Long Beach Co-Lab Enters Final Phase as Three Pilots Turn Resident Ideas Into City Services
The City of Long Beach, in Los Angeles County, California, announced on November 3 that it is moving forward with the final phase of the second round of its Long Beach Collaboratory (LB Co-Lab) program. Run by the city's Technology and Innovation Department (TID), the community-driven civic technology initiative combines residents' lived experience with city staff expertise to co-design solutions to local challenges, building a lasting legacy ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The second cohort began in spring 2025, when twelve Long Beach community members were selected as Innovators in Residence to identify actionable issues from their own experience: maintaining public spaces, improving access to city services and securing commercial corridors. The city then called on external partners and local organizations to submit proposed solutions and received 57 proposals — a 200 percent increase from the previous cohort — of which nine finalists presented at Demo Day last November. In January, the city selected three local organizations to lead 12-month pilot projects, each receiving $75,000 in seed funding.
The three pilots are now under way. Embers and Oak Storyworks have installed solar-powered kiosks in three locations with free charging ports and bilingual content about city resources, lowering barriers for residents facing language or technology obstacles. Orion Labs will begin testing in November a system that uses sensors and smart lighting to detect safety concerns and improve visibility along commercial corridors, alerting city staff and participating businesses. And BeeSpace has turned vacant or underused lots into pollinator habitats using a permaculture and community beehive model, with residents as stewards and lot owners overseeing the property.
The city said the projects will continue through spring 2027, when TID and partnering departments will evaluate the pilots and determine next steps. LB Co-Lab is part of the Long Beach Smart City Initiative, established in 2021, and is funded by the city's Innovation Fund and a grant from the Long Beach Community Foundation's Knight Foundation donor-advised fund.
(Source: City of Long Beach)
Source: City of Long Beach
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 长滩市中心景色。 Downtown Long Beach. CC BY 2.5，摄影：Geographer。图片来源 Source image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_Long_Beach.jpg
