Recommendation to direct City Manager to work with City Attorney and Development Services Department to provide an update to City Council on the City’s Nuisance Motel Regulation and Alcohol Nuisance Abatement ordinances, including options to strengthen the ordinances, within 90 days; Direct City Manager to work with Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) to identify resources to support efforts to address the issue of human trafficking along the Long Beach Boulevard Corridor in coordination with the City of Compton; and Direct City Manager and Health Department to coordinate outreach and education pipelines through the Long Beach “My Sister’s Keeper Initiative” for individuals impacted by human trafficking along the Long Beach Boulevard Corridor.
Thank you very much. We will now move to item 19. Communication from Vice Mayor Richardson, Councilwoman Island Councilwoman Sara recommendation to provide an update on the city's Nuisance Motel Regulation and Alcohol Nuisance Abatement Ordinance. Ordinances including options to strengthen the ordinances within 90 days. Identify resources to support efforts to address the issue of human trafficking along the Long Beach Boulevard corridor in coordination with the City of Compton , and coordinate outreach and education pipelines through the Long Beach, My Sister's Keeper Initiative. Thank you so much. Let's go ahead and cue up the presentation we have. All right. I want to thank the residents and everyone who stayed out and a lot of discussion on cannabis tonight. But right now we're going to talk about quality of life. And I want to thank the Public Safety Committee members who signed on to this item. Tonight, we're talking about Long Beach Beat 23. This is a map with meet 23. It covers a number of North Libby's neighborhoods, College Square, Starr, King, Hamilton, Coolidge Triangle and along with neighborhood. Major, major landmarks within this area include Uptown Commons, Pools of Hope, the North Long Beach Community Garden, Golden State, Humane Society, Hamilton Middle School, Jordan Plus. Colin Powell Elementary School Start King Elementary School, Sal's Gumbo Shack, Atlantic Bridge Community and Organic Harvest Gardens. So it's a lot of community landmarks in history on this corridor. There's also a history of chronic, chronic issues that have lasted for decades, literally decades, that involve human trafficking, nuisance motels, nuisance liquor stores, all of which are sort of anchored along Long Beach Boulevard, which is in red. Now, I believe if patterns of disparity exist for generations, then that means this is systemic and the system is doing what it's designed to do. So we have to commit to systems thinking, and a lot of the chronic issues are really related to policies we have and land use that hasn't been updated in decades. And so let's walk through a little bit of history here. So in July 24, July of 2012, Councilman Neal in the City Council began to talk about alcohol nuisance abatement ordinance. I remember I was around because I worked for Councilman Neal at the time, and it was based on looking at nonconforming grandfathered liquor stores to see which stores reside on places that are not zoned for those anymore or don't have modern standards like a cup. These stores had no requirements like addressing lighting and landscaping and, you know, graffiti standards and signage in the window and safety standards. And so this new program would set requirements on these liquor stores, including security cameras, lighting removal of payphones, stopping the practice of using ads and signs to block the windows. The following year, a draft ordinance was prepared and submitted to the Planning Commission. The result of the pilot program was passed that August. A year later. A little bit. A little bit later. In May of 2014, 11 of the 26 stores were identified that were identified in the pilot area of North Long Beach had reached compliance. And then by 20 by two years later, 26 of all 26 of the liquor stores were brought into compliance. Now, this ordinance was a big success story. It expanded citywide. And ultimately, at the last report, 51 liquor stores received an update. Well, a lot of that was driven because of the nuisances in this place. It started there and sort of expanded citywide. The ordinance received awards from the American Planning Association of Los Angeles and Statewide American Planning Association in California. Now, the next step was nuisance motels after addressing liquor stores. Motels. So, you know, I'll tell you, nuisance motels have had a real, meaningful, real impact on many of our lives. I can think when I, you know, tell the story often I was driving my two year old well, my my for my five year old was just born in Long Beach Memorial and I lived in the Coolidge Triangle neighborhood. So the day she was coming home from the hospital, the neighborhood was quarantined off. Why? Because there was a homicide at a neighboring motel and we couldn't get into the neighborhood our very first day bringing her home. And, you know, I talked to, you know, the police officers and SWAT team. They said, well, there was a homicide and somebody ran into the neighborhood and had to do a house by house search. I checked my security cameras. Sure enough, there were five SWAT team members in my backyard. You