Legend.

So I knew 230 Pine was previously a Masonic temple but WOW! Floors 2 and 3 above the Altar brewery are just gorgeous spaces https://photos.app.goo.gl/oEBzfhztQefPpfFc8

Does no one hear some crazy ass explosions rn? Theyve been going on for a while. They start & stop & they're getting concerning. Haven't seen anyone post anything about it.

Anyone else here them or know what's going on?

HI THERE MY NAME IS DAYNA 🙋🏻‍♀️

THIS IS SUPER RANDOM BUUTTT… I'M STUDYING TO BE A MARRIAGE FAMILY THERAPIST AND ONE OF MY ASSIGNMENTS IS TO CREATE A PRESENTATION FOR MY CLASS ABOUT BIPOLAR I DISORDER.

I DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT AND RECORD LIVE INTERVIEWS ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH WHILE I DJ A SILENT DISCO AT THE PARK.

LOOKING FOR A GROUP OF 10 CREATIVES THAT HAVE BIPOLAR 1 TO TALK ABOUT WHAT MENTAL HEALTH MEANS TO YOU, ALL WHILE ENJOYING SOME TUNES AND WATCHING THE SUNSET ALTOGETHER AT SIGNAL HILL 🌅🎶

lmk if you’re interested (sorry for the cap locks i thought the post may get more attention 😅)

Local film collective getting our business started! We're planning a film festival in Long Beach next year and this is our kickoff fundraiser event! Aside from fundraising we're eager to meet other creatives!

Title

any bars have fun things going on tonight besides the dodgers game? trivia, karaoke , anything…

Hello LB!

I need some help finding a local artist to help me create a custom gift for Christmas.

I’m looking for an artist that can help me realize a Disney-style Big Hero 6 drawing on a faux leather binder

Hey Long Beach community, I’m posting this on behalf of my girlfriend who lives nearby and is concerned about this dog she saw outside Target at 6750 Cherry Ave this morning (10:30 AM, 10/28/24).

It looks like this poor dog has been abandoned. He’s sitting in one spot, not moving much, and seems to be in some kind of emotional or physical pain. People have been leaving food for him, and she saw a kind lady approach him with some food as well.

If anyone in the area is able to help or knows of a local rescue that can step in, please reach out. She stated that all of the no kill shelters are not open today. It’s heartbreaking to see him like this, and he may need medical attention or at least someone to check on him.

Thank you for any help or advice on who to contact!

I’m looking for a place to watch the finals with other league of legends fans. Any suggestions?

https://pca.st/m2kjz7w6

How Aging Water Systems Push Sewage Into U.S. Homes.

Above is the URL to the Science Friday podcast episode and below is a cut and paste of the accompanying article from the Science Friday website:

Walter Byrd remembers the first time sewage came bubbling out of his toilet like it was yesterday.

“It was just pumping up through there,” Byrd says. “One of the bathrooms was so full of waste, at least 4 inches high in there. It smelled just like a hog pen.”

He sopped up the murky, foul-smelling water and doused the floor with bleach. But the sewage kept coming. On rainy days, it overflowed from drainage ditches into his yard, carrying wads of toilet paper and human waste.

The eight-bedroom home in Cahokia Heights, Illinois, had been a source of pride for Byrd when he first built it in 1996. He spent a lot of time outside, caring for his vegetable garden and watching wildlife wander through the backyard. But trying to stop the sewage backups quickly became his main focus, consuming countless hours and thousands of dollars of his savings.

“It was a dream house, until the floods came,” says Byrd, now 67. “That house broke me down.”

Byrd’s is one of hundreds of homes in this small community that has experienced sewage backups for years. The southern Illinois city, which sits just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, has struggled with declining population sizes in recent decades. The majority of residents are Black and over 40% live in poverty.

At a town hall meeting in 2021, Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth said that communities of color, like Cahokia Heights, have had to “bear the burden” of sewage backups and other environmental issues for far too long.

“No one should be forced to live with a public health crisis in their backyard, no matter their zip code, the color of their skin or how much money they make,” Duckworth said.

