\u201cI\u2019m just fed up with everything,\u201d Morris said in a phone call. \u201cThe bureaucracy just sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Morris and the Queen Mary got approval for their shows from the state\u2019s Water Resources Control Board, which found no tangible rise in water pollution after previous shows, water board spokesperson Ailene Voisin said. But, unlike the Queen Mary, Morris also had to convince the Coastal Commission. That process has gotten significantly more difficult.<\/p>\n
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For years, Coastal Commission staff routinely approved Morris\u2019 permit, but after complaints and a lawsuit<\/a> alleging the fireworks polluted the water and harmed migratory birds nesting nearby, the statewide board has given him more scrutiny. In 2024, the Coastal Commission gave him an ultimatum: It was time to switch to drones, which they viewed as more environmentally friendly and less disorienting to the birds. They warned in 2025 that it was the last time they would approve fireworks<\/a> over Alamitos Bay.<\/p>\n So why did the Big Bang need Coastal Commission approval, but the Queen Mary didn\u2019t?<\/p>\n The commission has ceded its authority over the Queen Mary show to the Port of Long Beach, where it\u2019s permanently docked, according to commission spokesperson Joshua Smith. Because the Coastal Commission previously approved a master plan from the port that defines what\u2019s allowed in its boundaries and what isn\u2019t, the commission doesn\u2019t weigh in on individual events. Anything with potential environmental impacts falls under the port\u2019s scope, Smith said.<\/p>\n The port, apparently, is fine with the fireworks. Spokesperson Lee Peterson said he could find no record of the port requiring any permitting or exercising any oversight of the Queen Mary show.<\/p>\n So with another fireworks show happening in Long Beach as well as others up and down the California coast, Morris tried to charge ahead with his show \u2014 even with the Coastal Commission\u2019s previous warning. He asked for one more approval.<\/p>\n He told commissioners there was no safe way to launch the drones. Plus, he said, they were prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t fair, he argued, to force him to abandon fireworks while other shows continued.<\/p>\n John Morris, owner of the Boathouse on the Bay restaurant and longtime Big Bang on the Bay organizer in Long Beach on May 14, 2025. <\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Thomas R. Cordova<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Long Beach Post<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Commissioners were unmoved. They denied his request for fireworks, saying he\u2019d had ample warning, and Morris canceled his event altogether.<\/p>\n Last week, commission staff sent Morris a letter saying they were \u201cdisheartened\u201d<\/a> that he chose that route. They offered a compromise. They\u2019d be willing to consider a fireworks show at an alternate location \u2014 just not over Alamitos Bay and its nesting birds.<\/p>\n In a phone call last week, Morris called their offer \u201ca joke.\u201d<\/p>\n Moving the show would ruin his chances of getting funding from residents whose homes ring the bay. They\u2019ve gotten used to having the fireworks essentially in their backyards and have given generously to support the show in the past. Additional proceeds, nearly $2 million since the Big Bang began in 2011, go to charity, according to Morris.<\/p>\n When Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s office took notice of the cancellation<\/a>, Morris hoped he would intervene. With no progress so far, Morris said he\u2019s holding out hope a state bill<\/a> \u2014 the so-called Fireworks for Freedom Act \u2014 will garner enough votes to pass the legislature. It was introduced April 30 by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-41) and would pave the way for any fireworks display \u201cby temporarily suspending Federal and State regulatory restrictions\u201d for this year only.<\/p>\n If it doesn\u2019t pass, he\u2019ll have to find something else to do with his fireworks barges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For America\u2019s 250th birthday this July 4, the Queen Mary in Long Beach is promising to pull out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[36753,174,46981,4035,18659,131,133,132,41646,2435],"class_list":["post-317764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-bang","tag-beach","tag-big","tag-fireworks","tag-long","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-mary","tag-queen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778878093_613_.jpeg\")
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