Commercial Fixed Wing
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 5.5
Distraction; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Airspace Structure; Human Factors; Procedure
I was working Harbor Radar.  LGB was flipped; to RWY12 operations.  Aircraft X came in for the Visual approach to RWY 12.  Everyone in our area that I know of agrees that this is an unsafe operation.  When Aircraft X came to me; I had multiple targets between him and the airport.  I have to make a judgment call to descend or stay high to avoid the cluster of VFR targets in the vicinity.  In this situation; I chose to descend Aircraft X to get underneath traffic (that may or may not descend also; however; I can only work with what I know).  I descended Aircraft X to 3;000 [feet].  There was a target aiming toward him that I didn't know if it would descend; turn; climb etc.; so based on the information I had; I decided to descend below the target to 1;600 [feet].  The target started to descend also; and at this point; I had already told Aircraft X to 'Expedite'; so stopping him at 3;000 [feet] was not an option because if the pilot started his descent already; then we would have another issue.  I issued a hard vector from a 310 (estimated) [heading] to a 220; then 210.  Now Aircraft X was aimed into a new cluster of aircraft; all low (1;100 [feet]; etc).  LGB yelled over that the prior target was a Cherokee who had Aircraft X in sight. Of course they did not turn the Cherokee away from Aircraft X because their culture is not one to do something like that.  I issued a hard turn back to the right once Aircraft X was under the target to get away from the other targets.  I cleared Aircraft X for the visual approach to avoid any MVA problems.  In hindsight; I could have kept Aircraft X high; but there was also the risk that the VFR traffic would have climbed into him; and if he would have then I would still be writing the report.  This is how the Long Beach 30 departure corridor/Long Beach 12 arrival corridor is; we get lucky sometimes; and sometimes we don't.  The Long Beach practice area is completely unsafe.  I've reported it many times and so have my coworkers.  Class Charlie airspace; one that is well thought out and doesn't push the problem to another area.
SoCal TRACON Controller reported an unsafe operation relating to Long Beach runway configuration with VFR and IFR Traffic congestion.