know, I just, you know, thought this is systemic. How much, you know, resources in our police department do we use on this incident? And so nuisance motels continue to be a focus. And so inspired by the alcohol nuisance abatement ordinance we began, we engaged with Long Beach Police Department Development Services, the Human Trafficking Task Force, to develop a program that would apply a similar approach to liquor stores to the motels. We passed the pilot program and also began discussing that council, a permanent ordinance. And so we received an update on the progress of that. And there were significant program results. The results it resulted in 30% drop in calls for service. A number of motels have received 1500 calls for service in one year, and that was significantly reduced and that's a big improvement. The next step was to codify this into an ordinance. That ordinance finally went into went into effect at the beginning of the pandemic in. 2020, however, has never been implemented because the pandemic hit. And so there are tools available that have not been implemented. Now, here we are at the beginning of the pandemic. We've seen we've heard from the community all across the entire police beat of additional issues. You know, and the reality is, is with all the progress, it's a bit disheartening to see all of that sort of come back during the pandemic. And so today, 80% of the prostitution reports and human trafficking related calls for service in the entire city exist in Beat 23 because the issue of justice is an issue of priorities . North Division as a whole deals with 85% of the citywide human trafficking calls. On the bright side, there's some new opportunities on hand. Number one, this area post redistricting. It now has two council members. That's doubled the eyes, doubled the attention, double the support, double the love. And so we're excited to see that we have we should be able to put more eyes and attention on this issue. And so I think in the spirit of double, let's redouble our efforts. That means the following. We know that North Division is preparing an event action plan to order and receive an additional $50,000 in the Neighborhood Safe Streets Fund to connect, conduct additional operations to get more eyes on the corridor. That's a good thing we want to look for continue to look for funding for motel conversions and acquisitions, a step that we're proud to see tonight. We're exploring this, particularly with a nuisance motel. So that's item 24. So make sure you take a look at that. Updated zoning plan is a process we've been going through to look at the fact that this corridor hasn't been zoned in decades or the last three or four years. We've been going through the updated zoning process to address all the corridors in North Palm Beach. It's time to get an update on where we are. I believe that's supposed to come back this year, so now's the time to get an update on zoning so we can see how we're preparing the corridor for the future. It also looks like we need we need to continue to explore partnerships between Long Beach, L.A. County and the city of Compton, even the city of Lynwood, because historically these issues have bounced across court, jurisdictional lines, and so they need to be a part of the solution. We've had discussions with them in the past. I think it's time to redouble. There's also opportunities right next door at the Ronald Arias Center. Now that's open. We have resources, particularly the My Sister's Keeper program, which is a preventative, preventative program for at risk women and girls between the ages of ten and 24. Utilizing our Development Services Department to take a look at strengthening our existing resources, we have to protect them. There's also opportunities in terms of continuing invest in the corridor. Before redistricting, there were a number of projects P.B. and I, as well as a project along these boulevard that seem to have stalled. Sure, we got we ended up getting a decorative crosswalk, but there were other things that we talked about investing in. You know, we were in discussions with, you know, developers, Starbucks, 7-Eleven that have been stalled along that corridor. There's time to get an update on where those projects are. At the end of the day, the council, the community needs to speak with one voice on this, particularly because we all want the same things. We want to make sure we have a safe, viable, vibrant, a walkable corridor and Long Beach Boulevard. And this is a greater issue of the entire beat 23. All of our neighborhoods are impacted. So it's it's not about one or two neighborhoods. This is about the entire beat 23. And so I'm proud to introduce this item today with support from our city council colleagues, Cindy Allen, Sally Sara I want to acknowledge and recognize letter of support from Assembly member Mike Gibson and our local neighborhood associations who submitted a joint letter as well. I look forward to hearing feedback from the community tonight and I would love to see what staff comes back with a new comprehensive approach to redouble our efforts, efforts to improve safety and beat 23. Thank you so much. Okay. Next, we have Councilwoman Allen. Yes. Thank you, Vice Mayor, for bringing this item forward and just for so often leading on on comprehensive community safety items. Appreciate