The Brief

An answer to Long Beach’s ongoing budget woes may be buried under dust in Sacramento.

The Long Beach City Council is in a mad dash to bring the state to the negotiating table over a decades-old contract that establishes the revenue split from the Wilmington Oil Field in and around the coastline, saying the current agreement has been a cash gusher for the state.

City officials say time is of the essence, as the legislative cycle ends next week and any items not brought forward could be tabled until at least January.

It’s an item that would restructure how much the city receives for its guardianship over what’s known as its tidelands area, a 24-square-mile swath of ocean and coastline from the Orange County line through downtown Long Beach to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The field goes about as far north as Ocean Boulevard, almost reaching the breakwater to the south, and encompasses some of Long Beach’s most precious assets: the beaches, marinas, and Convention Center.

Since 1991, the city has received 8.5% of revenues earned through oil and dry gas production in the tidelands area, pulling from the Long Beach section of the Wilmington Oil Field. Another 49% goes to the oil operator while the state takes 42.5%.

But it’s a deal that no longer makes sense, according to Long Beach Councilmember Kristina Duggan, who said Friday a reasonable city share rests between 20% and 30% of the revenue.

The city is under mounting pressure to transition its economy away from a reliance on local oil production, which is set for a dramatic decline — $300 million over the next 10 years, according to City Auditor Laura Doud. Meanwhile, the city has $1 billion in outstanding coastal projects, from a deteriorating Naples Island seawall to costly upgrades at the Convention Center.

Facing the rising cost of upkeep along the coastline, the city is expected to spend more than it earns to oversee the tidelands for the first time in 2026. Officials project future deficits through 2035 will range between $6.2 million and $10 million.

As a result, city leaders may have to divert money from other core programs and services.

“What are we going to take away? Are we going to take away our libraries? Are we going to take away our staffing at parks? Where are we going to get the money when we are using funds from the general fund to take care of every district?” Duggan said.

Meanwhile, the state expects to reap $271 million from the tidelands through 2035, according to Duggan’s office.

Oil in Long Beach has a long, intricate history, pieced together through multi-party contracts and court hearings over who is most deserving of the gushing revenues and by how much.

Oil was discovered in 1932 and was estimated to total 9.5 billion gallons' worth. In the years prior to 1955, Long Beach was awash in cash, keeping most of the oil revenue for its general fund.

Citing a trust arrangement set in 1911, the California Supreme Court in 1955 named the state as the main beneficiary, since the oil was extracted from state land beneath the water. The state declared most of the money generated from oil production as surplus and began redirecting it to Sacramento, based on the conditions when the coast had fewer needs and oil production was much higher.

Under the expectation that oil would either soon dry up or be phased out, the city agreed to a funding formula in 1964 that fixed its revenue at $1 million a year. The change in 1991 bumped the city’s yield to its current rate, which now brings in around $50 million annually. The city receives tax revenue from 2,762 active and idle oil wells that are managed by 14 oil operators.

But the current formula is out of step with reality, Duggan said, adding that the state has taken $5.75 billion from Long Beach under this formula as “surplus.”

“Our increase in responsibilities and costs is escalating far, far greater than what we can keep up with,” she said.

It’s the “No. 1 priority this next year” in state lobbying, said Mayor Rex Richardson on Tuesday. The mayor has for years lobbied the state to allow Long Beach to divert interest from a fund meant to cover the costs of decommissioning defunct oil wells, of which the city has invested millions.

“We’re going to go back to Sacramento and put options on the table,” Richardson said. “But the reality is … doing nothing is not an option for us.”

In a joint call with the governor’s office last week, Richardson reiterated his request for diverting interest from the oil decommissioning fund, while Duggan spoke on renegotiating the funding formula.

While Newsom’s office seemed open to both ideas, according to Duggan, each needed to be championed by Long Beach’s state representatives — state Sen. Lena Gonzalez and Assemblyman Josh Lowenthal.

“We need them to carry this,” Duggan said. “And we have two weeks to get some sort of traction with legislation. That’s the only way to make it happen.”

In a statement Friday, a spokesperson from Lowenthal’s office said the assemblyman looks forward to “discussing potential ideas with the city of Long Beach and the Long Beach legislative delegation.”

