At Length

Silence Does Not Make a Majority
By James Preston Allen, Publisher

     The other day State Senator Alan Lowenthal’s chief of staff, John Casey, dropped by my office on his way to the Long Beach Grand Prix. We went out for some libation and conversation at one of San Pedro’s local haunts when the subject of the legislature’s performance naturally arose. Casey’s estimate went something like this––three percent of the legislators are heroes, three percent of them are crooks and the rest of them are just wondering when lunch is being served!
     I am reminded of late, by the retired editor of San Pedro Magazine, Jack Baric (who seems to keep writing for them still, in his column, “Letter from Jack”), that, “you get the leaders you deserve.” And with the exception of Bush and Cheney, I’d probably agree with Jack. No that’s not exactly right. Bush and Cheney are part of the three percent in the lower category of crooks when I think about it. The issue is that Casey’s estimation of the legislature is probably an accurate reflection of the people, a few heroes, a few crooks, most just want to be sure they’re fed.
     The reason I bring this up is Mr. Baric’s ballistic rhetoric in his “letter” recently balling about the Port of LA delaying the construction of certain elements of the Water Front Promenade––he didn’t say which ones––but he goes on at some length about, “special interest activists are winning and the community… is losing ” and “fringe elements of our community… lead while the rest of us quietly do little.” The question I have for Baric and this community is, “Are these fringe elements heroes or crooks?” For it is readily evident that they aren’t the types who are quietly waiting around to be fed. They are not the “silent majority” types that Richard Nixon used to rely upon for support of his “secret plan” to win the Vietnam War, nor are they the silent types, a somewhat diminished silent minority who still believe in “holding the course” in Iraq.
     This fringe element Baric refers to, are the very ones who have selflessly fought POLA over air quality and land use issues over the last twenty years. They are the individuals who joined the NRDC law suit on the China Shipping terminal and won a first-ever $60 million victory. That judgment not only mandated that the Port mitigate for past and current bad behavior, BUT gave independent legal standing to the Port Community Advisory Committee or P-CAC that is made up of such “fringe elements” as homeowners, labor unions, educators, Wilmington advisory, Harbor Assoc Industry and Commerce, PMSA (representing the shipping industry), all four Neighborhood Councils and the Chambers of Commerce from Harbor City, Wilmington and San Pedro (of which Baric is a Boardmember of the later). So one might suppose from his comments that he is a part of this “fringe” too––assuming he has attended any POLA meetings.
     The biggest impediment to moving forward with the Bridge to Breakwater plan does not happen to be with the three percent at the leading fringe and if you know who I’m talking about then you are probably one of them, but more rightly lays at the feet of a Port bureaucracy, that at best moves slowly, with constrained deliberation, in an exceedingly linear thought process. The vision almost always comes from the people, not the bureaucrats. The other issue is that the new Port commission has only been seated for nine months, just enough time to know if they are pregnant or not, and not enough time to sort out who is who and what, is what both inside and out of the Harbor Department. It also doesn’t help that POLA’s second in command, Stacy Jones, the one spearheading the Promenade just resigned, and Knatz, the new director, has just reshuffled the deck on which department is going to take the lead on this project. These are a few things that were left out of SP Mag’s criticism of the Sierra Club’s letter.
     I cannot tell you how much I disagree with most of Baric’s diatribe but I will say this––the big questions about the future of the waterfront do not rely on how “sick we are of a small group misdirecting” our future! He’s talking about the three percent leadership of a very few community activists who have fought for years to bring about a fundamental change at the Port of LA, who are more concerned with clean air and water pollution than they are with profits, who are more concerned with environmental justice and mitigation than they are with being polite. But the Big Issue is not whether to praise or blame them. You see, he’s also talking about the consensus results of numerous community deliberations, from RRM in the Riordan Era, through the WATCH Report, ULI and SMWM during the Hahn era. The big issue is whether we will respect this consensus and create the best green port in America that is both healthy for workers and the community AND that remains economically viable for both the global economy and the harbor region.
     I will not waste too much more of this column on Mr. Baric’s crying about, “the loudest screamers” for I must admit to being amongst them, for I have at times needed to when the course of the Port and other government actions necessitated it. What people like Baric don’t really get is that democracy can be messy. It definitely isn’t quiet and that silence is not either a commitment for or against it. It just may mean folks are out to lunch. You can take that either way you want to. As I was reminded recently by one of our many readers––things get decided by those who show up. The silent majority just never seems to do that.