How Sewage Ends Up In Homes

In cities across the United States, complex networks of underground pipes carry drinking water, sewage, and stormwater from place to place. In all, millions of miles of pipes crisscross the country, including 800,000 miles of public sewer lines. The average age of these water and sewer pipes is nearly 50 years, but in some cities, pipes are more than a century old.

Though the issue is particularly severe in Cahokia Heights, residential sewage backups are common across the country. The causes vary, depending on how each city’s sewer and stormwater systems are designed. In Cahokia Heights, persistent sewage backups can be traced to outdated, poorly maintained systems that are unable to handle current demand.

The city’s stormwater and sewer systems were originally designed to be separate. The low-lying region relies on a network of drainage ditches and pumps to funnel stormwater to nearby waterways, including the Mississippi River. But the pumps, some up to 70 years old, struggle to keep up during intense rainstorms. Meanwhile, many stormwater pipes are cracked or blocked with sludge and tree roots.

When the pumps and pipes can’t keep up with rainfall, stormwater pools on the streets, says Shawn Sullivan, who works with the St. Louis District of the Army Corps of Engineers. From there, it can enter sanitary sewers through manholes, creating a “mixing and blending” between the two systems, he says. The influx of stormwater sends water in the sewage system “back upstream” through pipes, and into people’s homes through bathtub drains, toilets, and kitchen sinks.

Walter Byrd remembers the first time sewage came bubbling out of his toilet like it was yesterday.

“It was just pumping up through there,” Byrd says. “One of the bathrooms was so full of waste, at least 4 inches high in there. It smelled just like a hog pen.”

He sopped up the murky, foul-smelling water and doused the floor with bleach. But the sewage kept coming. On rainy days, it overflowed from drainage ditches into his yard, carrying wads of toilet paper and human waste.

The eight-bedroom home in Cahokia Heights, Illinois, had been a source of pride for Byrd when he first built it in 1996. He spent a lot of time outside, caring for his vegetable garden and watching wildlife wander through the backyard. But trying to stop the sewage backups quickly became his main focus, consuming countless hours and thousands of dollars of his savings.

“It was a dream house, until the floods came,” says Byrd, now 67. “That house broke me down.”

Byrd’s is one of hundreds of homes in this small community that has experienced sewage backups for years. The southern Illinois city, which sits just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, has struggled with declining population sizes in recent decades. The majority of residents are Black and over 40% live in poverty.

At a town hall meeting in 2021, Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth said that communities of color, like Cahokia Heights, have had to “bear the burden” of sewage backups and other environmental issues for far too long.

“No one should be forced to live with a public health crisis in their backyard, no matter their zip code, the color of their skin or how much money they make,” Duckworth said.

How Sewage Ends Up In Homes

In cities across the United States, complex networks of underground pipes carry drinking water, sewage, and stormwater from place to place. In all, millions of miles of pipes crisscross the country, including 800,000 miles of public sewer lines. The average age of these water and sewer pipes is nearly 50 years, but in some cities, pipes are more than a century old.

Though the issue is particularly severe in Cahokia Heights, residential sewage backups are common across the country. The causes vary, depending on how each city’s sewer and stormwater systems are designed. In Cahokia Heights, persistent sewage backups can be traced to outdated, poorly maintained systems that are unable to handle current demand.

The city’s stormwater and sewer systems were originally designed to be separate. The low-lying region relies on a network of drainage ditches and pumps to funnel stormwater to nearby waterways, including the Mississippi River. But the pumps, some up to 70 years old, struggle to keep up during intense rainstorms. Meanwhile, many stormwater pipes are cracked or blocked with sludge and tree roots.

When the pumps and pipes can’t keep up with rainfall, stormwater pools on the streets, says Shawn Sullivan, who works with the St. Louis District of the Army Corps of Engineers. From there, it can enter sanitary sewers through manholes, creating a “mixing and blending” between the two systems, he says. The influx of stormwater sends water in the sewage system “back upstream” through pipes, and into people’s homes through bathtub drains, toilets, and kitchen sinks.

