Graphic by Suzanne Matsubiya
It’s been a busy year for the Harbor Area. In 2021, three of the highest-viewed stories on Random Lengths News’ website featured Carson. Number one featured residents of Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates being forced out, number four focused on beloved diner Ted’s Burgers, and number 10 addressed the terrible smell that lingered on the city for two months. Three stories put a spotlight on San Pedro, all involving alleged crimes or protests. Two focused on Long Beach, one on their dining program and another on the lack of response to complaints about police.
Two new apartment buildings are set to begin construction in Carson, one with 300 units and the other with 19. Unfortunately, to build these developments mobile home residents are being forced out of their homes. Residents of Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates were given 12 months to leave after Faring Capital bought the land to convert it into a mixed-use development. More than 400 residents are seniors on a fixed income.
Faring Capital hired an appraiser for each mobile home, but Claire Condon Anderson, mobile home owner since 1983, was not happy with the results.
“He and his associate grossly undervalued my home at $37,000 when I have records of similar homes selling recently for $150,000 to $200,000 locally and some were even in this same park,” Condon Anderson said. “If this park must be closed, we want the fair market value for our homes and not just the value of a scrap pile.”
Residents own the actual homes, which are called coaches, and pay mortgages on them. But their mortgages are usually cheaper than rent in the area, and there is nowhere they can take them.
Residents of Imperial Avalon can return and live in the new building once it’s finished, and pay the same rent they were previously. However, they will need to find somewhere else to live in the remaining three to four years.
In July 2021, residents of Imperial Avenue and their supporters held a protest outside Carson City Hall. Residents of Park Avalon Mobile Estates, Rancho Dominguez Mobile Estates and Park Granada Trailer Lodge Mobile joined them, as they were facing a similar situation.
In late May 2021, residents of Park Granada were given two months to leave their homes. Tina Delgadillo is moving from her mobile home to a smaller place where she will rent, instead of being a homeowner. Her rent is a 517% increase from what she was paying at the park.
Carlos Saldana attended several protests in person holding satirical signs mocking the harbor commissioners who approved automation by APM Terminals at Pier 400 in July 2019. Shortly afterwards, the Port of Los Angeles filed 20 counts of cyber harassment against Saldana, even though he only carried satirical signs in person.
Saldana found out about the criminal charges in December 2019. In November 2020, the charges against him were quietly dismissed. But before then, Saldana had already spent more than $10,000 in legal fees, and was taking medication for the stress from the lawsuit.
“There was no evidence and there was no merit,” Said Mark Coleman, Saldana’s lawyer. “That’s why the charges were dismissed. Oftentimes the charging authority will throw everything at the wall and see what will stick. And this is one of those situations where they had a statute that trumps the first amendment.”
Saldaña is currently in litigation against the port for its harassing him over his protests, Coleman said.
As of December 2021, Saldana no longer lives in the Harbor Area. On April 20, 2021, he posted on his Facebook page that he was selling his house.
“Due to the harassment from the Port of Los Angeles the Saldaña family has had no choice but to sell the home of over 40 years in the Harbor Area of Los Angeles,” Saldana wrote.
A veterinarian clinic came under criticism earlier this year, with customers accusing the clinic of overcharging and treating customers and animals poorly. Two protests were held near the clinic in August, and the clinic’s owner, Dr. Anyes Van Volkenburgh, is suing the protestors for $21.5 million.
Treslyn Britton, who attended the protest, shared the story of how her dog died at the clinic. She brought her otherwise healthy dog in for constipation, but Van Volkenburgh said it needed surgery for a tumor. Four hours later, Britton saw her dog lying with a tube in its mouth.
“I asked her to show me what she did, she rolled him over and he was cut from the very top of his body all the way down to his groin area. Butchered, stapled, still half alive,” Britton said.
Britton asked Van Volkenburgh to help the dog, and she “picked him up and started shaking him and then told me that she could give me the phone number for the cremation place and walked away.”
In response to a flood of negative reviews, Van Volkenburgh posted a message on the clinic’s website, but the date it was posted is unclear.
“Instead of yelping about me, why don’t you look at your own integrity and ethics and consider whether you deserve to own a pet,” Van Volkenburgh wrote. “Because you probably don’t.”
The lawyer that represents the protestors that Van Volkenburgh is suing filed a motion to have the case dismissed under anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) legislation. He argued that the things Van Volkenburgh accused the protestors of doing were protected under their constitutional right to free speech, and that Van Volkenburgh will not be able to prove she can win the case.
The anti-SLAPP motion will be heard on Jan. 20.
