Who’s in the room?
The people who could be there.
9%
attended a public meeting
about local issues.
Why the Commons
The neighborhood
is already here.
Let’s make
more of it.
Extraordinary people. Good work in small pockets.
A lot of care that never makes it onto an agenda.
The life
between us.
A commons is the part of a neighborhood we share: the traditions, the useful favors, the faces we recognize, the feeling that someone would notice.
Bixby Knolls Commons reimagines the neighborhood association for every person living here.
The place we mean
Bixby Knolls
is our home base.
The streets, homes, apartments, shops and shared places that make this neighborhood what it is.
Our focus starts here. Our welcome reaches further: neighbors in the surrounding Bixby Zone-In area can create an account, too.
We share an interest in how zoning and new proposals affect Bixby Knolls and its immediate surroundings. That’s why our welcome includes friends and neighbors across the City’s wider Bixby Zone-In area.
Explore the City’s Zone-In areasNew faces, familiar faces, and everyone in between. Every generation, every kind of household, every walk of life. The map shows our focus—not the measure of your belonging.
Bixby Knolls · primary focusBixby Zone-In · wider welcome
Be part of itA group, business or neighbor beyond this map? Let’s find a useful way to work together.City of Long Beach boundary layers. No household locations shown.Our neighborhoodBixby Knolls
There’s good work here.
It doesn’t all meet.
The Commons brings neighborhood groups together while keeping what makes each one its own.
We’ve also heard from neighbors who haven’t felt represented, welcomed, or at home in a group. You shouldn’t have to find the right circle to have a place in your own neighborhood.
Here, you can belong to one group, several, or none. Come as you are. There’s room for you—and for the good we can do together.
A shared layer,
not a replacement.
The
CommonsNeighbors & groups,
connected.
CommonsNeighbors & groups,
connected.
Blocks
Schools
Traditions
Shops
Neighbors
Groups
The neighborhood is bigger than any membership list.
9+Local groups
2Council districts
1Neighborhood
Four groups report fewer than 30 members.
Those are directory-reported memberships, not a count of everyone who cares.
A meeting can matter.
And still miss most of the story.
We’re building for both.
Who makes the neighborhood?
All the people living in it.
54.2%
helped or exchanged favors
with neighbors.
The care was already there.
Attendance alone couldn’t show all of it.
The whole neighborhood, heard
More ways to be heard.
More of us in the picture.
A text after a long shift. A call instead of another form. A conversation on your block. We’re planning ways to hear from people where life already happens—not only from whoever can make the meeting.
We dig in, do the homework, and bring people together so the whole neighborhood helps shape what’s next. Data and research help us make a stronger case—and passion and persistence help us stay with it.
Explore Know the KnollsAsk beyond the usual circle.
Invite more neighbors into the conversation, including people we haven’t heard from yet.
Bring what we hear together.
Keep the question clear and the answers connected, whether they come online, by text, by phone, or in person.
Show the whole picture.
Share where we agree, where we don’t, and whose voices are still missing. A handful of answers should never quietly become “the neighborhood says.”
Stay with it.
Come back with what changed, what hasn’t, and what we’ll do next. Hearing from neighbors should lead somewhere.
A warm welcome.
A steady backbone.
Different lives, different views, one neighborhood worth caring for. We can work with anyone who wants to help make it better—and stand beside a neighbor when something isn’t right.
Everyone starts as a neighbor.
A title, a donation, homeownership, or perfect attendance doesn’t give someone a bigger claim to this place. The welcome doesn’t change with who happens to be in the room.
Good work across differences.
We’ll find common ground without asking people to think alike—or looking away when someone is treated unfairly. Kindness and conviction belong together.
Our judgment isn’t for sale.
Support helps the work happen. It doesn’t buy our priorities or change our principles. We listen to neighbors, do the homework, and follow through on what matters to Bixby Knolls. Our standards stay the same, whoever is in office or helping fund the work.
Why it matters
Joy is part of
the serious work.
A neighborhood isn’t just what we fix. It’s what we enjoy together—and what that makes possible afterward.
A good time can
be a good beginning.
The fun matters in its own right. A seasonal night, a shared project, an ordinary afternoon that turns memorable: these are reasons to love living here.
You recognize someone from a gathering. The next time you cross paths, there’s already something to talk about. Later, you know who to ask—or who might appreciate a hand.
That’s social infrastructure: familiar faces and shared experiences, with useful ways to stay in touch and get things done. We’ll tackle the hard stuff, too. Bringing the neighborhood together is what makes us stronger for it.
See what we’re bringing to life
Our beginning
It started
with wonder.
Lights on Falcon showed what local imagination could bring people out for. The Commons asks what that creative nerve could make possible the rest of the year.
LightLab Community Arts Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the Commons’ home. Bixby Knolls is where this neighborhood chapter begins.
Lights on Falcon · Authentic neighborhood photographThere’s room for you
Come as
you are.
You’re already part of what makes Bixby Knolls home. Come to something that catches your eye, follow along, or enjoy the neighborhood in your own way. We’re glad you’re here, neighbor.
Be part of it