Top 10 Stories of 2025: Major Investments Reimagine Long Beach Parks and Streets

As 2025 comes to a close, Long Beach is celebrating the accomplishments that helped move the City forward—including major investments in transforming parks, streets and public spaces into safer, more accessible and welcoming places for the community. From revitalized neighborhood parks to historic street improvements, this year marked significant progress in enhancing the community’s ability to move and play across Long Beach.

In July, the City celebrated the completion of three major park improvement projects, beginning with extensive upgrades at El Dorado Park West Sports Fields. Designed to elevate both player and spectator experiences, the project delivered renovated ballfields with new fencing, netting, dugouts and seating, resurfaced pathways and new hydration stations. Significant ADA accessibility improvements, including upgraded parking stalls, also ensure the space is more inclusive and accessible for all visitors. Improvements extended throughout El Dorado East Regional Park, where deteriorated roadways and parking areas were resurfaced and restriped to create safer, smoother travel within the park.

This year also marked the completion of the MacArthur Park Rehabilitation Project, transforming the Central Long Beach park into a vibrant, multi-generational gathering space shaped by community input. The project introduced upgraded playgrounds with new shade structures designed to resemble thatch-hut roofs found in Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries. Other improvements include accessible play equipment, revitalized basketball courts, new fitness trails and improved picnic areas.

The City also celebrated the completion of the Bixby Park Bandshell and Park Improvements Project, an investment in a historic community landmark. The project revitalized the iconic bandshell with a new stage and modern upgrades while preserving its character, alongside improvements to accessibility, lighting, safety and park amenities.

Beyond parks, 2025 was also a milestone year for street and mobility improvements that are transforming how people move through Long Beach. In September, the City celebrated the groundbreaking of the Studebaker Road Transformation Project, the longest corridor improvement project in Long Beach history. Spanning more than five miles from Second Street to Carson Street and crossing three Council Districts, the project will deliver major safety, accessibility and sustainability upgrades.

This project reflects Long Beach’s commitment to a Complete Streets approach and the Safe Street Long Beach Action Plan—designing roadways that safely serve pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders and drivers alike.

Upon completion in 2027, upgrades will include resurfaced roadways, redesigned intersections, protected bike lanes and shared-use paths. Transit riders will benefit from shaded bus shelters, boarding islands and safer crossings. Sustainability improvements, including landscaped medians, stormwater biofiltration features and the planting of new trees, will support environmental resilience. The project also includes new fiber-optic infrastructure to expand the City’s Citywide Fiber Network, strengthening long-term connectivity for community facilities.

These efforts build on momentum from the Artesia Great Boulevard Project, completed earlier this year, which transformed a 3.2-mile stretch of Artesia Boulevard with protected bike lanes, improved intersections, enhanced bus stops, upgraded sidewalks, pedestrian lighting and hundreds of drought-tolerant trees.

These park and street investments are part of Elevate ’28, Long Beach’s five-year infrastructure initiative driving meaningful improvements across parks, mobility and public spaces citywide. The progress made this year highlights Long Beach’s vision for a more connected, accessible and vibrant city—now and well into the future.