Recommendation to request City Manager to work with Long Beach Police Department, Department of Public Works, Long Beach Unified School District, Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee, Parent Teacher Associations, parent groups, and other interested stakeholders and report back within 120 days regarding options to streamline traffic circulation, improve traffic enforcement, and increase safety surrounding schools throughout the City of Long Beach.
Three want to. Stay there. One more. We got better here. One, two, three. Thank you. Very good. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Thank you. Out of 23, please. Item 23 is communication from Councilman Andrews, Councilmember Pierce, Councilwoman Price, Vice Mayor Richardson, recommendation to request city manager to work with Long Beach Police Department and other interested stakeholders and report back within 20 days regarding options to streamline traffic circulation, improve traffic enforcement and increase safety surrounding schools throughout the city. Councilman Andrews. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I'd like to thank my peers who signed on with this item with me. But also, before we continue, I would also like to include the Joint Use Committee as one of the stakeholders in this conversation. You know, the safety of our children is one of my top priorities, and I think it should be everyone's top priority. You know, we have done a walk through to some of our schools sites and it is not, you know, as safe as we think it could be. I know the schools are trying to put in place regulations to help with cars, working parents and overall traffic, but they need help. I hope that we can hear back some recommendations on how the city we can assist our neighborhood hurt schools. I would like to thank Bobbie Smith Elementary for for creating a hub, for creating a pedestrian, safe group of mothers who will help every day. And assistant principal at Lincoln Elementary for reaching out to my office for this assistance. This is something I think especially everyone that has a child and doesn't have a job. And when we go to our schools, there are things that we really need to be very, very, I think, consistent of and try to at least try to get something. This is a conversation we're trying to get started with, not trying to blame anyone at fault. We're just hoping we can get something going and willing to safety for our kids. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Price. I support this item and this is an issue that comes up often. And so I think it's great that we're starting the discussion and really being proactive about how we address school safety and especially traffic and engineering around school sites. So thank you, Councilman Andrews, for bringing it forward. Thank you, Councilmember Soprano. I'd also like to thank Councilman Andrews for bringing this item forward. We have schools in the fourth District that are tremendously impacted. I think this is a great approach in the right way to move forward on it. I'd just like to add that these schools that were built in the fifties or earlier, some I think of from school in our Kraft Manor that is totally inside a neighborhood where there's no major thoroughfares to it. And I know Mayor Garcia was there a month or so ago, and I've read to the students there and just the number of students there, this for special needs. The school is just bursting at the seams. And so I'd like to also, if we can, within this item, work with the school district to see what we can do in those areas. But I think this is a great first step and a way that we can expose the issues. So thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. I was hoping to find out from staff. I think this is great. I really appreciate Councilmember Andrews for bringing this about 18 to 24 months ago. The same topic came up and we sat down with city staff who talked about a committee that was made up of school board members and council members and that that would be the solution. What progress has been made on that? Because if we don't have a solution yet, this seems like another. I believe this is still one of the agenda items on the school board, city council committee, and they just haven't met for a while. They have never met. I'm not aware, but they have met for a while. And if not. So, our council appointed members to sit on this body. But the school board has chosen not to appoint members to serve on a joint committee where we could work together. I'm not aware of that. Okay. I would appreciate some follow up. Do I need to add a friendly or I mean, I think it's important. A council agenda item came 24 months ago asking to restart a committee because we have issues around our schools. Middle schools have been turned into high schools. High schools have stopped or sorry, middle schools and high schools have both stopped busing. They have the similar issues that Councilmember Superman mentioned. It used to be a bus. One vehicle would bring 60 to 80 children to a school. Now you have 40 to 60 cars bringing those same kids. And so the pick up and drop off and the number of vehicles per hour and the safety concerns continue to grow. And I was told that the solution was that we had to have this committee. And so if we could get an update back, do I need a friendly. No, absolutely not. We can get back here probably tomorrow. The next that. Promise. That would be wonderful. It's really important to a lot of parents. So. Thank you. Councilman Gonzalez. Yes. Thank you for bringing forward. And I also know that we had a crossing guard. Do you have any updates on our crossing guards and where that's at as well in terms of just the larger scope of safety? Yes, that's also a committee peace act pedestrian. It's the same committee. Yeah, I see. Yeah. The Safety Advisory Board. So we'll give you an update on that as well. Okay, great. Thank you. A open. I just want to follow up on Councilwoman Mungo's statement about we used to have bussing at some school. There are 20 busses that currently serve that school in addition to parents dropping off kids. And the one item that is that is critical is is we have PTA. We have I think we would probably be covered under stakeholders. But the neighbors around the school, I guess that it's such a critical piece to this. So we'd like to invite them to the table. The staff at bus from I think of the principal, Miriam Garcia, Dr. Tiffany Brown from the school district. They do a great job. But this is an area, kind of a jurisdictional issue