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Living in Two Parallel Universes

RLn
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Living in Two Parallel Universes

The Port of LA Leadership versus Residents Exposed to Port Pollution

By Andrea Hricko and Janet Gunter

During the pandemic, POLA has seen huge increases in the number of cargo ships trying to unload goods for U.S. consumers. POLA applauds its all-time high imports, while arguing that the global supply chain is in disarray for lack of truck drivers and other workers. But the influx of ships is not just a supply chain issue. The delays impact more than store shelves, manufacturers and consumer prices.

The record-breaking cargo over recent months at the POLA impacts people’s HEALTH. Emissions in Port communities are up dramatically during the past year, according to regulators, who predict more illness and deaths from the idling ships. Over the past year, expressions of celebration from POLA and opposing expressions of concern by residents about pollution, health impacts and congestion … seem to reflect that Port leaders and community residents are living in two parallel universes. The differing concerns are shown below, primarily in details from news stories highlighting very different perspectives. Note: below, P stands for viewpoints of POLA leadership; while R/EA represents the viewpoints of residents/environmental advocates. We show the comments chronologically.

Dec 2020
P: ‘Cargo imports continued a remarkable surge at the Port of Los Angeles. ‘As the turbulence of 2020 draws to a close, port Executive Director Gene Seroka said in his monthly update… “It is unusual to see this kind of import activity this late in the year,” Seroka said. … “But as we know, 2020 has been anything but normal.” … “Considering the roller coaster we’ve been on all year long,” Seroka said, “I’m pleased at how we’re ending the year.”’

R/EA: “Supply-chain logjam becomes air pollution nightmare. Wilmington and nearby areas breathe the port congestion daily.”

R/EA: Since the port slowdown, the increase in pollution is roughly equal to emissions from 5.8 million passenger cars, according to the California Air Resources Board. P: A rare admission by POLA staff in the same article: “We are very concerned about the effects of the anchorages on the environment,” Chris Cannon [head of environmental management] said. “And not only about people’s asthma and other effects on people, but also … and an extraordinary increase in greenhouse gas emissions that come from the ships just sitting there.”

During the pandemic…
P: “Executive of the Year Award.” “Seroka has helped the logistics industry navigate the uncharted waters of the pandemic while aiding the city in procuring personal protective equipment.”

Author AH: 108 individuals – more than 10% of the Port of LA employees (not dockworkers) tested positive for COVID-19 between May 2020 and March 2021, according to California Public Records Act documents received from POLA by Andrea Hricko in July 2021. These included 15 port police, 9 student employees, plumbers, electricians, administrative assistants and many more employee classifications.

June 2021
P: Gene Seroka Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award From Inland Empire Economic Partnership. “Seroka has served as the Executive Director of the POLA… since 2014. … He has led the Port to record-breaking cargo volumes, including setting a new record for a Western Hemisphere port this month when Los Angeles passed the 10-million annual container volume threshold.”

Aug 2021
R/EA: Editorial: Port pollution is choking Southern California. “With smoke-belching container ships, diesel cargo-moving equipment and thousands of polluting trucks, the ports … are the single largest source of pollution in the nation’s smoggiest area… .”

Sept 2021
P: “Ship another honor to … Gene Seroka, …” “who oversees the busiest container port in North America, which has experienced record-breaking performances since his appointment.” Award from The Employees’ Club of California.

R/EA: L.A.’s backed-up port is smothering neighborhoods in smog. Port officials have … suggest[ed] the increased throughput would become the new normal, which [Adrian] Martinez [of Earthjustice] says would be a catastrophe for people who live nearby. “The ‘new normal,’” he says, “is when we’ll force them [Port officials] to care about air quality just as much as moving cargo….

P: Grunion Gala at Cabrillo Aquarium: Honoree Gene Seroka for his leadership at POLA. Sept. 25, 2021. [Note: On September 23, 2021, POLA gave the Aquarium a grant of $900,000 …].

R/EA/reporter: “All the while Seroka gets a hefty pay raise and honors from the Grunion Gala at Cabrillo Aquarium. Seroka is on a roll, except when it actually comes to hitting the target for zero-emissions.”

Oct 2021
P/Biden Administration: “Biden on Wednesday announced support for opening the Port of Los Angeles round the clock… .”

Pediatrician/Regulator: In response to announcing a policy to open the ports 24/7, Dr. Afif El-Hasan, an Orange County pediatrician and volunteer with the American Lung Association, said: “there was no acknowledgment for anything except the economy.” An AQMD spokesperson added: “In the long-term South Coast AQMD believes the 24-hour operation will result in increased throughput/emissions potentially offsetting the nighttime and lower congestion benefits.”

P: ‘The port has taken steps to address air emissions, including clean air action plans and seeking to fully implement a Clean Trucks Program to cut down on diesel PM and other emissions, according to an article on the 24/7 policy. Gene Seroka added: “That conversation with the community … NGOs and environmental groups is ongoing every day here at the port.”

R/EA/Regulators: The two ports “have a history of reducing emissions through implementation of their Clean Air Action Plans,” an AQMD spokesperson added, “however progress has stalled over the past decade, right when emission reductions have needed to accelerate.” Adrian Martinez with Earthjustice added: “… the ports have been coasting on environmental success they had a decade and a half ago.”

Nov 2021
P: Seroka addressing his university’s alumni: “We estimate 2021 will be about 14% more cargo than in 2018, which was our best year ever in 113 years of doing business,” Seroka said.

R/EA: Editorial: Supply chain issues affect almost everything, but surge in port pollution threatens our lungs. “[CARB] estimates that ships alone are pumping an additional 20 tons of … nitrogen oxides into the air each day… while adding as much … diesel particulate matter as nearly 100,000 big rig trucks.”

P: “Ship emissions have increased substantially when compared to the pre-pandemic era, said Chris Cannon [of] the Port of Los Angeles…. [but] we have not seen any emissions increases at our local [air quality] monitoring stations during these anchorage periods…”

R/EA: What Chris Cannon conveniently fails to mention is that one of the key air monitors operated by POLA was shut down unilaterally by the Port in May 2021, with no public input. The Port claims that the monitors are all outdated and need to be replaced and better maintained. Despite claims in September 2021 by Deputy Executive Director of POLA Mike DiBernardo that ALL of the monitoring stations would be replaced and made more reliable, the Port has not responded to a letter from the authors about the timeline for their replacement. In a recent public meeting about Clean Air Action Plan updates, Cannon said that the POLA is working on acquiring new pollution monitors.

Dec 2021
P: Gene Seroka Receives Top Shipping Maritime Award honoring leadership, achievements. Seroka: “Let’s take a moment to celebrate… yes, to celebrate what we have achieved over the last year and a half. Because yes, we have delivered… We’ve moved more cargo into the American marketplace than ever before.” … Seroka: “The business of POLA is to provide the most efficient … trade gateway to move cargo.”

R/EA: Port trackers highlight worst ship logjams. “… The worst performance is at [the Ports of] LA/LB, where the average turnaround time almost doubled this year to 6.4 days from 3.6 …”
R: In his 9+ minute acceptance speech accepting the top shipping award, Seroka uttered not one word about air pollution or the impacts on health resulting from POLA’s surge in imports, although he did speak about those who “live in the Port community” (just not about the actual impacted residents, but rather some businesses in the area who rely on the Port of LA for their imports). Seroka: “A genuine leader values people … including the people who live and work in the Port community – the drycleaners, the restaurants, the pizza shops – they all count on us [to supply them with goods].”

P: Gene Seroka: “As we approach a new cargo milestone amid this pandemic, I’m so proud of the resilience of this Port, our labor force and all of our partners.” “Moving into 2022,” Seroka added, “we’ll continue our focus on efficiency improvements, job creation and economic development.”

R/EA: “Exhaust from trucks is another concern in a community already beset by air pollution from the nearby port. Wilmington [adjacent to San Pedro and the Port of L.A] has one of the highest cancer rates in Southern California and some of the state’s highest rates of asthma.” City Councilperson Joe Buscaino says the neighborhood’s proximity to the nation’s main trade gateway has brought “good jobs and tremendous economic impact” to the region. “But locally, we’re always dealing with the negative impacts of air pollution, traffic and noise.”

P: Bloomberg Podcast: Seroka said people kept asking: “How many ships do you have sitting outside?”… “With all those ships stacked up, they were creating more pollution, he added.”

