Historical Society Says Save Ports O’ Call
The San Pedro Bay Historical Society has long advocated for preserving buildings that help tell the story of our town’s history. This history, made up of events and experiences spanning generations, endows a building with meaning beyond its mere functionality.
One place rich in such history is the Ports O’ Call Restaurant, now threatened by the latest redevelopment plans for the waterfront. No, the restaurant is not yet one hundred years old, but it has been here throughout the lifetimes of many San Pedro residents, serving as the venue where family and civic milestones are celebrated.
The Ports O’ Call Restaurant deserves a place in the waterfront plans. If a warehouse aesthetic is sought, in keeping with other parts of the redevelopment site, strip away the tropical foliage and it comes with much of that look already in place.
Both locals and tourists crave the experience of something authentic, but authenticity cannot be recreated. Let us hang on to what is real and meaningful — a restaurant that embraces the waterfront and has served San Pedro so well for decades. Let us also ask that our port leaders and developers respect the community voice and commit to a candid dialog on waterfront plans.
Mona Dallas Reddick, PhD
President, San Pedro Bay Historical Society
Today’s Homeless Olympic Moment
Good Morning and welcome to today’s Olympic Moment. It promises to be one to remember, pitting City of Los Angeles departments against our own Urban Campers. The event is called Sidewalk Clean Up. It starts 48 hours earlier with the proverbial Posting of Notice. The posting usually requires three city employees dashing from pole to pole taping a piece of paper. The city waits 48 hours and then the process begins, not at 8 am as stated but when reps from various city departments finally arrive. The Urban Campers are busy at work packing their belongings into stolen shopping carts or cars with outdated registration and moving to areas usually just outside the posted notice. The preparation and training is over and this is when the event actually starts. The city comes in and throws away everything remaining and gives the Urban Campers a clean sidewalk. The Urban Campers patiently wait until the last City employee leaves and then dash back to 8th street. Who will be the first to return and get the Gold Medal? This process, unlike the Olympics, occurs every month and has for the past three years.
Come today and witness the event yourself .… No need to be here at 8 am since nothing has started yet. Come at 10; you’ll see everything you need to.
Bob Nizich
San Pedro
A Government Hell-Bent on Making American Life a Zero-Sum Game
As I said in my speech in response to Trump’s first State of the Union address, we all have that nagging, sinking feeling — no matter your political affiliation — that what is happening in our country is not right.
We see an economy that makes corporate profits climb but fails to give workers their fair share and a government that struggles to keep itself open, Russia is knee-deep in our democracy, an all-out war on environmental protection and complete denial of climate change, the Justice Department rolling back more civil and voting rights by the day, hatred and supremacy proudly marching in our streets, bullets tearing through our classrooms, concerts, and congregations, a government hell-bent on making American life a zero-sum game, where for one of us to succeed, another [person] must lose.
But we know the truth: that the strongest, richest nation on Earth should leave no one behind.
If we want to undo the damage Trump is doing to our country, then we must end Republican control of Congress in November. So I am asking you today to do something very important: register to vote, get involved and then vote.
It would be easy to dismiss the past year as chaos, partisanship, or politics. But it’s bigger than that.
This administration isn’t just targeting the laws that protect us—they are targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection.
For them, dignity isn’t something you’re born with, but something you measure by your net worth, your celebrity, your headlines [and/or] your crowd size — not to mention the gender of your spouse, the country of your birth, the color of your skin [and] the God of your prayers.
Their record is a rebuke of our highest American ideal: the belief that we are all worthy, we are all equal, and we all count — in the eyes of our law and our leaders, our God, and our government.
Instead, this administration is callously appraising our worthiness and determining who makes the cut and who can safely be bargained away without political consequences.
So often in the past year, we’ve been told it’s us against them:
- Coal miners versus single moms
- Rural communities or inner cities
- The coast or the heartland
[It is] as if the mechanic in Pittsburgh and the teacher in Tulsa and the daycare worker in Birmingham are somehow bitter rivals, rather than mutual casualties of a system forcefully rigged for those at the top.
As if the parent who lies awake terrified that their transgender son will be beaten and bullied at school is any more or less legitimate than the parent whose heart is shattered by a daughter in the grips of the opioid addiction.
What we must do in this year and in the years to come is fight for everyone — because America is not a zero-sum game that picks winners and losers. We will choose to build a better country that is fairer, more equitable, where everyone in our nation has a chance to succeed because their government fights for them.
Our nation is strong and resilient, and in November, we’re going to score a resounding victory for justice, equality, and a system of government that works for all of us.
Rep. Joe Kennedy III
Massachusetts District 4
Trump Proposes to Eliminate NEA Again
The White House released its proposed 2019 budget to Congress, again calling for termination of the nation’s cultural agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We’re calling on our members to help us once again #SavetheNEA.
This is the second time in a row that President Trump has called on Congress to terminate the budgets of these agencies. Ignoring the fact that Congress soundly rejected this same attempt last year, the Administration has once again proposed on $28.9 million for the orderly close out of the NEA. Despite the President’s State of the Union speech last month proclaiming ‘Americans fill the world with art and music,’ there seems to be a disconnect on the need to invest in our nation’s future support of the arts and arts education. The federal investment in the arts helps power the creative economy in America.
Eliminating the NEA would be a devastating blow to the arts in America. For more than 50 years, the NEA has expanded access to the arts for all Americans, awarding grants in every Congressional district throughout all 50 states and U.S. Territories, as well as placing arts therapists in 12 military hospitals to help returning soldiers heal from traumatic brain injuries. The NEA is also an economic powerhouse, generating more than $600 million annually in additional matching funds and helping to shape a $730 billion arts and culture industry that represents 4.2% of the nation’s GDP and supports 4.8 million jobs.
- The most important thing you can do is to take two minutes to send a customizable message to your elected representatives in Congress and urge them to oppose any attempt to eliminate or cut funding to the NEA.
- Post on Facebook and Twitter to help rally national support to save the NEA. There is strength in numbers and your social media friends can help.
Nina Ozlu Tunceli
Executive Director Arts Action Fund
New York, NY
A Gut Punch from the Koch Brothers
The Koch brothers’ infusion of $400 million to help vote-suppressing Republicans is a one-two punch to voting rights. Here’s why I’m worried about November, James:
- Koch brothers flood elections with millions of dollars to hand the seat to the highest bidder. Elections should be decided by voters, not billionaires.
- Those millions of dollars are used to elect Republicans who will push laws that make it harder for everyday Americans to vote.
Selling elections to the highest bidder and then suppressing voters is how democracies die.
We had major wins in November 2017— and the Koch brothers saw that. Now they’re doing what they do best: donating millions in dark money to Republicans.
If voters across the country turn out like they did in Virginia, Republicans and the Kochs are in big trouble.
Our team is getting ready to launch field offices in FIVE states to make sure this onslaught of Koch cash doesn’t swing elections and prop-up vote-suppressing politicians. There’s nothing like grassroots power,
Abe Rakov
Executive Director, Let America Vote
Washington, D.C