“With California now facing a major budget shortfall, we’ve had to make tough choices to protect vital services while keeping the budget balanced,” the statement read. “Any sudden changes to that balance could have real consequences here at home. While the city has and continues to be a good steward of the state’s tidelands — any discussions surrounding the fund’s future must be well informed, conducted responsibly, and be in the best interests of the entire state of California and the residents of the city of Long Beach in order to uphold the public trust.”

A panel of three judges for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously rejected the federal government’s request to delay improving conditions at the Adelanto Immigration Detention Center, a privately run facility in San Bernardino County.

How we got here

On July 16, a U.S. District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to immediately improve medical care, disability accommodations and daily conditions, including access to drinkable water, for people held at the facility, which is run by one of the largest private prison companies in the U.S.

The government, under that order, had to submit a plan to address the deficiencies alleged by plaintiffs in the lawsuit. When federal officials filed that plan, they signaled that they planned to appeal and argued that conditions at Adelanto already meet the standards for immigration detention.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs — people held at the detention facility — strongly disagreed and have submitted reports describing routine violations of the July 16 order.

What the 9th Circuit said

In their decision, the three 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges noted that the lower court found that people held at Adelanto are “subject to punitive conditions, including a lack of consistent access to potable water and adequate medical care.”

The judges, who were appointed by presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, considered the government’s argument that it is the GEO Group, the for-profit detention operator paid to run the facility, that ultimately has control over the conditions. In denying the request to stay, the judges found that the government is “ultimately responsible for ensuring that the conditions of confinement are constitutionally acceptable.”

And the judges suggested remedies available to the government, including withholding payment or imposing other financial penalties on the contractor if it fails to meet its obligations. They also said ICE could release or move plaintiffs to avoid constitutional violations.

The appeals court rejected several other arguments from government lawyers, including the government’s claim that enforcing the order will harm its enforcement efforts, and that conditions at Adelanto already meet standards.

“The government also does not meaningfully dispute that the types of conditions the district court found to exist are unconstitutional,” the decision states.

What’s happens next

The government is continuing to appeal the preliminary injunction. Arguments in the full appeal are due to the appeals court on Sept. 17.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

When Serajul Islam took his first bite of the traditional Bengali dessert, roshogolla, after moving to Los Angeles, he found the dough was quite hard.

It was the 1990s, shortly after he immigrated from Jashore, Bangladesh with his wife, Farida.

He was brainstorming about what type of business they could open in L.A. and it was this syrup-filled ball of dough that made him realize how much he missed the dessert from home. 

“When I ate that roshogolla, it felt like if someone would hit my head with that, my head would break open,” he said. “That was when it struck my mind to open a sweet shop.” 

This is the origin story of Aladin Sweets and Market at 139 S. Vermont Avenue, one of the oldest Bengali restaurants and shops in the neighborhood. 

To this day, the family business has their regular customers who value the market’s traditional dessert recipes, including the roshogollas or laddoo, chickpea flour fried in oil.

Sadman Farooqui, a regular customer said on a recent visit, “The laddoo here is number one. Laddoo like Bangladesh is found only here in Los Angeles.”

The variety of Bengali sweets available at Aladin Sweets & Market.

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Avidha Raha

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The LA Local

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A few gallons of milk

Serajul and Farida moved to Los Angeles with their three kids in 1990. Serajul always wanted to own a business and initially rented a frozen dessert shop to check if it would be a good fit. He only lasted a month. 

After eating the hard roshogolla he came back home and spoke about it to his wife, about his grand ambition to sell desserts. The couple purchased a few gallons of milk from a Vons market and tried making sweets at home. The first few attempts were not successful.

Fresh, homemade sweets made regularly with chhana marks the authenticity of Bengali sweets.

Chhana is a fresh, unripened acid-set cottage cheese made by curdling milk with an acidic agent like lemon juice or whey, then straining out the liquid whey. It is the absolute foundational building block of traditional Bengali confections, serving as the raw dough-like base needed for preparation of the sweets. 

Serajul called a friend in Bangladesh, who owned the Madhu Sweet Shop in Jashore. Over the phone, their friend guided them through the nuances of making chhana (cheese curds) which is turned into a smooth dough. After repeated attempts, the chhana texture finally came out perfect.

Cooked Bangladeshi food and signature items like Pran chips and Gobindovog rice.

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Avidha Raha

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The LA Local

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From a humble catering service operated out of their home, Farida and Serajul expanded the business into a full-blown shop. Now, Aladin has become an institution in the Little Bangladesh area, where everyone can go and feel a little sense of nostalgia. 

