{"id":442589,"date":"2026-08-25T02:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442589\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T02:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:34:11","slug":"lb-fresh-week-of-actions-urban-acupunctures-to-unblock-long-beachs-grass-roots-food-chi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442589\/","title":{"rendered":"LB Fresh Week of Actions: \u201curban acupunctures\u201d to unblock Long Beach\u2019s grass-roots food chi –"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screenshot<\/a>Nick Mann (far right) leads an urban foraging class at Grow2Zero Farm on the inaugural day of LB Fresh’s Week of Actions. Photo by Ryan Smolar. <\/p>\n

Quick-action projects can spark change and build momentum.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the headline of AARP\u2019s Community Challenge, which each year provides small grants for hundreds of \u201clivability projects nationwide, with a focus on meeting the needs of adults age 50 or older.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of this year\u2019s recipients is Long Beach Fresh, <\/a>which is employing the grant money (plus contributions from the Port of Long Beach and the Bixby Knolls Community Foundation) to put on over a dozen events this week primarily aimed \u201cto connect seniors with healthy food in Long Beach \u2014 the gardens, farms, and restaurants of the city through a connection between culture and walkability.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the potential benefits could be enjoyed by residents of all ages. LB Fresh Director Ryan Smolar<\/a> calls their \u201cWeek of Actions\u201d part of a series of \u201curban acupunctures applying innovation, new thinking, and models of sociability around already-established groups, activities, neighborhoods who just need encouragement and [to be guided toward the] next steps. In particular, we\u2019re using Long Beach\u2019s own secret weapon, which is our incredible diversity and numerous cultures, as the tip of the spear of change for the city. [\u2026] Our events are targeting the creatives, entrepreneurs, stewards, and critical institutional players to build momentum and alignment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event series kicked off on Saturday at Food Finders\u2019 monthly Community Marketplace at Admiral Kidd Park<\/a>, which LB Fresh elevated with some simple programming that lifted it from a simple food-distribution event to a neighborhood party. Later in the day came an edible-plant foraging talk at Grow2Zero Urban Farm<\/a>, followed by the Feel Good Community Table, \u201ca pay-what-you-can, community-centered food experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

A centerpiece of the week\u2019s events is a screening of Close Encounters of the 34th Avenue Kind: The Story of NYC\u2019s Best Open Street, which documents a program that enables residents and organizations to self-determine the transformation of their neighborhood streets \u201cinto public space open to all[, \u2026] empower[ing] communities to become stewards of their streets and reimagine them as valuable local assets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smolar points to Beach Streets as a sort of local analog, though with control delegated to the people who live on and around those open streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe screening is important because it\u2019s the story of an idea \u2014 NYC Open Streets \u2014 that could be a game-changer for our city if it took root here,\u201d he says. \u201cThe idea is that communities manage their own streets and their own street closures, deciding with your neighbors when you want to close your street to vehicular traffic and make it a place for people. Essentially, it\u2019s [like making] a plaza or town square for your neighborhood. In New York, this is everything from one block that\u2019s closed on the weekend for play streets or movie screenings or putt-putt or neighbors selling knick-knacks or just sitting and reading books, all the way to the longest open street, which is 26 blocks long. It\u2019s like a permanent Beach Streets run by the community itself. Seven thousand students use that open street to get to school safely. Traffic fatalities in that neighborhood were reduced by 70%. There\u2019s beautiful programming from cumbia in the street to afterschool programming to bike rides to service outreach and ESL\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Burke<\/a>, co-founder of the 34th Avenue Open Streets Coalition, says the best thing cities can do to facilitate such endeavors is \u201cstep back and let it happen.\u201d Following the screening, Burke will participate in a panel discussion that includes Krista Nightingale, executive director of the Better Block Foundation<\/a>; and Alex Jung<\/a>, City Fabrick\u2019s director of Urban Planning & Design, who will provide insight on unnecessary impediments (expense, bureaucracy, inefficiency) at present to doing such closures locally. The screening \u2014 free with RSVP<\/a> \u2014 takes place at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Art Theatre.<\/p>\n

