Copyright 1994 Adam Barnhart. All Rights Reserved. Fair use of this document.

Long Beach, California, is a city that has long occupied a unique geographic, economic, social, and cultural place in Southern California. Located on the eastern portion of the San Pedro Bay, south of the city of Los Angeles, and west of Orange County, Long Beach stands at a crossroads that has fueled both its socio-economic dynamism and the concomitant struggle for identity the city has faced. Playing a prominent role in these changes are the processes of industrialization and deindustrialization, embodied in Long Beach by the civilian and military development of the maritime and aerospace industries, buttressed by access to one of the largest oil pools in the world. The development of industry in Long Beach, particularly after the 1933 earthquake, led to the identification of Long Beach as a model American suburban community -- an "Iowa by the Sea," combining a burgeoning techno-industrial job base with traditional Protestant values. However, with the advent of deindustrialization in the military-industrial complex and the civilian aerospace industry, the economy of Long Beach has recently experienced dramatic change, with a corresponding shift in its social and political identity. By exploring the issues of industrialization and deindustrialization in Long Beach, a more complete description of the fundamental roles technology and the economy play in determining social identity and organization become clear.

Prior to 1933, Long Beach was primarily identified in terms of its propinquity to the sea and Mediterranean (Koppen Csa) climate,¹ with tourism and commerce playing a major role in its development. Particularly from the period of incorporation in 1888 to the turn of the century, Long Beach functioned as a small (with a population of 2252 and 3.1 square miles in area) resort town with "a reputation as a prohibitionist, camp-meeting town, dotted with modest hotels and rental tents for vacationers."² During this period, the combination of the Southern Californian climate and the relative isolation from the rapidly growing Los Angeles metropolitan area provided an allure for both tourists and residents.³ However, the simultaneous openings of the Red Car line, connecting Long Beach to Los Angeles, and The Plunge, a bath house that marked the beginning of The Pike as a tourist center, by Charles Rivers Drake in 1902 effectively ended the separation of Long Beach from Los Angeles, leading to a more complete economic integration of the region.⁴ By 1903, the City of San Pedro had received a $300,000 grant to dredge the Los Angeles River channel separating the two sides of the harbor, while the Long Beach Land and Navigation Company began development of the 800 acres of marshland between the resort area and the channel.⁵

During the subsequent twenty-six years, the Port of Long Beach became an increasingly important entity, annexing Terminal Island in 1905, the beginnings of maritime industry in 1907, and the establishment of a steam generating plant in 1912. The annexation of Wilmington and San Pedro by the city of Los Angeles in 1909, made contiguous by a small strip of land, roughly following the route of the contemporary Harbor (110) freeway, led both to the full development of the twin ports as economic centers and to political conflict between the two cities regarding territory rights, particularly offshore land rights, usage of the Cerritos Channel, and appropriation of land in the mid-cities (ranging from South-Central Los Angeles to North Long Beach) area. This difficulty was partly allayed by the granting of title of state tidelands to both Los Angeles and Long Beach by the state legislature.⁶ The opening of the Panama Canal after the first World War further relieved economic tensions by increasing total cargo by more than 500% between 1921 and 1923.⁷ The independent creation of a Naval Landing by the city in 1927 fully established Long Beach as a major seaport and civic entity.

The beginnings of the Great Depression had a dramatic impact on the developing city, with the government assistance central to the development of the port and surrounding hinterland being greatly curtailed. The tourist industry, though no longer central to Long Beach's economy, suffered from the general lack of disposable income, weakening the tax base of Long Beach and the entire Southern California area. Though not experiencing the pain of the Depression as fully as many towns, the growth of Long Beach was greatly slowed until the March 10, 1933 earthquake which struck along the Newport-Inglewood fault in the North Long Beach area. The earthquake, which took between 49 and 52 lives (sources dispute the figure to this day) within the city of Long Beach, restructured the local economy and forced the city to rebuild itself.

The earthquake, though costly in funds and lives, ushered in a new era in Long Beach, with growth in nearly every industry, despite the worldwide impact of the Great Depression.⁸ As a result of the 6.3 trembler, the city borrowed $6.1 million from $20 million allocated in a relief act passed five days after the earthquake and amended three months later, creating a construction boom in the city, made even stronger by a law requiring that all construction be done by citizens of Long Beach.⁹ For a city that had expanded more rapidly -- nearly 700% between the turn of the century and 1910 and to an even greater extent in absolute numbers between 1910 and 1930¹⁰ -- the amount of construction needed to rebuild the economy limited the social tension of unemployment and provided a stability to Long Beach that did not exist in other areas.

