A decade ago, news that the Queen Mary had filed for bankruptcy protection might have triggered anxiety in downtown Long Beach, which for two generations has banked on the historic vessel as its civic trademark.
But these days, the once moribund downtown is on a roll, and even the Queen Mary's recent financial woes don't appear to threaten the revival.
Across the harbor from the ship, visitors are finally starting to fill the new Pike entertainment and restaurant center on land vacated decades ago by the original Pike amusement park. A towering Ferris wheel and vintage merry-go-round that were idle now work. Next door are the Long Beach Convention Center and the Aquarium of the Pacific. Along Ocean Boulevard, a canyon is forming amid new high-rise condos and apartments.
A few blocks inland, the historic downtown core is also hopping. Deserted by department stores and other retailers by the late 1980s and later depleted by the closing of the nearby Long Beach Naval Shipyard, the area is now dotted with restaurants, nightclubs and galleries. Blue Line trains glide down Long Beach Boulevard. Some of the old department stores have been converted into high-end loft spaces.
"We could have opened a pub anywhere, and we looked, but nothing beat this location," said David Copley as he surveyed the crowds at the Irish pub he opened not quite a year ago. "What's not to like?"
That's a question asked by some urban planners, who point to Long Beach as one of the most dramatic examples in Southern California of creating a pedestrian-friendly, mass-transit-oriented urban center.
In a port city that has long stood in the shadow of Los Angeles, the revival is for many the source of great pride.
But it has also come at a steep price. The city has spent $459 million in redevelopment money, coupled with an estimated $1.5 billion in private funds. Some community activists have long complained that the city is spending too much on glitzy new developments while neglecting other parts of California's fifth-largest city.
Although some boosters like to compare Long Beach's resurgent downtown with Old Town Pasadena or Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, there are some major differences. Downtown Long Beach is surrounded by working-class neighborhoods where poverty and crime persist. The city has struggled to create a retail district that balances the needs of lower-income residents who live around downtown and the more affluent professionals moving into the condos and lofts.