ABC News/R/EA/Air Resources Board member/Forbes: Southern California port pollution plaguing local neighborhoods. Reporter Ginger Zee: “The average number of ships at the Ports of LA and Long Beach, 16; today? 110!” “People are having to breathe in this stuff so that others can get cheaper tv’s!, said Hector De La Torre, Ca Air Resources Board. [Note: the reporter Ginger Zee, chief meteorologist and managing editor of a new climate bureau at ABC News, is reported to have received thousands of harsh complaints on social media about her reporting on port pollution…. A Forbes reporter noted: “The irony for me were comments demanding that Ginger Zee focus on the more important issues related to the container ships like the economy. Umm, hellooooo. As a parent myself and breathing human being, air pollution and our health seem pretty important to me. Our ability to live literally depends on clean air.”

P: Bloomberg Podcast: Seroka added: “On November 16th the private sector industry folks… started … a queueing system,” [to address]: “… the pollution problem … “[The new system] moves all those emissions farther offshore and nowhere near the proximity of the residential areas here in Los Angeles and Long Beach.”

Regulators: ‘Regulators at the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) agree that if anchored vessels are kept 150 miles offshore, they expect to see an air quality benefit, though that could be partially offset by an increase in emissions from ships needing to run their engines to navigate out at sea.’ “We do not yet know what the net impact or benefit of these potentially higher emissions would be for our region’s air quality,” agency spokesperson Nahal Mogharabi said. He added that “although the new system reduces the number of ships close to shore, near-shore congestion remains higher than it was before the pandemic.”

From the authors: Seroka appears to be incorrect in claiming that the new “queuing scheme” is causing pollution levels to drop in residential areas near the POLA …. air monitoring near the POLA actually shows higher pollution levels for PM2.5 (fine particle pollution) and Black Carbon (BC, a marker for diesel exhaust) during the month after many cargo ships anchored further away from the Ports. In the month before November 16, 2021, there were 9 days with BC (1 hour) daily high levels in San Pedro at 3.0 ug/m3 or above. In the month after November 16, 2021, there were 14 days – more than 1.5 times as many days. See graph below.

Bloomberg: ‘Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said the scramble to clear the logjam of imports through the largest U.S. gateway for goods trade resembles the game of Whac-a-Mole.’ “Suddenly we’ve taken care of one thing, then three others pop up,” he said Wednesday at a briefing to review the progress made in recent weeks reducing both the number of containers on site and ships waiting to unload.”

Definition of Whack-A-Mole management style:
“One of the most important things to remember when analyzing Whack–a–Mole Management is to note that the manager’s behavior is completely reactionary. No action is taken until the mole raises its head. The manager is not proactively trying to prevent things from happening, or trying to direct things to happen, or even making things happen, the manager’s behavior is a reaction to some other stimulus.”

Jan – Feb 2022
P: Cargo continues flooding into Port of LA with 2022 looking to be a repeat performance. … ‘Puts the nation’s busiest port on track for 10.7 million to 10.8 million [container units] for [2021]. Port Executive Director Gene Seroka says “he foresees that pace continuing through 2022.”’

P/U.S. DOT Secretary: U.S. DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg at a January 11, 2022, press conference and tour of the Ports with Port and elected officials, industry and labor: “One of the reasons why Christmas was not cancelled is that the Ports of LA and Long Beach moved records levels of goods… this Holiday season.”

R/EA/elected official: At the same event, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn spoke to the DOT Secretary about efforts to reduce emissions along the corridor that trucks and trains use to transport cargo from the ports to giant inland warehouses. “While the rest of the country counts on our ports to make sure their flatscreen TV is in stock for Christmas, the communities I represent bear the burden of the congestion, the air pollution,” Hahn said. According to a conversation by one of the authors with a reporter, there were no community or environmental advocates present at the event.

Editorial from Random Length News: “Just last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom toured the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach with John Porcari, the White House port envoy to survey the supply chain crisis. They never once noticed, until it was impossible to ignore, that the number of ships waiting outside the breakwater were three or four times as many unloading at berths… Nary a word was spoken about the increase in air pollution caused by these cargo ships waiting outside, nor the impacts on the children suffering from asthma while they are waiting for those presents. Yes, profits from the import supply chain trump public health every time.”

P: 8 Top CEOs Give Their Predictions for the Wild Year Ahead, TIME magazine: Gene Seroka: “[Our industry’s] top priority remains getting goods to American consumers and creating a more fluid supply chain.”

R/EA: “Emissions could stay high through the end of this year [2022] says Chris Cannon, of the Port of LA. … Adrian Martinez, Earthjustice responds: “The question is: are they [POLA] rising to … this air quality crisis we’re in?” Martinez says the “will to clean up the air is not as strong as the will to get things where they need to go fast.”

Feb 2022
P: By mid-February 2022, the number of logjammed ships had receded. “The number of ships waiting to unload at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell this week to the lowest level since November but remains extensive.” The Wall Street Journal article continued: “Although the ship backup is the smallest it has been since Nov. 11, congestion remains severe by historical standards. Container ships are waiting an average of 18 days to unload at the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest of the neighboring gateways. Before the pandemic, it was unusual for ships to have to wait for a berth.” Industry trade journals reported: “Seroka Sees Chance to Ease Ship Backlog by Summer Peak.”

Authors: The pollution levels in San Pedro for Black Carbon as a marker for diesel pollution are still high, so it is too early to say what impact the receding number of ships is making. The long wait times to unload ships, of course, add to the pollution burden in communities surrounding the POLA. See graph for BC (24 hour) at San Pedro Community station from May 2021 to the current time, below. Black carbon levels appear dramatically higher in January – February 2022 than in spring and summer of 2021. (Note BC did not start being measured in San Pedro until May 2021).

EA: Daily Breeze [removed bold and added EA]] on the Ports’ Clean Air Action Plan update. ‘While early progress in pollution reduction at the ports has been significant, the ports now face more difficult challenges ahead as the zero-emissions deadlines — 2030 for harbor equipment and 2035 for the drayage truck fleet — approach quickly. Heather Kryczka of the Natural Resources Defense Council warned that the deadlines are looming. “The deadlines are less than eight years away,” she said. “There’s still a lot of work yet to be done, and we’re concerned the ports are falling behind on their goals.”

Andrea Hricko is clinical professor emerita of environmental health at USC Keck School of Medicine. Janet Gunter is communications administrator of San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners United, INC.

No Chickens in Kyiv: The Soul Food of Ukraine

Ari LeVaux
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No Chickens in Kyiv: The Soul Food of Ukraine

With the invasion happening in real time as I write this, I have no idea how the chips will have fallen by the time you read it. But one thing is clear. President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the nation he leads, are like a hearty bowl of borscht. Vladimir Putin, by contrast, is a tepid plate of Chicken Kyiv.

On my desk is a self-published book of memoirs written by my cousin Paul Zavod, who was born in Ukraine, in 1914. My mother’s parents also came from Ukraine, as did my father’s grandparents.

Ukraine was a rough place for Jews at that time. Paul’s father was arrested for sneaking to the outhouse after curfew one night. They couldn’t even leave their village without special permission. But the scariest moment, according to Paul’s father, came when a pig escaped from a nearby farm and wandered into the neighborhood.

A resident was running a secret, unregistered and highly illegal vodka making operation, and the smell of the alcoholic grain mash had caught the attention of the pig. The mash was hidden in an underground pit that was covered by some old boards. The massive animal broke through the boards and fell into the pit.

“Now, drunk as a hoot owl, trying to get out, the pig was bellowing at the top of its lungs,” Paul wrote. “If anyone had reported it, all of us would have been in serious trouble. Luckily we lived in a part of town that was 100% Jewish, and everyone knew what would happen if this became known, so no one even dreamed of reporting it. However, the animal had to be gotten rid of before he woke the rest of the people.”

Since they couldn’t get it out, they killed the pig in the pit and covered it with dirt. Luckily, it didn’t occur to anyone to search the Jewish neighborhood for the missing pig, and the mystery was never solved.

Ukraine has come a long way since then. It’s now led by a Jewish president, which would have been unthinkable, and is a testament to how far this young democracy has come. Yet in other ways little has changed. Here we are, a century after my family left, but the neighborhood is still being bothered by a drunk, lost pig.

Borscht is often celebrated as a Russian dish, but that only holds true if Ukraine is part of Russia, because borscht — and specifically the kind made primarily with beets ­— comes from Ukraine. If you don’t believe me, ask my mom.

Years ago, seven time zones away from Ukraine, in the dining car of a train in Siberia, I ordered a bowl of borscht. It was purple water with slices of hot dogs in it. They billed us not only for the pathetic bowl of soup, but also for the use of the silverware. When we protested the host explained “mafia,” and made a karate chop motion across his femur.

You can’t get much more salt-of-the-land than borscht, and that is the kind of wholesome, earthy image that Putin wants for all of Mother Russia. But he’s acting more like the guy on the train. Zelensky, meanwhile, is walking the talk. He is from Ukraine, and was chosen by the Ukrainians to lead them. He is a deep bowl of borscht with extra-sour cream, with a dill pickle on the side.

