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California and Shanghai Leaders Unite to Drive Green Shipping Corridor Forward

Reporters Desk
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California and Shanghai Leaders Unite to Drive Green Shipping Corridor Forward

 

LOS ANGELES —Transportation and environmental policy leaders and scholars from California state agencies and the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Shanghai

gathered March 17, hosted by the Port of Long Beach, to discuss their efforts to decarbonize the maritime industry via development of a Green Shipping Corridor between California and Shanghai.

This event highlighted the role of infrastructure development and the policies and regulations needed to advance international green shipping corridors.

Through the years, California and China have engaged in open dialogue on climate cooperation. In 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom traveled to China where he committed to collaboration to advance shared interests related to climate action, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and short-lived climate pollutants and the acceleration and deployment of clean energy. During the visit, five cooperative agreements were signed. One Memorandum of Understanding between California and Shanghai aims to advance clean, low-carbon transportation including the development of clean ports and green shipping. This work complements the existing partnership between the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Shanghai to decarbonize one of the world’s busiest container shipping routes.

The forum was an opportunity to highlight that the Port of Long Beach, together with the Port of Los Angeles, C40 Cities and the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission or SMTC, jointly published, in October 2024, their first ever Green Shipping Corridor Partnership Annual Progress Report, which outlines significant progress made toward decarbonizing maritime vessels. The Port of Long Beach also recently published a white paper on the use of clean marine fuels in shipping.

Green Shipping Corridors provide a forum for partnership and cooperation where all participating parties come together with an aim to achieve goals and advance toward use of low- and zero-carbon fuels and technologies.

One of these corridors is the Los Angeles – Long Beach – Shanghai Green Shipping Corridor. Goals in this specific green corridor include deploying reduced or zero lifecycle carbon emission capable ships and facilitating investment in clean marine fueling infrastructure at the partner ports.

This forum brought together leadership to weigh in on these topics, to dive deeper into the necessary components of green shipping corridors and explore opportunities for greater collaboration in this emerging space.

In 2024, California State leadership traveled to Shanghai to see port operations in real time and witness firsthand innovation being employed. Later that same year, the United States Department of Energy published a Maritime Decarbonization Action Plan, which identified pathways to achieve a zero-emissions maritime sector by 2050.

“California is a global leader in climate action and is committed to the health and prosperity of both people and planet,” said CARB Chair Liane Randolph. “As a champion for clean air, the California Air Resources Board remains dedicated to working together to identify opportunities for deeper decarbonization in the green shipping space.”

CCCI, a University of California-wide initiative housed jointly at UC Berkeley’s Rausser College of Natural Resources and School of Law, supported much of the planning for the forum. Through research, training and dialogue, CCCI aims to inform policymakers, foster cooperation and partnership, and drive climate solutions at all levels.

“In this interconnected world, where we share oceans, shipping corridors, trade and climate impacts, it’s increasingly critical for us to also share ideas and solutions,” said CCCI Executive Director Fan Dai. “Cutting climate pollution from shipping requires deep collaboration, and that’s what this forum is all about.”

San Pedro Briefs: Beach Mammal Alert & CD15’s Wilmington PBID Update

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San Pedro Briefs: Beach Mammal Alert & CD15’s Wilmington PBID Update

Beach Safety Public Alert

A toxic algae bloom is affecting LA County beaches, causing sea lions to become sick with domoic acid toxicosis. For your safety and your pets’ safety on the beach, stay away from stranded marine mammals and call 1-800-399-4253 (WHALE) if you see a sea lion showing symptoms or need assistance (extended head backward, side to side movement, foaming at the mouth, seizure activity). The Marine Mammal Care Center is working to rescue and treat affected animals, but with cases tripling in a week and more expected, their hospital is nearing capacity.

You can help support their efforts at marinemammalcare.org/donate.

CD15 Policy Update

On March 14, the city council approved a motion introduced by Councilmember Tim McOsker in collaboration with the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce and local stakeholders. The approval of this motion secures $130K in funding for a consultant to explore the creation of a property-based business improvement district or PBID on Avalon Blvd. in Wilmington. This project would enable local property owners, the city, and the Port of Los Angeles to assemble a stream of funds toward improvements and business development programs on Avalon Blvd., including for supplemental public safety, business attraction, and infrastructure.