that. I'm proud to partner with you on this item. We know that human trafficking doesn't discriminate and victims can be anyone. I'm really glad as I was watching this presentation to see how I thought how how well you thought this out. And by asking the city staff to work with My Sister's Keeper program and the City of Compton, we'll be tackling the root of this problem for permanent solutions. Our most vulnerable youth would be protected and met with intervention and intervention while we work with neighbor neighboring regions to ensure that the issue does not come back to Long Beach through the Long Beach Boulevard Neighborhood Safety Initiative. We will also make use of our existing resources, such as the Nuisance Motel and liquor store ordinances and the Ronald are areas health equity center to combat human trafficking. This is a problem concentrated in one area and I am told that 80% of all calls for human trafficking are in this beat and that level of concentration demands increased attention. I'd like to hear more from departments about how they are breaking down silos and working together on a solution for this issue. Thank you again, Vice Mayor Richardson, for taking the lead on this very complex issue. I appreciate it. Fantastic. Thank you, Councilwoman Ciro. Thank you, vice Mayor, for bringing this item forward as well as Councilwoman Allen for supporting as well. You know, I think that this can be a great model. I'd love to get an update because I think that this area of North Lombard, just similar to Central Long Beach in that Pacific Coast Highway corridor, very similar issues around our hotel, our motels, as well as alcohol, liquor stores along that corridor. And I look forward to seeing in ways that this can be used as a model for how we can address the issue in that as well. And and I think that this is important to ensure that we're not only approaching those who are victim of human trafficking from a criminalization standpoint, which I know we've come a long way in providing holistic services. And so that's important to make sure we have this program and that we use it. So great job. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you, Councilman Austin. Thank you so much. So this is a, I think, a great item to bring to the attention of our city staff and our city as a whole. The challenges are facing North Long Beach, particularly the North Long Beach, the Long Beach Boulevard corridor, and neighbors who have to deal with, you know, many of those those are unsightly nuisance issues that if they were in other any other neighborhood or lots of other neighborhoods in our city, it would be an outrage. It would be a crisis. This is these conditions have had and been standing for for far too long. So I appreciate the assistance in bringing forth this item. As you all know, the redistricting process occurred and my office has been engaged with this particular community since January, since actually before the redistricting process was final, we began reaching out and engaging with the neighborhood groups and trying to come up with collaborative ways to develop solutions. I just want to be very clear. This item reiterates every point here, reiterates work that is already being done in the city, right. I think it's amplifying some of the areas that we need to focus a little bit more on, but it reiterates work that is already being done. The nuisance alcohol nuisance abatement order is already law should already be enforced. The the motel registry regulation, obviously that that's a that's an area where we need to improve upon. And I think it was mentioned that we are working and have been working on acquiring and looking at potentially acquiring properties along that space through the project homekey . Also and resources that we have, which could change the dynamic there. But there are another number of other issues, economic development challenges that we are rolling our sleeves up and getting involved in, trying to get new businesses, trying to make that corridor vibrant, inclusive, livable for the residents there, as well as infrastructure challenges. And so the the the issues there, they're not brand new. They didn't come up six months ago. Councilmember Richardson alluded to them. This is decades of of neglect that we need to work on. And certainly I will be supporting this item tonight, because I think some of this is, again, common sense and it really. Rehashes and amplifies many of the tools that we already have in the toolbox to work on these issues. We just need to be more deliberate and city manager stuff about focusing on the North Long Beach Boulevard corridor. And yes, I think the PD here, anyone from PD can come forward because I want to be clear, because we , I think, put a euphemism on one on one, the oldest profession in that known the man, and we call it human trafficking. And when I was talking to our police chief just the other day, particularly about this area, there was a there was a breakdown in communication. A little bit. And you tell me the difference between human how you would interpret human trafficking and what we should be calling the activity that are going on on that corridor. So thank you, Councilmember. And just for clarification and referring to Councilmember Allen's stats as well, the 80% is for something called the 6647 B call is you will remember that that's a prostitution call and a prostitution issue can be tied to human trafficking. Human trafficking is specific to commercial sex workers, minors and adults. The exploitation of those individuals where their victims. And that does happen in North Long Beach. 