Everybody knows I love Long Beach but…

Most people also know Long Beach is one heck of a quirky city.  It's the perfect in between city.  At 500,000 population, it is neither big nor small.  As a growing city, it is in between two worlds.  It is still managed like the smaller city it was yesterday but has big city aspirations.  The problem for cities like these is making the transition to big city management as soon as possible.

One example of this is the well known, rarely addressed fact that residential parking in and around the Belmont Heights, Belmont Shore and Park area is out of control.  With every block corner painted with ten feet of no-parking red curb lines, people have to fend for spots.  With 90% of the population illegally using their garage as storage, other than cars, there is not enough parking outside.  If you try to park after 8 pm, you have the choice of looking three to five blocks away or risk a ticket because you have to use the red lines.  And they come as early a 6 am to ticket you.  We all complain, nothing gets done.

So why am I writing this? I just found out Long Beach is building a cricket field.  Yes, cricket.  Don't get me wrong, I like cricket but do we have a champion team playing in our city?  Not to my knowledge.

When you think that our local national rugby champions have to borrow fields as far as Lakewood middle Schools just to play international and national scoring games, it really makes you wonder about the enlightenment of our city.

How come our local national rugby champions don't have a field right here in their own city?  How come the  Press Telegram is incapable of writing about our very own team who has just made it to the national finals?  Remember, this is the newspaper that writes about our city?

You have to love our city.  That's why a lot of us live here because despite its dreams of grandeur, it is still a quaint little neighborhood city.  Congratulation Long Beach's Cricket team!  And for you, our local national rugby champions, maybe the gods of downtown Long Beach will grant you a field next year where you can play and continue your ascend… who knows?