By comparing Putin to a tepid plate of Chicken Kyiv, I don’t mean any ill will to that lovely, delicious dish. But its history has been rewritten countless times to reflect politics. It has a French origin — like Putin’s Napoleonic complex — that began with the Czars developing a taste for French food. These Russian rules imported the necessary talent to instruct Russian chefs. Kyiv, situated between Paris and Moscow, benefited from this traffic.

Kyiv’s Continental Hotel became the nexus for the evolution and development of Chicken Kyiv, until it was destroyed during the second world war. The Red Army mined the building as they retreated, and detonated the explosives when the Germans arrived. The hotel would be rebuilt, and the dish would be renamed by the Bolsheviks so as to strip it of any bourgeois connotation, and was instead called something along the lines of “breaded cutlet with parsley butter.”

Fast forward to the present and here we are the brink of World War III, with a chicken-hawk wandering about Ukraine. Zelensky clearly has a backbone that’s up to the task, strengthened by generations of adversity, and borscht, the chunky soul of Ukraine. The only thing more Ukrainian than borscht is telling the Russians to bounce.

I was at the farmers market last Saturday, shopping for borscht materials. A cool thing about borscht is that you can get all of the ingredients you need at the winter market. Beets, onions, carrots, garlic, celery and even some meat on the bone — if you are feeling rich.

Meaty Oven Borscht

I make this recipe when I want more of a rich stew than a humble soup. Cooking the stew in the oven heats the house, a nod to the old village, where the cook stove was the center of the action.

1-plus pounds of meat on the bone (e.g., spare rib or shank)
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 lbs beets, trimmed and cut into quarters or eighths
3 stalks celery, minced
3 large carrots, sliced
1 large or several small potatoes, cubed
1 15-oz can of canned tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, chopped or mashed
1 lemon or lime
2 tbsp cider vinegar
2 quarts stock
2 teaspoons salt
2 bay leaves
Green herbs like dill for garnish
Sour cream and mayo for garnish

Turn on the broiler. Put the meat in a lidded baking pan, but without the lid for now, in middle or lower third of the oven, and carefully brown the meat until crispy brown but not burned. Remove the baking pan from the broiler. Put the meat on a plate to cool, and add the oil and onions to the hot pan, allowing the onions to start cooking. When the meat is cool enough to work with, cut it off the bone and cube it, and put it back in the baking pan, along with the beets, celery, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, lime, vinegar, stock, salt and bay leaves. Braise at 350º F with the lid on for an hour, then remove it from the oven to inspect. Sip the broth, and season with salt and pepper. Add more water if the level has dropped near or below half. Chew the meat and see if it’s soft enough. When the meat is done, remove it from the oven and let it sit for an hour or so before serving. Garnish with herbs, and enough of that white creamy stuff to turn the borscht a bit pink.

A Pandemic Report — POLA Leadership versus Residents Exposed to Pollution

Paul Rosenberg
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A Pandemic Report — POLA Leadership versus Residents Exposed to Pollution

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, port leaders and community residents have been living in two parallel universes, described in a document compiled by Andrea Hricko, a clinical professor emerita of environmental health at USC Keck School of Medicine, and Janet Gunter, communications administrator of San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners United. On the one hand, “The Port of Los Angeles has seen huge increases in the number of cargo ships trying to unload goods for U.S. consumers,” but there are also impacts on health. “Emissions in port communities are up dramatically during the past year, according to regulators, who predict more illness and deaths from the idling ships,” which the port routinely ignores or minimizes. Indeed, when invited to respond to this document, port staff explicitly declined to comment, and none of the five port commissioners responded. (Community activist Peter Warren, with the San Pedro & Peninsula Homeowners Coalition, was more responsive.)

But ignoring or minimizing the health impacts doesn’t make them go away. Random Lengths News is web-publishing the document, which contains more than 40 links, vividly demonstrating the vast disconnect between the triumphal tone of port leadership and the lived reality of community residents, with contrasting quotes from POLA leadership and the viewpoints of residents and environmental advocates presented chronologically from December 2020 through February 2022.

Especially jarring is the fact that Executive Director Gene Seroka received a number of awards, both international and local, while the port did virtually nothing about the extra pollution, except to shut down vital monitoring.

In Oct. 2021, when President Joe Biden placed POLA in the national spotlight, announcing support for opening the port 24/7, E&E News provided a big-picture view of how the port’s pandemic performance echoes its long-term drift. The report first highlights two critical comments:

Dr. Afif El-Hasan, an Orange County pediatrician and volunteer with the American Lung Association, said: “there was no acknowledgment for anything except the economy.’’ An Air Quality Management District spokesperson added: “In the long-term South Coast AQMD believes the 24-hour operation will result in increased throughput/emissions potentially offsetting the nighttime and lower congestion benefits.”

Then it gives POLA’s side:

The port has taken steps to address air emissions, including clean air action plans and seeking to fully implement a Clean Trucks Program to cut down on diesel PM and other emissions, according to an article on the 24/7 policy. Gene Seroka added: “That conversation with the community … NGOs and environmental groups is ongoing every day here at the port.”

Before widening the historical lens:

The two ports “have a history of reducing emissions through implementation of their Clean Air Action Plans,” an AQMD spokesperson added, “however progress has stalled over the past decade, right when emission reductions have needed to accelerate.” Adrian Martinez with Earthjustice added: “… the ports have been coasting on environmental success they had a decade and a half ago.”

Further underscoring the disconnect, Peter Warren noted, “When the cargo goes up … they report on their cargo improvements year to year, and month over the previous year’s month. With emissions, they report on improvements from 15 years ago. They wouldn’t do that for cargo. Why are they doing that with emissions?”

On top of that, they’re charging $10 or $20 per container (depending on size) for their clean air container fees, “when it ought to be closer to $200. They’re raising a pittance,” Warren said. Per-container shipping costs have skyrocketed, “from about three or five thousand, now it’s fifteen to seventeen thousand, and for that, they pay a $20 fee? That’s ridiculous!”

More recently, in January 2022, the report notes, U.S. DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg toured the ports and said, “One of the reasons why Christmas was not canceled is that the Ports of LA and Long Beach moved records levels of goods… this Holiday season,” while at the same time, LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn responded, saying, “While the rest of the country counts on our ports to make sure their flatscreen TV is in stock for Christmas, the communities I represent bear the burden of the congestion, the air pollution.”

Read the full report here. Click here to download the pdf version of Hricko’s and Gunter’s report, Living in Two Parallel Universes.

 

Random Letters: 3-3-22

Terelle Jerricks
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Random Letters: 3-3-22

Is This in Reference to the U.S. or Ukraine?

As my father once said, “This used to be a helluva nice country.” At least if you were white and middle-class.

And as Kurt Vonnegut noted (in reference to Germany), “occasionally countries seem to lose their minds.” We thought we were immune, but we were not. Imagine an era where ultra-conservatives are on the side of a Russian autocracy against an elected democracy. And calling a domestic near-coup, “civil discourse.”

Steven Meloan, Sonoma, Calif.

On Ukraine

Why, Why, Why, Why, Why, didn’t anybody tell me? Too many guns. Too many Nazis. Why on earth would anyone use public television to teach the public how to make molotov cocktails? Why would the United States provide weapons to Nazis? Why would MSNBC camp out with Ukranian Nazis? Why do American sources of L.P.S. and oil want to shut down Russian relations with Germany via the shutdown of Nord Stream II? Why aren’t the British imposing sanctions on one of the inarguably largest oligarchs of Russia, Roman Abramovich, owner of the Chelsea football team? Why can I not simply take as of word: demilitarization and denazification?

Deliver flowers not guns. Promote peace, do not deliver weapons to Nazi militias.

Joe Busciano received a little over half of the 6.5% of voters who could have voted to propel him into a seat as a council member. Let’s make sure he never holds political office again.

Mark A. Nelson, San Pedro

Terminal Island: Erasure or Remembrance? (RLn Feb. 17, 2022)

Heart wrenching to read, yet so important to remember what the RLn story reveals about the reaction to the day of “infamy” (Dec. 7, 1941) when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942 signed Executive Order 9066 that declared all Americans of Japanese descent were to “evacuated” to the various concentration camps around the U.S.A. for the duration of WWII.

Close to home here in San Pedro, hundreds who resided on Terminal Island in the village they lovingly called “Furasato” — home sweet home — were part of that mass exodus.

