More than 200 volunteers from JetBlue Airways, Partners of Parks, KaBOOM! (a national non-profit that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America), and residents of the Long Beach community joined forces in February 2007 to build a new playground at Orizaba Park. The new playground’s design was based on drawings developed by children who used the playground.

The donation by Partners of Parks, KaBOOM! and JetBlue to Orizaba Park, located within a heavily populated neighborhood that serves more than 5,000 children annually, provides a safe, new outdoor play space for kids and creates an ideal destination for families and children to gather in the Long Beach community.

In April 2007, the City celebrated the addition of 3.72 acres of park space at Orizaba Park with a demolition of some of the existing structures on the property. Future plans include an expanded community center at the site. The park is located at the junction of Orizaba Avenue and Spalding Street.

This park is located on Orizaba Avenue, between Spaulding and 14th Street. The City purchased the first 1.21 acres of the site in July 1923, for use as a Street Department Yard. It was abandoned in 1938 and given to the Park Department for landscaping. Nearby Robert E. Lee Elementary School students named it Orizaba Park.

In the mid-1980’s, the Pacific Electric Railway was abandoned and the right-of-way between Anaheim Street and Long Beach Boulevard was sold to a developer. In lieu of paying Park Impact Fees for residential development proposed on the right-of-way, the developer dedicated over one-acre of the right-of-way adjacent to Orizaba Park for park expansion in 1990. The one-acre along the southern edge of the park included two half-court basketball courts, a mural, and lawn and trees separating the site from industrial uses to the south. The playground was redeveloped with Los Angeles County Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond Act of 1992 funds.

A trailer was added in 1998 to provide an office to supervise increased park activity after the expansion. KaBoom, with Jet Blue as the primary financial sponsor, installed an additional set of playground equipment and new swings on January 23, 2007. The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency purchased an additional 1.1 acres in 2008, to extend the park south to 14th Street.

Open space, KaBOOM! playground, skate park, picnic area, basketball court, restrooms

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