New Shoreline Park Benches

The round green building houses the restrooms. My favorite picnic table at this park was the one closest to that building. I would leave my backpack on the table, run barefoot over the scalding hot sidewalk, cool strip of grass, round the building to get a drink of water, hurry back again. If there were few people around, I would do likewise when needing to use the bathroom. My second favorite table was the one in the photo foreground.

The concrete bench is one of two new benches at the park. All over town, benches are being removed, so surprised me to find new ones erected. One of these benches was provided to honor Gene Connor, "Volunteer Extraordinaire!". Among Conor's volunteer activities is in conjunction with the Long Beach International City Bank Marathon. Conor was one of the volunteers who that "best exemplify the marathon spirit" receiving the "Tom Hennessey Spirit Award".
I would not have remembered what words were etched into the bench and on two plaques if I had not picked up a small magazine lying on a bench. The mag was The Naples News, Oct-Nov 2008 issue. Do not think it was a coincidence that the mag happened to be sitting on the bench in May, 2009.

Unlike downtown ~ promenade, along Long Beach Blvd. around the Albertson shopping mall, near Walmart ~ only a newly homeless would use these new benches for overnight sleeping. The Beach Patrol rangers, make regular swings through the park and the "Park Closed at 10PM" rule is enforced. Exception being for fisher people on the wooden piers. The restrooms do close at 10, but think the parking lot is free after X hour.

Seniors, especially, need those downtown benches to sit for a moment or two when shopping downtown. It seems removing them to prevent homeless from sleeping on them or sitting on them for hours during the day, is the wrong approach. I was sitting on one such bench waiting upon Albertson's to open one morning. The lot security guard came over and told me to leave. I thought, at the time, those benches belonged to the city ~ they are on city sidewalks ~ but he told me they were owned by the shopping complex. I pointed out that I had only just sat down and would be going into Albertsons within the next 10 minutes, but he insisted I vacate.

There was a number of homeless who hung out in the vicinity all day long. An overhang out of the rain. It seems a simple task, for that same (and other) security guards to keep an eye on who is sitting (or sleeping, daytime) for long time periods, telling them to move along. If the homeless that do that cause them a problem, a cop is but a phone call away. I was often tempted to take a nap on one of those benches or even use one as a sleep spot overnight, but never did. I did however sit on some of them for 15 minutes or a 1/2 hour off my feet, simply exhausted.

Can not say that homeless will not be sleeping during the day on the new benches at Shoreline Park. I do not visit often and notice a lot fewer homeless hang around there than during my street living days. It has been a dry winter season. There are sprinklers, yet napping in the grass is a common sight ~ both by homed and homeless persons. Despite the lack of rain, benches still tempting for a homeless nap, due to ants. Will be interesting to see if the new benches remain there or are removed like the ones downtown.