In 2007 the LA Harbor International Film Festival programmed the outstanding documentary The Lost Village of Terminal Island that played to the SRO crowd. We were also instrumental in linking the filmmaker David Metzler with ABC sports broadcaster Rob Fukuzaki who recorded a new voice over narration that added much panache. It was significant that Mr. Fukuzaki had relatives who dwelled in Furusato. My family’s tuna cannery employed dozens of workers of Japanese descent held in utmost respect.

For decades there has been a group calling themselves “Terminal Islanders” who have preserved the history of the community though sadly many of that “Greatest Generation” era have passed on.

Thankfully the Los Angeles Maritime Museum opened a permanent exhibit Tāminaru is a look back at this lost community.

Our family’s tuna cannery Franco Italian Packing Company employed hundreds of Japanese workers over the decades (c. 1924-60) and held those great workers in high regard. My parents went to school with many who were “shipped off” and told the cautionary tale of how wrong it was; and always honored, remembered and appreciated the dignity and loyalty of those of Japanese descent.

Esteemed former public official Warren Furutani remembers his family’s legacy in the Stories Of Los Angeles Harbor Area: For Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow (Vol. I) oral history project produced by myself and Jack Baric that can be viewed at the website: www.storieslosangelesharborarea.com.

The article is an important reminder that we must never forget, rather recall and attempt to understand such draconian actions, so as not to repeat again.

Stephanie Mardesich, San Pedro

The First Black Female Supreme Court Nominee

The White House announced President Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to fill Justice Stephen Breyer’s seat on the Supreme Court.

Judge Jackson is the first Black woman to be nominated to the Court in its 232-year history, and given the fact that Mitch McConnell abolished the filibuster for confirming Supreme Court nominees, Democrats should have no trouble confirming her, even if it requires a party-line vote (it should not).

But you can never be too sure of anything these days, especially when some Senate Democrats have repeatedly stood in the way of President Biden’s agenda. And with Mitch McConnell attempting to stop any and all of our progress.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have already begun their typical smear campaign of Judge Jackson, and it’s important that we stand with her today and in the weeks to come. The fight ahead is critical for the Supreme Court and for our country. Thanks for standing with me and for a balanced Supreme Court.

Rep. Adam Bennett Schiff, D-CA 28th District

Democracy at Home

James Preston Allen
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Democracy at Home

So you want to be the mayor, but will you fight for democracy?

One of the many questions that went unasked at the recent LA mayoral candidate forum at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro recently was, “If you were mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine would you stand and fight to defend democracy with your life or pack up and move to Poland?” Yes, I know it’s an odd question. But what the question is getting at is what ideal is a candidate willing to lay their life on the line as we’ve seen recently in the embattled city of Kyiv, Ukraine. There we have seen some amazingly courageous acts of patriotism. Not just words or meek pledges of allegiance to the flag, but hand-me-the-Molotov cocktails to defend my city! Now that’s commitment! It’s like grandpa going out with a Kalashnikov to take on the Russian army.

Luckily that’s not what we’re confronted with here.

Yes, I know the politics of Ukraine versus Russia gets murky at times with various versions of history floating around, but it’s readily apparent that Vladimir Putin is invading Ukraine and not the other way around.

So, just ask yourselves, which one of these candidates would stand up to defend our democracy? For we all know that the last U.S. President could only stand up to take ours down while eating a cheeseburger and fomenting division and distrust. He’s still doing it. Now, I’m not indicating that any one of the four who graced the stage of the Warner Grand recently is an acolyte or devotee of the twice impeached idiot moron, but the hardest thing to ascertain in any election cycle are a politician’s core values.

You can’t judge a politician’s core values by what they say, by what they do to get elected or even sometimes by what they do when they are elected. I have found that a politician’s integrity is best measured in times of crisis. Do they stand and fight for their principles, or do they move to Poland? I’m not sure Los Angeles has had a mayor in the recent past who truly measures up to that test, but we could surely use one now!

There are 27 candidates running to become the next mayor of Los Angeles. Of these, only five were invited to San Pedro via an inept process directed by the San Pedro Democratic Club’s president, Shannon Ross. Four of the five might have this courage. Rick Caruso, the billionaire developer, was a no-show, while Joe Buscaino is often late, a dollar short and on the wrong side of history for all of the popular reasons. His response to both the pandemic and the homeless crisis are prime examples of his leadership. That leaves us with three candidates.

In handicapping this race, it seems like this is the “year of the Black woman” in which we are about to see if this nation, if not the U.S. Senate will do what’s never been done before with the Supreme Court. So, Rep. Karen Bass looks like the odds on favorite even though LA City Attorney Mike Feuer is the only candidate who has ever won a citywide election. And he has taken on the city’s most formidable legal foes in that role. He also has a sensible multi-point plan to reform a city hall — a city hall that seems resistant to the very idea of reform. We’ll see if he survives the DWP scandal. I like both of them.

The former LA City Controller, Laura Chick (who just endorsed Feuer), seems to agree with when she said, “The truest test of leadership isn’t how one leads when times are easy — it’s how one leads when times get tough.”

Kevin de León, representative for Council District 14, is also a good choice, yet he hasn’t been in the trenches of LA politics long enough to ascertain his fight or flight instincts. The same can be said of Bass. But I think both are fighters too. Both have the progressive lean on the homeless crisis, union issues and public safety that make them top choices. They are certainly more preferable than Joe Buscaino, who in my estimation is a cheerleader for ineffective policing. It seems his strategy for getting elected to higher office is by criminalizing the homeless again and again. I wonder if he’s the kind who would just wave the flag from the sidelines?

Not everyone is built to confront a crisis. Ultimately it comes down to the question of, Who do you trust and What’s needed at this time?

If you listen to TV news or the GOP, you’d think the city is under siege by crime and homelessness or that the anti-maskers were going to storm city hall. The fact is crime is slightly up after a 30 year decline, the homeless crisis is endemic like COVID-19, and the looney tunes crying about masks being an impediment to their “liberty” should try living in Ukraine. However, back on point, the only candidate running to become the next mayor of Los Angeles and who has a grasp of the complexity of running Los Angeles is probably Mike Feuer. And Karen Bass should probably make him a deputy mayor as soon as she gets elected. He knows where all the dead bodies are buried in a city littered with them and has a real plan to govern.

What gets missed most of the time is how homelessness, crime, poverty, job creation and economics overlap each other here in the City of Angels. There’s a five-fold complexity to all of the simple complaints we citizens have about living in this metropolis. The city’s byzantine top down structure is anti-democratic, unresponsive and oppressive to resident needs and complaints. The city is downright reactionary rather than proactive. A prime example is police force’s top down command of 22 divisions, four bureaus, eight specialized units and its Office of Special Operations — plus some others you’ve never heard of like the Office of Constitutional Policing. A citizen police commission appointed by the mayor governs all of this. Yet, when you call 911 you get put on hold.

The LAPD is the largest part of the city budget with 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff. It is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the police departments in New York and Chicago. At this very moment, the mayoral campaign is caught up in a kind of bidding war over adding more officers to the city’s police force. “Two-hundred… 300… 500… do I hear 1,500 from Buscaino?” Yet in a city of some 4 million residents, there’s no number of police we could hire if people don’t feel respected by the government. Police don’t keep the law, they maintain the order. Keeping the law comes from abiding citizens who believe that the laws are self-evidently just.

In the final analysis, voting for a mayor, a council rep or anyone else in a democracy is about who do you trust to pass just laws, and who has the courage to lead in a crisis.

San Pedro Galleries Bloom with Expanded Arts Events

Melina Paris
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San Pedro Galleries Bloom with Expanded Arts Events

Art in San Pedro is in full bloom as spring approaches. Three notable exhibitions will be on view in time for the First Thursday ArtWalk at Michael Stearns Studio @ The Loft — Shifting Ground and TransVagrant at Gallery 478 — Marie Thibeault — Drawings. Additionally, Cornelius Projects continues Dust & Wisps as it celebrates new literature by the exhibitions’ artists. Each gallery will present works by local artists and one, formerly of Los Angeles but who now resides in Northern California.

Cornelius Projects

DUST & WISPS, Drawings and ceramics by Michelle Seo, paintings and ceramics by Daniel Porras

Celebrate the release of Michelle Seo’s comic book DUST and Daniel Porras’ show zine, and the continuation of the exhibition, which has been extended through March 26.

Daniel Porras and Michelle Seo share a world of color and characters that reflect their respective cultures and experience: Porras elusive and ghostly, Seo maximal and detailed.

Michelle Seo’s work balances societal class rage against the happiness and love of the nuclear family. “Korean” in approach but with an “American” core, she turns her reality into a universal fiction with animal figures symbolic of naïveté such as the bunny and teddy, and the turtles and fishes of Korean tradition.

