City to dip into reserves to balance budget
The city of Long Beach plans to dip into its emergency reserves to balance its books this year as lagging tax revenue and rising expenses worsen its financial position ahead of the budget’s close on Sept. 30.
The city says it will pull $27 million from a total of four reserve accounts, exhausting its operating reserves and taking out $16.5 million from its $50.1 million emergency reserve — money set aside specifically for natural disasters and unforeseen crises. City revenues are projected to come in about $21 million below expectations this year, while expenses are set to run $20.8 million over.
The city of Long Beach plans to dip into its emergency reserves to balance its books this year as lagging tax revenue and rising expenses worsen its financial position ahead of the budget’s close on Sept. 30.it will pull $27 million from a total of four reserve accounts, exhausting its operating reserves and taking out $16.5 million from its $50.1 million emergency reserve — money set aside specifically for natural disasters and unforeseen crises. The city last tapped that reserve during fiscal years 2020 and 2021, as officials awaited COVID-19 federal relief money while stay-at-home orders shuttered businesses and forced the city into furloughs.
While not in the midst of a natural disaster, city administrators say Long Beach’s financial picture demands the use of these funds.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that we have been hit pretty hard by the economic conditions that are out there,” City Manager Tom Modica said in an interview Wednesday. City revenues are projected to come in about $21 million below expectations this year, while expenses are set to run $20.8 million over. The city’s utility tax alone is down nearly $14.7 million as residents use less electricity and gas.
Airport revenue has stayed flat even as passenger traffic at Long Beach Airport fell 11%, its second straight yearly decline. And Measure LB, a tax on power plants that voters approved in 2024, has fallen well short of projections, prompting the city auditor to request documents and open a review, Modica said. Interest earnings have also slipped as low rates and heavy infrastructure spending leave less cash to invest, said city Financial Management Director Kevin Riper.
The city’s Health Department, meanwhile, needs an $11 million bailout from the city’s general fund after losing about $18 million in federal grant funding — its second consecutive deficit as stagnant state money fails to keep pace with rising costs in its $254 million budget. Adding to the strain: labor agreements with city unions have layered on $38.3 million in new structural costs over three years, insurance costs are booming, and a hiring push that cut the police vacancy rate from 26% to 13% and lowered firefighter vacancies to 3.2% means the city is now paying salaries it had budgeted to save on through unfilled positions — a $10.6 million underestimate in the citywide activities budget.
City departments began cutting costs last fall in anticipation of the gap when Modica asked them to find 3% savings through hiring delays and paused capital projects. Most hit between 2% and 7%, though Economic Development and the Health Department both ran about 11% over budget.
Thursday, Aug. 6, 6–7:30 p.m. — Charles Lindbergh Middle School Auditorium, 1022 E. Market St.Monday, Aug. 10, 6–7:30 p.m. — Renaissance High School for the Arts Auditorium, 235 E. 8th St. Thursday, Aug. 13, 6–7:30 p.m. — Long Beach City College, Liberal Arts Campus, Room T1200, 4902 E. Carson St. The Police Department cut the most of any department — nearly $11 million — by trimming overtime, deferring its next recruit academy to next fiscal year, freezing professional-staff hiring and scaling back non-critical purchases.
The city also found $16 million in savings by leasing or financing new vehicles instead of buying them outright, though Riper cautioned the move is effectively irreversible without the city eventually having to “double collect” to rebuild cash for future fleet purchases. Despite those steps, they weren’t enough to close the gap without dipping into reserves for the second year running.
The city now heads into its next budget cycle with its reserves at their lowest level in years and little cushion to absorb another bad year. Modica is set to unveil a proposed fiscal year 2027 budget on July 30 that he says will require “very difficult changes” for both residents and city staff, though he has offered few specifics beyond warning that service reductions are coming.
“My goal with the Proposed Budget, which will include very difficult changes for both the community and our organization, will be to outline a path to fiscal sustainability and create a plan to replenish our reserves,” Modica wrote in The city has pledged to prioritize rebuilding the emergency reserve as part of that process — but with revenues still soft and costs still climbing, officials have offered no guarantee the city won’t be back in the same position next year.
Municipalities across the region, including Santa Ana, Fullerton, Anaheim, Orange and Riverside County, have faced similar pressures to draw on reserves, blaming similar culprits of soft sales and hotel tax revenues, rising pension and labor costs, and federal and state aid that has either flattened or rescinded. The city of Los Angeles pulled $358 million from its general fund reserves last year, and San Diego has repeatedly drawn down its savings, a trend officials there expect to continue.
