It's the Land of Changing City Slogans

There were no street celebrations recently when Long Beach was named "the Aquatics Capital of America," possibly because the designation came from, well, its own City Council.

And what criteria were considered?

The many swimming and boating facilities in Long Beach, community activist Tom Shadden told the Long Beach Business Journal, as well as the fact that "no other city has claimed this" title.

Which is somewhat surprising, because in this era of frenzied competition for tourist dollars, one might have thought that every city slogan had already been taken.

Long Beach, like a man trying on new coats, has gone through at least five other designations in the last half-century: "the International City," "the Queen City," "the Gateway to the Pacific," "Opposites Attract" and "the Most on the Coast."

"International City" signs can still be found on the streets, even though they refer to the Miss International competition that Long Beach hosted in the 1960s, and that wasn't all that prestigious to begin with.

Other cities have also gone through several phases -- and phrases -- in sloganeering.

Bellflower once used the down-to-earth motto "21 Churches -- No Jails," then rechristened itself "the Friendly City" and more recently switched to "Growing Together."

"We're still the friendly city -- it's just not our motto," said Lynn Comadina, Bellflower's public affairs manager.

And the original statistic?

"We have 40 churches and no jails," she said, explaining that the bad guys are hauled off to the Sheriff's Department substation in Lakewood.

Bellflower's "Growing Together" campaign follows a trend in which smaller cities have adopted generic, Madison Avenue-like slogans.

Only one town could have chosen "Tan Your Hide in Oceanside" but that designation was replaced in more politically correct times by "Take Pride in Oceanside," which was later shunted aside for the somewhat stuffy "Classic California."

Other slogans from the rural past just became outdated.

The area that is now Paramount once called itself "the Hay Capital of the World." Paramount's current motto is "Positively Paramount."

Pride is an important factor in sloganizing these days, especially among smaller cities that want to toot their own horn rather than play a secondary role in the Southland.

Anaheim neighbor Stanton went from "Crossroads to Vacationland" to "Community Pride and Forward Vision." As one official told The Times several years ago, "we wanted to be someplace where people would stay."