On behalf of the California Heights Historic District Neighborhood Association, I would like to welcome everyone, new residents, prospective residents and visitors alike, to our neighborhood.

I'd also like to welcome you to our new website. Our current newsletter editor and resident, Allen Brackett, volunteered to come up with the new more user-friendly design for our site. Most importantly, unlike the old site, it's a snap to update allowing us to make frequent changes to keep residents and visitors informed.

CHNA thanks resident Janice Watson who volunteered her time over the last couple of years to work with the annoyances of the antiquated site to keep it up and running. We appreciate her efforts. We now welcome a new resident volunteer, Stacey Morrison of Beach City Design who will take over for Jan. We look forward to having her aboard.

The site will continue to be developed over the next few months as we tweak and perfect its pages and content.

The CHNA board with both resident and non resident volunteers has worked diligently over the years to continuously improve our wonderful corner of the world.  When residents of the neighborhood organized to invite the City of Long Beach to designate the area a historic district, the groundwork was laid to both promote and protect the integrity and the historic charm that makes us proud to call this place home.  We thank all who have come before us for the efforts they made in securing this designation and we invite residents to stay involved with projects that secure the future of our neighborhood while respecting the historic fabric that we all know and love. 

Volunteers are the heart and soul of all we do as an association.  From The Heights newsletter and ReLeaf tree plantings and tree care days, our wonderful mural, the ongoing lamppost restoration project and the Dana Native Garden, all are made possible through hundreds of donated hours each year.  Considering our modern, often hectic lives, we appreciate every minute of our volunteers’ most precious resource, their time.  The Annual Historic Home Tour, the single largest source of income for our neighborhood projects, comes together through the dedication of our hardworking board members, resident volunteers and dedicated docents from all over the city.  Even the routine community and board meetings come together as a result of dedicated volunteers.

The wonderful honor bestowed upon California Heights by Sunsets Magazine’s editors as a “Best in the West” neighborhood is proof of the efforts we’ve made.  But, like anything else, we must maintain that success and hopefully continue to build upon it.  Whether it’s a few minutes here and there or the dedication of many hours each year, volunteers will continue to be the backbone of our neighborhood projects.  Thanks to each and every one of you! 

If you have occasion to contact the association or any of its board members, remember, we are all squeezing our volunteer time in between work and busy lives.  We will return your queries at our first opportunity.  We check our phone and email messages weekly.  We always do our best to respond, and if you don’t hear back, we don’t mind a gentle nudge!

Sincerely,

John Royce
President, California Heights Neighborhood Association