The Brief

The Long Beach Pride festival scheduled for this weekend was abruptly canceled Friday afternoon, with organizers and the city of Long Beach trading blame.

Pride, a local nonprofit organization, has run the festival for decades. This year, however, organizers didn’t provide “sufficient information to safely permit the event,” the city said in a statement late Friday.

In her own statement, Pride president Tonya Martin emphasized that the organization is volunteer-run and said, “At a time when our community is being targeted and made vulnerable, Long Beach should be doing more to protect and uplift us, not taking away one of the most visible and meaningful expressions of inclusion our city has.”

Until Friday, the event seemed to be proceeding as scheduled, with two-day tickets selling for $75. But in the background, the city says, Pride hadn’t submitted critical paperwork needed for safety inspections of the stage, electrical systems and emergency exit plans.

In an email to Pride this week reviewed by the Long Beach Post, a city official said this information had been requested “multiple times over the past several months and again recently.” Plans that were submitted were inadequate, the email said.

Long Beach spokesperson Laath Martin said city staff made the final decision not to permit the event on Thursday but left open “the possibility of a shortened event this weekend” if Pride could submit the needed documents. It never did, he said.

The free Pride parade on Sunday is still scheduled to happen. The nonprofit used to also organize the parade, but the city took it over in recent years — contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep it running — after Pride asked for help. Pride also reportedly had trouble selling tickets to the festival this year, further contributing to financial problems.

The festival also struggled with vendors in addition to the permitting process, said City Council member Cindy Allen.

“I join our community members who feel deeply disappointed about this situation. I support the queer community and want to see this festival thrive,” she said.

Pride said it was “deeply disappointed by the city’s decision to cancel” the festival. Concerts and events were scheduled from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with the earliest events kicking off Friday evening, right around the same time the cancellation was announced.

Pride called on city officials, including Allena and Mayor Rex Richardson, to reverse course or intervene.

The cancellation, the organization said, “undermines decades of volunteer work and community trust. And it weakens the very values Long Beach claims to champion.”

The parade is scheduled to begin Sunday at 10 a.m. on Ocean Boulevard at Lindero Avenue. The city said it is also highlighting alternative events still happening throughout the weekend.

California has had a spate of abnormally large marine heatwaves in the past 12 years. Typically, they’ve started far offshore in the spring, reached our coast by the fall, then receded by late winter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, or NOAA.

But the current heatwave has stuck around pretty much all year — since last May, particularly off the Central and Southern California coastline.

“The only time you ever see that would be during an El Niño, but we're not in El Niño yet,” said Andrew Leising,  an oceanographer with NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

El Niño is likely to hit our region in the coming months, though it remains to be seen how strong it could be. El Niño is a natural global climate pattern that occurs every three to seven years, when trade winds — the prevailing east-to-west winds that circle the Earth near the equator — weaken, and waters in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific warm up.

The key point, said Leising, is that El Niño isn’t here yet. So why is the ocean so warm?

'A new normal' 

It’s likely a sign of how human-caused climate change — driven by the pollution we’ve pumped into our atmosphere — is making natural cycles more extreme, experts say.

"Approximately 30% to 45% of the affected ocean area is experiencing conditions that are at least six times more likely due to human-caused warming," according to Climate Central.

A NOAA expert said the evidence of climate change's effects on ocean temperatures has been growing since 2014.

“ How much that is, whether there's feedback with the atmosphere, that's what's really difficult to quantify just because it's never one thing acting on its own," said Elliott Hazen, an NOAA ecologist.

The latest conditions of the ongoing marine heatwave off our coast.

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Courtesy NOAA

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Leising called the regularity of these marine heatwaves “a new normal.”

“It's very possible that the long-term change in the atmosphere is what's flipped the switch between fewer and now more heatwaves,” he said.

2014 was a major turning point. That’s when a massive marine heatwave dubbed “The Blob” started, persisting until mid-2016. It caused harmful algae blooms and mass dieoffs of marine life. It also coincided with El Niño.

So far this marine heatwave’s effects aren’t as widespread as The Blob’s. But the current pattern is echoing what led to that devastating event.

An uptick in dead and emaciated seabirds along our coast is one possible sign. Scientists are increasingly pointing to the deaths as related to the heatwave. Why? As birds’ typical food sources move into deeper, cooler waters where birds can’t reach, the birds starve.

The forecast

The warm waters are unlikely to let up anytime soon with El Niño on the horizon.