where the neighborhood just is having trouble communicating this. And so I'm not sure if the solution involves school board members with council members. We might want to be a little closer to the ground than that, but I'm going to support this item. Thank you. Thank you very much. I just us we have we have a motion in a second as there any other public comment on this. I'm sorry. Public comment on this first. Please come forward. Good evening, honorable mayor and members of the council and city staff. My name is Brenda Soriano Villa and I'm here representing Bobbie Smith Elementary, the YMCA Full Service Community School Program. Unfortunately, the families were not able to make it. It is a Tuesday evening, although it's summer, that some of them still work. So I'm here representing the community that participates in our programing, but the school in general and also the neighbors. As Councilmember Andrews mentioned, our families have. Noticed this problem and wanted to they've decided to take action in the sense of creating a value system and asking the principal to send out a letter of support to our families that our neighbor, the neighbor, the city that have children there. But there's also elements there that we ask all of your support, and then that is the signage that is there. Just all of the list of stakeholders on this item are crucial in ensuring that our students are safe. And not only our students, but the families that are walking them. The neighbors are just trying to go to work in the morning and they are having such a hard time to get there. In our school we do have a group of moms. I do want to recognize that again, weren't able to be here today, but it was really them. A group of six women that got up early in the morning at seven and just and just set up shop to create a rally system. And they realized it was working quite effectively that even though that they didn't intend to be there in the afternoon, they started to be there in the afternoon as well to help out. And it's just created a culture of safety. But I think we need more. And that's why we're asking and I'm asking personally to your support in just starting this conversation and creating a space to be able to create some progress. And this many of the women that were here today, the commissioner said, you know, it takes a village. And and in terms of our mission and vision at the YMCA, as well as our community school, we are true believers of that in ensuring that everyone has a space at the table and that everyone has the accessibility to be able to participate. So thank you and I hope that we move forward on this. Thank you. No other. Ignore the public comment. Please come forward if there is. Hello, everyone. Mayor Garcia, council members. My name is Anna, R.S. I'm one of the parents at Lincoln Elementary School. I volunteer at the school every morning, and the number one concern is my child safety. And that is why we started the curbside drop off at the end of last year. And we see that most of the parents do participate and they are supportive. But there's still parents that are dropping off their children in the middle of the street. And that creates a problem because now the children are trying to walk through the valley in front of the cars. So not only do we have to help them get onto the curb safely, but we do not try to create any problems between the parents or confront them to stop the the problem. We do request your support. I know you've started a commission to help us out, but we are requesting that at the beginning of the school year we have some maybe law enforcement to help alleviate some of that situation. So the parents are not dropping off their children on the street. But we also would like to help. Within our school, we're thinking if maybe we could create a one way street on in front of our school, I think that would really help the situation permanently and not temporarily. So again, we look forward to be working with you. I represent the parents and we thank you for your time. Any other speakers? Please come forward now. Good evening, council members, residents of Long Beach and Mayor Robert Garcia. My name is Charles Darwin Glaucoma and I am the assistant principal of Lincoln Elementary School. We are located at 1175 East 11th Street between Orange Avenue and Alamitos Avenue. 11th Street is a small residential street with two way traffic and several houses located directly across from our main entrance. At Lincoln. Our English Language Advisory Committee and School Site Council meets several times a year to discuss ideas and improve changes related to safety. Many parents expressed concerns about the safety of students upon arrival. Drivers on the narrow streets with limited options for parking were displaying unsafe practices in order to get students to school on time. We addressed this issue with the support of the staff, the Community Student Council, Elac School Site Council and Parent Volunteers. A few months ago we began a valet drop off procedure for Lincoln students, while the valet drop off has helped to alleviate some safety concerns and improve on time arrival for our students. Drivers continue to demonstrate unsafe practices. Unfortunately, we have been not successful in our efforts to secure support and patrol from Long Beach Police Department. Some of the concerns we are still facing include cars exceeding the speed limit, three point turns, parking in the drop off zone, blocking driveways, double parking and jaywalking throughout our curbside drop off. A community partnership could really improve our efforts with traffic flow and awareness and implementation of safe practices, leading to an overall improvement in every area of school, climate and culture. On behalf of Carolyn Nemec, principal at Lincoln Elementary and a dedicated staff members at Lincoln, we hope that you will consider this a high priority as there are over 1000 students traveling to and from Lincoln every single day. Thank you for your time, but I am especially grateful for your consideration and how we might work together to prioritize the safe arrival and departure of our Long Beach scholars. Thank you. Thank you. Please come forward on our last public comment. I am Frances only to Paris and I reside in District one and I want to thank Council Member Super for your mention about children or persons that have special needs. My concern regarding them curbside drop off is this time they have a certain amount of time. They want you to move the air, move from the area where they drop you off