The economic slowdown of the port continued through the bulk of the Depression, until 1936, when the Wilmington Oil Field was discovered under the port by a seismic study. After subsequent legal maneuvering, the already unusually solvent Long Beach economy was given a dramatic boost by the beginnings of oil drilling in 1938. By leasing land to private contractors -- who were allowed only 15 percent of the returns -- the City of Long Beach gained control over a huge annual budget which allowed for the physical and technological expansion of the port, particularly through 1968. Maintaining consistency with state law, money derived from oil income was used on the expansion of the port, extending the port seaward by developing piers (and further locations for oil drilling) on fill, a process employed throughout the period of expansion. The later construction of the THUMS (Texaco, Humble [now Exxon], Union, Mobil, Shell) oil islands at the eastern end of the Wilmington field fit this trend, with the derricks and holding tanks of the oil recovery process "beautified" by condominium-like architecture and palm trees.¹¹ The process of oil drilling was slowed for a brief period of dramatic subsidence, centered on the eastern end of Terminal Island, until the introduction of water flooding stopped the subsidence problem and raised the ground level in many locations.¹² Though by 1956, Long Beach was forced to give 50 percent of oil recovery profits to the state of California, the money made by the city allowed for the expansion of the port and the development of other local centers, including the Long Beach Municipal Airport and many schools, without increasing the tax burden on the people of Long Beach.¹³

With the Port of Long Beach receiving tremendous support from oil money, its role in the mid- to late-1900's was greatly expanded. The Port of Long Beach fit well into Eugene Van Cleef's traditional model of an ideal port, including a hinterland that is both consuming and productive, a location near primary trade routes, and modern and efficient facilities for the transport of passengers and cargo.¹⁴ Civilian shipping, buoyed by the pier expansion, began a steady climb from the end of the depression, becoming particularly involved in the transport of petroleum and, to a lesser extent, lumber.¹⁵ Supplies of other resources, such as borate, which are strongly present in the hinterland of the port, provided a strong basis for outgoing cargo.¹⁶ Long Beach developed into a transport center, though the construction of the Port of Long Beach as a part of the downtown area restricted its ability to utilize the tideland areas for manufacturing.¹⁷ Ultimately, the proliferation of private employers at the Port of Long Beach led to a massive expansion of the job base in the area and added the economic benefits of international commerce to the income derived from oil and tourism by the city.

The explosion of private sector commerce at the Port of Long Beach was paralleled by a massive naval presence in Long Beach. The expansion of the Navy into Terminal Island in 1940 solidified a military presence in Long Beach, adding 50,000 military personnel and their dependents to the population of Long Beach.¹⁸ The impact of this presence was felt even more fully with the onset of World War II. In addition to housing many ships on active duty, Long Beach emerged as a central point for military shipping, as well as ship construction and repair. Serving as the second largest industry in the area at the time, the shipbuilding industry employed over 100,000 people, many of whom worked at the Naval Shipyard, at the twin ports during wartime.¹⁹ Subsequently, the naval contingent decreased in size, but made up an important part of the population and culture of Long Beach.

The overwhelming impact of the military-industrial complex in Long Beach was compounded by the emergence of aerospace technology in the area. The most important of these employers was Douglas Aircraft Company, which built a massive plant contiguous with Long Beach Municipal Airport. As an exemplar of technological advancement and productivity in Roosevelt's "Arsenal of Democracy," Douglas' Long Beach plant produced the largest number of planes -- 9440, including 4285 C-47 Skytrains and 3000 B-17 Flying Fortresses -- of any Douglas plant in the country.²⁰ Despite layoffs following the war, Douglas remained the largest employer in the area, developing passenger planes which are in heavy use throughout the world, including the DC-8 and the MD-11. Ultimately, Douglas (which became McDonnell Douglas after a 1967 merger), became as important, if not more important, to the local economy as the Navy.

The changes in employment patterns between 1933 and the mid-to late-1980's radically restructured the community of Long Beach in many ways. For the civilian employment base, increased productivity at the Port of Long Beach created new jobs, which led to a small housing boom, widening the strip of land between the downtown area and North Long Beach, creating new, small single-unit homes for those with moderate incomes. The city, from the 1930's to the 1970's, retained its conservative, Protestant image and midwestern ties (primarily from the Iowan Invasion of the early 1900's, which brought thousands of families to the area). Long Beach was still largely a white community, separated only by class, with the wealthy occupying property near the beach (along Ocean Boulevard) and near Rancho Los Cerritos and the port workers taking up residence in the areas between the two, as well as the area near Signal Hill, east of downtown Long Beach.

