Introducing your West End Beautification Unsung Heroes!

Unsung Heroes Pat Ripley and Butch Grier

Our community is a garden, and such gardens are not made,

By singing, "Oh, how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade.

-RUDYARD KIPLING

I’ve always felt that people come to Long Beach for its seaside charm…but they stay here for its colorful character.

I was reminded of this sentiment last June when we were looking for volunteers for our first Beautification Day. Pat Ripley regretfully was unable to attend but mentioned that she had been doing some work of her own to beautify Beech Street.


This was what drew me in...

But it wasn’t until I talked with Patricia Ripley that I realized how much she enriched the tapestry of life in the West End.

From the moment Pat and her husband Butch arrived at our meeting on their restored vintage Kawasaki Vulcan motorcycle, I knew that this family’s joie de vivre went well beyond their beautification efforts. These are the kind of neighbors that make our community sparkle that much brighter.



A green thumb from day one…

“My husband Butch Grier, myself, and our daughter Jeannie moved to Long Beach in 2002 from Manhattan. We searched for a town within an hour’s commute to the city, where our business is located. We wanted to be near the ocean. We looked at the Jersey shore, where I am from, but one day we drove over the Atlantic Beach Bridge and entered the West End, saw the beach and the kids playing in the streets and we knew that we had found our place.”

Flowers in bloom along stone wall on Vermont Ave.

That decision is one that has ultimately been a blessing for our community. It all started when they were landscaping their new home and decided to plant flowers in the empty spaces in the stone wall of the newly renovated Vermont Avenue parking lot.

“Butch filled in the space with wood and then soil and planted various flowers over the next few years,” Pat recalls.

“We found that geraniums were the hardiest and maintained their flowers the longest, so they became our choice.”

They then turned their attention to the two neglected planter boxes in the Virginia Avenue parking lot.

“This year we bought some very hardy rose bushes and they seem to be doing well. Every spring we supplement them with geraniums.” But she modestly won’t accept all the credit for this venture. “I got a lot of advice from our very talented city landscaper, Kevin, and am always in awe of his beautiful work.”

But Pat and Butch didn’t stop with flowers. Their green thumb extends to the thriving vegetable garden where they grow tomatoes, basil, zucchini, mint, peppers, beans… in a small lot donated by a neighbor, Nettie...all grown using their very own organically created mulch. “We share the veggies with Nettie, our son’s family and our friend Jill Hickey who helps us maintain the plot.”


Unfinished and undaunted…

Palm trees and planters

Pat’s beautification efforts are not limited to her own little slice of the West End. After the West End Library moved to it current location, “we thought it would be great to help beautify it by placing two planters with palm trees on the blank west wall. We have struggled with these palms which were chosen because they can survive in our climate.” However, climate is not their biggest challenge. Twice they have fallen victim to vandalism.

“It is our pleasure to help improve the landscape of the West End; we feel it is a very special place to live, and we want to show our appreciation in ways we can.”

And that is exactly why they are our West End Beautification Unsung Heroes.


The sky’s the limit…

Pat is also very involved in the International Dark-Sky Association, whose agenda is to make the night sky more visible to people by reducing light pollution. They encourage the use of hooded lighting for commercial, and residential lights as well as city lighting. It has been researched that light pollution is a source of stress and a quality of life issue. Towns who have changed their lights to have less glare and light trespass have clearer skies and the stars are once again visible.

“The builder of our new street, Joe Iorio, consulted with me and has now encouraged his new homeowners to use Dark Sky lighting and so fare everyone has done so,” Pat is pleased to report. “We are going to have Dark Sky street lights as well. It will be an example of what can be done to improve our living environment.”

But maybe even the sky isn’t the limit. Pat and her friend Jill are the “Boogie Board Broads” in the West End, spending every spare moment enjoying the ocean, wet suits and all.


Family above all…

Thank you from all of your West End neighbors!

Currently, Pat, Butch and Jeannie live on the new street in the West End, off of Pennsylvania Ave. Their son, Shayne, his wife Heather and their three children, Jackson, Ethan and Brooklyn moved up to Long Beach from Oklahoma four and a half years ago and they now live in Pat and Butch’s old house on Vermont. They welcomed their first native New Yorker, Griffin, in January.

Butch is a stuntman/actor, a Marine Vietnam veteran, and yoga instructor. Pat is a fitness instructor, who also teaches Feng Shui for the Department of Oceanside Community Activities and the Long Beach Public Schools Continuing Education program. On October 27, she will teacher her popular introductory Feng Shui course for the Long Beach Adult Education program.

As if all of this weren’t enough, Pat and Butch own and operate with their son, Shayne, Ripley-Grier Studios, the world’s largest rehearsal studio company, which is comprised of 52 studios in three locations in Manhattan.