Seo’s DUST series is an homage to a long-time admiration for the art of comics. DUST is concerned with what happens after death and is her response to not only the ongoing pandemic, but also to her living together with her grandmother suffering from dementia.

Daniel Porras’ work presents anthropomorphic creatures that are engaged in both mundane routines and magical rituals, inspired by ancient Peruvian art. These seductive creatures are modeled after fertility effigies, ceramic vessels and tropical bird plumage. In his latest series, Wisps, Porras imagines a world melting into itself, where creatures emerge and fuse with their surroundings, inviting us to mourn with them, partake in sacred ceremonies, and battle demons.

Both Porras and Seo are Angels Gate Cultural Center Studio artists in San Pedro.

In alignment with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s policies for indoor public places, face masks are required for all visitors, regardless of vaccination status.

Time: The exhibition is viewable on Saturdays and Sundays from 12 to 5 p.m. or by appointment.

Cost: Free

Details: 310-266-9216; corneliusprojects@gmail.com

Venue: Cornelius Projects, 1417 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro

Michael Stearns Studio

Shifting Ground Mirabel Wigon, an exhibition of landscape paintings

These paintings are inspired by Wigon’s immediate surroundings and address the abject setting of the aging industrial landscape, the growing expanse of the American urban-scape and resulting environmental issues.

Michael Stearns said initially, in a conversation he had with Marie Thibeault, Professor Emerita of Art at CSULB, the idea to have this exhibition took hold before the pandemic and before everything subsequently shut down. Fast forward nearly two years, as things are beginning to reopen, Stearns and Thibault revived their plans, this time specifically to show Wigon’s works.

“She is a gifted young artist,” Stearns said. “She recently graduated and went on to become assistant professor of Art at California State University, Stanislaus which is very unusual.”

Stearns said her paintings are colorful, very large and exciting.

“They are very much a part of San Pedro with the industrial complex and nature,” Stearns said. “The internal and external energy that moves back and forth combines nicely in her compositions with lots of texture. You get swallowed by them.”

Mirabel Wigon’s large-scale landscape paintings depict a vast and complex technological sublime.

Wigon writes, “The landscape is a stage for the drama of human activity. Painting is a container, a conglomeration of material signs that act as iconographic representations of a particular historic moment. Through these paintings, I explore my place, and space, questioning modernist notions of progress and reflecting on the inherent instability in the built and natural Landscape.”

The paintings depict an imagined and constructed landscape, which is fractured and unstable.

Wigon states, “The urban system is in a state of continuous change, altering the way we move through – and understand – our physical location and socioeconomic status in relation to the environment. I am particularly focused on the energy infrastructure that fuels this continual growth and change in the LA area. These energy structures are the epitome of modernist notions of success, advancement and progress. This body of work depicts the dichotomy between this notion of progress and the environmental crisis.”

Upon close inspection, the paintings’ visual elements are repeated, fragmented and coalesce through various painting strata. The resulting image creates a condition in which the viewer cannot pinpoint which layer came first.

Mirabel Wigon’s works have been featured in numerous group exhibitions both regional and national. Her recent work has been exhibited in (Per)Mutations at the Gatov Gallery in Long Beach, Insights at the Kleefeld Contemporary in Long Beach, Now Trending at the Palos Verdes Art Center in Palos Verdes, Made in California at Brea Gallery in Brea and Painted 2021: 5th Biennial Survey at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH. Wigon is assistant professor of art at California State University, Stanislaus where she teaches drawing and painting.

The exhibition will have a soft opening on March 3, during the San Pedro First Thursday Artwalk. Shifting Ground will be on view from March 5 to April 15. The gallery is open by appointment only. The artist talk will also be broadcasted via Instagram Live on the artist’s Instagram handle @mirabelwigon.

Time: Artist’s talk, 1 p.m. and reception from 2 to 5 p.m. March 5.

Details: 562-400-0544; www.michaelstearnsstudio.com

Venue: Michael Stearns Studio @ The Loft, 401 S. Mesa St., San Pedro

TransVagrant at Gallery 478

Marie Thibeault — Drawings

Liz Goldner, in an Artillery Magazine interview Marie Thibeault: Views of the Harbor, begins: “The artist showed me numerous drawings she began in March at the start of the lockdown.”

“I was blown apart by the pandemic,” Thibeault said, “and stuck at home teaching on Zoom, and all I could do was draw, so I did three to four drawings a day.”

While their shapes and forms echo those in her paintings, these drawings are more abstract and include medieval illustration, astrological maps and ancient diagrams illustrating serpents, insects and birds.

“They also use diagrammatic forms referencing global mapping and scientific charts,” Thibeault said.

Thibeault’s drawings are not only investigations into possible architectures for painting, but also reveal the geography of the artist’s imagination. Whatever its approach, each work embodies a unique consideration of gesture and structure and a deeply felt understanding of the expressive potential of the graphic mark.

Thibeault is a professor emerita of art at California State University, Long Beach where she teaches painting and color theory. The exhibition runs March 3 through April 15.

Time: Artist reception 3 to 6 p.m., March 5

Cost: Free

Details: 310-732-2150; www.spacedistrict.org/a/gallery478

Venue: TransVagrant at Gallery 478, 478 W. 7th St., San Pedro

They All Want to Be Mayor of LA: They All Sound the Same

Hunter Chase
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They All Want to Be Mayor of LA: They All Sound the Same

According to the LA City Clerk’s office, there are 28 candidates who have pulled papers to enter the race to become the next mayor of Los Angeles. While most of the candidates running are relative unknowns, the San Pedro Democratic Club “invited” five of them to make their initial pitch to the residents of San Pedro. These five candidates may have been seen as the front runners, however, the decision to invite just these few out of the many is questionable.

All of them of course are registered Democrats, as the likelihood of a Republican candidate actually getting elected in LA these days is slim to none. Yet, the man who was last to enter the race, real estate developer Rick Caruso, hardly has stellar credentials in the blue spectrum of politics — he just registered as a Dem a few weeks ago and said a conflict on this day prevented him from joining the stage this past Sunday.

— James Preston Allen, Publisher

Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA 37th District) may be the early leader in the polls in the race for Los Angeles mayor, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it by attending the forum held at the Warner Grand Theatre on Feb. 27. Neither she, nor any of the other three candidates present did much to stand out from each other.

Bass was joined by Councilman Joe Buscaino (District 15), LA City Attorney Mike Feuer, and Councilman Kevin de León (District 14). The four candidates all gave vaguely similar answers to the questions that were asked by the San Pedro Democratic Club, which hosted the forum. This included how they would solve homelessness, how they would deal with neighborhood councils, and some things that were very specific to San Pedro, including Port of Los Angeles issues and butane tanks on Gaffey Street.

Part of this was because of the questions that were asked by members of the San Pedro Democratic Club, which hosted the forum. No one specifically asked if any of the candidates would make efforts to defund the Los Angeles Police Department — and because of this, none of the candidates spoke about it. At previous debates, Buscaino, Feuer and Bass all said they would increase the number of officers in the LAPD, and de León said he would maintain the same number.

Conspicuously absent was Rick Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer, who officially joined the race on Feb. 11, but was absent at previous debates as well. Also absent was former Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member Mel Wilson, though not for lack of trying. He came to the event, but said he was not allowed to participate because he had not raised enough money.

The primary election will take place on June 7, and the top two candidates will face off on Nov. 8.

Solutions for homelessness

Former Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council Vice President Laurie Jacobs said that one of the big causes for homelessness was a lack of affordable housing in the city. She asked the candidates how they would provide more.

Bass said that homelessness is the most important issue the city is facing. She said she would declare a state-of-emergency for the city, but that it would not be good enough, and that the city needs a national state-of-emergency, so that the city can get federal funding. She also said there were too many rules around housing vouchers.

She also called for the expanding of mental health and substance abuse treatment programs.

Feuer said he would have 10 general managers who would approve affordable housing, and would force them to speed up their process. He would expand on the transit oriented communities program which incentivizes putting multi-story, mixed use buildings on transit corridors. He also plans on using vacant commercial buildings and vacant school sites to turn into affordable housing. He also said he would change rules, and he gave one example. He said that individual tenants would have their own bedrooms and bathrooms, but share common areas with other tenants. He said this is not currently legal in LA, but he would change that.

Feuer also said he wants to preserve affordable housing by having the Housing Authority of the City of LA purchase buildings, and keep the rents low after tenants depart.

De León said the city has a housing affordability crisis, as there is plenty of vacant housing that most Angelenos cannot afford. But the only solution he gave was to mandate inclusionary housing, meaning that affordable housing is required for new developments. This is something that’s already required in many developments.

