On Sunday, Aug. 26, the Seal Beach legs of Long Beach Transit bus routes 131 and 171 will be discontinued. The routes that connected Seal Beach with Long Beach were cancelled over allegations of racism against some Seal Beach residents.
The city of Seal Beach was expected to issue a press release on Tuesday, Aug. 7. However, the press release date has been changed. “After further discussion internally, we will be releasing the press release for the LBT 131/171 lines on 8/17,” said Patrick Gallegos, LBT administrative manager, in an e-mail to the Sun.
There are alternative routes available. Just inside the Long Beach/Seal Beach border, the AquaLink water taxi service stops at Alamitos Bay Landing on the Long Beach side of the San Gabriel River on Marina Drive, allowing residents of the Marina Drive area to travel to the Queen Mary or the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific.
Orange County Transportation Authority bus routes 60 and 1 go into the city of Long Beach. Route 60 will take Orange County travelers to California State University Long Beach.
CSULB is a hub for Long Beach Transit bus routes. Route 1, which travels north and south on Pacific Coast Highway, will take passengers traveling north from San Clemente as far as 7th Street and Channel in Long Beach.
Long Beach Transit has been required to replace its small Passport buses with larger buses. This required a change of one bus route through a residential neighborhood. Some residents disapproved of the plan. Long Beach Transit officials have said that some Seal Beach residents living in the Marina Drive area made unspecified “racist” remarks about Long Beach residents at an unrecorded community meeting to discuss changes to bus route 131.
As a result of these reportedly racist remarks, Larry Jackson, the president and CEO of Long Beach Transit, decided to discontinue both bus routes.
Seal Beach officials offered multiple apologies, with no results. News reports have quoted Kevin Lee, marketing manager for Long Beach Transit, as saying the routes were cancelled because LBT was denied access.
Neither the Seal Beach City Council nor the Planning Commission took any action to regulate the Long Beach bus routes.
