LONG BEACH, Calif. — The Queen Mary arrived in Long Beach in 1967. It’s become a huge international attraction, but today it is closed for critical repairs.
Even without the public around, there are many people on the ship working. Recently, crews removed the huge and deteriorated lifeboats from the sides of the ship. The weight was causing instability and “severe cracks in the support system,” according to the city.
Museums, preservation groups and developers can bid on these pieces of history, but that doesn’t mean they’re tearing the whole thing down and selling it for parts.
From the window of The Reef restaurant, you can see the Queen Mary. The proximity fostered a mutually beneficial business relationship over the years, but the ship wasn’t even there when John Tallichet’s father started the business.
Although he started in the back of the house, John Tallichet eventually moved up and made friends with the regulars along the way.
“That’s kind of the joy of our business is I’ll meet people and mention The Reef and somebody’ll say, ‘Oh, I went to my prom there,’ or ‘I had my first date there,’ or ‘I got engaged there,’ or ‘I had a wedding there.’ We’ve just been a part of the fabric of Long Beach for so many years,” Tallichet said.
Just like his own family has grown since the restaurant opened, so has the bustling shoreline that’s across the water. Being so close to a famous landmark used to draw in the tourists and locals from across the bridge.
“Unfortunately, with the Queen Mary being closed, I think it puts it out of peoples’ minds to come to this side of the water,” Tallichet said.
Things have gotten so slow, The Reef is no longer letting people dine in or take away. They are focusing only on large, private events until the Queen Mary reopens, which is what the city is working toward.
“I am focused on the critical improvements. I am focused on the energy and the excitement and the momentum,” said Eric Lopez, the director of public works for the city of Long Beach.
Lopez was a college student when he went aboard for the first time. Since then, a lot has happened.
The most recent in a series of operators is in bankruptcy proceedings after failing to keep up the ship. Now the city is on the hook to make millions of dollars’ worth of critical repairs.
“I’ve always known that it needs some work. It’s going to continue to need some work, but that doesn’t mean that the public can’t enjoy it,” Lopez said.
That work will take time, which is a resource in short supply for Tallichet.
“When you say viable, viable has been a difficult word these last few years, you know we’ve kind of re-determined what that means. It can’t sustain itself long term just remaining,” Tallichet said.
The city has estimated the cost of the critical repairs to be about $5 million. This money is supposed to come from the Tidelands Funds, a special pot of money designated for coastal-related needs.