Caught in between other small shops and grocery stores in the densely packed streets. Aladin Sweets sits near Koreatown’s sushi and Korean barbecue bars, modestly consistent with its homemade desserts that bring in their loyal customer base from all over L.A. County.

Parvin Akhtar, a customer from outside the neighborhood, has kept coming back to Aladin for more than eight years.

“Even though the price is a little expensive, I keep coming back from far away in Torrance, because I like the sweets here,” Akhtar said.

Winning over the toughest critics

Serajul takes pride in serving not only the community here, but also legendary artists who visited L.A. at some point; like Manna Dey, Bhupen Hazarika, and even A.R. Rahman in the more recent times. He hopes that people think of Aladin as that spot which feels like home away from home. 

Through the glass doors of Aladin, the first thing that can be seen are very easily identifiable Bengali sweets. Roshogollas, sandesh, kalo jaam, laddoo, mishti doi and chhana jalebis are some of the most popular items. 

Aladin also serves savory and sumptuous Bengali meals like fish curry, biriyani, mutton, tehari, pulao, luchi, and so on.  The moment upon entering, people can smell the aroma of specific Bengali spices such as black nigella seeds, fenugreek, mustard, cumin and fennel seeds. 

While the savory menu is impeccable, it is the sweets that paved the way towards the foundation of this restaurant. 

Soon the word spread and it reached the ears of an organizer from Dakshini Bengali Association of California, who gave Serajul and Farida their first stall in their upcoming event. 

“It was a three-hour long event, but all our food was sold out in the very first hour. That event became a huge advertisement for us,” Serajul said. 

Their stall with homemade Bengali sweets and snacks like patties and fritters, which people were seeing after a long time, lured everyone in.

Legendary singer Manna Dey, left, visits Aladin Sweets and Market in the 1990s.

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Courtesy Aladin Sweets and Market

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After winning the approval of the toughest critics in Southern California, every Bengali event – be it Bangladeshi or Indian – invited them to sell their food. They started catering from home in full swing: to larger events, concerts and even weddings. Soon after, the store Aladin Sweets and Market came into existence in 1993, and there has been no looking back ever since. 

It all started with the motivation to produce chhana at home like every other Bengali household, and make sweets for the diaspora in Los Angeles hungry for a taste of home. 

Serajul and Farida’s son, Mokibul,  also runs the business and recalled from his childhood how his mother would keep the sweet-gifting tradition amongst Bengali households alive.

“My mother would make homely sweets which were popular in Bangladesh, as gifts to share with people here,” Mokibul said. 

Farida explained the sweet-making process that she has been following all these years. First boiling gallons of milk and curdling it into chhana, kneading the chhana into smooth balls or other shapes depending on the sweet item, pouring them in sugar syrup and finally getting it ready for consumption. This process can be found in Bangladesh as well as in the eastern part of India, especially in the state of West Bengal and Odisha. 

Farida looked back to the early 90s, during the initial days of trying out the sweet-making process when she would get some time for herself. ("After dropping the kids to school, I would try making sweets alone. In L.A., I also saw Anandalok magazine that came from Kolkata, whose backside had some sweet recipes. I kept on trying,” she said “Then one day, the sweet came out very nice, since then I maintained that recipe.")

Bike lanes are now under construction along a 10-mile stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach as part of an effort to improve safety along the popular cycling route.

What's changing?

Caltrans is reducing the width of the median in some areas and making other changes in order to add bike lanes in both directions on Highway 1 between the Santa Ana River bridge and Sunset Beach.

Construction began this summer and is expected to be completed by December. Some overnight work may require lane closures.

Estimated project cost: $10.7 million.

Why this project matters

A memorial for Eric Williams, who was struck by a car and killed while cycling along Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach in 2025.

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Jill Replogle

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LAist

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This scenic stretch of Highway 1 is popular with cyclists, and sometimes deadly.

A driver struck and killed a 70-year-old Huntington Beach cyclist near Huntington State Beach earlier this year. And a 45-year-old pastor and father of four was killed in the same area last year.

The bigger picture

The project is part of a Caltrans plan called Complete Streets, which aims to make state highways safer and more accessible for pedestrians, bikers and public transit. Caltrans also has a goal of zero fatalities on state highways by 2050.