Long Beach Ca

Naples Island is a throwback, a quiet bay-side enclave in Long Beach where time seems to have been standing still since, oh, about the 1950s, and residents like it that way just fine. But time is catching up, and now it has claimed its latest victim, the nearly 50-year-old Naples Pharmacy, a venerable neighborhood institution where youngsters could buy candy, tourists could stop in for a straw hat on their way to the beach and local residents could catch up on neighborhood gossip.

With 58,600 jobs lost since 1991, in large part because of cuts in defense and aerospace spending, Long Beach's struggles could have been one of President Clinton's biggest election year liabilities. Instead, the president's aggressive courtship of the city appears to be turning the liability into an asset, as evidenced by a highly successful visit Thursday and a turnout of more than 2,000 mostly enthusiastic political supporters.

How many Long Beach officials does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Today, about 10--as Mayor Beverly O'Neill--assisted by an assortment of council members and administrators--will symbolically switch to whiter, brighter city lights by pulling the plug on the town's current 28,000 murky yellow street lamps.

While crime has dropped significantly overall this year in Long Beach, the number of murders is 23.4% higher. With the release of its third-quarter crime statistics Thursday, the Long Beach Police Department reports that there have been 79 homicides this year compared to 64 at this time last year. During the same period, however, the number of violent crimes overall decreased 13.1%; the number of nonviolent crimes declined by 19.9%.

Boeing Co.'s plan to buy McDonnell Douglas Corp. is not lifting the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the future of McDonnell's giant Douglas Aircraft Co. plant in Long Beach. Just as analysts were divided over whether ailing Douglas could sell enough jetliners to keep the commercial aircraft plant and its 10,000 employees at work beyond the next few years, so now are they divided over whether Boeing will market the Douglas line of airplanes or simply fold the plant into its own operations.

A team of social workers is seeking 50 volunteers to participate in a series of community meetings on violence in central Long Beach. Maintaining an open mind and "being able to disagree without being disagreeable" are among the criteria for the five so-called study circles, which will begin within the next two weeks. After all, program coordinator Rene Castro said, these are to be people who wouldn't interact otherwise.

International trade is the best option for recycling the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, the City Council decided this week. Closing the door on months of discussion over how to redeploy the shipyard's 254 acres when they become available next year, the council recommended giving most of the property to the Port of Long Beach so it can build a container terminal.

With the dark waters of the Pacific Northwest licking its steel skin, the battleship Missouri drifts in silence in a corner of Puget Sound Naval Shipyard like a patient captain waiting out a squall. Harry Truman once called it "the finest ship afloat," but today the Mighty Mo--the site of Japan's World War II surrender to the United States in 1945--is in mothballs at the shipyard in Bremerton, Wash.