Long Beach
Innovation Team

On Tuesday, May 14, Harvey Milk Promenade Park will celebrate its grand re-opening and honor three community leaders. The honorees, who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+), will be inducted into the Equality Plaza Honor Wall at Harvey Milk Promenade Park (Harvey Milk Park) at 10 a.m. The park is located at 185 E 3rd St., and the event is open to all. 

“We created Harvey Milk Park to honor the legacy of civil rights leader Harvey Milk and our local LGBTQ+ heroes,” said Mayor Robert Garcia. “Long Beach is proud to celebrate those who have worked to advance civil rights for all.”

Harvey Milk Park has undergone many recent improvements that will be revealed at the grand re-opening and induction ceremony Tuesday. A new Measure A-funded staircase connects the City Place parking garage to the park, enhancing accessibility in the area, and outdoor furniture, including benches with solar charging devices and a ping pong table, have been installed. The furniture was selected by the community as part of the Harvey Milk Park visioning process, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in a project that began in December 2016, curated by the Long Beach Community Foundation. In mid-March 2018, the Department of Public Works started construction on the newly-envisioned Harvey Milk Park, converting the existing 500-square foot area into an outdoor public space that encourages collaboration and connectivity and celebrates the legacy of Harvey Milk and the local LGBTQ+ community. Harvey Milk Park also now has free Wi-Fi and a new augmented reality experience detailing the story of Harvey Milk, funded by the Downtown Long Beach Alliance (DLBA).

“I’m excited to celebrate the grand re-opening of Harvey Milk Park and another outstanding group of inductees for the Honor Wall,” said Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez. “This park is truly one of a kind, and it’s a great representation of Harvey Milk’s legacy and the diversity and leadership of our LGBTQ+ community in Long Beach.”

Every year, the Harvey Milk Promenade Park Equality Plaza Committee nominates and selects honorees for induction. The committee’s nomination process requires that the person, living or deceased, be LGTBQ+ and have made exceptional contributions to the greater Long Beach area’s LGBTQ+ community. At the upcoming ceremony, honorees Sabreena, Dr. Angela Bowen and Tim Patton will be recognized with a plaque to be displayed on the honor wall. To read about this year’s inductees, visit innovatelb.com/showcase.

About the City of Long Beach

Home to approximately 470,000 people, the multiple award-winning and innovative City of Long Beach offers all the world-class amenities of a large metropolitan city while maintaining a strong sense of individual and diverse neighborhoods nestled together along the California coast. As a full-service charter city, Long Beach is home to the Queen Mary, Aquarium of the Pacific, several museums and theaters, a highly-rated school district, Long Beach Airport, the Port of Long Beach, as well as many award-winning City departments such as Health, Parks, Recreation and Marine, Development Services and more. The City also has a highly-respected university and city college, two historic ranchos, five hospitals, five golf courses, 171 parks, miles of beaches, marinas, bike paths, and a Bike Share program.

For more information about the City of Long Beach, visit http://longbeach.gov/. Follow us on social to keep up with the latest news: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, andYouTube.

About Public Works

To learn more about the Department of Public Works, visit http://www.longbeach.gov/pw/.

About the Office of Civic Innovation

To learn more about the Office of Civic Innovation, visit www.longbeach.gov/iteam.

About The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Long Beach Community Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supported the City with a $301,000 investment to reimagine the park design with the Harvey Milk Promenade Park Equality Plaza Committee and local downtown partners such as Shooshani Developers, LLC, Downtown Long Beach Alliance (DLBA), and Studio 111. The Long Beach Community Foundation provided a $50,000 matching grant to make the City’s partnership with Citymart possible. The Long Beach Community Foundation is a nonprofit, public organization with over $25 million in assets and 96 charitable funds, whose mission is to initiate positive change for Long Beach. Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. It invests in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Its goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which it believes are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit kf.org.