One Block of Second Street Gets Chalk on Saturday and Books on Sunday

Last October, poet Nico Patino set a stool, a table and a typewriter in a corner of the Chase Bank parking lot on Second Street and wrote personalized poems for whoever stopped by. Long Beach Current reported that his rule is "do not edit while you create," so every poem a stranger carried home was a first draft. That was the Belmont Shore Book Fair's second year. The fair was held on a Sunday in mid-October, and other events on the calendar had nothing to do with it.

This year that changes. The 2026 Book Fair is on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 5200 E. 2nd Street. The day before, the 21st annual Belmont Shore Sidewalk Chalk Art Contest fills the same address and the blocks around it. Two separately run community events now share one stretch of sidewalk on back-to-back days. A week later, Second Street's trick-or-treat afternoon follows.

How the Book Fair Ended Up Next to the Chalk

The Book Fair has had a different date every year. The Grunion Gazette calendar in the Press-Telegram listed the "First Annual Belmont Shore Book Fair" for Sept. 22, 2024. In 2025 it moved to Sunday, Oct. 19. The Belmont Shore Business Association has set the 2026 edition for Sunday, Oct. 25, which is six days later on the calendar than last year and the morning after the chalk contest wraps.

The fair started small and filled up quickly. Heather Kern, executive director of the Belmont Shore Business Association, told Long Beach Current that she worked with Long Beach writer and Long Beach State alumnus Max Evans to recruit local authors. She said they had to turn some applicants away because spots filled so fast. "This is only our second year," Kern said in 2025. "We'll have to see how it goes to see what we can do to expand."

The two events have different hosts. The Business Association organizes the Book Fair. The chalk contest comes from Justin Rudd and his nonprofit, Community Action Team. The two have crossed paths before: the Association credits Rudd with photographing the 2025 Book Fair.

Saturday, Oct. 24: Fifty Artists Drawing on Paper Laid Over the Sidewalk

The chalk contest runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., mostly on Second Street between La Verne and Granada avenues. The artists don't draw on the concrete. Every registered adult artist gets a six-piece set of non-toxic pastels and a white Lenox sheet of artist's paper about 38 by 50 inches, and they work on those sheets on the sidewalk. Organizers expect more than 50 established and emerging artists, plus students from local high schools and universities.

The grand prize is $1,000. Pre-registered artists get free entry, materials and a pizza lunch from Rance's Chicago Pizza. Artists who are 16 or 17 can enter for $20 paid in advance, and 16 is the minimum age. Registration and full rules are on the contest event page.

The end of the day is the best time to watch. Long Beach Current's coverage of the 2024 contest described artists lining up for the judges at the close while spectators crowded around. Jennifer Ripassa won Best in Show that year. If you arrive in midafternoon, most pieces will be nearly done, and you'll still catch the judging.

Sunday, Oct. 25: The Same Address, Turned Over to Books

The Book Fair runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Chase Bank lot and is free. The Association promises local writers, publishers and poets, poetry readings, panel discussions and works about local lore. The 2026 schedule is posted as a graphic on the Belmont Shore Book Fair page, so check it for this year's lineup and panel times.

Last year's fair shows what a Sunday there is like. Long Beach Current counted more than 50 local writers, poets and publishers at the 2025 fair, along with groups such as the Friends of the Long Beach Public Library, which works to draw attention to banned books. According to the same report, the 2025 tables included:

• Undercover Bookcycle, a mobile secondhand seller run by Carrie Foster. It wraps its books for "blind date" buying, so you don't know which title you got until you open it.
• Amanda LaPera, with her young adult Desert of Dreams series, set in the real town of Lake Los Angeles.
• Latrice McGlothin, a Long Beach State theatre alumna, with "Hello Coco! Suds, Songs, and Aunt Fancy's Salad," a children's book about healthy habits that includes a song she wrote.
• Deborah Cooley Segal, whose children's counting book "Critter Countdown" was presented by her son Seth Segal.

These are 2025 participants. The 2026 lineup is the Association's to announce. Kern's comment last year sums up the fair's appeal: "I think people will be shocked that there's so many published writers living in their community."

Getting There: Parking and Shuttle Times Don't Match the Event Hours

Both events start before the free shuttle runs, and both last longer than a single meter allows.

On the Belmont Shore parking page, meters on Second Street, the side streets and the public lots behind the businesses cost $3 an hour from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, except holidays, with a three-hour limit. You can pay with coins, a card or the Passport app. Watching the chalk contest from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. takes more than two meter sessions, and the Book Fair is five hours long. If you live within walking distance of the 5200 block, you can skip the meter entirely.

The Belmont Shore free shuttle is an on-demand service between the Shore and Downtown Long Beach that you book in the Ride Circuit app. It runs Thursday and Friday from 4 to 10 p.m., Saturday from noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 8 p.m. That means service starts three hours after the chalk contest opens on Saturday and one hour after the Book Fair opens on Sunday. Both events end well before the shuttle stops running, so it's most useful for the trip home.

A Sept. 11, 2026 memo from the Long Beach City Manager's office describes the service, called LB Circuit, as running between Belmont Shore and Downtown, with a service area that includes the Second Street corridor. The memo also says fiscal year 2027 is the last year of the current contract, and staff will recommend options for after that. The shuttle is running now. Check the app that weekend before you count on a ride.

What Follows on Second Street After the Book Fair

The weekend also kicks off a run of Second Street events that lasts into December. The Association's 2nd Street Scene exhibit, which closed Oct. 17, had art mounted on the Big Belly trash and recycling cans along the street, with QR codes for voting. Here's what's next:

1. Trick-or-Treat on 2nd Street, Saturday, Oct. 31, 4 to 6 p.m. Look for jack-o'-lantern signs in shop windows; those are the businesses handing out treats. The Association lists a photo spot at Chase Bank, the same corner as the Book Fair, and an Instagram costume contest. Each shop may stop handing out treats when its hours or supply require. Halloween is a Saturday this year, so meter hours apply.
2. Small Business Saturday, Nov. 28. The Association advertises free parking all day, the only event in this run with that perk.
3. The 42nd Annual Belmont Shore Christmas Parade, Saturday, Dec. 5, 6 to 9 p.m. The parade is always the first Saturday in December. The Association lists more than a dozen marching bands and about 100 entries, which return along Livingston Avenue and head west on the north side of East Second Street.

Chalk on Oct. 24, books on Oct. 25 and costumes on Oct. 31 add up to three events on Second Street in eight days. Two of them use the 5200 block, and the Chase Bank corner is part of all three.

We'll be on Second Street that weekend too. If you get to talking about your own home between the chalk judging and the poetry readings, Cynthia Voss and Nathan Walter can tell you what it might be worth in today's Belmont Shore market. Request a Free Home Valuation and we'll reply with real numbers for your street.