The population explosion, from 164,271 to 250,767 between 1940 and 1950, created a housing shortage in the Long Beach area, the often overlooked result of which was a continuation of the construction boom of the post-earthquake period.²¹ In addition to strengthening the wartime economy and lessening the post-war downturn, the increase in construction led to the full development of the fifty-five square miles that constitute all of Long Beach proper, a geographic shift of major proportions in the history of the city. Though most development, with notable exceptions, was the same tract housing as the already existing houses of the western end of Long Beach, an increase in lot size and propinquity to the Douglas plant created a distinct East Long Beach comprised of upper-middle class engineers and professionals, while the remainder of Long Beach, aside from the shoreline and Virginia Country Club (Rancho Los Cerritos) areas, became affiliated with lower and lower-middle class workers. By the 1960 census, in a city where 329,399 of 344,168 residents were Caucasian, the income differential between west side and east side workers was in excess of $2000.²²

In addition, the type of work taking place within Long Beach changed sharply during the period. Long Beach, which had once employed large amounts of maritime support workers -- including longshoremen -- became heavily focused on containerized shipping, changing both the number and type of people necessary for transport.²³ The tonnage of containerized cargo handled by the well-equipped -- with nineteen gantry cranes and an increasing number of container terminals -- began at low levels during the 1950's, but experienced a twenty-fold increase in the 1970's, leaving many longshoremen and other manual workers without jobs.²⁴ The Port of Long Beach tracked the emerging aerospace industry, becoming more technologically oriented and employing a larger quantity of technicians to increase efficiency and profit.

During the later part of this period, immigration played a major role in defining the community, making race a much larger factor than it had been. While Long Beach had always been a Protestant community, its toleration of Italians and Irish Catholics was remarkably good, in view of a strong racist presence, particularly in the local activities of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920's and 1930's. However, issues of class evolved into issues of race during the 1970's and early 1980's, when immigrants from Asia entered the area, along with a strong local contingent of African-Americans and Latinos, often moving from the mid-cities area. Long Beach, which had begun as a series of neighborhoods, united under incorporation, started a movement toward a pronounced east-west political, social, and economic split, anticipating socio-economic changes that have shaped the most recent past.

The recent deindustrialization of the local economy stands as the most radical economic redirection since the 1933 earthquake and its aftermath. In a city that expanded from 361,334 to 419,700 people between 1980 and 1990 after an increase of less than one percent during the previous decade, the current economic stagnancy takes on a larger meaning, experiencing the pressure of a population that is expected to reach 500,000 within a decade.²⁵ As World War II expanded the economic base of an already growing city, the fall of the Communist bloc in 1989 has constricted the activity of the military-industrial complex, by far, the single biggest factor affecting local employment.

McDonnell Douglas, as the largest employer, has made major cutbacks, laying off over 4,000 workers and encouraging early retirement for others. When combined with the limitations of commercial flights in and out of Long Beach Municipal Airport due to noise regulations, the once burgeoning aerospace industry is now an area of uncertainty. The surrounding residential development further exacerbated the problem of the need for airport expansion, a central part of many local economic expansion processes. With each commercial flight into Long Beach bringing in an average of $200,000 in revenue, cutbacks in incoming flights substantially diminish the revenues generated via trade in the city.²⁶

The economic strain of military cutbacks can also be seen at the naval station, the continued existence of which has been debated in Congress and has, in the interim, been dramatically downsized. Other facilities, including the Naval Housing on the far west end of town and the VA Hospital on the far east end of town, have been subject to closure and have become a primary focus of redevelopment interests. The east-west polarization has been emphasized in this exchange, including extensive debate regarding the proper allotment of property and development funds. The dislocation and loss of jobs for the military population has been tremendous, weakening the commercial potential of the immediate area. Contemporary Long Beach has lost the stability of the purchasing power of a sizable naval contingent, instead facing the proposition of their complete absence in the economy of the city.

