Long Beach, CA: Top Things to Know About Storage
Traffic That Will Give You Nightmares
If you live in Long Beach, you’re probably one of those people who is always complaining about how bad the traffic is. Well, we agree—there’s no denying that it’s terrible. California is known to have some of the worst traffic in the U.S., and it’s particularly bad in Los Angeles. Long Beach is really close to Los Angeles, so anything that happens there that creates traffic jams trickles down to Long Beach. Traffic gets really bad whenever the Lakers win the championship game and have their parade, or when the president is in town. We all love Obama’s visits but they can make it really difficult to get home, or to your storage unit, after a long day of work.
In our opinion, it’s better to talk about the times when there is less traffic rather than when there is a lot. To be quite honest, you can only get one pocket of time during the day when you might not hit much traffic, and that’s from 9:30AM-11AM. Before 9:30AM people are trying to get to work, and after 11AM, lunch time traffic starts. After the typical lunch hour, people who don’t work full time are usually going home, and that traffic lasts until about 8PM. If you’re living in Long Beach (or anywhere in California for that matter), we highly recommend finding a storage facility that allows for 24-hour access to your unit. It’s a lot easier to access your storage unit when there’s no traffic that you have to sit through, especially if you go at odd times.
Construction
Traffic is also caused by construction in the area. Heavy traffic and a high population in a small area means that roads get damaged quickly. It feels like there’s always some type of construction going on, which only increases the traffic. It sounds like the chicken and the egg problem all over again, doesn't it? Try to find alternative routes to your storage facility so that if you do run into any construction, you can quickly take another route to save some time.
Salt isn’t just Bad for your Blood Pressure
Long Beach is a coastal city, so even though California has more of a dry, desert climate, the city experiences humidity during the summers. In order to protect your things from damage caused by humidity, get a climate controlled unit. We generally recommend that Californians opt for units with climate control because of the severe heat that it periodically experiences, especially during the summer.
Sea salt is another issue for residents of Long Beach. The only things you should be storing in facilities close to the beach are things that are used at the beach. Avoid storing antiques, paintings, cars, and any items that contain metal. The ocean air’s high salt content is highly likely to damage the things that you store, so don’t risk putting your precious muscle car in there. Besides, the beach is always crowded because of the hot weather, which means high traffic areas. Let’s face it, traffic is California’s tragic flaw.
The Beach, Racing, and Food
Every year Long Beach hosts the Toyota Grand Prix. This is a three day event that takes place in mid-April and is filled with races, concerts, food trucks, and wine bars. This event started with a Formula 5000 race that became an international hit. International car makers (Ferrari, Renault, Brabham) and internationally famous drivers come every year for the races, along with thousands of fans. Over the three day period, about 175,000 fans attend the event.
Preparation for this event starts well in advance. They start building the 1.97 mile race circuit track in February. This means that vendors, car makers, and people hosting the concerts start storing stuff at storage facilities in the area early in the year. If you’re looking to store your stuff in the area, make sure you grab a storage unit by January so you’re not scrambling to find a unit last minute. Long Beach has 44 storage facilities, so finding a unit shouldn’t be too problematic.
If you do happen to find a unit close to where the event will be held, be wary of yearly road closures that start a few days before the event. Major street and walkway closures occur during the week and the weekend in order to prep for the event, and because there’s a motorcycle stunt show and racecar showcase that takes place before the races begin. The road closures also last all day during the event but open up some nights. If you’ll need to access your unit in mid-April, find out what roads will be closed and the alternative routes before you go so you don’t get frustrated trying to find them while on the road. And of course, as you may have already guessed, this event will inevitably increase (drum roll please…) traffic in the area.
