Since it's important to keep the community not only together, but involved, we have to remember that it's also essential for those same people to fellowship with each other. That's why 9th District Councilmember Steven Neal on July 23, hosted the first "North Long Beach Community Assembly" at Houghton Park in North Long Beach where more than 100 people showed up.

Since I live five minutes away, ( and being on Neal's staff) it was not a problem for me to check it out. It was really cool to see such a large turn out, considering the 9th District can be known for it's low turn out to events - but things are changing. This being a North Long Beach event also helped the turn out too with residents from Councilwoman Rae Gabelich's district as well. She also attended.

Seeing my neighbors seriously concerned and interested in what's going on in our neighborhood really gave it a strong "community vibe."

The event featured presentations from neighborhood associations, Redevelopment Agency, Police Department, Health Department, among others. Basically, it was a "Super Bowl" of neighborhood groups and associations.

Another interesting fact is that Mayor Bob Foster and Congresswoman Laura Richardson showed up too! Like outta nowhere man.

Anyways, the agenda went like this:

• Neal gave opening remarks
• Five minute presentation from each neighborhood group: name, role in neighborhood association, and interesting facts about group.
• Mayor Foster gave a few remarks - stating how glad he was to see such a huge turn out and spoke about the importance about community involvement.
• Councilwoman Rae Gabelich spoke,
• City Manager Pat West gave a general overview of what he does.
• City Prosecutor Doug Haubert spoke about the North Long Beach gang injunctions that targets the Insane Crip Gang and the Northside Longos, who have some sort of affiliation with the Mexican mafia. 
• North Division Police Commander Galen Carroll spoke about the latest crime trends and programs that people can get familiar with to handle crime and other police related issues.
• The Redevelopment Agencies' North Project Officer, Tony Foster gave the latest updates on construction projects happening in the area. Some of the items he touched on were the status of the new Firestation 12 and the North Village Center.
• There was also a presentation from the Health and Human Services Department, where people learned that about 55% of North Long Beach kids are obese.
• Once that was all said and done, residents were encouraged to stay around and mingle.

On a scale from 1-10 how would you rank yourself in terms of how active you are in your community? Are you a member of a neighborhood association? Do you participate in neighborhood clean-ups? Do you keep your neighborhood informed on what's happening around your area? Let it be known in the comment section below!

562CityLife is in part funded by a Long Beach Community Foundation Connected Corridor grant supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Transformation Initiative.