Fed up with people living in and starting fires in a historic tunnel under downtown, the city of Long Beach has started building a fortified metal fence to keep them out.
The Jergins Tunnel below Ocean Boulevard has been sealed up for decades, but after the pandemic, when the city’s homeless population saw a sharp increase, it became a problem. People managed to get past the wood panels intended to block access, and firefighters had to douse fires inside at least four times since 2022. People’s charred belongings and makeshift bedding were often visible afterward.
Link
Brett Ales, who owns the nearby Beach Hut Deli, said it had gotten so bad that there was a noticeable smell if you got close to the tunnel’s entrance.
After a fire in September last year, the city put together plans for a heavy-duty fence to “improve site security” and “reduce the potential for vandalism and fires,” Public Works spokesperson Jocelin Padilla wrote in an email…