After Modica presents his budget and the mayor recommends his changes, the Long Beach City Council must discuss, adjust and approve it by the end of September. A couple of years ago, a company called Camp Snap began to sell point-and-shoot cameras for kids to use — just a viewfinder, a flash and no way to see the photos until the camera was hooked up to a computer.
Why are people who weren't born 25 years ago snapping up the digital camera of that era? Blame Taylor Swift, trend cycles, childhood nostalgia and smartphone fatigue. A couple of years ago, as summer camps began to ban screens, a company called Camp Snap began to sell a screen-free camera that children could take along.
The point-and-shoot had the vibes of a 1990s Kodak: just a viewfinder, a flash and no way to see the photos until the camera was hooked up to a computer.
"All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a lot of Gen Z, millennial demographic started buying them," says Camp Snap President Trevor George. "We realized very quickly that, OK, this is way beyond kids at summer camp. " Camp Snap made a screen-free camera for kids to take to summer camps, but adults are now nearly just as big an audience.
Perhaps it was only a matter of time after the cool kids put on low-rise jeans like Britney Spears that photo trends would cycle around too. But they come also as a whiplash —against the era of the smartphone. Digicams have flooded bars, music venues, festivals and family gatherings. Canon told NPR that sales of the PowerShot, its renowned point-and-shoot, jumped nearly sevenfold from 2022 to 2025.
Camp Snap says its sales more than doubled in the past year. Last year, Camp Snap launched a screen-free retro camcorder too, and it showed up in the hands of celebrities including Selena Gomez and Joe Jonas. One was spotted at Taylor Swift's wedding. Jaden Williams, 16, first picked up a point-and-shoot in his yearbook class.
The photos"felt more genuine," he says. Soon enough, he was noticing digicams all over TikTok and among friends. Last month, he requested — and received — one for his birthday. He uses it alongside his phone.
Jaden Williams says these are some of his favorite photos that he has taken with his new digicam lately: a selfie and a sunny snap of his dog, Chase.
"If I'm about to take pictures of food or something, then I might use my phone," says Williams, from North Carolina. "But if I'm out with friends or at a party, I might use the camera for a more, like, warm vibe. " The turn-of-the-millennium digital photo is hard to mistake: a bit grainy, sometimes fuzzy, overexposed in the center with a blinding flash, often date-stamped in red or orange.
A nostalgic haze gives photos the feel of an instant memory.
"The brightness and also the crispness of the photo — but having that blur and grain somehow added in as well — makes the photos look very flattering," says Katie Coyne, 24, from New York. She'd bought a digital camera for a safari vacation but lately has lent it to her younger sister, Gwen Coyne, who lives in Philadelphia. They both find the vintage blur refreshing in the sea of hyper-sharp smartphone photos.
Katie and Gwen Coyne love the wistful, hazy aesthetic of digicam images. These show palm trees in the Dominican Republic, Gwen out with friends and a wine tasting in South Africa.
"I feel like iPhone cameras look just so ... sometimes it looks a little too real," says Gwen. She recently brought the digicam on a trip, where she photographed palm trees against the sky and the ocean.
"And I don't really know how to put it into words, but it gave such a vacation vibe. " The sisters think that for the vast majority of people on social media, the digicam is purely a trendy aesthetic.
First came the 1970s-style Instagram filters, then the revival of Polaroid-style photos, now this. Christina Berkett, 34, has been carrying her point-and-shoot to avoid her phone.
"I think you get caught up in the digital world, where — OK, I'm pulling out my phone to take a photo and then I see a notification or I'm checking my email," says Berkett, from New Jersey. Wedding photographer Christina Berkett is filming more ceremonies using an old-school camcorder, though she often holds it sideways for the smartphone-friendly vertical view. And with a digital camera?
"You put it in your bag, you don't think about it, and then at the end of the night, you go through all the photos and kind of relive that moment. "phoning their lives. Camp Snap's George sees it as an analog reboot after decades of internet-connected everything, from watches to washing machines. eBay told NPR that it's seeing a surge of searches for old-school tech like iPods, CDs and Walkmans.
Berkett, who's a wedding photographer, says couples are printing real-world photo albums. They still request iPhone video footage for social media content, but many also pay extra for her to film ceremonies or speeches with an old-school camcorder — like she's someone's aunt, just a guest.
"They want it to feel like it's a home video," Berkett says. "I don't think they want something that's grainy. I think they want something to feel real.