and you have children. They may use different types of mobility devices or and they're not able to move as as fast. And unfortunately, because of the exorbitant costs on having services to take them to the school, the parents have to bring them . And if they have a regular vehicle and have a manual chair and the time to get it out, the car and everything is even more time consuming. So my question is, and I know you can answer tonight, but is there a special area at the school this designated for children with special needs? Because when the children, people start honking the horn and hollering and everything is very traumatic to a child that's doing the best they can and the families trying to help them. So I just wanted to put that out on the floor, so to speak, to look at this matter so that it works for everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And I just want to also before we go to I want to just clarify, I think there are two appointed members of the school board that are on the Joint Use Committee, and those have been appointed. And I know that they meet when the last meeting happened as well. So I know it was said that the that they were not appointed and they want to clarify that they there are two appointed members and I want to thank the school board and the school district for their work. And I know that they've been great partners for us as a community. And certainly there are always there always opportunities for us to work closer together on issues, particularly in our neighborhoods. But they do an excellent job. And I just want to reiterate that tonight. Councilman Mongo. Thank you for that, Mayor. I really appreciate the work that's possible when we all work together. I think that I was just mostly surprised that our staff didn't in prepping for this agenda item. I know it was a council driven agenda item, but know the progress or where we have been because I, I feel for the parents in the district and there have been so many changes that many of us have brought up several times. And it's a very complex system of how it all works in working between the different governments. And so I just think that it's important to to know what resources are already available and accessible before we create even more. But I too agree that even with as councilmember supervisor said, councilmembers and board members are not always enough. And we have lay programs and Councilwoman Price has a one way street and and even in certain cases those things have needed significant improvement and buy in. And so my frustration that you hear comes from just the the there's so many things going on in the city. And this is one more important thing that I'm surprised that we lost the chain on of where where are we going and what progress has been made. Because what I hoped when I read an item like this ten days ago is to be able to say, I'm glad that you brought this up to a council member and here's the progress we've made in the last 24 months because an item came before us. But I don't know that stuff today and I hope to be able to get it to you soon. Thank you. Councilman Austin. Thank you. I really wasn't going to speak on this, but I think a lot of good points have been raised. And I want to thank the folks from the public who've come at it and particularly the parents who are volunteering their time to make sure that their children have safe passage to or from school on a daily basis. We have a number of schools in my district, and I'm just curious to know I know this is going to be pretty well, pretty monumental task, not only for our our staff, but also for the the committee, the joint committee that meets. Because, I mean, we got to do an inventory of all of the schools and all the districts and assess traffic needs in every one of those districts. And I can tell you that that these these issues come before I know they come before my my my district and our council office every year. And generally, we we start getting the calls, you know, during the first couple of weeks of school. And I've been involved in the PTA, I've been involved in most of the stakeholder groups identified in this item. I think it's very important that that on a local level, campus by campus, that if we're going to really make an impact on on on safety, you guys are the answer. The work that that these wonderful women have come before us, the parents have come before us and are doing I believe that is going to be the model for success moving forward. It's going to require parental involvement. And and. Buy in from the PTA and buy in from the school administration and and neighborhood associations and everybody communicating is one we've had some success in a little surreal school area and with other schools. And we've we've done some some traffic modifications and signage there. There are a number of solutions out there. But I think Councilmember Mungo raised a great point, you know, and that is, you know, for years we were bussing. Right. And how many of these these these schools are located within neighborhoods and, you know, taking away that dynamic and adding cars, no matter how many bike lanes we put in place, people still need to get comfortable sending their kids to school either by feet or by bicycle. But until we get the cars out of the equation, we're going to have more, more traffic. And so I'm really I know I'm on that committee. I don't recall that committee actually meeting since the last city council was was seated. The last time we met, I think James Johnson was was the council member in the seventh District. And so I think we need to really step up our commitment to make that that committee meet and meet more often and and and make some things happen. I'm looking forward to working with you all. Thank you, Councilman. It was May 2nd, 2017. So we'll work on this tomorrow to schedule the next one. So about about a year ago, last many of the year, I stand corrected. Am I still on the committee? Okay, you. Are on the committee. I was like, I could have sworn you were there. To get it right for you, Chairman. Great. And so, yes. So there is a there is an active there is an active joint use committee. It met a year ago. And and there are it's full of been appointed by both the council and and the school board members. And so thank you for that. Please cast your votes. Councilwoman Price motion carries. Thank you. We're going to do item I'm sorry to public comment there's two there's two folks from public comment Larry Goodhue in and Francis Wood Austin Harris. Mr. Goodhue, come forward.