Buscaino said he has already pushed for “housing at all income levels.” He provided several examples, including the former San Pedro courthouse (which was not a city project), which will have 80% market rate housing, and 20% affordable housing. He pointed out the various developments in San Pedro, and said he would push for similar projects throughout the city. In addition, he said he will consolidate all decision-making departments into one department, including the Department of Building and Safety, LA City Planning, LA Fire Department and Bureau of Engineering. To date none of the projects in Buscaino’s district even have the minimum of 15% affordable housing.

He also claimed to have housed 50% of street camping in CD 15. Where he is getting these numbers is unclear, as at the Nov. 2 meeting of the CD 15 Working Group on Homelessness, Gabriela Medina, district director for Buscaino, said that as of the 2020 homeless count, Buscaino’s office had housed 40% of people experiencing street homelessness. This does not include people living in their vehicles, which account for 1,038 of the 20,257 homeless people in CD15.

Help for small businesses

Buscaino also said that to help small businesses, he plans to phase out or get rid of the gross receipts tax, which taxes all income from a business over $100,000, regardless of its source. He also said he wants a business source center that would go to businesses to help them, and he will give out more forgivable micro-loans.

Bass said she would create a council for businesses that would report directly to the mayor’s office, so they could tell her their problems. She would also gather a group of financial institutions and ask them to create a fund for small businesses. In addition, she would have an office focused on finding money for small businesses.

Feuer said he would lead an effort to phase out the business tax. He would also create a deputy mayor who would focus on helping small businesses. He also would create an economic development and job creation team to go through the city and come up with economic strategies. He did not go into specifics about what this team would actually do.

De León said he would change the culture within city hall to make it easier for small businesses, but did not go into specifics.

Neighborhood councils

Doug Epperhart, president of Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council, said that neighborhood councils often had problems with the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, and asked how the candidates would help.

Bass was the only candidate to give a somewhat interesting answer. She pointed out that she was involved in the creation of the neighborhood council system (Feuer said the same thing), but that she would totally change the system from top to bottom, or at least audit it and reevaluate it.

“The development, participation and involvement in neighborhood councils is really uneven,” Bass said. “In some parts of the city, the neighborhood councils are very organized, involved, and sophisticated. And in other parts, it’s just a handful of people that claim they represent the neighborhoods. And actually, at a lot of times, they’re at odds with the neighborhoods.”

Bass said that the councils are a great concept, but that they still have not reached what their original intent was.

Butane tanks

The candidates were also asked what they would do with two Rancho LLP 12.5-million-gallon butane tanks on Gaffey Street that are highly explosive, and that have a blast radius of three miles if they blew up. Unsurprisingly, each candidate said they would get rid of them, or at least try.

Bass said she was still in congress, and would try to get rid of them immediately. She was promptly told that Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-CA 44th District) and Ted Lieu (D-CA 33rd District) are already aware of the problem.

Feuer said that local authorities could not mess with rail lines, and that the federal government had authority over this. But he said he would talk to the federal government about it. Buscaino and de León said similar things.

Port issues

Multiple questions came up about the Port of Los Angeles. Candidates were asked who they would appoint to the Board of Harbor Commissioners, and they all said they would appoint community members who listen to nearby residents. They all oppose further automation of the port. Even though Buscaino couldn’t stop Pier 400 from being automated, he’ll try harder next time.

Community policing

When asked how they would involve the community in policing, they said they would talk to people, which is what you would expect. Feuer gave the most interesting answer, even if it was only partially related to the question. He said that city council districts should be cut in half to create closer relationships with residents and their representatives. This is probably the most revolutionary idea to come out of this campaign as it would double the number of council reps, lowering the ratio of residents to representatives and cut their salaries in half to pay for it. A full interview with Feuer can be found on RLn’s website at https://tinyurl.com/RLNFeuer.

Buscaino, a former LAPD officer, said he would listen to people, but shut down any looting. He didn’t go into specifics of how he would do that, but probably in the same way he would deal with homelessness, as his strategy has always been to over-police them. He is currently gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would prioritize making temporary housing faster, but also make sitting or lying in any public space illegal, essentially criminalizing homelessness. He never brought this up at the debate, nor did any of the chosen few who asked questions challenge him on this point.

In the end this event seemed like a carefully crafted exercise to create the pretense of an open debate but failed to ask the kind of questions the media would have asked. And so the report here is more a witnessing of a prepackaged event that felt more like a PR event for the San Pedro Democratic Club.

2022 Homeless Count: San Pedro and LA Hold First Count in Two Years

Hunter Chase
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2022 Homeless Count: San Pedro and LA Hold First Count in Two Years

I participated in the homeless count this year, but my team did not find any homeless people. The place we were assigned was mainly in a wealthy residential area with little to no public space, so we were not surprised that we did not find anyone. The previous time I volunteered, which was in 2020, we found no one on the street, but only in cars.

From Feb. 22 to Feb. 24, the County of Los Angeles held its 2022 homeless count. This was the first time the county held a homeless count in two years, as the 2021 count was canceled due to the pandemic. The 2022 homeless count was originally going to be from Jan. 24 to Jan. 26, but was postponed again because of the pandemic.

“While we work to ensure an accurate Homeless Count, we cannot ignore the surging number of positive COVID-19 cases across our region,” said Heidi Marston, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, in a press release on LAHSA’s website. “Even with safety precautions such as moving training online, developing outdoor deployment sites, and keeping households together, moving forward with a count in January places our unhoused neighbors, volunteers, staff, and the accuracy of the Count at risk.”

The purpose of the count is to support applications for federal funding by proving how many homeless people live in different areas. As of 2020, the count said there were 66,436 homeless people living in the county, with 2,257 living in Council District 15. In San Pedro, there were 575 homeless people, which was a decrease from the previous year, when the count found 614 homeless people. The 2020 count found 226 homeless people in vehicles, 204 in tents or makeshift shelters and 60 living on the street. In addition, there were 83 in temporary or transitional housing.

According to LAHSA’s training video, saying that you found zero homeless people is a perfectly acceptable answer. It states that it is important for LAHSA to know which areas do not have homeless people.

But just because we were unable to find homeless people doesn’t necessarily mean there are no homeless people on the streets of San Pedro or in CD 15. The last homeless count was before the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States, and it is yet to be seen what effect the pandemic will have on people losing their homes. To be fair, the LA County Board of Supervisors recently extended the eviction moratorium until the end of 2022.

There are also several homeless shelters in CD 15, including two in San Pedro, the bridge home shelter run by the city, and another shelter run by the county. However, the residents of those shelters will still be counted for the homeless count, as these are temporary housing.

A bigger problem for the shelters in CD 15 is COVID-19, as they have had to reduce their number of occupants to prevent the spread of the virus. It hasn’t always worked, and many have had outbreaks.

Alexis Lauro, a representative of Councilman Joe Buscaino’s office, said that the bridge home in San Pedro had 32 men and 23 women when she spoke at the CD 15 working group on homeless meeting on Feb. 1. However, she said that quarantine had just been lifted, and they had 19 intakes that day, meaning that more people were coming back in.

Lauro also said that in the bridge home in Wilmington, there were 32 women and 35 men. It was still under quarantine, and had 75 residents there, which is a reduced number.

The tiny home village in Wilmington had 38 men and 24 women, Lauro said. The residents were also under quarantine when she spoke, as they had recently had a positive case. At the Watts bridge home, there were 38 men and 30 women, and they were under quarantine as well.

At that same meeting, Lauro said that the first signs banning homeless people from sleeping in certain areas were finalized, and would be near the tiny homes village in Wilmington and the county shelter in San Pedro. These are specific sites near homeless shelters or facilities, and homeless people are not allowed to sit or sleep within 1,000 feet of them. So far, 11 of these sites have been approved in CD 15. In October 2021, Buscaino pushed for 161 more sites in CD 15, mainly near schools and parks, where homeless people would not be able to sleep within 500 feet. However, the city council has not approved these yet.

This is not the only thing Buscaino has done to try to ban homeless people. He is trying to get a ballot measure that would ban homeless people from camping in public areas all over the city, while also making it a priority to have more emergency temporary housing. The city council rejected this measure in November 2021, but Buscaino is now trying to get it approved by gathering 65,000 signatures to place it on the November 2022 ballot.

Living in San Pedro

Francis Romero, a 67-year-old San Pedro resident who lives in Section 8 housing, was homeless for more than four years prior to moving into her apartment. She stayed on 6th Street and Gaffey, near the Jack in the Box.

Now she lives in an apartment she has been in for three years. Before that, she lived in a senior citizen center. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health helped her get a Section 8 voucher.

“I had to go there, because I was out here on the street all stressed out and stuff,” Romero said. “I’m handicapped, and I have an animal, and it was hard for me out there.”