" She does hold the camcorder differently from how her parents once did when they made home videos. The device sits on her palm flipped to its side, so that the video Berkett films is vertical rather than horizontal — because most people will still watch it on their smartphone. Maestro James Conlon leaves the LA Opera after 20 years as its music director as his grand-nephew Sebastian Conlon arrives as a recently-drafted goalkeeper for LA Galaxy.
We got them together in the midst of their busy schedules for a conversation about passion, performance, and what L.A. can offer. The Conlons are uncle and grand-nephew about 50 years apart. James is a much-loved fixture in L.A. ; Sebastian is just starting his relationship with the city.
James Conlon stepped down as LA Opera music director in April. His grand-nephew Sebastian Conlon was drafted by the LA Galaxy out of college last year. For a few brief months earlier this year two Conlons graced the stages of L.A. ’s two great arts and entertainment institutions: the LA Opera and the LA Galaxy.
“It's so funny to see that, as I come in you're leaving,” said Sebastian Conlon to his great-uncle James Conlon on a conference call set up by LAist last week. Sebastian was drafted last year by the LA Galaxy from the University of Kentucky and moved to the LA area in January.
Three months later, in April, his great-uncle James Conlon waved his baton for the last time as music director of the LA Opera, a post he’d held for 20 years.
“Since been here, we've tried to see each other, tried to have him come over to the house,” James Conlon said. “I wanted to get to a game. He wanted to get to an opera. None of it ever happened because he's so busy and I've been so busy, as always,” he said.
And now the elder Conlon has put many of his belongings in storage and is moving to New York, although he intends to keep a connection to L.A. The conversation had equal parts family reunion across generations and a heartfelt discussion that led both Conlons to find common ground in what may be seen as wildly disparate professions. Sebastian grew up hearing stories from his grandfather of James Conlon’s conducting in Italy, Germany, Chicago, and L.A.
“Yes, my family calls me Jimmy," James acknowledged. "And they're not only allowed to, they're supposed to. ” “I actually hated being called Jimmy when I was a kid, but I couldn't do anything about it… when I finally grew to a certain age I became professionally known as James,” he said. Sebastian grew up in the Washington D.C. area and rose through the ranks of college soccer, finally arriving in L.A. as a goalkeeper.
He’s in his early 20s. His uncle James Conlon, who grew up in New York, is in his mid-70s. As they chatted, they realized there were several things they had in common. They’d both been very focused on their current professions from an early age and were united through the passion for what they do.
Both carry out their work in full public display.
“We're on a stage doing something that is connecting with other people. And you, Sebastian, are in a highly popular art form,” James said. Sebastian agreed with the description.
“There's nothing that tops the feeling of being on a field, on a seven o’clock game, and you have 4,000 or 5,000 fans screaming your name and chanting," he said. “I think that's one way to put us together: it's just that love for what we do and sharing that love to other people. ”“I was conducting in Paris in the opera the night that France won the World Cup ,” James said.
“I could remember the screaming from outside the theater was so loud that we knew that France had won. I mean, that's a night I'd never forget.
"The intensity of practice for the Galaxy, L.A. ’s most successful Major League Soccer team, has not allowed Sebastian to see much of L.A. since he got here. When he asked his great-uncle for recommendations for places to eat, James suggested the city's Italian restaurants, which, he said, reminded him of his Italian grandmother.
"The kind of energy that I found in L.A. is a similar energy to what I found in my native city, New York, but also cities I have lived in or spent time in, like Paris, London, Madrid and Rome," James said. "I don't think you'll ever be bored here, Sebastian, never. I mean, 20 years, I wasn't bored for one minute. Loved it all," he said.
Both Conlons agreed to finally make an IRL meeting happen as the elder Conlon steps into the next stage in his professional classical music career, and the younger Conlon carries out his work on the MLS team. Sebastian will now also have the responsibility of holding up the family name in L.A. as his great-uncle has done for two decades. If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report.
Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. Gift-gifting is a sign of respect, admiration and gratitude. In Korean culture, traditional gift-wrapping — or bojagi — is just as important a gesture. One Korean American artist in Los Angeles is sharing the gift of this artform in a series of free classes this month.
The L.A. Public Library is offering free classes every Monday in July. The remaining dates have just sold out, but more are planned for the future. Gift-gifting is a sign of respect, admiration and gratitude.
In Korean culture, traditional gift-wrapping — or bojagi — is just as important a gesture. One Korean American artist in Los Angeles is sharing the gift of this artform in free classes this month. Bojagi is both the name of the technique and the name of the square piece of cloth used.
