Long Beach Business Podcast

A new coronavirus, COVID-19, has dominated the headlines in recent weeks. With new cases reported across the nation and in the state of California, we asked MemorialCare Chief Medical Officer Dr. James Leo what companies can do to minimize the risk to their business and prepare for the outbreak's broader impacts. 

An unincorporated, working class community in Los Angeles County until 1968, Carson has long been overshadowed by its larger neighbors. Last year, the city hired its first female city manager, Sharon Landers, who came into the Long Beach Business Podcast studio to talk about her vision for the city, her experience working in diverse communities like Carson, and her plans to make the city more business-ready.

The Long Beach Business Journal, founded by George Economides in 1987, has been sold to Pacific Community Media, owner of the Long Beach Post. Long Beach Business Podcast host Alena Maschke sat down with the Journal's new publisher, David Sommers, to discuss what's in store for the publication moving forward.

Once struggling to attract shoppers and diners, Alamitos Bay is welcoming several new developments that could finally turn the tide on economic development in the area. The Long Beach Business Journal spoke to contributing writer Michael Gougis and San Pedro Fish Market Owner Michael Ungaro to learn more about the past, present and future of Alamitos Bay.

In this interview with the Long Beach Business Podcast, the newly-elected 1st District councilmember talks about her political ambitions, and what it's like to be both marginalized and a part of the establishment.

For the last episode of 2019, the Long Beach Business Podcast visited two of Long Beach's most well-known Christmas tree lots to talk competition, tree trends and family anecdotes. 

All along the Anaheim Street corridor, new businesses are sprouting up. This is especially noticeable on the corridor's western portion, where historic homes eventually give way to industrial warehouses before the street meets the Los Angeles River. Here, new businesses have begun to fill once-vacant buildings and bring new offerings to the neighborhood. We met with The Hawk's Kyle Flavin and Long Beach Rising's Grayston Leonard to discuss the "renaissance" of Anaheim Street.

The number of seniors experiencing homelessness in Long Beach has increased by 20% since 2015. We spoke to Long Beach residents who have experienced homelessness in the later stage of their lives as well as the people providing services to this vulnerable population, to find out what's driving the trend and how it can be stopped.

A recent slew of severe and sometimes deadly lung injuries associated with vaping has led to bans on some or all vaporizers and e-cigarettes in cities and states across the nation. We spoke to 3rd District Councilmember Suzie Price, who has proposed a ban on flavored vaping products, as well as pulmonologist Dr. Fady Youssef and vape shop owner Nels Hansen to learn more about vaping and what can be done to keep the community safe.

With the state and federal governments at odds over emissions standards in California, the Long Beach Business Podcast is taking a look at efforts to reduce pollution caused by drayage trucks and asking the experts: what's next?

Some cities have considered a tax or fee billed to landlords whose commercial properties, especially storefronts and retail spaces, have remained empty for an extended amount of time. Long Beach City Councilmember Al Austin has asked city staff to look into this option to combat lingering vacancies, but the concept has thus far garnered few supporters among property owners and the city's economic development commissioners.

Each year, the Business Journal sits down with city management to discuss the city's highest earning jobs. Since 1997, the “$100,000 Club” has included the city’s top earners, but it’s time to make room for a new elite group: the “$200,000 Club.” In our last interview with outgoing City Manager Patrick West and his top staff, we discussed city salaries, the competition for top talent, the city budget and the highlights of his 14-year career in Long Beach.

It’s hard to miss the glistening facade of the new Long Beach City Hall and neighboring Port of Long Beach headquarters, which recently opened their doors to the public for the first time. But it's not just the architecture that makes the new Long Beach Civic Center unique. For this episode of the Long Beach Business Podcast, we sat down with April Economides, the Business Journal's interim publisher, to learn more about the project’s quirky details and fascinating backstory.

California State Senator Scott Wiener is giving his 4 a.m. bar bill another go. SB 58 would allow ten California cities, including Long Beach, to set up pilot programs for extended drinking hours. A much needed push for the hospitality industry or a public safety threat? For this week's episode of the Long Beach Business Podcast, we sat down with Assemblymember Patrick O'Donnell as well as local bar owners Ron Hodges and Eric Johnson to discuss the proposal.

Since its formation in 2016, the Association of Long Beach Employees (ALBE) has been unable to secure its own Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Long Beach. The two parties are in the final phase of a fact-finding process and we asked representatives from the city and the union: what's next?

On Friday, a group of seven business owners successfully completed GROW Long Beach, a grant-funded pilot program designed to help minority business owners grow and expand their operations. The Long Beach Business Journal spoke to participants Jeff Beasly and Jennifer Bermudez-Perez about their experience with the program, and learned more about its objectives from GROW Long Beach consultant Vivian Shimoyama.

Pacific Visions offers experiences that go beyond the traditional, featuring a theater equipped with rumbling seats and misters as the centerpiece. With the help of technology company Ultrahaptics, the Aquarium has created an experience for visitors with disabilities that has the potential to set trends in accessibility. The Business Journal met with Aquarium of the Pacific President and CEO Jerry Schubel and Ultrahaptics Director of Product Marketing Vince Fung to learn more.

The Long Beach Pride festival is celebrating its 35th anniversary this week. For this week's episode of the Long Beach Business Podcast, we spoke to businesses in the Broadway corridor, a hotspot for the city’s LGBTQ community, about the scene in Long Beach and how the neighborhood has developed over the years.

For this week's episode of the Long Beach Business Podcast, the Business Journal went on the prowl with Vector Control Program Coordinator Lamar Rush and Vector Control Specialist Eddie Gogue to learn more about the health risks posed by mosquitos and what's being done to protect Long Beach residents from diseases like Zika, Dengue and Yellow Fever. 

The Long Beach area is home to a number of startups seeking to modernize various segments of the supply chain, from sea to sale. The Business Journal met with Steve Kochan, the founder of Long Beach-based startup Comfreight, to discuss the impact new technologies will have on the shipping industry and when we can expect self-driving trucks to roam the freeways of Southern California.

In the latest episode of our Long Beach Business Podcast, we cover the 45th Annual Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Since the 1970s, this street racing event has brought the biggest names in motorsports to the city. The Business Journal interviewed Jim Michaelian, president and CEO of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, to learn what’s in store for 2019. Buckle your seatbelt, pull on your racing gloves, and download the podcast now!

This week, we sat down with John Molina of Molina, Wu, Network (MWN) to discuss the future of Long Beach Community Hospital. The hospital, which provided much needed acute care services in East Long Beach before it shut down in July 2018, is to be reopened and operated by MWN. The city has agreed to help finance the seismic retrofit of the facility, a move that has drawn some criticism, despite general consensus that the hospital will provide necessary services.

The craft beer craze shows no signs of stopping - we talked to three Long Beach-based breweries to find out what SoCal beer lovers can expect from the blossoming industry in the future. 

We visited Virgin Orbit's factory in Douglas Park to see how the rockets get made. The company's CEO and engineer Veronica Foreman spoke to Editor Samantha Mehlinger and Staff Writer Alena Maschke about the future of the commercial aerospace industry and the ways in which small satellites will change the way we communicate, navigate and understand our planet.

This episode, we met with Memorial Care Long Beach CEO John Bishop and COO Ike Mmeje to discuss reports of long wait times in Long Beach emergency rooms.

Welcome to the Long Beach Business Podcast, presented by the Long Beach Business Journal! For our very first episode, we invited Port of Long Beach Director Mario Cordero to our office to discuss the ongoing trade dispute between China and the U.S. in an exclusive interview with Long Beach Business Journal Editor Samantha Mehlinger.