Avalon Blvd. was once the center of a thriving commercial district in the Harbor, and these additional PBID amenities would be critical to promote new economic activity.

McOsker said that given the recent investments along the Wilmington Waterfront through the public access infrastructure plan or PAIP, it would be ideal to connect Avalon Blvd. to this growth, ensure the success of the waterfront redevelopment, and promote jobs and local business in the the Harbor Area.

San Pedro Bay Ports to Give Quarterly Clean Air Action Plan Update on April 2

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San Pedro Bay Ports to Give Quarterly Clean Air Action Plan Update on April 2

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will give a progress update on the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan or CAAP April 2. The meeting will include information on the ports’ 2024 air quality achievements and 2025 priorities, as well as a status update on the truck and cargo handling equipment feasibility assessments.

The meeting will be held at Banning’s Landing community center. Proceedings will be livestreamed here, https://tinyurl.com/clean-Air-Action-Plan-update passcode: 444604. Participation is in-person only.

Minutes and presentations of prior meetings can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/About-the-Clean-Air-plan

Limited free parking is available at the Wilmington Waterfront Promenade parking lot next to Banning’s Landing Community Center.

Updated in 2017, the CAAP is a comprehensive strategy for accelerating progress toward a zero-emissions future while protecting and strengthening the ports’ competitive position in the global economy. The Clean Air Action Plan was originally approved in 2006.

The ports will take public comments in-person at the advisory meeting to receive input on CAAP implementation. The agenda will be posted on the CAAP website prior to the meeting.

Time: 10 a.m., April 2

Details: For more information, visit cleanairactionplan.org.

Venue: Banning’s Landing community center, 100 E. Water St., Wilmington

“Tragedy Gift Shop” more fable than play

Greggory Moore
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“Tragedy Gift Shop” more fable than play

Commonplace gun violence. Exploitation. Sensationalism. Amoral corporate greed. This is today’s America, and it’s enough to make you want to scream. If you’re a playwright, your scream may make it to the stage. Hence Tragedy Gift Shop, Ryan McClary’s second world premiere at the Garage Theatre in four seasons.

Boon’s Emporium, a one-stop shop for all the tragedy-related curios your broken little heart desires (ghost bikes, commemorative pins, hand-sized American flags), is a going concern, opening a new location (no. 9) in Townsville after a school shooting there left 15 dead. It’s a homecoming for Boon’s proprietor Chris Udall (Rory Cowan), a chance to re-root himself even as the Boon’s brand continues to expand. For Lucy (Jade Dodgen), a Townsville High student who narrowly escaped being among the dead, a job at Boon’s feels like just the ticket to fashion healing from her awful experience. But the wraith of the boy who saved her life (Sage Forsythe) helps her come to question Boon’s mission and the part she’s playing.

Aside from its straightforward cynicism about capitalism, Tragedy Gift Shop never quite coheres, with characters bouncing between minimal interactions and tell-don’t-show monologs. As kindly English teacher Ms. Sorensen, Jade Yancosky gives us a nice one at the beginning of Act Two, but we only know she cares because she says so, not because we ever get to see it. Plotwise, nothing much happens beyond the gradual revelation that the “dark masters” behind Boon’s (a pharmaceutical conglomerate, it turns out) prioritize profit over healing — not much of a plot point, considering that we find Boon’s obviously suspect from the get-go.

With such a dearth of dramatic elements, it seems McClary got stuck in a no-man’s land between overgrown fable and underfed play. The characters have no flesh on their bones. Lucy is in pain and trying to figure out how to move forward — but personality traits? Not so much. And she’s the protagonist.

There are also some curious choices. For example, after Udall calls himself a carpetbagger in Act One, considering that by Act Two he’s gone out of his way to tell us he’s set to stay in Townsville forever, even if you don’t know a carpet bag from a bindle you should puzzle over his now being outfitted in hobo finery. And though it’s not important that sometimes actors look at cell phones or books but at others it’s just their empty hands, it’s hard not to notice.

