Long Beach : Streets Near Drake Park Bloom With Civic Pride

The streets near Drake Park in downtown Long Beach will become flowering avenues thanks to the work of dozens of volunteers who spent the last five weekends planting trees.

The Willmore City neighborhood between 7th and Anaheim streets now has 543 jacaranda, magnolia and other flowering trees that were bought in part with a grant received after last year’s riots.

Long Beach tapped into a $30,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in an effort to improve the area and provide a sense of community to the ethnically diverse neighborhood, said Michael K. Parker, the city’s neighborhood services bureau manager.

The city matched the grant with $30,000, and about 50 volunteers showed up on weekends to plant the trees, Parker said. “It turned out to be a wonderful way to bring the neighborhood together,” he said.