It took Romero a year to be able to get her housing voucher.

“It takes longer for some,” Romero said. “I think it took longer because I had four case workers switched on me.”

Once she had the voucher, it still wasn’t easy to find an apartment.

“A lot of people don’t want to accept it no more, because of the way people are,” Romero said. “When they move in, they destroy it. … They don’t treat it like they really appreciate it. Not all the people either, but some.”

The building she currently lives in was the best option she could find. Even then, it’s not ideal, because she’s handicapped and the entrance to the building has stairs.

“I got to get someone to help me pull my walker down, and back up,” Romero said.

If there is no one to help her go up and down the stairs, she doesn’t leave the building.

While the senior citizen building was not in San Pedro, she returned to San Pedro when given the choice.

“I got this because I know San Pedro,” Romero said. “San Pedro’s been my town all my life … I had to go to the doctors and stuff, everything was over here for me. So I came back here.”

Nine Candidates Line Up to Become the Next Rep for the 15th Council District

RL Intern
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Nine Candidates Line Up to Become the Next Rep for the 15th Council District

Come June 7, There Can Only Be Two

By Anealia Kortkamp, Editorial Intern

Joe Buscaino looms large in the political imaginations of Los Angeles’ southernmost point. Having served 10 years, it would be impressive if he did not leave an impression, for good or for ill. This impression is coming to an end, however, as the former councilman yields running this year in favor of a mayoral bid.

The ticket to replace him is packed, with nine competitors all jockeying for the position and multiple contenders, like Shannon Ross and Christian Guzman, having already dropped out. Random Lengths News has thus compiled an as-of-now up-to-date short guide to the who-is-who in this packed face-off. All of these candidates will have to turn in their nomination petitions by March 9 in order to qualify for the ballot. Any registered voter in the district can sign a petition for one or more candidates.

Danielle Sandoval

Danielle Sandoval has served in multiple neighborhood councils throughout Council District 15. She is also a businesswoman and paralegal operating services centered around intellectual property, family law, and civil litigation.

Sandoval prides herself as a coalition builder and for the grassroots nature of her campaign, specifically, the rate at which she goes out to meet directly with constituents and how she self-educates on what needs to be done and where money is allocated.

In the built environment, Sandoval is very outspoken. She is against increasing the density in District 15, citing that they would increase crowding, that they are often awarded via officials giving the proposals to friends, and that the majority rental market they create is temporary and does not serve to create any generational wealth.

To address houselessness and to help create homeownership, instead of density, Sandoval keeps on her an array of other tools. She pushes against the Airbnb market that consumes housing stock and is a proponent of a vacancy tax both for business and residential buildings. Supporting this, she says, is how buildings are often simply abandoned by their owners and that the district’s residents are “being priced out of our community.”

Specifically for the unhoused, her program lines up with much of what is being done at first. She is in favor of the container housing, tiny home villages, and micro-housing projects that are springing up throughout LA county. In addition, she seeks expansions and reopenings of mental health facilities and assistance for the unhoused in gaining skills and expungement of tickets.

She says she will address governmental structures both like a business and like a family. On city budgets she said, “The city is a business, I know the business. I started with looking at city budgets and realized it was upside down,” stating further that the current lack of transparency has resulted in major misallocation of departmental resources.

Parks and the 15th District’s youth population are a crucial point of her platform. “I am a mom and I grew up in a high-risk area,” Sandoval said. “We need to create buffer zones around our schools and create green spaces.”

Sandoval talks about bringing affordability to youth recreation programs and fulfilling the promise of skate parks after-school programs and youth sports. She says that these build relationships and create a sense of community, which seems to be the focal point of her entire candidacy.

Anthony D. Santich

A lifelong San Pedran, Anthony Santich has deep Croatian and Italian roots in the Los Angeles Harbor Area. His grandfather, Andy Trutanich, managed the Starkist Foods cannery that employed 4,000 residents. Santich says role models like his grandfather and parents shaped his sense of civic duty and appreciation for community involvement, engagement and advocacy.

A graduate of San Pedro High School and an All-Marine League athlete, he attended Idaho State University on an athletic scholarship. Upon graduation, he took up the professions of sales and marketing in the Los Angeles area. He later joined the business development and marketing group at the Port of Los Angeles. He held several roles and responsibilities at the port, including liaison to the Port Community Advisory Committee where he worked with Harbor Area stakeholders, and port marketing manager — in regards to container and liquid bulk terminals.

Santich volunteers for the Harbor Area Pilots Youth Organization, a football program for at-risk youth in Wilmington. He raised $50,000 for new helmets, uniforms and scholarships for financially disadvantaged student athletes who wanted to be on the team.

For more than 10 years, Santich has been a volunteer with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, which includes local, state and federal law enforcement agencies dedicated to investigating, prosecuting and developing effective responses to internet crimes against children. As a volunteer, Santich raised funds for the ICAC.

Describing the politics and institutions that animate the Los Angeles City Hall and the Port of Los Angeles as an elitist system that doesn’t work for the people, Santich has been a witness to unethical backroom deals, dubious lobbyist relationships, and systemic resistance to an open and fair process. He says these practices have led to wasteful spending of public funds, a lack of community benefits, and insider corruption. Santich says his unique qualifications have given him an understanding of how to prevent the misuse of funds and fund employment opportunities, affordable housing, public safety and port pollution mitigation efforts.

Tim McOsker

Tim McOsker is the former chief of staff to ex-mayor James Hahn and a police union lobbyist. Lately he has served as executive officer of AltaSea, an as-of-yet unbuilt institute for oceanic research, and sits on the board of a number of local non-governmental organizations.

McOsker has deep pockets in the Los Angeles political scene and is close to former CD 15 Councilwoman Janice Hahn. His entering the race to succeed Joe Buscaino is a no-brainer. As of now, he has raised the most of any candidates, leaning heavily on corporate and large union donations and paying out half of all his campaign expenditures and twice that of the total expenditures of the nearest campaign, roughly $50,000 to consulting groups Avila LLC and J&Z Strategies, ensuring that McOsker has a lot of skin in the game.

As a candidate, McOsker has five tent pole issues surrounding his campaign, houselessness, jobs, crime, climate change and transparency.

McOsker on unhoused Angelenos says he is an advocate of supportive housing and embraces such solutions as shipping containers to housing conversions, tiny homes, and renovation of existing facilities, without discerning between public or private operations.

On economic opportunities in CD 15, he proposes an emphasis firstly on local businesses and secondly on the perpetuation of well-paying union jobs.

Interestingly, McOsker’s website discusses the uptick in crime and calls for additional police funding. While true in the most micro of sense, violent crime is up roughly 0.4% statewide, he fails to mention that even with a marginal uptick we sit at historic lows since the 1970s, according to the yearly report put out by the California Attorney General’s office. This claim of his is then extrapolated to raise concerns of a lack of enforcement regarding gun laws.

In regards to climate and the dangers of climate change, he talks about ensuring a balance of greening our local industries without sacrificing the retention of workers.

His statements on transparency trend towards the confusing. He champions efficiency and transparency yet nowhere does he seem to outline how he seeks to achieve this.

McOsker himself could not be reached for public comment, however, his campaign team did get back to us, outlining his positions and informing us on much of this piece. Still, McOsker proves a candidate with a slew of resources and a long history of public service.

Bryant Odega

Bryant Odega is a teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District, renter, son of Nigerian immigrants, a community organizer for climate justice, and a former member of the Harbor Gateway Neighborhood Council. Aligned with Democratic Socialists of America’s Los Angeles chapter, Bryant affiliates himself with the politically progressive wing of American politics.

His campaign runs on a platform of grassroots activism, housing, economic and environmental justice. In his words, his campaign is “rooted in his love of humanity and sense of purpose.”

The goals of his city council bid include addressing the 25% poverty rate in the district wanting to help mitigate the environmental and health impact of the massive port and urban oilfield in the Harbor Area. Odega prides himself on being a candidate that refuses both corporate and big money donations, emphasizing an urge to get these sorts of interests out of politics.

“My theory of change in politics is building people power and mobilizing everyday people into having an impact on the political process,” Odega said in an interview. “In my district 60% of people are renters and they pay on average a third of their income on rent. I want to fight for all people, regardless of where they come from.”

Odega says that it was these issues that convinced him to run and that his district “has been struggling for far too long. Because our district has been one of the most hard-hit districts in the city when it comes to these issues, we must have the boldest fighter for justice, who is accountable — not to big money interests — but to the people.”

Rick Thomas

Rick Thomas describes himself as a citizen advocate with a background in both marketing and business.

