TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to work with our Parks, Recreation and Marine Department on this item and return to the City Council, within 120 days, detailing the following:
• Overview of city-wide park programming (hours and funding
expended in each location);
• Basis of prioritization for programming in each area;
• Overview of current park programming participants based on
zip-code;
• Policies/processes that can be re-reviewed, example:
- Waiving park permit fees for organizations that are activating
our parks in low programmed areas;
- Providing umbrella permits for annual community events vs.
having community groups apply each and every year for the
same event;
- Outlining clear rules for city-wide park entertainment, so that
it either includes each region of the city OR provides the
funding in lieu of, for areas that did not receive the benefit of
the city-wide park entertainment;
- Overall suggestions for more equitable programming
city-wide from our Parks department; and
Request City Manager, or his designee, to return to the City Council within 120 days with a plan to incentivize the use of underutilized parks that do not over burden community organizations. This plan should include but not be limited to: free or severely reduced fees for groups planning events at underutilized parks, multi-year permits for annual events, and targeted promotion in the surrounding areas for classes offered at underutilized parks.
DISCUSSION
The City of Long Beach is home to over 3,000 acres of park space across 162 parks. In addition, our Parks, Recreation and Marine Department (PRM) manage 26 Community Centers, 6 miles of beach and 4 community pools in addition to other city assets. However, these park spaces are not promoted and programmed in a way that both fair and equitable. For Example, in the Summer Edition of "Recreation Connection" which covered the months of March-May 2017, two Council districts represent nearly t...
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