647 B activity is really a lower level of prostitution that. Can involve individuals. Who are abusing and addicted to drugs that are homeless, that are living on the street. And that's a bit different than that's a quality of life issue. So there are two separate areas. Both can be tied to the same location or the same crime. But human trafficking is at a much higher level. Thank you. So so what's occurring and what the complaints that we're getting on Long Beach Boulevard are not human trafficking complaints. That's correct. So most of the. Complaints start as a 647 B. Call. But those could lead to human trafficking cases as well. So the 647 B is a prostitution call. And then through investigation, you can find that it's the exploitation of an individual and can become a human trafficking call. And we also do proactive effort with the L.A. County Human Trafficking Task Force and a bunch of things that were mentioned tonight in terms of collaboration and outreach and trying to address the human trafficking issue. I see. I'm out of time. I'll recue and I do look forward to hearing from the public as well. Thank you. Councilman's in the house. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor, for bringing this up. Of course, I'm a strong, strong, super strong supporter of this because nuisance liquor stores have been a great concern for my residents throughout the district, but in particularly within our Washington neighborhood, which seems to have a high concentration of them. In most recent District one check ins, a number of of parents raised concerns about liquor stores too close to their children's schools. And therefore, it is incredibly important to be able to receive updates for residents to know that this city is doing what the city is doing to address these issues. One of my things and I just had a meeting on this this week, and I know that we have some of these programs right now, but I would I would like to know why they are in existence, what is you know, what is happening right now? Because I know that we have a lot of liquor store news, new nuances in our liquor stores, in our neighborhood. And I know that from what I understand, there hasn't been too much too much done in that area. And maybe staff can allude to that, please. So Council member Christopher comes from Development Services. As was mentioned in the discussion, the Alcohol Nuisance Abatement Ordinance is on the books. It was. There were over 70 different inspections around the city that were conducted prior to the pandemic. More limited work was done during the pandemic. When we talk about motels and when we talk about alcohol, those are multi-disciplined efforts. So those involve staff not just from planning but from other parts of DV, our code enforcement staff, our building staff, our partners at the fire department, our partners, that police department, our partners at the Health Department. It's really important work. But some of the motel visits, you know, it's a it's a nine person team. So that has not always been possible to pull together for a number of reasons during COVID. But we have continued to operate the program at a modified, more complaint driven fashion. And as we resume staffing in a more normalized way, many of these programs are coming back online, and we hope to be a sort of a more normal operating range this coming October. But we'll be glad to get into more detail in the report back. And then we'll also be able in the report back to be able to talk about what these programs do and what they don't do. So the ANAO program, which is for liquor stores, is a great program. It's unique. There's a few places in San Diego County that have a program similar, but most cities don't do this, and it's great at getting liquor stores cleaned up, getting them, you know, nicer looking, which helps with loitering, which helps with the appearance, but it doesn't close the liquor store. So it doesn't deal with a related issue that we talked that I heard the council discussed this evening, which is just the sheer number of liquor stores in certain areas of the city or in the city at large. So so it takes different policy tools to address different issues. So I want to assure you, we have been working. It's not that we forgot about this issue, but it has been a modified approach during the pandemic. Thank you, Mr. Quince. And I know that, you know, we've been working on certain areas in my district, so I do appreciate that. From what I understand, there was also a shortage and staff in that area. Is that so? So we have the position that the staff program has been vacant for some time prior to it being vacant. That individual. Well, I can't get into the employee issue, but that we could not send that individual into the field during the COVID pandemic for a specific reason, which created an operational problem. And then the position was vacant. So we're going through a process of filling that position. That position was recently filled and that person is training. And then when we are in front