Smolar, who literally travels the globe advising cities on how they can \u201cbridge foodways, ecological health, and human connection \u2014 weaving networks where people trade skills, share abundance, and imagine better futures together,\u201d says cities like Long Beach often take exactly the wrong approach to facilitating placemaking and community growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this layer of nonprofits and institutional players and bureaucrats who are supposed to be the facilitators of this who cannot execute it effectively because they\u2019re not moving at the speed of community,\u201d he says. \u201cThey have a model that\u2019s really outdated and oriented toward the wrong end goals and not the process of enlivenment, activation, and growth. [\u2026] The answer is trust and capacity-building. Until a community builds the capacity to take on these responsibilities, they\u2019re not trusted to do so \u2014 but if they\u2019re not trusted to do these things, they never build the capacity to do them themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

An example of Long Beach electeds not moving at anywhere near the speed of community is the Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation program<\/a> (MEHKO), which \u201callows eligible residents to prepare and sell meals directly to consumers from their private home kitchen.\u201d Although the State of California passed legislation<\/a> allowing MEHKOs in 2018, for reasons passing understanding the City of Long Beach did not officially begin considering the possibility until 2024<\/a>, despite the fact that LB Fresh had been advocating for MEHKOs since 2019. The city council finally approved the program in April.<\/p>\n

Smolar notes that an irony about the program is that although it is immigrant communities who are the most likely to set up and benefit from MEHKOs, they are also the least likely to hear about it \u2014 \u201cso they need an extra special invitation to understand what that law means, how they can envision it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hence Thursday\u2019s \u201cHow to Open a Home Restaurant.\u201d Hosted by LB Fresh at Lomo Fuego, a Lakewood MEHKO that LAist calls<\/a> \u201cL.A.\u2019s best new Peruvian restaurant,\u201d attendees will sample the food and ambiance while hearing from founder Heidi Randolph about how home cooks can turn their talent into a sanctioned neighborhood business \u2014 as she did for a mere $2,000.<\/p>\n

Smolar notes that although Long Beach (a city that he knows inside and out<\/a>) enjoys a plethora of advantages over many cities, outdated bureaucratic thinking is holding back growth at the grass-roots level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just advising the City of Buffalo and listening to their ideas about economic development,\u201d he relates, \u201cand what you hear is, \u2018If only we had a port, if only we had oil money, if only we had a Convention & Visitors Bureau, if only we had hotels, if only we had a beach, if only we had the space industry\u2019 \u2014 and I can sit there across the table and go, \u2018Long Beach has all those things, and we\u2019re still structurally broke.\u2019 Having amenities does not guarantee quality of life in your neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is why LB Fresh\u2019s Week of Actions focuses on how denizens of every demographic can uplift their communities, food-wise and otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoving the place you live, being a good neighbor, really supporting each other\u2019s visions and dreams and organizing those into bigger ideas in the neighborhoods is really what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d Smolar says. \u201cThis project is all about empowering community agency. This city has a $58 million deficit<\/a>. They\u2019re struggling to keep librarians. They\u2019re not going to be saving us anytime soon. So we need people in our community to be empowered to start their own businesses, to help create content and programming on their own streets. That\u2019s what this event series is all about: to show techniques and strategies and ways in which community can be the answer to their own problems and the way for their own dreams to come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a list of public events during LB Fresh\u2019s Week of Actions, go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Mann (far right) leads an urban foraging class at Grow2Zero Farm on the inaugural day of LB…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[175318,175319,175320,175321,175322,40482,175323,161104,175324,175325,131,133,132,9722],"class_list":["post-442589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-aarpcommunitychallenge","tag-communityempowerment","tag-communitygardens","tag-foodjustice","tag-localfood","tag-longbeach","tag-longbeachfresh","tag-smallbusiness","tag-urbanplacemaking","tag-walkablecities","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-rln"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442589","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=442589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}