Long Beach’s Living Legend
She’s the slammin’ tennis pro who took instruction from Long Beach’s public courts and used those lessons to change the world by defeating Bobby Riggs in the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes.”Read More >>

Long Beach is one of the best cities in the world; of this there can be no doubt. But ask five locals where to get the best steak and you’ll get five different answers. So we decided for our Best Of feature this year, we’d propose what we think is the very best of Long Beach. What follows are mostly the opinions of the Long Beach Magazine staff. (Luckily, we’re a very opinionated bunch.) But don’t worry - you’ll have a chance to have your say next year for the 2009 Best Of issue.Read More >>

An Old Pearl Gets a Modern Age Face-lift
On July 25, the completely renovated Dolly Varden Hotel opened in downtown Long Beach. Built in 1929, the hotel provided comfortable quarters to tourists, sailors and business people for about four decades, but eventually fell into disrepair and became a de facto low-income apartment building. Business partners Larry Black and Charles Knowlton purchased the building in 2007 and initiated a massive renovation project, which included finding homes for the tenants.Read More >>

Long Beach’s distinctive coastal setting, the extended stretch of beach that gave us our city’s name, and the multiple and sometimes conflicting uses of our coastal zone—all make Long Beach one of the best coastal cities in the world. It can likely be said that the best of Long Beach from an environmental perspective is our Mediterranean climate, characterized by hot, dry summers and cool, wetter winters.Read More >>