Serving Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos, Wrigley and Signal Hill with 30,000 issues every Friday
VOL. XLII NO. 10
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
www.signaltribune.com
In this issue
February 28, 2020
SH City Council approves accepting $223K in SB-1 funds to pave roads
NEWS
Anita W. Harris Staff Writer
Long Beach aims to provide safe area for homeless through Safe Parking program Page 2
CULTURE
Lissette Mendoza | Signal Tribune
Around 80 protesters participated in the Stop LBPD Brutality rally and march on Sunday, Feb. 23, demonstrating against local incidents of police brutality.
Downtown rally demonstrates against police brutality, 2nd District running candidate’s LBPD history Lissette Mendoza Online Editor
19 Inspired LBC artists create murals about climate change Page 3
Around 80 protesters marched and rallied in downtown Long Beach on Sunday, Feb. 23, demonstrating against three recent incidents of police brutality that have occurred in the city
within the span of a week. The “Stop LBPD Brutality” rally at Harvey Milk Promenade Park was organized by local activist organizations the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Long Beach Chapter, People’s Revolutionary Party Long Beach and the Long Beach Anarchist
Long Beach residents raise questions over order in which they received voter material
A number of Long Beach residents have expressed concern over receiving vote by mail ballots well before their sample ballots. Karla Enriquez Staff Writer
Theatre review: Long Beach Playhouse’s Noises Off Page 7
For Democratic Congressional Candidate Peter Matthews, the March 3 primary election is an important one. He is running for California’s 47th Congressional District, (representing part of Long Beach) with a grassroots campaign. Currently, Alan Lowenthal is the incumbent and is seeking re-election. Matthews is concerned that some early L.A. County vote-by-
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mail voters won’t know his platform come voting time. With voting centers being open as early as Feb. 22 and the March 3 election date only mere days away, some Long Beach residents have raised complaints about receiving mail-in ballots well in advance of their sample ballot material, which contains candidate statements and measure information. “I’ve talked to people, in different places, where I’m campaignsee BALLOTS page 6
Collective. Sheila Bates from the Black Lives Matter Long Beach chapter spoke at the rally regarding recent incidents of police brutality, specifically the arrest of Eugene Martindale III, 24, on 4th Street and
At its Tuesday, Feb. 25 meeting, the Signal Hill City Council agreed to accept $222,770 from the State’s SB 1 funds to pave the city’s roads. It also approved an application process to fill an open seat on the Planning Commission. Road paving Public Works Director Kelli Tunnicliff said that Signal Hill’s portion of the State’s Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account (RMRA) for fiscal-year 2020-21 is estimated at $222,770, based on the city’s population. The council approved a resolution adopting the funds to repair its roads, see SH COUNCIL page 11
see PROTEST page 10
Coronavirus fears prompts more canceled ships to Long Beach Los Angeles ports Sebastian Echeverry Managing Editor
The steady spread of the novel coronavirus–– recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as COVID-19–– is having an impact on cargo ships heading for the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Lee Peterson, a spokesperson for the Port of Long Beach, said officials expect Chinese factories to usually close down for one to two weeks for the holidays, such as Lunar New Year celebrations. He said this tends to cause an increase in canceled sailing trips for the first quarter,
or first three months, of the new year. “We kind of expected every year–– we’re going to see those canceled sailings of about 20 to 30–– in that range–– for the first quarter,” Peterson said. “Right now, we expect to see 50 canceled sailings for the two ports together, so we’ve definitely seen an increase.” In anticipation of the holiday season, companies may determine that there isn’t enough cargo to warrant a trip and usually cancel shipping schedules if low amounts of goods are produced. see VIRUS page 6