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VOL. 34 nO. 19
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Ron McHenry paints the V.P.
ROOTED IN STRENGTH
Harris portrait was for convention of National Action Network He regrets having missed the chance to meet the vice president. “I got caught in a long line Had it not been for the pre- of traffic,” McHenry said. dictably nightmarish Long And as a result, Harris did Island traffic, Long Beach artist not get to see the portrait, Ron McHenry would have been which depicts Harris with a standing side by sober expression, fit side with Vice Presifor a serious occadent Kamala Harris, sion. There is a along with a porslight smile on her trait he had painted face, but the overall of her, when Harris impression, McHenvisited New York ry said, is one of City on April 14. apprehension. But McHenry got “She is reflecting tied up on the Long on all of the gun Island Expressway violence in Amerion his way to Manca,” the 36-year-old hattan for the annu- ROn McHenRY artist said. al convention of the artist In her speech at Rev. Al Sharpton’s the National Action National Action Network convenNetwork at the Times Square tion, Harris noted that the counHotel. There Harris spoke try had observed the 55th anniabout the gun violence that is versary of the assassination of roiling America — and that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King touched Long Beach on Easter Jr., who was shot on April 4, Sunday, when a 33-year-old 1968, as he stood on a balcony at father of two was gunned down the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, in the Channel Park homes. Tennessee, where he had gone McHenry received a call to support a strike by sanitation from Sharpton’s organization workers. three days before Harris was to Harris said the country faced appear, and he was asked to do a “many important fights” — portrait of her. He said last among them, “the fight for our week that he had never had to children. And all the people to complete a project that quickly. Continued on page 10
By JAMes BeRnsTeIn jbernstein@liherald.com
s
Courtesy Long Beach Public Schools
Honored for helping others Long Beach High School junior Shane Schack received a State Senate Youth Leadership Recognition Award this week. He has been volunteering since elementary and middle school, helping fellow students who have special needs.
Opinions are mixed at council’s first hearing on budget proposal By BRendAn CARPenTeR bcarpenter@liherald.com
The city held the first of two public hearings on the proposed 2023-24 budget Tuesday night, at which a crowd of community members took advantage of the opportunity to voice their complaints, or concerns. The proposed spending plan includes a tax rate of 12.74 percent — the highest in several years, and more than double the current 5 percent. The city plans to spend a total of $102.9 million, up from this year’s $95.5 million. The budget was released late last month.
“I say to the city that this is an urgency,” said council meeting regular James Hodge, who sported a “L.B. Cleanup” shirt, “and like the shirt and the organization that I wear, we look for City Council members that help clean up and help us with taxes.” The proposed double-digit tax rate is mostly attributable to the city’s $75 million settlement with the developer Sinclair Haberman, who filed suit after the construction of a building he proposed was blocked. In 2015, the State Supreme Court in Mineola granted Haberman a motion for a default judgment, in a case that has been wendContinued on page 4
he is reflecting on all of the gun violence in America.