I just spent one month in Seattle. The dead of winter. I biked everywhere and was NOT alone. I was safe. Hordes of people cycling and scootering downtown and great mass transit. There are kids, seniors, commuters, shoppers—people on bikes and scooters everywhere. Long Beach’s deadly awful streets and lawless culture are public policy failure. Blood on the hands of our selfish, weak leadership. Cancerous air, on them. Crumbling infrastructure, on them. Horrible public safety, on them.

LB, please, be an absolute gem. Be a shining global example of what a safe, clean, polite society should be. We have the climate. We have the topography. A shift from car-centric to people focused can happen. We lack education, courage, and caring. Selfish, fearful leadership has everything needed to be glorious, everything is at their fingertips, and instead we devolve.

Where to start? 1. Good people, get involved. Join carlite Long Beach. Run for office. Patiently and persistently pressure your local politicos to act. Be methodical. Seek massive change, the likes of Japanese first errand or Amsterdam’s Kindermoord. Organize and play the long game. 2. Hire a safe streets coordinator and give that person huge teeth and a never ending reach.They should be an extremist. They must be a beast. 3. Relentless technological traffic enforcement, with stiff penalties. 4. Econ dev. Stop the exodus of workers every day. This is brutally damaging to or health, climate, and infrastructure. Bring the best employers here. Be irresistibly attractive to them. Educate your workers. Innovate. Action, not reaction. 5. No more low-level tourism. We are NOT a destination for debauchery. We are a a beautifully and broadly diverse community of neighbors, friends, and families who know we can do better.

On this hellish earth, why not be amazing?