Rob Young’s set design is good fun, though less for the Boon’s Emporium trimmings (perfectly nice) than the audience seating (four sections to choose from on three sides) and an ingress that snakes you away from the usual Garage entry point and through a Townsville High hallway. It’s got nothing to do with the play’s action — it’s just good Garage Theatre fun.

I count myself something of a Ryan McClary fan. Entropy General remains one of my most memorable nights of theatre (two nights, actually: I went back for seconds) despite the fact that it took place 14 years ago; and 2022’s The Private Lives of Imaginary Friends was an effective, affecting view from inside a mind finding it difficult to navigate the world without. But although Tragedy Gift Shop has something to say, McClary has figured out the best way to say it. But good that the Garage is giving him a chance to use his voice. I hope they’ll keep doing so.

Tragedy Gift Shop at the Garage Theatre
Times: Thursday–Saturday 8:00 p.m.
The show runs through April 5.
Cost: $23–$28 (Thursdays 2-for-1); closing night w/afterparty: $40
Details: thegaragetheatre.org
Venue: The Garage Theatre, 251 E. 7th St., Long Beach

COMMUNITY ALERT: Rep. Barragán to Host Community Conversation on Trump Impacts

Reporters Desk
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COMMUNITY ALERT: Rep. Barragán to Host Community Conversation on Trump Impacts

 

SAN PEDRO – Congresswoman Nanette Barragán (CA-44) will host a community conversation for constituents to hear what’s happening in Washington and why the Trump Administration’s policies and cuts to government services are harmful.

In attendance with Rep. Nanette Barragán (CA-44), will be LAUSD School Board Member Tanya Ortiz-Franklin, community health pediatrician Dr. Ilan Shapiro, neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County CEO Lori Gay and an additional guest impacted by Trump and DOGE Actions.

Time: 6:30 p.m., March 18

Venue: Dalmatian-American Club, 1639 S. Palos Verdes St., San Pedro

RPV Land Movement Community Update

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RPV Land Movement Community Update

 

RPV City Council Meeting

On March 18, Rancho Palos Verdes city council will receive an update on the landslide emergency, the latest land movement data, and the city’s remediation efforts.

The council will also consider allocating an additional $710,000 needed for repairs to the Abalone Cove Sanitary Sewer System, which serves the Portuguese Bend community association neighborhood. The city anticipated spending up to $3 million for repairs this fiscal year, but due to damage from ongoing land movement, another $710,000 is needed through the end of June 2025. Without this funding, certain parts of the system would need to be closed to prevent sewer spills, and additional homes would be red-tagged until they could use the sewer system again.

Finally, the council will consider extending by 60 days the local emergency declarations in the landslide area and the temporary prohibition of bicycles, motorcycles, and other similar wheeled vehicles from an approximately two-mile stretch of Palos Verdes Drive South.

A staff report (PDF) with more information is available on the City website.

Meeting Info

Time: 7 p.m., March 18

Details: Watch live on RPVtv’s YouTube channel, at rpvca.gov, or on Cox 33/FiOS 38. To participate in public comment during the meeting, fill out a speaker slip if you are attending in person, or complete a form online at rpvca.gov/participate to participate virtually or leave a pre-recorded voice message. Email your comments on this topic to cc@rpvca.gov

Venue: Zoom and at Hesse Park in McTaggart Hall.29301 Hawthorne Blvd, Rancho Palos Verdes

Hahn Funds Goat-Powered Brush Clearance in Palos Verdes Estates

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Hahn Funds Goat-Powered Brush Clearance in Palos Verdes Estates

PALOS VERDES ESTATES —As of March 13, goats have begun clearing brush in areas of Palos Verdes Estates as part of an effort funded by the office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn to reduce fire risk on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

“The natural canyons and hills of the Palos Verdes Peninsula are beautiful but they put this area at greater risk for wildfires,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “Mayor Victoria Lozzi told me that her city needed help with brush clearance and I was happy to offer my office’s support. If you see the goats this month in Palos Verdes Estates know that they are hard at work making this community safer.”

