I had a conference at the Long Beach Convention Center. James' place is very close (about 1-mile away = 20-min walk). There are also buses and Uber, but I enjoyed the walk and it's along busy and well-lit streets.
Check-in very straight-forward. The locked entrance leads to a small courtyard, which leads to the several apartments. James' unit is on street-level. There were no homeless folks on this street, and they can't get into the courtyard.
I didn't have a car, so I can't say much about parking. I'm not sure if cars that street-parked had to have permits. I don't know.
The beach is literally a 5-min walk from James' place. There is also a Food Mart (used to be called 7-11) also 5-min away. The Breakfast Bar (a famous brunch place I'm told) is about a 7-min walk away. There are several bus stops in the neighborhood too. Thus location-wise, James' place is very convenient.
Inside, the place is clean and it looks like the flooring, treatments, etc are new. There are electric heaters built into the walls - Long Beach was unusually cool for late May. So, it was nice to have instead of being buried in blankets.
James didn't ping me much (thanks!). He responds quickly though, when I pinged him (thanks!). Would definitely recommend!