Rick Thomas, an activist in Harbor Gateway, wants more cops in his neighborhood.
Thomas, who has lived in Harbor Gateway for six years, led a walk around his neighborhood on May 15. He invited Capt. Brent McGuyre of the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Division, as well as Senior Lead Officer Maligi Nua Jr., who has been acting as interim senior lead officer for Harbor Gateway for more than a year. Thomas is on the board of the Harbor Gateway South Neighborhood Council, but stressed that he was acting as a private citizen, asking for a greater police presence to counter gang presence in his area.
Thomas said there are 10 to 15 brand-new construction projects in Harbor Gateway. This includes four buildings in his area that were previously single-family homes, which are in the process of being demolished and replaced with apartment buildings. He argued that since the population in the area is going to increase, police presence should also increase. “That’s why we need the extra coverage, and the extra patrols, and another senior lead officer,” Thomas said.
The area is about 5.14 square miles, and is a long, narrow strip of land below the 405 fwy that connects Harbor City, San Pedro and Wilmington to the greater Los Angeles. It is subdivided between north and south Harbor Gateway by neighborhood council districts. It is bordered by Sepulveda Boulevard on the south, Western Avenue on the west and Normandie Avenue on the east. It is also bordered by the area known as West Carson, which is the unincorporated section of the area that is actually not a part of the City of Carson, which adds a layer of confusion about the identity of Harbor Gateway.
LAPD Harbor Division covers San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor Gateway and Harbor City. Thomas said that San Pedro has three senior lead officers, as does Wilmington. Harbor Gateway only has one, who has been out for more than a year, with Nua acting in her place. The problem of policing this area is compounded by the fact that the neighboring West Carson area is patrolled by the LA County Sheriff’s Department and the area west of it is controlled by Torrance police.
However, Nua said that reported crime in the area has decreased overall.
“A lot of the more active, younger gang members were arrested by our gang officers unit,” Nua said. “I’m sure they’ll be out soon. Probably the numbers may go up in summer like they usually do. But for the most part they’ve gone down, and we have a pretty good gang enforcement unit down here that knows all the players.”
Nua said that most of the crime in Harbor Gateway is property crime, mostly burglaries from cars.
McGuyre said that from January 2023 through the end of April 2023, violent crime has gone down by 54% and property crime is down 10%, compared to January through April 2022. There has been a slight increase in car break-ins, but shootings are down 70%, with 10 in 2022 and three in 2023.
Of the new apartment buildings, Thomas said he doesn’t know how many units will be affordable, as most of the new buildings have not received their occupancy yet. In addition, he said that parking is going to be an issue. But he is in favor of the new developments overall, and said the area needs more homes.
“Most of these, by the way, they’re not one-bedroom apartments,” Thomas said. “Because they don’t like making one-bedroom apartments, they want at least two bedrooms to three bedrooms. Because they want families to live here.”
He pointed out the importance of the Boys and Girls Club, which is scheduled to have construction and reopen later this year.
Thomas fell into activism because of his area’s lack of city services. It doesn’t have a post office or a library. Many addresses have Torrance in them because it’s the nearest post office, even though Harbor Gateway is in the City of Los Angeles. It’s also a food desert.
“If you got to go shopping, you’ve got to go down towards Gardena, and the Ralphs in Gardena, or you got to go down to Carson,” Thomas said.
Thomas used to put in 20 to 30 requests a week for the city to clean up illegal dumping. Things have improved, and now he only puts in 5 to 10 requests per week. His neighbors do the same.
In addition, graffiti in the area gets cleaned up much faster than it previously did.
“I would dare you to compare the graffiti that was here six, seven, eight years ago, [compared] to what we do now,” Thomas said. “We jump on those immediately. Everybody sees them.”
Thomas said that before he moved to Harbor Gateway, he didn’t know what 311 was. It is the number to call for city services, and he and his neighbors will call it as soon as they see any graffiti.
Thomas has been very open about his criticisms of former Council District 15 Councilman Joe Buscaino.
“Back in the day, and I’ll say this, and I have no shame in saying it, the relationship with that council office was zero,” Thomas said. “They just did nothing for us. They were only concerned about San Pedro.”
Steve Brough, a resident of Harbor Gateway who came on the walk, said that there are people in his neighborhood who participate in illegal dumping.
“I was complaining to the District 15 council office,” Brough said. “And they did absolutely nothing because of favoritism.”
Thomas is more optimistic about Councilman Tim McOsker, who recently attended a Harbor Gateway South Neighborhood Council meeting. Thomas said Buscaino never attended the council’s meetings.
Thomas said that he and the other people in his neighborhood want more cops, and McGuyre said that he and his division wants that as well. However, Thomas said that the LAPD is short-staffed. As reported recently in the LA Times, “The Los Angeles City Council signed off on Mayor Karen Bass’ plan for expanding the Police Department … approving a budget that calls for the hiring of about 1,000 officers over the next fiscal year and record spending to fight homelessness.”
“We want our area clean,” Thomas said.
When asked about protests against police violence in 2020, which generally called for less police involvement, Thomas said that Harbor Gateway residents wanted more police, no question.
“We want more officers, and patrols,” Thomas said. “I would like a car dedicated to coming around to the box all the time. [The box is an area that runs from Denker Avenue to Del Amo Boulevard, to Western Avenue, to Torrance Boulevard, ending back at Denker.] You talk to the stakeholders … and they’ve seen enough.”
McGuyre said there is a police patrol car dedicated to patrolling Harbor Gateway every shift, every day.
“We have cars [in] Pedro, Wilmington, Gateway, Harbor City,” McGuyre said. “When we do have to drop cars, the Gateway car is not the one that we drop. So, you’ve got coverage up here.”