DJA 3046

900 goats will be used to conduct weed abatement in 37 acres of Palos Verdes Estates parklands in canyons and hard to reach hillside areas in four zones deemed extremely high priority: Valmonte Canyon and the Palos Verdes stables, Lunada Canyon, the hillside between Via Boronado and Espinosa Circle, and the hillside below Via Pinzon and Mirlo Gate House. 400 goats have begun clearing brush in Valmonte Canyon which is estimated to take between a week and a week and a half to complete with additional goats placed in the other locations next week. The work is expected to be completed by the end of March.

The City of Palos Verdes Estates authorized a contract with Fire Grazers, Inc., which has done similar work on the peninsula in the past. Supervisor Hahn’s office will reimburse the city for the cost of the contract, totaling just over $67,000.

Supervisor Hahn’s funding comes after Palos Verdes Estates Mayor Lozzi raised the problem during Hahn’s recent Mayor’s Luncheon with the mayors of the Fourth District.

solo. Gallery Presents the Visceral Trigger Warning by Ellwood T. Risk

Melina Paris
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solo. Gallery Presents the Visceral Trigger Warning by Ellwood T. Risk

 

The exhibition provides viewers space to interrogate their own reactions to Risk’s artistic targets.

solo. Gallery and Peter Scherrer present Trigger Warning by Ellwood T. Risk. This compelling show runs for three more weeks, to April 12.

Trigger Warning elicits a visceral response to Risk’s compelling mixed media works. Some of these include pistol targets; Risk has said that he finds the “immediately recognizable object utterly compelling.” He notes that because of target imagery, people’s experience with guns often starts from childhood.

The works, Risk says, speak to the hyper-masculine, toxic male-female relationships.

Other pieces in this show include print media panels, forms, and a striking piece inspired by the “#MeToo” movement.

This is Risk’s first show since 2016. But the self-taught artist has been working this whole time — and making a living from his work. Risk began creating pistol targets in 2002. His first public exhibition of the works took place at Robert Berman Gallery at Bergamot Station, Santa Monica in 2005.

This powerful imagery has been a source of inspiration for Risk since he completed his first piece. He began this journey with hope. The artist’s statement reveals that he finds these “true paper tigers” to be menacing objects, fascinating and repulsive at once. Creating works of art that can be interpreted by the viewer with varying degrees of complexity, he said, brings him great artistic satisfaction.

Four years later, Risk’s tone was a darker, more absolute stance, positing, “We are, all of us, targets.

“No human living in the ‘developed’ world is exempt from the influence of these fixed cultural elements, forever locked in competition as they seek dominion over our lives, our pocket books and our souls.”

By 2018, pragmatism — and wisdom emerge. While Risk acknowledges the easily mistaken logic that he could be seen as a second amendment enthusiast, he claims his “staunch” support of common sense gun regulation. He views his work as a socio-political commentary on contemporary life in America. Importantly, while stating he enjoys owning and shooting firearms, Risk enumerates his beliefs on arms reform.

The artist states this evolution encompasses a deeper and different understanding of his work over the years, wherein he has become more political but his art has not.

Trigger Warning at solo. Gallery provides viewers space to interrogate their own reactions to Risk’s artistic targets. These works, produced in digital and analog form, present a variety of materials, including silhouette, archival canvas, color patterns, a combination of collage and decoupage and gold leaf.

Risk’s series has attracted an international audience. Exposure from his work featured in both film and television for two decades — allowing people to find him — has paid dividends. Four works were featured on nearly every episode of Showtime’s “Californication,” during its first five years. Other industry credits include The X Files, Six Feet Under, Franklin & Bash,Modern Family, The Soloist, Biggie & Tupac among others.

Risk’s early works of abstract color fields on plaster surface reflect his years of work in construction as a journey level drywall finisher and painter. A six-panel series of plaster abstracts remained on display at LACMA Sales and Rental Gallery (2002-2006) until the last piece of the collection sold. solo. Gallery owner, Peter Scherrer notes that Risk is a perfectionist of resin pieces.

solo. Gallery will be open Saturday and Sunday afternoons or by appointment.