Ted’s Burgers has served Carson for more than 60 years, and for nearly 20 years, one face has remained consistent — Rossmary Palatos. She began working there as a waitress in 2002, and in 2012, she bought the restaurant with her husband.
Palatos enjoys speaking with her customers and will remember names and conversations from weeks ago.
“I don’t want them to see it as a restaurant, but as if they were coming to a relative’s house,” she said.
When the take-out only order came in March 2020, Palatos had to decide whether to keep the diner open. The restaurant continued running, thanks to loyal customers and the drive-thru.
In February 2021, the City of Long Beach expanded its Open Streets Pilot Project, giving more street space for businesses to use. In January, the city narrowed one lane in each direction in Atlantic Avenue between Claiborne Drive and Armando Drive. This space was used for outdoor dining, after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s dining ban was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Then in February, the city used the sidewalk of Atlantic Avenue and parking lots to help businesses expand.
According to the city’s website, the Open Streets program will continue until June 2022, or until outside physical distancing is no longer required.
Paul Flores has been accused of murdering Kristin Smart, a Cal Poly University student who disappeared in 1996. Flores was living in San Pedro for several years until police arrested him on April 13, 2021. They had raided his San Pedro home twice before this. Flores was charged with first degree murder of Smart, and his father Ruben Flores was charged with accessory after the fact.
While he had always been a suspect in the case, investigators could not find enough evidence and Flores was never charged with a crime beforehand. That changed when a podcast called In Our Backyard interviewed witnesses involved in the case, which led to new search warrants.
Both men pleaded not guilty. Their tentative trial date is April 25, 2022.
The Epoch Times is a right-wing newspaper that claims it is “without spin” which is tied to a spiritual movement called Falun Gong. Falun Gong is opposed to the Chinese Communist Party because the party outlawed the movement in the ’90s. The paper is not shy in criticizing China.
The publication regularly prints stories that are pro-Donald Trump and anti-Democrats, such as when it called Trump’s impeachment trial a “witch hunt” and complained that Democrats brought “cancel culture” to Congress.
The Epoch Media Group spent $11 million on Facebook ads in 2019, but was banned from advertising on the platform in August 2019 after not abiding by its political transparency views.
According to ClimateWire, The Epoch Times became more right-wing while Trump was in office. And since then its revenue stream has steadily increased. It made $15.5 million in revenue in 2019, $12.5 million in 2018, $8.1 million in 2017 and $3.9 million in 2016.
In August 2021, Chinese authorities arrested 11 people for contributing to the publication, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. If convicted, they may face life in prison.
Tim Miller, the former owner of Klean Waters, Inc., was indicted along with his former company for allegedly discharging untreated waste into the Orange County sewer system. Both Miller and the company were charged with participating in a conspiracy and discharging without a permit into a publicly owned facility.
According to the conspiracy charge, Miller and the company started doing this in 2012. Klean Waters allegedly discharged water that had firefighting foam and metals, and released water that was not tested. If convicted, Miller could face eight years in prison, and Klean Waters could pay $300,000 in fees.
The Citizens Police Complaint Commission, or CPCC, investigated 487 separate allegations of improper use of force from citizen complaints from 2015 to 2018, but sustained only three. These were overturned by Pat West, who was city manager at the time. Police officers are only punished with things like suspension or termination in cases that are sustained by the city.
In 2019, the CPCC investigated 60 use-of-force allegations and sustained eight, and West overruled six of them. In the second half of the decade, the CPCC sustained 2% of complaints, and the city sustained 0.37%.
The city contracted with Polis Solutions to review CPCC, and the city and Polis presented their recommended changes on Dec. 14. They suggested a restructured oversight model which would give more authority and transparency to the CPCC, which currently holds no authority to discipline officers. Time will tell if this will bring any change.
Hydrogen sulfide was detected in the Dominguez channel in Carson at the beginning of October 2021. It smelled like rotten eggs and caused intense headaches, stomachaches, nausea and vomiting in Carson residents, and lingered for nearly two months.
Many criticized the city and county’s response to the smell. Coalition for a Safe Environment called for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take over the investigation of the odor in early November, after a month had passed with no solution.
According to a press release issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District on Dec. 3, the alleged cause of the smell was a fire on a warehouse property operated by Virgin Scent, Inc. dba ArtNaturals and Day to Day Imports, Inc and owned by Liberty Properties Limited Partnership and its parent company, Prologis, Inc. Large quantities of beauty products stored there, including ethanol, flowed into the Dominguez Channel during attempts to contain the fire. The SQAMD issued five notices of violation to the previously mentioned companies and the County of Los Angeles on Dec. 2
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