Long Beach Don't Change: Ragu

Photos of local street detritus 2018-2024

Today’s Neighborhood Dispatch comes from Sarah Bennett, an educator, journalist, editor, designer, and zinester living in Long Beach, CA.

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Long Beach Don’t Change is an ongoing zine series that I started in 2023 to process the last six years of all of the thoughts, feelings and changing views I’m having about the city I’ve lived in for nearly two decades.

Please enjoy the second issue of Long Beach Don’t Change.

— Sarah Bennett

ra·gu

/raˈɡo͞o/

noun

Italian ragù, from French ragoût (see ragout); the Italian term originally denoted a meat stew.

In Long Beach, Calif., the term also refers to a poetic assemblage of items left on the street. It’s the sauce, the jambalaya, the trashy slurry left behind on the sidewalks and in gutters that if read as a cultural text or artistic installation, becomes an artifact (or short story) worthy of study on its own.

Every ragu included here is a Long Beach still life that asks a question: What happened here? What does it say about our city and the people who left these items? Is everything okay?