Located in a semi-arid region with limited natural freshwater supplies, Long Beach relies on external water reserves and, despite record-breaking rainfalls in January 2017, water use prohibitions are still in effect. In an average year, the Long Beach Water Department (LBWD) obtains 40 percent of its water from imported sources and 53 percent from groundwater—which is also partially dependent upon imported sources for recharge. Recycled water accounts for just 7 percent of the city’s water supply.

The aquarium’s climate-resilience report noted that plans to increase recycled water have “not yet been realized,” and suggested that imported supplies will become less reliable by 2050, even as demand increases as a result of warmer summers.

Since creating new green spaces may entail water problems, Garcia has turned to infrastructure and planning as another long-term strategy.

“We’re rethinking how to design a community. We’re introducing bike lanes and new public transit to decrease dependency on cars, which will help mitigate the temperature rise,” he said.

Garcia has long championed bike lanes. A flurry of them were built before his election as mayor, but the network was inconvenient: Thanks to a little-known municipal law, cyclists had to register bikes at a local fire station and faced fines of up to $400 if they failed to do so. Garcia, then a city councilman, introduced a measure to eliminate the registration in 2011 and it was eventually scrapped.

However, when Long Beach looked at expanding bike lanes in 2014, there was a backlash. “Every time you remove a car lane, people are concerned about their access getting to and from somewhere,” the mayor said.

But the city plowed ahead with plans to implement a road diet—removing one lane of car traffic in each direction between 7th Street and Orange Avenue and adding new bike lanes.

It also introduced a bike share in March 2016, using a $2.3 million grant awarded by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which means the bike share operates without cost to Long Beach residents.

Michael Bohn, the design director at Studio One Eleven, a local architecture firm, has noticed a marked uptick in developers integrating climate resilience into projects in Long Beach.

More banks—such as Fargo Wells and Bank of America—are requiring developers of affordable housing projects in California to meet LEED Silver standards for financing, he said. “That’s forcing some who weren’t interested in sustainability to include it in their designs, which was unheard of even three years ago.” Developers are also planning greener buildings to try and win state tax credits for affordable-housing projects, he said, by installing energy-efficient air conditioning in low-income units and other measures.

“That’s forcing some who weren’t interested in sustainability to include it in their designs, which was unheard of even three years ago.”

One such development for seniors, designed by Bohn’s firm, was completed in 2013 in an underserved area of Long Beach, and had a 400-person waiting list. It includes community gardens, white roofs—to reflect the sun and limit heat absorption—and a sustainable planting and irrigation system, using plants that need minimal water.

Bohn’s next project is working to turn chunks of Long Beach’s city center into eco-districts. This involves thinking creatively about the bigger picture of ecological design: What’s the best way to capture rain water? How can trees be planted on a broad scale?

“The city owns three massive parking structures in a six-square block,” Bohn said. “We’re working with them to put solar panels on the roofs, so that sunlight can operate all three of the public parking lots.” The project has been approved by the city council and a private solar-panel provider is contracted to start work next year. If successful, there are plans to roll the strategy out to other structures in Long Beach. A costly plan to clean up the port Garcia’s ambitious green drive has not gone unchallenged. The Port of Long Beach is the second-busiest container port in the country and supports an estimated 30,000 local jobs. It and its sister port in L.A. also make up the largest stationary source of air pollution in Southern California. Since air pollution is closely linked to rising temperatures, tackling this is a top priority for the city. In June, Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles and Garcia announced a joint emissions declaration for the ports of Long Beach and L.A. This was adopted by the two boards of harbor commissioners. The Clean Air Action Plan calls for imposing fees on old diesel trucks entering port terminals, in an effort to shift to natural-gas vehicles. The plan also requires terminal operators to transition to zero-emission cargo handling equipment by 2030 and would expand the use of emission capturing devices in the port to reduce pollution from cargo ships.

Cargo-moving industries and truckers have criticized the plan, which was pushed through in early November, citing the hefty price tag of cleaner equipment as the predominant issue. Pacific Merchant Shipping Association president John McLaurin said in a statement , “Our concerns remain about the [plan’s] $14 billion cost and its potential negative impacts on port competitiveness.” He also raised concerns about the “one in nine jobs in the Southern Californian region” that he said are reliant on the ports.