Recent city politics bear out a strong east-west split, which, in the current configuration, favors the political strength of East Long Beach. Reapportionment, designed to give Latinos and other minorities a voice in city government, has sapped their strength in other elections. In the recent mayoral campaign, the voting split between east and west was marked, with splits as large as 26 points (in the west) and 24 points (in the east) balancing a fairly close election, determined by the overrepresentation of registered voters and higher voting percentage in East Long Beach.²⁷ The split has been reflected in public policy, with law enforcement funds used to create police substations in East and North Long Beach, rather than focusing on the area of West Long Beach, which have dramatically higher crime rates.

It is against this backdrop that Long Beach is trying to reinvent itself. Converging with cities like Baltimore and Oakland, Long Beach finds itself in a period where demographic transition has redefined the socio-economic construction of the city. The housing on the west side, which was once almost universally occupied by Anglos, is currently occupied primarily by minorities. The downtown area that had once been the focus of Long Beach has given way to other centers both within Long Beach and in the neighboring communities. The redevelopment project, now in full swing, strongly parallels the Baltimore model -- albeit without a $180 million baseball stadium as its centerpiece -- on which it is, in part, based, with a refurbished Civic Center, sixteen-screen movie theater, Convention Center, newly built shopping mall, and World Trade Center highlighting the attempt to reestablish the downtown area (next to the port) as a commercial center and tourist location.

Like Oakland, Long Beach remains in a struggle for identity, as a city of a slightly greater size, perched on an important California bay, located only miles from a major metropolitan center. Though Oakland has encountered far more difficulty in urban planning than has Baltimore, Oakland is a useful model for Long Beach in examining the roles that are established when a major city experiences a sudden influx of non-Anglo minorities. Long Beach, as a traditional city, carries its motto of "International City" uneasily, with the necessary heterogeny of a major urban center in 1994 being poorly reconciled with the "Iowa by the Sea" that many residents continue to identify Long Beach as. The inconsistencies of a "Long Beach culture" can be seen in the output of contemporary artists (particularly writers and musicians), who often address the tenuous identity of the community.²⁸ The identity crisis of Long Beach is one which fully penetrates the psyche of the community, located geographically and ideologically between Democratic, industrial Los Angeles and Republican, professional Orange County, Long Beach is profoundly affected by contemporary changes in economics, politics, culture, and technology.

Long Beach's chronological position in the deindustrialization process makes an inquiry into future possibilities and the means of reaching them an interesting proposition. If the process of deindustrialization is expected to continue unless acted against, as Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison argue, means of redressing the ills caused by deindustrialization must be found.²⁹ As the second largest contributor to what is predicted to be the largest job and income base by the year 2000, Long Beach will play a vital role in the future of the local and national economy.³⁰ Bluestone and Harrison's model, emphasizing government regulation, fits the radical Socialist element that existed in the economic crises of the 1930's that saw the advent of the Townsend movement.³¹ A second, more Libertarian model, proposed by Seymour Zucker, et.al., promotes the lifting of anti-trust laws in high technology industries, including aerospace, to allow for collaboration between companies.³² A more interesting and better adapted model to the Long Beach environment is the Third Wave, "Indust-reality" model, developed by Alvin Toffler, which emphasizes the importance of information in developing in a modern context.³³ When Long Beach natives speak of "reindustrialization," they speak more of the potential of industries that have only begun or have not yet appeared in the area -- high-technology industries involving rapid change and advance. While traditional inquiries into industrial history have a capital orientation which fixes resources, an information orientation may better fit the abstract nature of contemporary society, dealing with a resource that is controlled, but not expendable in the traditional sense.³⁴ To gain a clear sense of the present and future of Long Beach, all of these models should be considered, weighed by their utility to the study, rather than by what methods have historiographic currency.

Long Beach, as a geographic, economic, and demographic center, acts as a valuable vehicle for accessing the processes of industrialization and deindustrialization and the history of the region. The process of deindustrialization in aerospace and other high-technology fields has not been as well-documented as other industries, such as the automotive and steel industries, though the high-technology fields have evolved into among the most important to the U.S. and world economies. A study of the phenomena addresses the importance of technology and the economy on the development and dynamics of community organization and identity, of prime importance to the majority of large cities existing today. Further research on the subject would surely prove to be valuable, with the experience of the city of Long Beach providing a valuable resource for the development of a more complete social and industrial history.