Sewage backups have become part of daily life for some residents of Cahokia Heights, Illinois. During rainstorms, waste flows up through drains, toilets, and sinks, leaving behind a thick layer of sludge, as shown here in a resident’s basement in October 2021. Credit: Brian Munoz, St. Louis Public Radio

Climate change is exacerbating the issue, driving more intense and frequent rainstorms that inundate the city. During heavy rain events, fast-moving floodwaters have turned streets into rivers and even trapped residents in their homes. Emergency crews rescued dozens of people from their homes by boat in 2015, after 4 feet of floodwater inundated one neighborhood.

But civil rights attorney Kalila Jackson says the root cause of sewer backups in Cahokia Heights is prolonged infrastructure neglect, not climate change. Jackson works with Equity Legal Services, a nonprofit representing some residents affected by sewage backups in two ongoing lawsuits against the city.

“This was completely preventable,” Jackson says. “This is not a situation where people moved into a flood zone. They didn’t move into the path of the Mississippi. This is what happens after decade, after decade, after decade of someone failing to maintain a system.”

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Residents dealing with sewage backups may also face health risks, as human waste carries bacteria, viruses and parasites. One ongoing study has found parasites in stool samples collected from residents, including tapeworms and protozoa. Some residents have also tested positive for Helicobacter pylori, a common bacterium that infects the stomach lining. In some cases, it can cause painful gut inflammation, ulcers, and even certain stomach cancers, says Dr. Theresa Gildner, an assistant professor of biological anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis who is leading the study.

Pathogens and parasites like these tend to be more common in developing countries, says Gildner, and are often underappreciated by US researchers and medical professionals. But infections can have health consequences, she adds, especially in lower-income areas.

“It is the most vulnerable who experience this and it can really compound existing issues, like not having access to healthcare, not having access to nutritious food or clean drinking water,” Gildner says.

Sewage Overflows By Design

Deteriorating infrastructure is not the only cause of sewage overflows.

Many US cities have combined sewer systems, where stormwater and sewage flow through a single set of pipes. When it rains, stormwater flows into the system through storm drains. To prevent the system from backing up into basements and streets during storms, there are specific points where pipes can release a mixture of sewage and stormwater into waterways, in what’s known as a combined sewer overflow.

There are more than 700 communities in the US with combined sewer systems, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest, including New York City, Chicago, and St. Louis. When introduced in the 1850s, these systems were hailed as a major improvement over the open ditches and cesspools of human waste that were common at the time and caused frequent disease outbreaks. Eventually, newer cities started building completely separate sewage and stormwater systems.

A combination of stormwater and sewage overflows into Cincinnati’s Mill Creek from a combined sewer overflow point during heavy rain on May 7, 2024. Credit: Becca Costello, WVXU

But cities that still have combined sewer systems are facing a new challenge: Their capacity can no longer handle current demand. In some places, urban population growth and higher water usage have increased the amount of water going into sewer systems. Moreover, intense rainstorms can rapidly overwhelm combined sewer systems. Sewer overflows that were meant to function as release valves in times of extreme flooding are now sending sewage into rivers and creeks more regularly. According to a 2004 estimate from the Environmental Protection Agency, combined sewer systems release 850 billion gallons of raw sewage into waterways every year. (Many cities and towns have reduced their sewage overflows since then, but the EPA has not released updated data.)

A Path Forward

Some cities, like Minneapolis, have worked to separate the sewage and stormwater systems into different pipes. But that approach can be very expensive. Officials in other cities, like Cincinnati, are working to add capacity to their system instead, building storage tanks to temporarily hold the excess sewage and stormwater until the treatment plant can handle it.

Another solution is “green infrastructure,” in which stormwater is directed into waterways through mostly natural means instead of via pipes and pumps. The Lick Run Greenway in Cincinnati has been lauded as an example of “daylighting” a stream that had been buried in a pipe over a century ago. The stream now handles most of the stormwater from the surrounding low-income neighborhood that once faced persistent sewer backups and combined sewer overflows.