of you, or when the city manager and the finance director are in front of you during budget season, we'll be talking about stopping within that department , including staffing scenarios that better address this and other needs in the department. Wonderful things. Thank you, Mr. Kunze, for for addressing that. And again, thank you, Vice Mayor, for bringing this up. This seems to be a very, very important item. And so I'm very happy to support this item. Fantastic. And we'll go to public comment. But I think some of the discussion here is just to refocus that quality of life on particularly on the issue that's, you know, sort of attached to this area for so long has to be multi-pronged. It's got to be short term and long term. The short term is what's been impacted by the pandemic, the staffing, the availability to have bodies out there addressing issues. But the long term is still ongoing. Long term is addressing the zoning, updating the zoning up plan, making sure investment is happening over there. That's incredibly important. That continues to move forward. And addressing the new nuisance liquor stores through acquisition, that focus has continue. You're not going to see a significant difference long term if we keep coming back to the same issue unless we change the corridor. You have to change some of the uses in PD 23 or are you going to continue coming back to the very same issue? So let's go ahead and go to public comment. We have ten speakers up, so I'm going to call the first five so I can say David San Jose, Patricia Long, Carlos Valdez, Rene Rios, come on forward. First this night. There's a night out here. Okay. Next is Dave, San Jose. And you guys can come on up and line up because it's going to go back to back. The next after Rene is Lynda Wilson, Lynda Campbell, Annette Mather, Monica Keller and Steve Neal. If everybody can make their way, that would be helpful. Go ahead, baby. I'm for. I remember that year. Councilor, thank you for this opportunity. Uh, this. There was a program of five years ago. They came in and were working on the same situation with the motels, the prostitution. And it was working. Then all of a sudden, it went by the wayside. I don't know what happened, but I know in the last four or five years, my neighbors don't feel safe. I think we need some help and maybe trying to fix this thing. My community by not feeling safe is I think maybe the problem is we don't have enough police to protect our city. I don't know how many it takes. I don't think it takes the same amount. I think it takes more than it did five years ago. So I all the officers that I know are really doing their duty. I really appreciate them. But this here really needs to be fixed and we don't know what to do. I think you guys know what to do, but I think the first thing we've got to do is make our city safe without law and order in our city. We don't really have a city. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Patricia Lang. Hi, everybody. Thank you for inviting me here. And this issue has three stages to it, as you can see on your agenda. My name is Patricia. I live at 202 Eastport for 40 years. I'm the president of Coolidge Triangle Neighborhood Association, and I represent 550 homes in my neighborhood. The first part of this is about the motels. The motels bring some of the problems to our neighborhood. And as Rex mentioned, he was a victim of that about four or five years ago. Things seemed to get better. But as you say, the pandemic created that. What we have now is a problem with prostitution, and the prostitution is out of hand. And I've done my best to work with the police commander that we have. We meet on Zoom meetings to try to find out what we can do. We call and report the situation on the boulevard, but it doesn't seem to make much difference. And, you know, it has now come into the neighborhood. It's not just on Long Beach Boulevard. It's in the neighborhood. When I go out to take my dog for a walk, I have to look and see the paraphernalia after sexual activity in the gutters, in my street, by my house, my neighbors are just frantic because this is happening. The children are having to go to school. The Colin Powell, they are being approached by prostitutes. And a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday, I hate to tell you this, but there was a young woman standing in the street totally naked. And we call the police like we've been instructed to do. The police came and I thought this would be an opportunity for us to engage because I know what the sex trafficking rules sort of are. We're trying to help these ladies. So. They put the lady in the car. A second car came with a woman officer. They gave her clothes to wear and then they sent her on her way. So now she was back in the neighborhood. The part that I can't understand is because as a nurse, this seems to be like a perfect opportunity to get that person help. But she did not go anyplace except on back on the street. I don't know if that was because it was on a weekend. Your time is up. Thank you. I think that this issue is so severe that we really need to work on this. And we have been trying as hard as we can, and we need your help. Thank you. Next is Carlos Valdes, then Rene Rios. Good evening. Carlos Ordaz from Coolidge Triangle and former president of Coolidge Triangle