Rex Richardson's sandbags won't save Long Beach from climate debt

By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit · October 12, 2026

Mayor Rex Richardson is using emergency reserves for temporary fixes after Tropical Storm Rachel, a reactive strategy that risks public services to protect multimillion-dollar oceanfront properties.

Long Beach is drowning in a cycle of reactive governance. Three major storm systems in six weeks have battered the coast. Hurricane Marie, Hurricane Polo, and Tropical Storm Rachel have left the city in a state of emergency. Homes are red-tagged. The historic boardwalk is collapsing. Mayor Rex Richardson calls this "unprecedented in this region." But for anyone who has watched a city crumble from the inside, this isn't a surprise. It is a choice. The city is treating a systemic climate collapse as a series of unlucky accidents. By relying on temporary fixes and emergency reserves, Long Beach is gambling with its future to protect a strip of multimillion-dollar oceanfront properties.

The high cost of temporary fixes

The current strategy is a frantic game of whack-a-mole. According to the Los Angeles Times, the city is using lumber and 3,000-pound sandbags to deflect wave energy. This is "emergency response mode." It is the same desperate energy I saw in Flint when the pipes were failing and the officials just kept patching the leaks.

NBC Los Angeles reports that mandatory evacuation orders remain for homes in the 6400 and 6500 blocks of Seaside Walk. Eight buildings have been red-tagged. A red tag means a structure is unsafe to occupy. For the people in those homes, the "emergency response" arrived too late.

The city is now rushing to widen the beach. They are accelerating the Alamitos Bay Entrance Channel Dredging Project. These are necessary moves, but they are reactive. They are the result of a "seven-point plan" created only after Hurricane Marie hit in September.

The reserve fund trap

Follow the money and you find the real danger. The city secured a contractor for permanent repairs estimated to cost between $1.5 million and $3.6 million. This money is coming from the city’s Tidelands Emergency Reserves.

The city's advocates will argue that this is the responsible way to handle a crisis. They will say that using dedicated reserves for coastal projects is exactly what those funds are for. They will claim that the city cannot predict "this cadence of pressure" and must act quickly to save iconic spaces.

That argument is a lie of omission. When a city drains its emergency reserves for repeated, short-term repairs, it creates a vacuum. We saw this during the post-2008 municipal austerity wave. Cities burned through their reserves to cover immediate failures, then slashed public health and transit budgets to balance the books. The cost of protecting the Peninsula will eventually land on the zip codes that don't have ocean views.

Real estate agent Jack Gordon said this area is "completely shattered and vulnerable." He is right, but the vulnerability isn't just about the waves. It is about a budget that treats climate resilience as an optional upgrade rather than a survival requirement.

A blueprint for catastrophe

This is not a new story. It is the same mechanism that drove Hurricane Katrina. In New Orleans, the failure of outdated, inadequate infrastructure to protect vulnerable populations from an escalating climate crisis led to a historic disaster. Long Beach is playing the same game with its century-old wooden boardwalk and timber bulkheads. They are trying to hold back the ocean with sandbags and hope.

The historical pattern is clear. When government relies on reactive spending, the most vulnerable pay the price. We saw it with Hurricane Maria, where successive waves of disaster shattered the same communities. The people in red-tagged homes on the Peninsula are the first to feel it, but the rest of the city will feel it when the reserves run dry.

Mayor Rex Richardson says it will take "real investment" to make the coastline resilient. He is correct. But real investment means moving beyond the Tidelands Emergency Reserves. It means stopping the cycle of emergency repairs that only serve to maintain the status quo for the wealthy.

Long Beach is currently treating the climate crisis like a bad weekend of weather. They are spending millions to keep the water out of multimillion-dollar homes while the structural foundation of the city's finances erodes. If the city continues to raid its reserves for reactive patches, it will inevitably slash public services to fill the gap. The city will protect the boardwalk but lose the neighborhood. Justice requires a permanent, funded transition to resilience that doesn't bankrupt the working class to save a view.

Rex Richardson's sandbags won't save Long Beach from climate debt

The high cost of temporary fixes

The reserve fund trap

A blueprint for catastrophe

Sources