Notes

1. Falick, Abraham Johnson. The Twin Ports: Los Angeles/Long Beach (Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of California -- Los Angeles, 1967) p. 9.
2. DeAtley, Richard. Long Beach: The Golden Shore (Houston, Texas: Pioneer Publications, 1988) p. 46
3. Winther, Oscar. "The Use of Climate as a Means of Promoting Migration of Southern California." Mississippi Valley Historical Review. Vol. 36, p. 415.
4. Meyer, Larry L. and Patricia L. Kalayjian. Long Beach: Fortune's Harbor (Tulsa, Oklahoma: American Heritage Press, 1983) p. 50.
5. DeAtley, pp. 56-57.
6. D.W. Lantis, R. Steiner, A.E. Karinen cited in Falick, p. 6.
7. Falick, p. 9.
8. For a complete discussion of the worldwide impact of World War II, see Charles Kindleberger's The World At War: 1929-1939 (Basic Books).
9. DeAtley, p. 83.
10. Census data taken from the Los Angeles-Long Beach census tracts of 1900, 1910, and 1930, published by the United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. A discussion of the population growth between 1900 and 1910 can be found in Meyer and Kalayjian, p. 72.
11. DeAtley, p. 11.
12. Draine, Edwin Hilary. The Geographic Implications of Land Subsidence in the Long Beach, California, Area (Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of California -- Los Angeles, 1958) pp. 31, 32, 123.
13. Meyer and Kalayjian, p. 142.
14. Van Cleef, Eugene. Trade Centers and Trade Routes (New York: Appleton, Century, Crofts, 1937), p. 107.
15. Foster, Gerald. Tidewater Industrial Sites at Los Angeles -- Long Beach Harbor, California (Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of California -- Los Angeles, 1953) pp. 37-50.
16. Falick, p. 68.
17. Foster, p. 17.
18. DeAtley, p. 93.
19. Ibid.
20. Meyer and Kalayjian, p. 131.
21. DeAtley, p. 95.
22. United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. U.S. Censuses of Population and Housing: 1960. Census Tracts -- Los Angeles-Long Beach, California, pp. 25, 30-35.
23. Long Beach, California, Board of Harbor Commissioners. Annual Report: 1971.
24. Long Beach, California, Board of Harbor Commissioners. Annual Report: 1980.
25. Hornor, Edith (ed.). California Cities, Towns, and Counties: Basic Data Profiles for all Municipalities and Counties (Palo Alto, California: Information Publications, 1991), p. 220.
26. Wood, John Walter. Airports: Some Elements of Design and Future Development (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1940). p. 10.
27. Long Beach Press Telegram. 10 June 1994.
28. Artists from Long Beach have, to a disproportionate extent, utilized the city as a point of reference. John Leonard's Crybaby of the Western World: A Novel of Petit Guignol in Long Beach, California (Doubleday) is perhaps the most notable literary example. Long Beach's burgeoning music scene has echoed the local struggle for identity in a variety of musical forms, including Alternative-Blues (Lost Souls, "Howlin' at the Moon" [Obeah Music]), Rap (Snoop Doggy Dogg, "Doggystyle" [Death Row/Interscope Records]), and ska-punk (Sublime, "40 oz. to Freedom" and "Robbin' the Hood" [Skunk Records]).
29. Bluestone, Barry, and Bennett Harrison. The Deindustrialization of America: Plant Closings, Community Abandonment, and the Dismantling of Basic Industry (New York: Basic Books, 1982), p. 6.
30. Employment Development Department. Los Angeles-Long Beach Labor Market Bulletin: First Quarter, 1986.
31. For a complete discussion of a Socialist plan for American industrial recovery, see Bluestone and Harrison's The Deindustrialization of America.
32. Zucker, Seymour, Claudia H. Deutch, John Hoerr, Norman Jones, John E. Pearson, and James C. Cooper. The Reindustrialization of America (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982) pp. 154-155.
33. The three wave, informational paradigm is developed at great length by Alvin Toffler in Future Shock (New York: Bantam, 1970), The Third Wave (New York: Bantam, 1980), and Powershift (New York: Bantam, 1990). A specific discussion of industrial development can be found in The Third Wave, pp. 98-115, while an argument for the more abstract nature of modern development can be found in Powershift, pp. 58-66.
34. A more traditional, materially based approach to the history of industrial change can be found in David Bensman and Roberta Lynch's Rusted Dreams: Hard Times in a Steel Community (University of California Press).

Bibliography

Cited Sources

Books/Theses/Reports

Bluestone, Barry, and Bennett Harrison. The Deindustrialization of America: Plant Closings, Community Abandonment, and the Dismantling of Basic Industry (New York: Basic Books, 1982).

DeAtley, Richard. Long Beach: The Golden Shore: A History of the City and the Port (Houston, Texas: Pioneer Publications, 1988).