Neighborhood Association. I remember Rex when he first started with Steve Neil. We had prostitution issues. We spoke of decades, not just one decade, decades of human trafficking. Think you've been in office in the ninth for about ten years, so that contributed to one of those decades. Just get perspective. I think there's a decorum that we've all tried to maintain of patients that is evolved to rage because you run into other parts of our city. And as many of you said, you would never accept this. Office of Equity. Where is the equity for us? And he lived in that neighborhood. You were one of us. We voted you in and you turned away. You moved to a different district, and the problem became deeper and more pervasive. Now we're looking at creating hotel turnkey. I don't think any of us were approached in the community about that. Like, one of many things, it's just a surprise. Just like landing settlement when you didn't tell us about that. And we had Robert Foxx show up at our neighborhood association meeting. There has to be transparency and clarity in everything we do. It's our neighborhood. We're homeowners. We're vested there. And I just don't want us to continue with status quo. There's a lot of promises, a lot of marketing, and it's right before election time. You know, this is what I've done, but I think we've waited too long. And you know, I surely hope that we get away from all the talk and more action. It's for that very reason. We decided to leave the ninth District because we had no more confidence and we were really looking forward to working with you and helping us transform it along with Susie Price. It's not just something personal. I think as some have said, this is personal. Know it when it comes to my home, my my neighbors here. Pat You see here. Dave, they've been there for decades. If it's happening to my neighbors, I feel like it's happening to me. And maybe, perhaps some don't care because they're looking for other aspirations. But we cannot continue with the status quo. And I really hope that we just don't use our neighborhood that we're vested in as a platform to say, well, look what else I have on my political resumé. You know, I take a look at how endorsements are made, pay for play, and we need to stop it because we're real people who have real interests and we're going to continue fighting. That's all I have to say. Next speaker is Rene reals. I'm going to wait for the last speaker. You have to actually go in order. I can't wait to announce. Madam Clerk. We do have her. Next up. It's your discretion as the chair. Then I think we're going to go in order. Renee, if you going to refuse. Me. Putting on record, I want to be left. Okay. Linda Wilson. And then Linda Campbell. And then Annette Mazur. Good afternoon. Mayor In his absence. Vice Mayor Although the city council representative that's here. Thank you for being here tonight and thank you for hearing this very important issue and concern. First of all, I want to say that we want to urge you to please take this this problem that we're having, which is a very serious problem , which has been going on for a long time. But we are asking for your help. We want to thank the fact that we have been working with the North Division police commander. On. Several conference calls. And so the main things that she is trying to get to implement the program that she suggests that she would do. We'd like to make sure that she gets that money and in all of the resources that she needs and any additional monies that she might need to make that happen. Prostitution. Sex trafficking is a serious matter. It comes out of Compton. We're in the north corridor of Long Beach. It comes out of Compton, comes down Long Beach Boulevard. It affects our youth. It affects our senior citizens. So we have our eyes affected, all age groups affected by what's going on here. We urge you and earnestly plead with you to make sure that this proposal is accepted and put forward in the most expeditious manner. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Linda Campbell. Good evening, fellow Long Beach citizens. I live in the ninth district. I've lived there for 42 plus years. The Long Beach corridor is. A problem, and it's been a problem for a very long time. It's time to step up and. Enforce the ordinances and the police protection, whether it be prostitution or sex trafficking or the. Outrageous number of liquor stores that are in that corridor. It all contributes to a negative quality of life for the citizens, for the children who have to walk past that to go to school. For the teachers. Who have to drive into the neighborhood. To do the job to educate our. Future. Citizens. We need you to. Do what the ordinance asks of the city to make our city. A more vibrant. Space for all of us to live, and thank you in advance for the support you're going to give. Thank you. Next to his mother, then Monica Keller. And our last speaker is Steve Neal. Thank you. Hello. My name is Ron at Mars. I'm with the Hamilton Neighborhood Association co-chair. I'm also here representing the North Long Beach Neighborhood Alliance, all of the neighborhood leaders in North Long Beach. We're in support of this agenda item and we would urge that you do approve it. The only difference I would like to make is that time is of the essence. And I'm going to give you the following statistics to prove why a victim of sex trafficking is, on the average, raped 6000 times in seven years. In 2019, one in six children reported missing in the US was likely a victim of sex trafficking and most were in the welfare system when they disappeared. The average victim of sex trafficking. The life expectancy is 3 to 7 years. Sex trafficking accounts for 77% of human trafficking cases. California and Texas consistently have the highest number of reports of human trafficking cases. The odds of escaping a human trafficking situation are 1%. 