We sit down with the Mayor of Long Beach, one of the youngest mayors in the United
States and speak with him about a range of hot topics. His unique perspective and
infectious personality is resonating with the city’s residents. Mayor Robert Garcia
shares with us what his life is like outside of his mayoral duties as well as some major
new developments happening right now that is enriching the culture of Long Beach.
SM: Thank you for meeting with us, Mayor
Robert Garcia. We are here in his beautiful
building overlooking the entire city. You
are not the typical person in government
as far as being so young. You always seem
to hold the city’s best interest at heart. You
are doing things a bit differently here. I
have seen you on TV a few times, you have
done a few interviews, such as one with Art
Levine on “Straight Talk” in which Levine
said something that I thought really rang
true to who you are. He said that you have
a really infectious personality and I believe
that. Have you always been this way and
do you think it has anything to do with your
upbringing?
MRG: I have always been energetic, I was
an energetic kid. I was involved in high
school, and I was really involved in college
so I have always been a little bit in a hurry.
In a hurry to get something done or to see
progress. That’s just part of my personality.
The interesting part is when I am at home, I
am actually very quiet. Even though I think
I am probably very energetic out in public,
when I am at home I’m quiet, I like to read,
relax, hang out with my partner and just be
very mellow.
SM: What did you see yourself doing when
you were young?
MRG: I always wanted to be a teacher
and I am a teacher. That is what I always
saw myself doing when I was younger
and I was able to go to Grad School,
get my Doctorate, teach, became a
college administrator, so that was always
my professional goal; which I feel like I
achieved. And even though I am the Mayor,
I still consider myself a teacher and will be
one after I’m done being the Mayor.
SM: Are you teaching now?
MRG: I stopped teaching when I became
the Mayor. I am lecturing in one class at Cal
State Long Beach with a professor friend of
mine, but I am no longer a full time teacher.
SM: You are a pretty busy guy! Do you have
a favorite place that you go when you are
traveling outside of Long Beach.
MRG: I don’t know if I have a favorite place,
I know that I like to go to Palm Springs for
vacation just to relax. I like to go to Las
Vegas for fun. I like to go to San Diego.
These are local places. I don’t get to travel
very much personally I am busy. We are
always very busy. I have very little personal
traveling time.
SM: There is something that I read as far
as things that you are doing to contribute
to our local shore here in Long Beach and
I wanted to speak with you more about the
initiative called “Sink The Break Water”
and “Restore The Shore”. What is your
involvement with that?
MRG: The involvement is that right now
the city is completing, with the army
corp of engineers, a study on the federal
breakwater. We have been looking at if
there is a way to restore the ecosystem.
Because of the breakwater, which was
built by the Navy, the shore has changed
a lot. Such as water quality issues, issues
about marine life, coastal sand, all sorts of
issues have occurred because we kind of
changed the ecosystem with the breakwater
and so the studies looked at whether or
not we can reconfigure or remove parts
of the breakwater to restore some of the
ecosystem. We’re not sure what we can do.
Our top priority is always the protection of
coastal homes and the protection of the port
and so once we get the database back in a
couple of years we will know what we can do.
SM: What I have read about it which was
really interesting to me and probably a lot
of the residents here is for the surfers. What
it would do is bring some of the waves back.
MRG: That is the interest of the surfers.
It would be great to have some wave
increased wave activity. We think it would
be great for people coming to the beach
and to the coast, but, we also have to
protect the coastal homes that are there.
We are going to make a decision once we
Article Key Code - SM - S.L.A.M. Magazine | MRG - Mayor Robert Garcia
have all of the data and the information, I
think that’s really important.
SM: Also, right next to your office they are
currently bringing down a huge building.
We just saw your announcement for that
on Facebook. It looks really cool, it is going
on right now as we speak. But the other
ground breaking development that you
are working on is development around
the Queen Mary! You put together a
great team of people that are helping you
develop that space surrounding it. I think
that is really wonderful, Frank Gehry is
a word-renowned architect. He built the
Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles, he’s
worked for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Did
you seek him out?
MRG: Those are two different projects but
they are in the same area. The Queen Mary
project is a project that we are looking at
redeveloping about 40 acres around the
Queen Mary. We have a task force that is
looking to redevelop that right now which
is really exciting. The Frank Gehry project
is the L.A. River project. He is looking at
doing a signature project along the L.A.
River, based in Long Beach He’s come out
a few times and he’s glad to be involved.
Two separate projects kind of in the same
area, but obviously Frank Gehry is probably
one of the most well loved architects that’s
currently anywhere on the planet alive.
People love his work. I do personally; so that
is very exciting to have him on board. The
building that you were talking about initially
that is in construction is this building that we
are actually in right now. It is actually going
to be closed down because we are going to
go and move into the new part of the Civic
Center. We are tearing an old building down,
we are building the new City Hall and then
this building will get torn down.
SM: Wow, a lot of plans being built. As far
as your role in being the Mayor, do you feel,
because I also read that you are the first
See Mayor Garcia, continued on page 40
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