Dr. Robert Garcia is an educator and the 28th Mayor of Long Beach. Mayor Garcia is focused on making the City of Long Beach a leader in economic development, sustainability, education, and technology.
Our City is safer than it has been in years. Thanks to Measure A, we have made critical investments in Public Safety. Our police and fire services were expanded to improve service levels and response times across the city.
We have made tremendous progress in the last 3 years. In 2017 alone, we hit the lowest unemployment rate in our city’s history, had the best year on record for tourism, and the largest cargo volume ever at the Port of Long Beach. Our city is booming with more than $3 billion in private investment.
During my first term, Long Beach launched the largest investment in improving our city’s infrastructure in a generation. Measure A, which passed with more than 60% support in 2016, is funding $384 million in investments in infrastructure and public safety.
Since I became Mayor, I have pushed to make Long Beach a leader in climate change by advancing a climate adaptation and action plan, developing more biking infrastructure, pushing for modification of the breakwater, signing the Paris Climate Agreement, and tasking Long Beach Transit to become a zero emission agency.
In my first year in office, I worked to bring Bloomberg Foundation funding to Long Beach for our first Innovation Team. The i-Team worked to make our city data driven and worked with various departments to address using data to further economic development.
Across America we have seen a housing crisis develop due in part to a surging economy that has driven up prices. While housing costs go up, so does the number of people experiencing homelessness. I’m proud of the hundreds of affordable homes we've built and the thousands of affordable homes we've preserved in Long Beach.
As an educator, I know the best economic development and anti-poverty program is a high quality education. The City of Long Beach is so lucky to have great educational partners. The Long Beach Unified School District has for years been one of the best urban school districts in the nation and was again named District of the Year by the national publication Education Dive.