar event when he was a kid in Fresno 40 years ago. “This is kind of a staple of the Salvation Army, to help families during Christmas,” Garcia said. “The Red Kettle campaign that goes side by side with feeding people at Christmas has been running since the 1930s.” He explained that the campaign
that features volunteers ringing a bell outside stores supports the organization’s work to feed families, and the Toy-n-Joy Shop, which offers food, is also funded by that campaign. Garcia said the organization’s outreach efforts to locate families in need include posting flyers at its food banks, as well as at local schools and hospitals. Melinda Lankford, Corps Capital campaign director at the Long Beach Corps and Community Center, was working alongside Garcia this week, at the pop-up shop, which took place Tuesday and Wednesday. She explained how the event was organized. see DONATIONS page 19
ter and Verizon dominate the Internet market in the United States, encompassing 76 percent of online access in the country, according to national statistics. “So, the question is, ‘Are they Denny Cristales going to adopt policies that maintain net neutrality as it is now, or are Online Editor they going to– since they are going Surfing the web may mean some to be allowed to do it– engage in a high tides for consumers next year market-based strategy?’” Lowenthal after a federal vote last week that said. “[...] And if you want to have will allow Internet service providers faster access, if you don’t mind hav(ISPs) to govern website accessibili- ing slowed-down access or certain ty nationwide. websites can be blocked if the ISP The Federal Communications wants to do it, [...] let the consumCommission (FCC) voted on er pick those. It may be slower, but Dec. 14 to end that’s the opnet-neutrality tions that they standards, reghave. That’s a So, the way I look ulations estabcritical issue at this is kind of like lished in 2015 that comes that restrict ISPs up. And I going to the mall, but from favoring don’t think the in order to enter every certain websites American pubby slowing down store, you might have lic is going to or blocking acstand for these to pay a fee. cess to others. changes.” The end of For nearly – Patrick O’Donnell net-neutrality two decades, principles means lawmakers and Assemblymember that not all webthe FCC have sites will be attempted to treated equally and that prioritiza- balance the ideas of a free and open tion will be at an ISP’s discretion. Internet while also promoting netIn a phone interview on Tuesday, work-based investments from comUS Rep. Alan Lowenthal, who rep- panies to offer faster online browsresents California’s 47th District, ing. put it in terms of cable television, Over the years, the conversation in which customers can purchase had more to do with how the counmore lucrative packages to access try should classify broadband sermore channels, only, in this case, vice and adhering to guidelines that the public would be paying service protect Internet freedoms instead of providers more money to have more concerns about “fast lanes or slow websites and faster speeds. lanes” of service, according to meCurrently, Comcast, AT&T, Char-
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see NEUTRALITY page 18
The hurt doesn’t stop City of Long Beach’s review of sexual-harassment policy stirs up old pain, old decisions. CJ Dablo Staff Writer
The Long Beach City Council voted last week to request that the city manager’s office review its policy covering sexual harassment as well as examine the complaints of harassment in the municipal workplace over the last five years. While the councilmembers voted 7 to 0 in favor of the request, it opened up some wounds both old and fresh.
During the Dec. 12 council meeting, 8th District Councilmember Al Austin requested a review of the policy in light of the numerous “high profile” cases involving allegations of sexual harassment. These allegations extinguished the careers of many giants in the entertainment, media and political spheres. “Please understand,” Austin said, “the intent of this item is to discuss and reaffirm our City’s policy on unlawful harassment and sexual harassment to
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make sure that we’re sending a clear message as a council that such misbehavior will not be tolerated in any workspace in this city.” Second District Councilmember Jeannine Pearce supported the request and that night described to the council how she would hope that the human-resource (HR) policy could be improved. She noted that harassment doesn’t just involve the sexual kind. Pearce described how harassment could also involve bullying and threat-
ening behavior. “And we need to have an HR policy that understands that violence,” she said, “and understands the trauma that people experience– men or women– when they go through violence at home– as children, as adults– and how that trauma can be retriggered in the workplace.” The 2nd-district councilmember espoused a “trauma-informed” HR policy, noting that there are spaces that should be safe that just do not feel that
way. “There are processes that are supposed to support victims that do not support victims,” Pearce concluded, “and while we say as a whole that we want that culture to be there, unless we’re talking about it and doing it every single day, it falls through the cracks. And if I’ve felt that way, then our lowest-paid staff person at City Hall– I can’t imagine how they feel if something happens, whether it’s an see HARASSMENT page 15
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