House prices holding in North Long Beach
House prices holding in North Long Beach
Community News and Resources
By Caden Choi
The unmistakable neon billboard off the 405 Fwy in Long Beach presents a pictoral graphic of bottles and cans to any passerby through the city. The message is clear: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The city’s Environmental Services Bureau promotes waste reduction among residents and businesses through both a social media campaign (Instagram, @lbrecycles) and in-person education and programming. Through its purple carts, the ESB provides services to 120,000 customers throughout the city.
CADEN CHOI / NORTH LONG BEACH VIBE
Each of these bales of processed recyclables at the Waste Management facility in Orange weighs about a ton. This facility serves eight Orange County cities and overflow recyclables from Long Beach. Most Long Beach recyclables collected weekly from purple bins by trucks go to Potential Industries in Wilmington.
CADEN CHOI / NORTH LONG BEACH VIBE
A sorter examines a bale of compressed paper recyclables. “Out of those 600 tons, approximately 30% is non-recyclable material — essentially trash,” says Ricardo Padilla, Material Recovery Supervisor at Waste Management. “I think the biggest issue with recycling is that people don’t know how to recycle correctly. It’s like everyone is on the right track but on the wrong train.” Most processed materials remain in the US. Plastics and Aluminum are reused within the country. The majority of recycled glass is sent across the border but remains nearby. The only materials that are sent overseas to countries like India and Thailand are fiber-based products like cardboard and paper. Imagine your Amazon boxes being reborn as new shoe boxes halfway around the world.
Long Beach residents might be surprised to find that less common forms of recyclables, such as technology waste, can be broken down and recycled locally. "All your tech waste goes to local companies that will take these machines apart completely," says Supervisor Padilla. "They'll sell plastic screens, phone screens, copper to third parties...old DVD players—all that gets reused."
Padilla motions to a pile of unsorted materials. "Trash never stops," he says. It costs Waste Management $2500 per minute to sort through all the material. Dalia Gonzalez-Gaeta, Long Beach Customer
State of the city, as presented by Mayor Rex Richardson
From Kristen Le Falle Sampson
13 January 2026
Troy and I attended Long Beach's State of the City. Mayor Rex Richardson delivered an inspirational address on January 13, 2026, under the theme “A Future Built by All of Us.” While the speech was interrupted multiple times, as you might imagine, with neighbors exercising their First Amendment right to emotionally oppose the lodging of ICE is Downtown Long Beach and "lawless enforcement" in our surrounding communities, here are some takeaways for those who could not attend "Future Built By All of Us" last night:
Jobs Growth
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Goal to create 4,000 new jobs by 2028, updates on the 2028 Olympic preparations, and the reveal of the city's new professional sports identity. The Mayor also vowed to prioritize applications and placements as outlined in the Local Hiring Preference Initiative.
Home Ownership & Housing
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Mayor Richardson highlighted significant progress in expanding the housing supply and supporting long-term residency. The city celebrated 5,000 new housing entitlements over the last three years, which include market-rate and affordable units, as well as a record number of ADU approvals during 2025. Richardson touted the expansion of First-Time Homebuyer Grant Assistance that provide down payment and closing cost, as well as additional programs (like the return of the Mills Act) helping residents with local property taxes.
Elderly & Senior Services
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Supporting the city’s aging population was a key part of the "Future Built by All of Us" messaging. The city's Senior Shallow Subsidy: Program, which offers monthly rental assistance to low-income seniors facing economic disruption and homelessness. This includes the construction of 300 Alamitos Ave (81 apartments) and the Armory Arts Collective (63 apartments), both specifically designed for older adults with lower income sources.
LA28
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The ticket draw for Olympic events in Long Beach and across the southland is NOW OPEN!
Long Beach will play hose to Olympic Team Houses in Long Beach which include Team Denmark House, Team Greece House and, announced last evening the Team IRELAND House.
The Long Beach Amphitheatre
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The Mayor highlighted significant progress with not only to building but booking of the Long Beach Amphitheatre inaugural season. The Long Beach Symphony will open the venue which seats 11, 000 guests on June 6th. Summer season will include Vans Warped Tour, Toto, Mötley Crüe, and more.
Marathon Burger
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Samiel "Blacc Sam" and the Broadus Family (sans Snoop) joined the Mayor discuss the Marathon venture, a purposeful extension of the entrepreneurial vision held by Sam's brother Nipsey Hussle as well as other initiatives that will support the small businesses all over the city as we get LA28 ready.
Two names for LB baseball
We voted, and our new Pro Baseball team is... The Long Beach Coast (Pro Baseball) or the "LBC"! All in attendance received an
official ball cap.
Inspired by part-owner and local l egend Warren G., our Mayor acknowledged the "Regulators" ( which also received a high number of votes for name consideration) will be the team's "Alter Ego" and a nod to
Long Beach’s hip-hop heritage. The team will feature a secondary identity and be referred to as the Regulators in some campaigns. There will likely be Regulators Merch, kind of like the NBC "City Jerseys" that players will wear for special match-ups.
That's pretty much where we zoned out as the Mayor's town hall was excrutiatingly long but the video of the entire State of the City is here for your leisurely viewing pleasure: https://longbeach.gov/stateofthecity
CADEN CHOI
Where is Octavio Montano Islas?
Years later, Octavio Montano Islas is still at large. Janice Hahn stated that the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors renewed the $10000 reward for information leading to the suspect's capture in January of 2025. Long Beach Police say they are still “actively” searching for Octavio Montano Islas, the man they say left the Bottoms Up bar on March 1, 2022 after a confrontation with someone in the bar.
Islas apparently lost control of his 2014 Dodge Ram pickup and smashed into the front of an apartment building just north of the bar. The impact killed a man and his daughter sleeping inside. Police said the driver abandoned the truck and fled.
Los Angeles and Long Beach have agreed to fund a $25,000 reward for anyone providing
information leading to the capture of the suspect. Call LBPD Collision Investigation Detail at (562) 570-7355 or call1-800-222-TIPS (8477), or download the "P3 TIPS" app to your smartphone if you have any information that can help.
Octavio Montano Islas,
Long Beach Police Dept.
Floral tributes for the man and his daughter killed in the hit and run.
Relations Officer at Public Works' Environmental Services Bureau says the city pays for recycling collection by billing its 120,000 customers. For more information regarding the costs of services, go to the cost-of-service study linked below.
Virtual Food Court
FREE YOGA CLASSES
Rooted in Wellness Yoga Co-op is now offering free yoga classes at Houghton Park (Myrtle and Harding) on Saturdays, AND SUNDAYS at 11 am. Visit their site for more information and to read about their NLB wellness initiatives.
Why people refused
to fill out the census form
House prices holding
in North Long Beach
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