Both in conversations with Random Lengths and on any site he can be found, Thomas emphasizes his mission statement of “Clean streets, Safe streets.” He puts a major focus on illegal dumping and walkability in Council District 15. Walking for 15, Thomas’ campaign can often border on a single-issue campaign in its focus on walkability. He highlights any factor contributing to the contrary and has accordingly fought against them all. Such issues can range from lack of curb cuts and stop signs at street crossings, large haul trucks being routed through residential neighborhoods, and illegal dumping.

Thomas has seen some success in his citizen activism, having successfully gotten stop signs and signage preventing large haul trucks installed in his neighborhood.

While talking to Random Lengths, Thomas describes himself as solutions-oriented, saying the central question of his philosophy is “how can we be proactive about our problems before they become unmanageable?” He also says that he “plans to do this in one term, no re-election. I want to get this place back where it needs to be and go.”

In addition to walkability, his campaign also intends to address a lack of awareness and access to mental health services, COVID-19 resources for low-income communities, and consistent street cleaning to all of CD 15.

Andrew M. Bak-Boychuk

Hailing from Coastal San Pedro, Andrew M. Bak-Boychuk prides himself on the work he does as an educator to special education youth. A recent entrant to this race, Andrew joined out of general frustration with politics as status quo and claims to be in it for a single term, with no aspirations of higher office or any sort of career in politics. When Random Lengths reached out to him about who he was and the reason for his campaign he had this to say:

“I always find myself coming back to San Pedro no matter where life takes me. This place has great potential,” said Bak-Boychuk. “We need open-minded people, and we should expect more of our politicians. Not magic.”

Bak-Boychuk sees his lack of political connections and lack of history in any sort of political machine as a boon to himself, and a reason a potential constituent might pick him. He describes himself as authentic first and foremost. Positioned as an anti-corruption candidate, he also proudly labels himself a man of brutal honesty, willing to speak frankly on issues other candidates may not.

“I’m more than willing to call a spade a spade,” said Bak-Boychuk in our conversation.

To temper this, however, he says that he is at the end of the day a compassionate man, citing his work in special education to prove that he is here for the benefit of others over any sort of prestige to be found in the position.

LaMar Lyons

A resident of Los Angeles of 25 years, LaMar enters the race with a multitude of credentials under his belt. After graduating from Howard University School of Law, he served on the staffs of Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert Lindsey, Assemblyman Elihu Harris, California Senator Alan Cranston, California Assembly Clerk Dotson Wilson. In the private sector, Lyons has worked as the administrator for two nonprofits focused on assisting disabled children and the elderly, respectively. In addition to this, he has worked as an investment banker and underwriter of bonds for Morgan Stanley, Rothschild & Co. and his firm I.C. Rideau Lyons.

When asked about his reasoning for running, he spoke about his wife’s passing and having to raise his children alone. Due to this and his own working-class roots, he has gained respect for bread and butter issues.

Lyons calls specific attention to what he calls the unequal resource development in the district, stating that “I have a format that creates a more equitable distribution to the neighborhoods and their councils.”

Crucially, he focuses on three main issues, crime, pollution and homelessness. On the crime front, he seeks an increase in the budget of the Los Angeles Police Department, but only insofar as that the money allocated is allotted to non-uniformed, preventative methods, specifically highlighting mental health professionals in conversation.

For housing, he says, “When you look at San Pedro there is not a format to provide housing for the middle class,” noting favorably to both mixed-use and mixed-income developments. He specifically spoke of wanting a public-private partnership and wanting to create a 70, 20 and 10 split in housing, with the split being for those seeking market rate, affordable and fixed income housing respectively.

In addressing pollution he cites Flint, Michigan-like conditions in Watts with tap water coming out in light brown hue, pipes in need of replacement, and pesticides being present in the water supply, all needing a firmer hand when being dealt with. This includes the issue of air pollution coming from the various vehicles both on the streets and at the port.

On all these fronts Lyons has set himself up as both a coalition builder and someone willing to overturn entrenched power structures. In an interview with Random Lengths, he said “These issues should be top priority, but in the 15th [District] we have vested interests where they have no incentive to solve these issues. [For example] you have a conflict of interest between the port and [the residents of] San Pedro, it’s money-driven.”

Mark Contreras, youth and senior advocate

No response and no information available.

Robert M. Miller, artist and environmental activist

No response and no information were found.

Check out Random Lengths News’ YouTube channel to see interviews with each candidate and their statements on why they are running, https://tinyurl.com/RLN-YouTube

Seven Years Later— A Progress Report: Eliminating The MHF Refinery Threat

Paul Rosenberg
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Seven Years Later— A Progress Report: Eliminating The MHF Refinery Threat

The seventh anniversary of the explosion at the Torrance Refinery was marked by a burst of activity aimed at finally phasing out use of modified hydroflouric acid, which could have killed thousands of residents if the explosion had happened just a little bit differently. But that phase-out would already be well under way if not for LA City Councilman Joe Buscaino, who blocked regulatory action at the South Coast Air Quality Management District, where he served until recently.

“Buscaino had the opportunity in 2018 to speak up for the phase out of HF but was quiet when his voice would have been decisive at that time,” said Steven Goldsmith, president of Torrance Refinery Action Alliance. “Again in 2019 he had the opportunity to vote against the continued use of HF in refineries and require the upgrade to a vastly safer alternative. In fact, he voted against public safety and with these two refineries to allow the continued use of an exceptionally hazardous chemical.”

On the federal level, four local U.S. representatives — Nanette Barragán, Karen Bass, Ted Lieu and Maxine Waters — sent a letter on Feb. 10 to EPA administrator Michael Regan supporting TRAA’s call for the phase-out. There are 40 facilities using some form of hydrofluoric acid across the US, and the intention is to gain the support of congressmembers representing all the surrounding communities, according to Goldsmith. (Rep. Liz Cheney’s district office in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is just two miles from one such refinery, he noted.) On the county level, on Feb. 15, all five supervisors voted for Supervisor Janice Hahn’s motion sending a letter to the governor and state attorney general, seeking similar action from the state.

But the most direct responsible authority, the AQMD, failed to act over a two-year period when Buscaino’s lack of support prevented action to require the phase-out. He never explained his reasoning, repeatedly refusing to meet with TRAA. After prolonged delay, an industry-supported alternative was hurriedly approved on Sept. 6, 2019, less than a week after it was first proposed in proffer letters from the Torrance Refinery and Valero Wilmington, the only other refinery using MHF. This action came despite a letter from LA County Department of Public Health reiterating support for the phase-out and citing major inadequacies of the alternative approach.

While discussions focused on transition to a sulfuric acid process, there are newer, safer ionic liquid processes, pioneered by Honeywell in the U.S. and Well Resources in Canada, which were routinely discounted, if not ignored. For example, at the June 22, 2019 meeting of AQMD’s Refinery Committee, Torrance Refinery Senior Engineer Adam Webb claimed his refinery would “continue to explore new alkylation technologies but, at this time, it is not economical or technically proven to replace MHF,” according to minutes of the meeting. He acknowledged the existence of Honeywell’s process but claimed Honeywell itself said “it would require five to six years of new technology operation before adopting new technology on a full scale.”

Yet, the day before that meeting, Well Resources sent AQMD a letter, saying that its process, known as “Ionikylation” had been developed over a 20-year period, with its first commercial demonstration in 2005, going on to say, “Since then, five commercial Ionikylation units have been constructed across the Asia-pacific and a total of 10 units will be built by 2020.”

Then there’s the claim of exorbitant cost. “Refineries in their testimony said it would cost about $1 billion — $900 million to $1 billion — to convert,” Goldsmith said. Yet, at the same time Valero was building a refinery in Destrehan, Louisiana using a new low-temperature advanced sulfuric acid process known as CDAlky. “Valero in their annual report said it was completed on time and under budget, and when they originally announced that, the budget was $416 million,” Goldsmith said. Time to complete was just 2 ½ years.

But Ionikylation is even cheaper. “All of the Ionikylation process equipment is fabricated using low-cost materials (carbon steel) because the catalyst is non-corrosive. In our most recent publication, the operator disclosed the turnkey capital costs for a 7,400 bpd brownfield new build ($78MM),” Well Resources told Random Lengths via email.

Conversion costs are more difficult to establish. “Conversions are assessed on a case-by-case basis because the location, status, and integrity of existing equipment must be considered,” Well said. “At a minimum, a conversion to Ionikylation requires installation of a new reactor and catalyst regeneration system.” Other elements of the production process “may be reused (case-by-case), resulting in significant cost reductions.” But, significantly, they added, “To date, none of the US-based refiners pointing to the prohibitive cost of transitioning away from HF have engaged with our company to assess Ionikylation.”

“We’re optimistic,” Goldsmith said. With many ways forward, only one has to work.

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