95% of girls born in a red light district will be sex trafficked and die in captivity. One in 40 million slaves in the world. One in four of those is a child. Please do not wait for reports to come back. To take action. Thank you. Thank you. Monica Geller. Good evening. My name is Monica Keller. Thank you, city council members for addressing this this initiative. And I am the starting neighborhood president. And on behalf of my neighborhood, I stand with this agenda item and ask that you support it. And just to let you know, as long as I've lived there, that is been one of the main things that I hear, especially during my encounters with my fellow neighbors. That is one of the biggest frustrations that they have regarding the human trafficking issue. So I think that it is really important that we support this initiative and that we bring all the resources that we can bring to the area as soon as possible. We have, like all the leaders have said, met with our commander, Megan Sable, and we really are thankful to her for listening to our concerns and working with us to make sure that we address this issue, which is, as we've heard, is getting out of control. And again, the human trafficking issue is one that we really want to solve. It affects everyone, especially our children in our neighborhood. We have to start being elementary and to and from school. These children are witnessing things that they are too young and should not be seeing and that they may be exposed or become victims of. As my fellow colleague has stated. So, as I said during our cleanups, we're fighting paraphernalia and before any kind of event in the neighborhood, we have to kind of go through it to make sure that we don't find some of this stuff out there. I don't know of any other neighborhoods experiences, but it's kind of frustrating. It's kind of sad that we have to deal with this on a daily basis. So I really ask and I think of Vice Mayor Rex Richardson for bringing this forth. And I ask that you all support this and not only like you said in the short term, but the long term. I think this has been a generational issue. And I think all the generations that have lived there and are still there are ready for change. And it is a step in the right direction. So I ask for your support on this. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Steve Neal. Good evening Vice Mayor as the council members and the community. Steve Neal My address on file. I'd really like to thank Vice Mayor and Council member Sorrell and Allen for bringing this forward. As you've heard from our residents in the north Long Beach, this is an issue that has plagued the north Long Beach area, as we've said, for decades. I had the distinct honor of representing that district. It was a problem when I got there. It was a problem when my predecessor got there. But we are moving in the right direction to address it now. I think the attention that you're putting on it and I'd like to I'd like to phrase the wri, the I'm sure a council member, Austin, who now represents this area and is going to be inundated with this. The two focuses on that, knowing that we've got to make a difference up here. The I think you hear the frustration in the residents. It's just that this has been going on for so long. And I will say that it has been a lot of progress that was being made. And just like everything else, the pandemic throws everything off. But to re-address your focus to this particular part of town, Ms.. Wilson talked about the the Long Beach corridor, and really it starts here in Long Beach and it goes all the way to South Gate. You know, these these type of motels are common throughout the Long Beach corridor from Long Beach to South Gate. So you will find that's part of that that sex trafficking, the prostitution area. But a dedicated focus here in North Long Beach, I think would be greatly appreciated. And just by hearing my fellow residents concerns now, it's always been a problem, but it seems to be bubbling to a much greater intensity now. So I urge your support. I thank all of you guys for bringing this item forward. Thank you. Thank you so much, Renay. And to everybody here, thank you so much for coming out because you. I didn't say that. Hang on. You all waited. You heard multiple cannabis items. I know it's frustrating to wait this late. Everyone took their time to speak at the right time. But I do understand you've waited a long time, and it's a frustrating issue. So we're going to depart from the standard practice and go ahead and deliver your public comment. You're going to want now. You can deliver your public comment. Good evening. My name is Rene REO at the president in Language Neighborhood Association. Now I'm in the district. I have been a longtime advocate for my