The artform goes back centuries, popular across society from the royal courts to regular people, according to the“In Korea we didn’t have luggage-type of carriers when Westerners had it. So, people just used a big piece of fabric and wrapped up things when they go travel,” said Ellen Lee, an L.A. based bojagi artist.
“In Korea, people believe when you wrap something with bojagi, we really, truly believe we put our loving and caring heart in there too,” Lee said.. This series of workshops has just sold-out, but a waitlist is open, and plans are in the works for her to conduct these bring these workshops back to the library in the future.
Lee moved to Los Angeles in 2000 from South Korea, and after college, returned to the country to learn the art of bojagi. Lee acknowledges that all cultures have their own gift-wrapping traditions and meanings. She said she is most appreciative of the art form’s tactile quality.
“Wrapping up something precious with fabric can be just human natural love language,” she said. The technique is sustainable — not only could the cloth be reused, it’s a keepsake in and of itself.
“When you give a gift, when you wrap the gift with bojagi, the whole thing can be a gift. You don’t waste anything,” Lee said. The wrapping can be used again for another gift, a keepsake or even a handkerchief. In her workshops, Lee touches on some Korean history to Korean Americans and non-Korean participants, like the different techniques used by the royal court from centuries ago.
There isn’t just one bojagi way to wrap. It’s dozens of ways. The most popular ones are named after nature like the hydrangea knot and lotus knot. Historically, the bojagi fabric was made of natural materials such as hemp or silk.
Today, people also use synthetic fibers like polyester.
“In Korea, people believe when you wrap something with bojagi, we really, truly believe we put our loving and caring heart in there too,” Lee said. After 39 days of soccer, eight matches at SoFi Stadium and many more events big and small across the region, the World Cup is over. Reviews of the tournament in L.A. have broadly been positive, but FIFA's ticket prices, corporate sponsors and official fan zones were criticized.
People flocked to bars and public viewing parties. More than 35,000 attended the free city"Kick it in the Park" events. FIFA faced protests over sponsorships from Aramco and Home Depot. Some fan zones also were let-downs.
The Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights broke out in flames during the World Cup, spewing thick smoke across swaths of the city. The World Cup has been treated like a warm-up lap for Los Angeles ahead of the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics. As officials and locals review what went well and what needs improvement, it'll be with 2028 in mind.
" — were neighborhood picnics. People could turn up, put up a camping chair, and watch the game in a local park. In total, the city reports that at least 35,000 people attended them over the past month. Crowds packed Sycamore Grove Park to see Mexico take down Ecuador on a massive screen.
At Echo Park Lake, people watched Lionel Messi score a hat trick in Argentina's opening match. At another fan zone at the Original Farmer's Market, tickets were cheap but once inside, attendees were left to watch the matches from a hot parking lot. If you wanted a beer, the designated drinking area didn't have a clear view of the screens.
After 39 days of soccer, eight matches at SoFi Stadium and many more events big and small across the region, reviews of the tournament have broadly been positive. But FIFA, with its high ticket prices to get inside the stadium and branded events, had more mixed reviews, andThis balance — enjoying the soccer, but being weary of what comes with it — was a throughline throughout the tournament.
So was the sentiment that the World Cup was merely a warm-up lap for the coming 2028 summer Olympics.
" a tremendous opportunity for us to learn and practice for the '28 Games," said Paul Krekorian, the former L.A. City Council president who leads the city's major events office.there each match. An even larger bus fleet will be needed for the Olympics, which event organizers compare to hosting seven Super Bowls a day for a month.
"The reason we were excited to take on an event like the World Cup before the Super Bowl and the 2028 Games in the first place is because this is where you get the true teaching moments," Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins wrote in a blog post about the World Cup success.thousands more people showed up than organizers expected. The Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights broke out in flames during the World Cup, spewing thick smoke across swaths of the city and surrounding areas.
The bad air didn't force FIFA to change plans at SoFi Stadium, but had things gone differently, it could have. Crowds packed a block party near Mariachi Plaza to watch Mexico defeat South Korea one day after the fire sparked.was disrupted when someone flew a drone to take photos and the FBI, Homeland Security and LAPD descended to enforce a strict World Cup anti-drone policy.
The nonprofit involved called it an unintended consequence of having high-security sporting events in Los Angeles. — will undoubtedly come up again in the lead-up to 2028. They also mean some people will be happy to bid the 2026 World Cup farewell. Still, many will miss the tournament in Los Angeles, which brought thousands of us out to public spaces to be together.
Many of L.A.
's communities got to celebrate their heritage. And everyone could participate. You could strike up conversation simply by wearing your team's jersey while out and about.
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