City of Avalon still reeling from pandemic revenue losses, expects more budget deficits
A global pandemic is one of the worst-case scenarios for an economy dependent almost entirely on tourism like that of Catalina Island. While the financial struggles of the past year for the city of Avalon have not been overly devastating, staff said the city only avoided budgetary deficits by tapping into its reserve funds.
Natural gas drivers to be exempt from Clean Truck fee at Port of Long...
Low-emissions natural gas-powered trucks will be exempt from a per-container fee thanks to a 4-1 vote by the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners Monday.
Harbor Commission approves $622M port budget
The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners unanimously approved a $622.4 million budget for the Port of Long Beach during its meeting Monday.
Why the military keeps fixing Catalina Island’s infrastructure
From early April until just last week, 45 Marines were shoveling dirt and digging ditches on Santa Catalina Island, and it's not the first time a military unit came to work on the island. What do they get out of it?
Human-I-T expanded amid the pandemic to bring computers and internet access to families across...
Because of the heightened urgency to connect families to the internet, while most businesses and nonprofits struggled through the pandemic—many not making it through—Human-I-T thrived. Over the past year, the nonprofit expanded, opening a facility in Detroit, its first outside of California.
Restaurateur Carl Dene sells his Kenneth S. Wing-designed home, listed at $2.65 million
“Architecture is really important to me,” said Carl Dene. “I got my degree in graphic arts, so good design is very meaningful to me.”
Kelp fuel is making a comeback 50 years after it was first proposed thanks...
The future of fuel production may be growing in the ocean between Long Beach and Santa Catalina Island.
In a difficult fundraising year, Catalina Conservancy’s Ball ‘Under the Stars’ nets $230,000
The conservancy’s annual “Under the Stars” fundraising event, which took place virtually last month, netted $230,000 to go toward expenses like infrastructure maintenance, educational programming and preservation efforts.
Long Beach job gains slowed in April; unemployment rate almost flat from March
Unemployment in Long Beach decreased 0.2% in April from March, according to data released Friday by the California Employment Development Department. From February to March, the city’s unemployment decreased 2.4%.
‘They barely survived’: Catalina businesses are reveling in increased visitor counts after catastrophic year
When coronavirus swept across the globe in early 2020, Catalina’s tourism economy was decimated. Since 2014, the island getaway has consistently welcomed more than one million annual visitors. But last year, that number was cut in half to just over 500,000, according to Love Catalina Island, the island’s chamber of commerce and visitor’s bureau.
