The Wild Contradictions (and Beauty) of Long Beach, CA

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Long Beach, California. Home of one of the busiest container ports in the world, expensive housing, a very long beach, and...over 2500 active oil wells. Yes, you heard that right.

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[blarneystone]

A full video examining why New York and Los Angeles are so different from one another would actually be fire.

[phoebekiekhofer]

Car-free Angeleno here!! I take Metro to Long Beach regularly and sometimes bring my bike too. I'm part of a community in LA that is advocating for car-free mobility (we worked on Measure HLA, which you should read about if you don't know about it!), and most of my friends here are either car-free or extremely car-lite. I agree with you that there are a TON of contradictions of the amazing weather here and people still choosing to spend it in metal cages, and we are working to make mixed mobility and walkability a reality here. I think that many parts of LA are in better shape, mobility-wise, than Long Beach, and it doesn't really make sense to me given Long Beach's historic grid, Metro access, and bike infrastructure. I think that a lot of it is a mentality issue that needs addressing.

[martinbrandt]

My in-laws lived in Long Beach, and I used to complain bitterly about visiting there every Christmastime. After my father-in-law died, my mother-in-law moved to Phoenix, where I discovered that I LOVE LONG BEACH!

[narashivaya]

I’m Italian and I lived for almost 5 years in Long Beach, working at the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement project ad an engineer. I only took the car to go to work just because I had to cross the 710. Otherwise, I was walking and biking easily across all the city. From Pike, were I used to leave, to Naples along the ocean or second street. And it was easy to walk to grocery shops or basically everywhere. And Long Beach is a bike and walk friendly city. What is wrong is just the mentality, not the urbanization nor the infrastructures, which are amazing in LB! I was even going to LA by metro! And nothing even happened to me! Change your habits and use your feet! For the environment and for your health!
I miss Long Beach a lot ❤

[AlecThePirateKing]

This past winter, I went to Long Beach to meet up with a friend visiting from France. He was staying with a Long Beach resident who doesn't own a car and not because he is too poor. He happily told me about how he can get anywhere he needs to go via transit. I had no idea that was possible ANYWHERE in the LA area.

[ryebails]

Long Beach is f***ing awesome. Never been in a city so diverse, beautiful, and complex. Its truly everything that makes the LA area unique but in only 1 city.

[Gilgamesh]

The video is good overall, however, many of the jack pumps you showed are actually in Signal Hill which is a separate city and an enclave surrounded by the City of Long Beach. Signal Hill has its own history and land use policies that made it a very distinct place from Long Beach.

[mathieufaltys]

I live car free in DT Long Beach. My family loves it and it has been a great place to raise my kids. We bike everywhere. The city is best in the spring and summer during festival season. Every weekend has several events to choose from.

There has been a lot of mixed use infill construction. It feels like the city is on the verge of a major transformation. We have a lot of new residential units and empty street-facing storefronts. I'm hoping for the day when we get a wave of new shops and restaurants.

Getting around LA from Long Beach is pretty easy, though it does take longer than it should. On occasion we will rent a car and every time we are reminded why we don't own one. I would rather spend an extra half-hour relaxing on a train or bus than have to be behind the wheel and then waste time looking for parking. We really need to build a subway that connects DTLB with Cal State LB and the airport. It would also be great to have a direct rail connection to Santa Ana to the east and the bay cities to the west.

[gregvassilakos]

CityNerd, Thank you for limiting your grumbling about the $40 ticket price for boarding the Queen Mary. Visiting the Queen Mary when I was about ten years old set me on a trajectory that led to a degree in Naval Architecture and many years of employment in the engineering department of a large shipyard. -GV

[andrewlindstrom]

I actually wouldn't be surprised if longshoremen lived in downtown Long Beach! Love it or hate it, the ILWU has quite a lot of power in west coast ports and longshoreman salaries are >$100k.

[Jetliner]

4:54 I notice this non-stop whenever I'm out and about, it's just staggering how much of life is driving, parking, car car car. My favorite is when they complain about how far they had to park, when the bus I took dropped me off at the front door.

[jamereut]

Thanks for coming! I thought I'd bugged you about Long Beach before, but maybe not! I've lived here without a car for 3.5 years and got into a nice place with a 95 walkscore in 2023 (and I also work in transportation here). I think you would have liked the Zaferia and Rose Park areas much better than Downtown, and Long Beach Transit punches far above its weight (especially if you live in the right areas). I would say that of all the cities in LA and Orange counties, Long Beach is one of the most walkable and is making steps to emphasize that part of its appeal.

[Emma.Lily]

It's mind-blowing that wind mills, especially off shore wind farms, are constantly hindered by being an "eyesore" but these oil drilling machinery can exist endlessly in the middle of a community

[harborseal]

An hour transit into DTLA is not bad! It takes 40 mins by car without traffic and excluding time for parking, meaning it is almost always faster to take transit in. It also took me 1:15 to take transit to LAX when I was living on Cherry & PCH. Lots of transfers, could be faster, but so much better than dealing with the clusterfuck of cars there. Having lived in Long Beach, their transit goes tragically unsung.

[garethliamable]

I used to work on the cruise ships out of Long Beach 20 years ago. There were some entertainment staff that had cars when they got off the ship, but the majority had to walk, take public transit or cabs.
I was pretty impressed by the bus service from the port and in town. The buses were free, clean and the stations had digital signs that told you wait times.

[Objectivish]

I lived in Long Beach without a vehicle for just about 5 years. I can confidently say that Long Beach is one of the only places in Southern California that I could live. Living within walking distance of the Line formerly known as the Blue Line opens you up to one of the best car free experiences in the country. It is very walkable, but the most frustrating thing is that Long Beach calls itself "The most bike friendly city in America" which is an absolute joke. The bike culture in LB is basically nonexistent and honestly terrifying. I think the number one thing LB shines at though is the fact that there is some of the most affordable housing in the LA area due to the preserved supply of pre-war construction.

[viffer]

Long Beach is to L.A. as Oakand is to San Francisco and Tacoma is to Seattle. A rough and tumble blue collar port town sitting next to its more famous and glamorous sister city. It’s probably not the worst place in the world to live if you can afford it. Public transit isn’t terrible and as long as you can work in the area and not commute it seems nice enough.

[stanleywalker]

I never expected to see a whole video dedicated to my home town! Thanks for showing the world Long Beach!

[erik_griswold]

As pointed out by others, Signal Hill is a separate city. And that’s why you are seeing the multitudes of transit operators. Each city can and often does operate its own system along with Los Angeles County’s Metro who run both rail and buses.

[PDXLibertarian]

This is where I grew up and where my dad lives and where I own property. It's always been ripe for urbanist development. I've been wanting to do a more extensive metro in LBC forever. Seriously, you showed my childhood home in this video and I know every street in this shot. Crazy.