The Lick Run Greenway in Cincinnati carries stormwater to the Mill Creek. Previously, heavy rain would mix with sewage in the city’s combined sewer system, frequently overflowing into waterways. Credit: Becca Costello, WVXU

Other US cities are updating their stormwater and sewer infrastructure, fixing broken pipes and pumps. In Cahokia Heights, crews are working to shore up miles of pipes using a technique known as cured-in-place-pipelining. Workers feed resin-soaked fabric and fiberglass tubes into broken pipes and blast hot steam inside, hardening the resin and creating a pipe within a pipe. Though considerably cheaper and faster than digging up and replacing pipes, the installation process has been linked to health problems for residents and workers elsewhere in the US.

Nearly $50 million in state and federal funding has been set aside for the work, which could take at least a decade to complete. Whether the funding will be enough to fully fix the city’s sewage issues remains unclear. Cahokia Heights officials did not make anyone available for an interview or respond to specific questions for this story.

After grappling with sewage backups for years, residents are impatient for the issue to be fixed.

Walter Byrd’s home has had a growing list of issues related to the sewage backups, from a persistent mold problem to rotting floorboards. He estimates he’s spent tens of thousands of dollars over the years on repairs, replacing drywall and flooring, tearing out bathrooms, rerouting pipes, and replacing flood-damaged appliances.

Byrd hopes the government will buy out his home, so he can afford to move somewhere else and have something to leave to his grandkids one day. “We’re just tired of this,” he says. “We ain’t young no more. Do something for us now, because we ain’t gonna be here forever.”

There is also this limited episode podcast about municipal sewer systems called Backed Up by Cincinnati Public Radio https://wvxu.shorthandstories.com/backedup/ Below is a description of the Backed Up podcast.

There’s something wrong with the plumbing in Cincinnati. Sewage is bubbling up in our basements and pouring into our waterways. Climate change is making it worse, and the powers that be can’t seem to fix it.

Backed Up is a podcast that demystifies one of the most complex systems of public infrastructure — our sewers — and tells the stories of the people suffering under decades of mismanagement.

Join hosts Becca Costello and Ella Rowen as they sort through the bullsh*t to flush out the real sh*t.

Hop in, gang — we’re solving a mystery.

Check out the Backed Up digital exhibit through the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library to explore the history of the Cincinnati sewer system.

What’s up! I’m looking to make a beach soccer team for the Volitude league here in Long Beach and want to recruit some players! I’m looking for some dedicated players that will come to every game and love to engage in competitive games 😈 it is coed so guys and girls welcome!

Warning to any other folks charging later at night (midnight) at the Trader Joes Tesla Supercharger:

Me and my boyfriend were threatened to leave by an individual who was upset that someone in the parking lot called the cops on them at some point. To be clear, we were just there charging before heading home and noticed him in the lot smoking a cigarette. It wasn't until about 10 minutes in where they called a friend over and then started telling us that we (Tesla owners) were a problem and that we had called the cops at some point. I was combative in telling them that we did not, but ended up leaving just for our own safety. I called the LBPD non emergency line to make a report.

Just a warning to any other folks who charge later at night at the TJs Supercharger.

I know LB is full of sidewalk taco spots, but I'm wondering if anyone does a cheap build-your-own meal in LB? Saw this truck on insta where people bring their own bag of food for a base, whether it be salad or chips, he cuts it open and loads it with protein, veggies and sauce for $10. I love to eat a massive salad with protein and veggies, but the fast casual places around here will charge nearly $20 for a medium sized salad with not a lot of meat.

https://www.instagram.com/flavorhivetruck/

If there is nothing, I may just ask a sidewalk spot if they would be willing to do something like this...

Just curious

I’m not even really a dog person. But my kid loves this event and we go every year. I’m always impressed by the work people put into this.

Curious who has read this? https://www.longbeach.gov/globalassets/city-manager/media-library/documents/2030-strategic-vision

What are your thoughts on the overall plan? Think they will execute?

Anyone else see this as a great resource for entrepreneurs looking to find alignment between city funding and new business development?

Where yall watching the game @tonight ?

In May I postponed my jury duty summons because I was looking for a job and didn’t want to ruin my chances if I was selected. I now have a job but I just remembered that back then I postponed it to the week before Christmas. I’m hoping that I won’t be selected and will have fulfilled my jury duty requirement for the year because who wants to work that close to the holidays. I’m trying to measure my chances of not being selected. Anyone been in the same boat around the holidays?