For us on land in Southern California, that could mean less June gloom, a hotter, humid summer and a dangerously wet winter.

For animals underwater, such as stingrays and juvenile white sharks, those warmer temperatures can be something of a boon — experts are predicting more stingray stings and shark sightings this summer at our local beaches.

A round stingray, the most common type of stingray living along our shore and the most likely to sting you.

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Courtesy CSULB Shark Lab

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But for other creatures, such as nesting birds or sea lions, as well as kelp forests that support that life, such heating can be devastating. Just like humans, living in high temperatures for a prolonged period can be deadly for marine plants and animals.

“We might just roll from one thing into the next, and that's really where some of the biggest impacts lie, is that cumulative stress on the animals,” Leising said.

Warmer waters also mean less upwelling — when deep, cold ocean water rises to the surface.

That means “less nutrients, and just less total productivity,” Leising said. “So there's just not as much stuff at the bottom of the food web to feed everything else.”

There’s still a lot unknown about these escalating marine heatwaves, but cuts to NOAA under the Trump administration could jeopardize ongoing research.

“That kind of work is critical to understand how to respond,” Hazen said, “because the longer we take to respond, the more species end up dying, and the more economic consequences too.”

Ontario boosters are tired of being defined by how far the city is from downtown Los Angeles.

“The Greater Ontario region is truly the ultimate point A,” said Kelsie Woodward, director of marketing and communications for the Greater Ontario Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The Inland Empire city, 40 miles east of DTLA, has got a new, shiny $100 million minor league baseball stadium, and its own team, the Ontario Tower Buzzers.

“The stadium is gorgeous… it's probably one of the nicest minor league stadiums that I've been in,” said Jonathan Campos, President of the Ontario Mountainview Little League, who has visited half a dozen minor league stadiums.

But even there it's hard to get out of L.A.'s shadow. The Ontario Tower Buzzers are the Single-A affiliate of the most talked about team in Major League Baseball — the L.A. Dodgers.

And players on the team high-five each other after a victory while Randy Newman’s “I love L.A.” plays in the background.

Do I need to repeat that? Ontario’s not even in L.A. County.

Ontario Mayor Paul Leon says ONT Field will attract more than baseball fans to the city.

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Screenshot: Ontario Economic Development Agency

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“Who said we want to be L.A. anyway,” said a teen girl on a soccer field in a video promoting this year’s Ontario state of the city.

I won’t even venture into whether Ontario’s got some kill your father, marry your mother issues it’s resolving outside the therapist’s couch.

Ontario officials hope the new stadium brings more visitors to the city, and are on a mission to prove its value as a destination. They point to a whole slew of things to do, both new attractions and beloved long-time offerings.

So in that spirit, here’s LAist’s guide for things to do in Ontario.

1. ONT Field

ONT Field. The home of the Ontario Tower Buzzers, the Dodgers’ single-A affiliate. The team’s roster includes recent high school and college graduates, playing in a stadium with a family friendly wiffle ball park, grassy outfield berm, and playground. The season ends September 6. The stadium will also host concerts and community events.

Ontario Sports Empire is a 190-acre sports fields and facilities complex.

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Screenshot: Ontario Economic Development Agency

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The new, 190-acre Ontario Sports Empire is set to attract baseball, soccer, and flag football youth tournaments from around Southern California.

2. Toyota Arena

Toyota Arena opened in 2008 and hosts events from Los Tucanes de Tijuana to Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live. As well as professional sports such as the Ontario Reign hockey team, the Ontario Fury soccer team, and the Agua Caliente Clippers of the Ontario basketball D-League.

3. Ontario Mills

Ontario Mills. California’s largest outlet mall, it’s been Ontario’s big shopping attraction for three decades. Take your pick from more than 200 stores that sell brand name apparel jewelry, sporting goods, and more.

4. Logan's Candies

Logan's Candies in Ontario makes Dodger Canes, a top seller.

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Screenshot: Logan's Candies

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Logan's Candies opened in 1933, before all the above were even a thing. The shop sells over 200 varieties of candies made on the premises. The candy-making process has gone so viral on TikTok that you need a ticket to watch it in person.

5. Topgolf

Take care of your indoor sports fix with Topgolf. It’s a driving range and more, with mountain-range backdrops as you tee off with a meal and drink.

6. K1 Speed

K1 Speed is an indoor kart racing track for the thrill-seeker and race junkie with the need for speed.

