Gerrie Schipske's Blog: Damn it. Long Beach is Better than Santa Monica. We Should Have Been a Finalist.

Long Beach on any day is better than the City of Santa Monica. So why is it that we are not one of the 20 finalists in the Mayor's Challenge sponsored by the Bloomberg Philanthropies? Did we ever apply? What did we submit and when did we engage the residents (or even the City Council) on our idea?

Cities were selected, according to the Bloomberg foundation: "The 20 finalist ideas were rated on four key criteria: vision/creativity, ability to implement, potential for impact, and potential for replication." Here are the finalists that are now lined up to receive between $1 and $5 million.