For additional information, call or text, 310.913.5492.

Ports Briefs: POLA Summer Internships Open, POLB Trade Sees Growth

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Ports Briefs: POLA Summer Internships Open, POLB Trade Sees Growth

Port of Los Angeles Opens Applications for Summer Internship Program

The Port of Los Angeles is now accepting applications for its 2025 summer internship program through March 28. College-enrolled student interns gain hands-on experience working at one of the world’s busiest ports, with assignment opportunities in various fields such as engineering, finance, marketing, real estate and more.

The program is open to current graduate and undergraduate students with interest in on-the-job skill building and networking in a dynamic environment.

The 10-week program runs June 16-Aug. 22. Interns may work up to 40 hours per week and should be available for in-person work, during regular business hours, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday. Depending on school year, summer interns earn from $17.28-$21.51 per hour, while student engineers earn from $22.11-$35.01 per hour.

Applications will be accepted between March 17-28. Applications received at any other time will not be considered.

Details: Application instructions can be found here, https://tinyurl.com/POLA-summer-intern-program

Trade Rises at Port of Long Beach in February

Trade moving through the Port of Long Beach rose for a ninth consecutive month in February as retailers continued to move goods ahead of anticipated tariffs placed on some imported products and materials.

Dockworkers and terminal operators moved 765,385 twenty-foot equivalent units in February, up 13.4% from the same month last year. Imports rose 11.8% to 368,669 TEUs and exports increased 2.9% to 90,026 TEUs. Empty containers moving through the port climbed 19.1% to 306,690 TEUs.

“No matter the situation, the Port will remain competitive by delivering exceptional customer service and moving ahead with capital improvement projects that will allow us to grow well into the future,” said Port of Long Beach CEO Mario Cordero. “We thank our industry partners for choosing to do business with us.”

The Port has moved 1,718,118 TEUs during the first two months of 2025, a 27.4% increase from the same period in 2024.

Hahn Distributes Innovative Fentanyl Detection Devices to Combat Overdose Crisis

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Hahn Distributes Innovative Fentanyl Detection Devices to Combat Overdose Crisis

 

LOS ANGELES — County Supervisor Janice Hahn March 12 announced that her office has purchased and distributed 3,600 innovative detection devices that detect the presence of fentanyl in recreational drugs with the goal of better preventing fentanyl poisonings. In 2023, 94% of opioid overdoses deaths in LA County involved fentanyl. That same year, overdoses were the leading cause of death among unhoused people in LA County and fentanyl poisonings have been a growing danger for young people.

“Fighting fentanyl poisonings is about saving lives, so we have to put every possible tool at the disposal of our residents and our communities. These testing devices are both innovative and easy-to-use. I look forward to getting these thousands of devices into the hands of people whose lives could be saved by them,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “We need to outmaneuver this crisis and this effort is part of the solution along with our work to make Narcan more easily available.”

Hahn’s office purchased the devices and distributed them this week to nine different sites across her district including community colleges and organizations that provide services to unhoused and other vulnerable residents.

The purchased devices are the DEFENT ONE All-in-One Fentanyl Detection Devices manufactured by the medical diagnostics company Defense Diagnostics Inc. (DDI). DEFENT ONE is a single-use portable device small enough to fit in a pocket that contains all of the materials necessary to conduct a fentanyl detection test, unlike other methods which require clean water and a separate container.

Hahn’s office distributed devices to the following local partners which will provide them to community members free-of-charge:

Harbor Interfaith Services

Rio Hondo College

Cerritos College

Harbor College

Whittier First Day

Whittier LGBTQ Center

Salvation Army Bell Shelter

Long Beach Community College

San Pedro Recovery Alliance

Hahn previously led an effort to stock LA County Library locations with naloxone, also known as Narcan, the life-saving antidote to fentanyl poisoning and opioid overdose. LA County libraries have also offered free Narcan trainings.

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