7. iFly Indoor Skydiving

iFly Indoor Skydiving gives people the thrill of free-fall in a vertical wind tunnel without having to jump out of an actual plane.

8. Ontario Museum of History & Art

The Ontario Museum of History & Art mounts art exhibits as well as educational programs for people of all ages.

9. Cooper Regional History Museum

The Cooper Regional History Museum is just outside Ontario city limits and features Indigenous history of the area and other aspects of local history.

10. Cultural events

Cultural events such as the Ontario Art Walk are scheduled for May 16, Aug. 15, Nov. 21 as well as an Arts Festival on Oct. 17. The city has also organized book fairs and film festivals.

Somewhere between childhood and the corner office, a lot of us are taught that play is something that you outgrow.

But what if that trade-off is actually draining us and leaving us feeling stuck? That's the topic of a new book called The Playful Way: Creativity, Connection, and Joy Through Everyday Moments of Play.

Author Piera Gelardi argues that reclaiming a sense of curiosity, fluidity and aliveness isn't just fun. It's a path to deeper connection, stronger creativity and even a way to move through hard things like grief. Gelardi spoke with LAist’s Austin Cross on AirTalk on her theory of fun and how to be more playful in life.

What made you want to write this book?

Gelardi: I had the privilege of growing up in a really playful family, so I got to see what playfulness looked like in adulthood as my parents built businesses, grew their family, navigated grief and illness, and life-lifeing, and I also had really playful grandparents.

So playfulness was something that was really woven into my life from a young age. As a grade-schooler, our family's favorite activity was doing business brainstorms around the kitchen table, but they would be really wild, really absurd. So we would be saying, "Oh, let's start a kids' karaoke club," and then my dad would say, "Ooh ooh, we can call it kidio-ke."

"The Playful Way" by Piera Gelardi

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Courtesy HarperOne

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Moving through my life, I really brought that into building my own business. I brought it into my personal life. And during the pandemic, I was in this big period of transition where I was leaving my company that I'd been at for 15 years. I was navigating the identity transformation of becoming a mom. I was feeling really stuck. What I ended up doing was leading these play workshops for adults throughout the pandemic on Zoom.

It was the most aligned and alive thing I've ever done. People were telling me, "This is helping me with my anxiety, this is helping me with my depression, this is helping me connect to my mom who's on another continent."

I just became fascinated by why that was, and I did so much research about the power of play in adulthood, and I realized that I was creating this space that was giving adults permission to play.

She worried no one would take her seriously

Gelardi: But... I was worried I wouldn't be taken seriously if I dedicated this chapter to play.

I asked the universe for a sign, and I went for this walk, and first I saw a playground, but it looked like a medieval torture device, and so I decided, "Sorry, universe, not my sign."

I walked down to the river's edge, and I heard a clinking noise, and I looked down at my feet, and there was a message in a bottle, and I fished it out of the river.

I couldn't believe it. It was a message from this 7-year-old, Eliano, and he talked about his love of play.

Cross: That's a sign, right? If ever there was one.

Gelardi: If ever there was one. His mom's email was on the letter, so I emailed her, and actually, this message in a bottle was a project they did during the pandemic to connect with people through play at a time when we were all so isolated.

Listeners called in to LAist's AirTalk to share how they incorporate play into their daily lives.

Are we in a play recession?

Gelardi: I think we're in a play recession. As we grow up, we get this messaging that ... play is frivolous, that it's unserious, that it's the opposite of work.

We start to pack away those playful qualities, and what that does to us in adulthood is that it makes us less resilient, it makes us less connected, it makes us less joyful. We become play deprived. It's at the root, I think, of a lot of burnout.

Don't pack away your play

Gelardi: I was sitting in meetings. I didn't ask a question because I didn't want to be seen as not knowing. I didn't float big ideas because I didn't want to look unrealistic. I didn't make a joke because I didn't want to seem like a joker. And as I did that, I started to lose intrinsic motivation.

I started to lose the connection to the people around me, and I started to lose the joy in the day-to-day. So it wasn't until I realized that I was overworked and underplayed that I started to weave play back into my day-to-day, that I saw the power of those qualities in my work and in my life.

Think about your child self

Gelardi: I often tell people to go to the lost and found — think about the child version of you.

What made you lose track of time? What were you so passionate about? And then what might be an adult version of that? For me, it was beachcombing as a child, and now I walk around New York City doing wonder wanders with those beginner's eyes looking for delight.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.