What Is All the Rage About “We Love Long Beach”?

So deliberate is the manner of Scott Jones and so demonstrative are his actions that at one point during our conversation—most of which concerns We Love Long Beach (www.welovelb.org), a secular/nonprofit community advocacy group the 26-year-old Long Beach native formed with his sister, Robin, 30—I jot down “love lobbying” in the corner of my notebook. Which is to say Scott Jones takes love—and all its meanings, forms and implications—very seriously. And he’d like you to, too.

In the time since 50 people showed up to the first neighborhood breakfast on March 31, 2008, We Love Long Beach has become something of a grassroots get-to-know-one-another phenomenon: 500 people attended a bands-and-BBQ bash last summer, featuring such local greats as Deep Sea Diver and the Fling; monthly dinners (at restaurants like Caffe La Strada, On the Mark, Number Nine Noodles and, on Jan. 29, Smooth’s Sports Grille) are regularly attended by upwards of 40 residents; another community breakfast will be held the morning of Feb. 28 at Livingston Park; and there is a BBQ scheduled for May 23 at Marine Stadium Park.

And that’s to say nothing of the offshoot club Scott formed for students at the Jones’s alma mater, Wilson High, where members earn service hours by hosting luncheons for special needs students and, in April, their teachers.

“I’d like to know more people in the city than anyone else,” he says. “It’s one thing to say we’re a diverse city, but it’s another to say we are a city that gets along.”

To that end, the essence of We Love Long Beach lies in its vision statement: “To know and serve the people, neighborhoods and the city of Long Beach.” And the first step toward achieving it, Scott explains, is saying hello to our neighbors—“knowing what they do, where they work.” Which leads to trust: “Every relationship is based on trust—husbands and wives, friends,” he continues. From there, Scott jumps to community, or “working off different gifts and passions,” with the ultimate goal being addressing needs, the kind that are far greater than borrowing a box of sugar. “You go off deeper needs and you become friends,” he concludes.

One could look at Scott and Robin’s efforts and see only idiosyncratic wishes rooted in youthful idealism—or, conversely, note in their accomplishments (delivering four dozen new diners to a restaurant, for example) the potential dangers that come with such influence—namely, power.

But to this Scott offers a sentence, written by Arts of the Wise Leader author Mark Strom: “True humanity is to take people places they haven’t been, so that they might go places I can’t go.”

“The goal for this year is to fine tune and get good at what we can do,” Scott says. “We’d like to be able to do what we do well in every neighborhood.”

We Love Long Beach (WLLB) is a non-profit community organization founded by Scott and Robin Jones in 2008. As fourth generation residents of the City of Long Beach, the sibling pair started the organization after extending a breakfast invitation to fifty of their neighbors. It was a free breakfast in the park with no other agenda than for neighbors to have the chance to get to know one another. Scott recounts,

“After that first event, one of my neighbors actually hugged me goodbye. I was surprised and couldn’t stop thinking about how little I knew about each of them; who they are, what they do, what makes them happy and what their needs might be. That hug gave me a glimpse of how simply knowing and trusting
my neighbors could change this city for the better.”

We Love Long Beach is motivated by the belief that each person has a fundamental longing for relationship, justice and beauty. The hope is to see a community where trust grows through shared experience. The members actively work to help, defend and provide for each other - that same community celebrates and inspires one another to make Long Beach, CA a truly great city.

The values of We Love Long Beach are expressed through many different activities. In 2008 the organization hosted numerous events:

• Three Community BBQ’s
• Multiple monthly breakfasts and dinner parties
• A book club and discussion group
• A club at Wilson High School to foster the development of student volunteers

WLLB recognizes that the city has benefited for decades from the work of quality organizations and individuals who desire to see its residents flourish in safety, equality and greater opportunity. In the years to come WLLB will look to partner with like-minded organizations, city departments, local businesses and community leaders to produce unique events that further these goals and give each the chance know and serve one another.