Employment Development Department. Los Angeles-Long Beach Labor Market Bulletin: First Quarter, 1986.

Falick, Abraham Johnson. The Twin Ports: Los Angeles/Long Beach. Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of California -- Los Angeles, 1967.

Foster, Gerard. Tidewater Industrial Sites at Los Angeles -- Long Beach Harbor, California. Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of California -- Los Angeles, 1953.

Hornor, Edith (ed.). California Cities, Towns, and Counties: Basic Data Profiles for all Municipalities and Counties, 1991 (Palo Alto, California: Information Publications, 1991).

Kindleberger, Charles. The World in Depression: 1928-1938 (New York: Basic Books, 1978).

Leonard, John. Crybaby of the Western World: A Novel of Petit Guignol in Long Beach, California (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1969).

Long Beach, California, Board of Harbor Commissioners. Annual Report: 1964.

Long Beach, California, Board of Harbor Commissioners. Annual Report: 1980.

Meyer, Larry L. and Patricia L. Kalayjian. Long Beach: Fortune's Harbor (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Continental Heritage Press, 1983).

United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. U.S. Censuses of Population and Housing: 1900. Census Tracts: Los Angeles-Long Beach, California.

United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. U.S. Censuses of Population and Housing: 1910. Census Tracts: Los Angeles-Long Beach, California.

Unites States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. U.S. Censuses of Population and Housing: 1930. Census Tracts: Los Angeles-Long Beach, California.

United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. U.S. Censuses of Population and Housing: 1960. Census Tracts: Los Angeles-Long Beach, California.

Toffler, Alvin. Future Shock (New York: Bantam, 1970).

Toffler, Alvin. The Third Wave (New York: Bantam, 1980).

Toffler, Alvin. Powershift (New York: Bantam, 1990).

Van Cleef, Eugene. Trade Centers and Trade Routes (New York: Appleton, Century, Crofts, 1937).

Wood, John Walter. Airports: Some Elements of Design and Future Development (New York: Coward-McCann, 1940).

Zucker, Seymour, Claudia H. Deutch, John Hoerr, Norman Jones, John E. Pearson, James C. Cooper. The Reindustrialization of America (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982).

Articles/Newspapers

Long Beach Press-Telegram. 1924-1952, 1981-.

Winther, Oscar. "The Use of Climate as a Means of Promoting Migration to Southern California." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 36.

Consulted Sources

Books/Theses/Reports

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Employment Development Department. Los Angeles-Long Beach Labor Market Bulletin (Quarterly: 1985-1993).

Heilbroner, Robert. The Future as History (New York: Grove Press, 1961).

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Holtzman, Abraham. The Townsend Movement (New York: Bookman Associates, 1963).

Hudson, Frank. A Study of the Subsidence of the Long Beach Harbor Area (Sacramento/Long Beach: California Legislature Assembly/Frank Hudson, 1958).

Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Modern Library, 1961).

Katz, Michael B., Michael J. Doucet, and Mark J. Stern. The Social Organization of Early Industrial Capitalism (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1982).

Long Beach, California, Board of Harbor Commissioners. Final Port Master Plan and Environmental Impact Report (1978).

Long Beach, California, Board of Harbor Commissioners. Annual Report: 1986.

Long Beach, California, Board of Harbor Commissioners. Annual Report: 1992.

Long Beach, California, Board of Harbor Commissioners. Annual Report: 1993.

Mitschke, Douglas Lee. The Long Beach Pike: An Amusement Park, 1900-1980. Unpublished M.A. Thesis -- California State University, Long Beach, 1981.

Pye, Lucian (ed.). Communications and Political Development (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1963).

Roosevelt, Nicholas. The Townsend Plan (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran, and Company, 1936).

Sampson, Anthony. The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They Shaped (New York: Bantam Books, 1976).

Walker, James Blaine. The Epic of American Industry (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949).

Woodbury, Coleman (ed.). The Future of Cities and Urban Redevelopment (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953).

Articles/Newspapers

Alexander, J.W. "The Basic/Non-Basic Concept of Urban Economic Function." Economic Geography 30.

Davis, William. "The Long Beach Earthquake." Geographical Review 24.

Jones, Charles. "Battle Against Ocean Water Corrosion." Oil and Gas Journal 54.

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Vogl, Frank. "Vast Global Changes Challenge Private-Sector Vision." Financier, April 1978.

Weigland, Guido. "Some Elements in the Study of Port Geography." Geographic Review 48.