When artist and author Sage Magee spoke at a Long Beach City Council meeting on August 25, her passionate public comment gave fellow residents a much-needed laugh.
Magee was one of the many outraged constituents who packed the City Council chambers, waiting to address city leaders. Some came to express their opposition to an unpopular proposal—a threat to defund the public library department by $1.4 million. Others came to question the city’s expensive new rebranding campaign, the Long Beach Vibe City Initiative, a vague scheme that Mayor Rex Richardson spent his summer peddling.
“Long Beach is special,” Richardson told the Los Angeles Times in June. “But it’s hard to explain why if you haven’t been here . . . the best way to describe it is that it’s a vibe.”