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<\/p>\nDoing Good is an occasional newsletter where we share about the good things people do in our city \u2014 and a few ideas to get involved yourself. <\/p>\n
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It\u2019s gala season! <\/p>\n
Way back I used to edit the society columnist for the Press-Telegram, the legendary Shirley Wild. Each week I deleted exclamation points and spell-checked a lengthy \u2014 very lengthy \u2014 list of names of local notables who were \u201cSeen at the Scene\u201d at various charitable events.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I get it now. A lot goes on in Long Beach beyond the breaking news, investigations and features from our editorial team. The city has more than 300 nonprofits and foundations, and many fundraise and bring attention to their work at dinners, concerts, sporting events and \u201c-a-thons\u201d of all types.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Myself? I\u2019m a gala girl. And this is certainly the season for mass-produced entremets and floor-length attire:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Precious Lamb held its \u201cReaching for the Stars\u201d gala at the Aquarium of the Pacific; the Public Library Foundation hosted the \u201cGrape Expectations\u201d wine event at Billie Jean King Library; the Ronald McDonald House hosted a \u201cA Few Good Men and Women,\u201d which this year featured two of the city\u2019s most well-known matriarchs \u2014 sisters Barbara (Bixby) Blackwell and Jean Bixby Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This week, I attended the Nell and John Wooden Ethics in Leadership Award Dinner hosted by the Ukleja Center at CSULB, which promotes ethical study across the curriculum at Cal State Long Beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s event honored Jeff Levine of the Long Beach Rescue Mission, a genuine and effective speaker in part because, as a former addict, he trudged the very path of many of the Mission\u2019s clients. The center also honored the faculty who\u2019ve received grants over the years to incorporate ethics into course study, including two of my bosses: Gwen Shaffer, a tenured faculty member who serves on our board, and the chair of the journalism department at CSULB, Jennifer Fleming.<\/p>\n
No entremets at this dinner \u2014 but the fancy cupcakes fit nicely in my purse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A quarter-cent saved<\/p>\n
The Long Beach Reform Coalition deserves a shout this week.<\/p>\n
This grassroots coalition formed in 2018 when former Mayor Robert Garcia floated a slate of Charter reform changes that included extending term limits for elected leaders. The measure was successful<\/a>, which means the coalition was not. <\/p>\n But this band of advocacy organizations (the Council of Neighborhood Associations, Eastside Voice, LBHUSH2 and more) has pestered the city over the past eight years with a few wins, and \u2014 given the imbalance of power against City Hall \u2014 that\u2019s not nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n This week the group won a huge victory: A judge agreed that voters in 2020 raised the local sales tax by a quarter-cent in two years, not now \u2014 not even after the city voted to remove the \u201cOctober 2027\u201d effective date from the measure after last year\u2019s passage of a county measure that freed up room in the state sales tax cap. Long Beach officials \u2014 mindful of a budget gap in the next few years \u2014 reasoned that voters intended to push up the tax as soon as the expiration of the county tax measure, whether it be 2025 or 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n And, after writing the above paragraph, I now loathe the word \u201cmeasure,\u201d and also should give kudos to our city hall reporter, John Donegan, who did a much better job explaining it all<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last: If you didn\u2019t know, the Post is the city\u2019s largest nonprofit newsroom. Our work is free to the public, but local news done right is expensive to produce \u2014 more than a few quarter-cents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n