community. I actually go every month, door by door, passing out fliers about our community events and issues. And on behalf of many residents and many leaders that I have spoken to, they ask, why now? Why? We've been plagued by this for years. We had multiple meetings and meetings with you and your staff about this issue. And we're so frustrated. So what happened? Eight years in office. I have personal conversations with you about this issue and just blow me off to the side. Just like, you. Know, council members. We have children walking down this corridor, being approached by pimps and prostitutes. We even the johns who don't even get service by the prostitutes, are now reaching out to our neighbors, young neighbors, following them to their homes. They're not feeling safe. Now again, Rex. Many residents in my neighborhood and leaders are asking, you know, why? Is it because there's an election coming up? It's perfect timing. You have this type of behavior. So I am here since a part of this agenda item because I'm an advocate for my community and I ask the council, please stand by us and move this forward, because this is going to be an item that's going to help our streets to be safe for our children and for our residents. So I just. Want you to. Understand how important this for all of us. And thank God now we're with us. And hopefully you can pick up from all the mess that reckless behind. Thank you, Councilman Austin. You know, pick up the ball. Well, thank you. I just want to thank all of the residents who came out in support of this particular item. I, I understand. I feel I think this council feels and understands your passion. I was we were we were just all together, particularly with the Longwood and Coolidge Park neighborhood groups just a few weeks ago, where we had a capacity crowd of, you know, I want to say 50 or 60 people coming together. And we had a community conversation around some of these issues. And my office has been in contact, constant contact, working on issues as they come up, but also working on long term solutions with our staff, with our police department, with our economic development department, with our Development Services Department, our public works department. We're going to put a full court press on this particular community and give it the attention that it deserves. And that's my commitment to you. I would just ask that and thank you for coming to City Hall today and bringing light to these issues, because oftentimes the rest of the city staff don't don't hear and don't hear from the residents, hear the frustrations or feel the frustrations. And so tonight, you all endured a long meeting. You stayed tonight. You spoke your piece. And and I think this this entire council understands what we need to do to support you. And again, we'll be engaging with our city staff to to make sure that this area gets the focus and attention it deserves. Again, I think there are a number of remedies that that haven't even come up and aren't even addressed in this particular item that we can work together to to to get to solutions. But some require us all working together. And I ask that you not retreat, that you not abandon your ideas and your convictions, and let's work together to make it happen. Those are my comments and I look forward to voting to support this. Thank you, Mr. Richardson. Thank you. I'll just add some final thoughts. So thank everybody for coming out. I think, you know, we've known each other for a very long time and we've made some meaningful progress together. But the reality is the pandemic is impacting all of us. It's not an easy issue. I appreciate Councilman Neal highlighting. He dealt with this issue, Velarde dealt with this issue, and the next council member is going to deal with this issue unless we break the cycle. We have to commit to systems thinking. We have to rezone the corridor. We have to address the nuisance uses on those corridors. That takes time. But we've been working every year, some would say. Why now? 2014 Alcohol Nuisance Abatement Ordinance. 2015 It was implemented. 2017 Motel Task Force. 2018 The Motion to Create the Motel Ordinance 2020 The Moratorium Ordinance went into effect. I've been to all of your homes. I've worked with you along the way. You all know the story. It's systemic issues that we have to change the policy. The pandemic happened in 2020. That set us off track. Today's focus, people say, why now? It's because we're trying to get our economy, trying to get our communities back on track. And it's only going to happen if we work together. So I look forward to the spirit of collaboration Councilman often mentioned. I look forward to new ideas. If there are new ideas, we certainly need them. This was framed in the context of the entire Beat Beat 23 because there's progress happening across that beat. But, you know, there are some significant issues on Long Beach Boulevard, both sides of Long Beach Boulevard. And so the pathway forward is unity. But we have to think about systemic changes. We don't want to pass this on to wear continues to go for generations and generations. So thank you all for coming forward. Thank you to the city council and let's go ahead and have our vote. Councilwoman to the house. Motion is carried. All right. I think we have item 21 now. Right. Thank you so much. Item 21.