Perspective
So What’s Next? by: James Preston Allen, Publisher
I
have been reflecting recently on what has happened here in the San Pedro Bay over the last thirty years, and it seems like publishing this newspaper has become more like peeling back the layers of an onion. Each year reveals another layer of this place—revealing some new secret or undiscovered truth. It didn’t start off this way. In the beginning, it seemed as though this town was too set in its ways to ever change. However, change is a given in life and cannot be avoided, even when it isn’t necessarily for the best. We have tried to document what we could and reveal what we can, and perhaps this is all a group of dedicated journalists can ever aspire to do. My hope is that along the way we have inspired a few individuals, changed the course of events and in the end, made a difference for those who care enough to speak up and be heard. One of the many issues that we have addressed over the years has been what has become known as the 100-years war with the Port of Los Angeles—now, unfortunately, stretching into its second century. But it was really much larger than just this one port––it was a whole mindset that created the industrial complex that surrounds the twin harbors of Long Beach and Los Angeles. It was the polemics of the post-industrial metropolis that disenfranchised its citizenry at the expense of ever increasing profits, regardless of the human or environmental cost. The ongoing debate between the communities that surround the twin ports and the port authorities has been well documented in the pages of this publication and brought a certain amount of scrutiny over the years. This has created a certain tension in our relationship with both POLA and POLB. You certainly can’t make everyone happy when you report the truth, particularly when some only want you to report the “good news” and deny the bad, but I believe that it is precisely this tension between the news media and the government entities that builds better democracies. Most of the time we get accused of being unfair or biased. They would just prefer that we unquestioningly regurgitate their press releases, as is often the case with some mainstream media outlets. But as we have witnessed over these last three decades, it takes a
Real People. Real News.
4
lot of criticism to move the slow grind of government even one inch in a new direction. I believe that this newspaper over the course of this time, along with the sacrifices of many community activists and countless hours of reporting, have moved the Ports an entire foot in a new direction—one that they are, interestingly enough, proud to claim credit for as the ‘greenest ports in America’. One of the things that I decided some time ago was to make the circulation area for this newspaper resemble the local watershed of the San Pedro Bay. Even though there are overlapping jurisdictions and political boundaries, the flow of water obeys only the laws of nature, constantly moving down hill to the ocean. This “watershed” is not the South Bay as it is often misnamed. That designation properly refers only to the South end of the Santa Monica Bay––this area is the San Pedro Bay. You can see it on any mariner’s chart or Geodetic survey map. The common misconception is that we are part of something that we are not! The greater Los Angeles Harbor area is both politically and naturally separate from the South Bay. Yet we keep getting clumped into political districts that range all the way from Torrance into Venice. The thing is, the laws of nature and the geodetic survey don’t lie. There are three primary sources or tributaries that flow into the San Pedro Bay. The most polluted is the Dominguez Channel flowing out into the Consolidated Channel, then the Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Rivers. All have become gutters of urban runoff in the past half-century. There are of course smaller tributaries to the bay like San Pedro Creek, which still runs from its source up near Averill Park and then winds its way east down the steps of the city under the streets and secretly flows into the main channel next to the Maritime Museum. All of this watershed has been and is today a significant source of millions of gallons of fresh water that goes untreated into the bay. There are three areas that the community must dedicate itself to investing in within the next three decades. The first is the resolution and design of reestablishing our historic connection to the watershed and the waterfront. The second is reconnecting our historic linkage to the greater metropolis via some form of fixed rail transit. And the last is the establishment of the second economy of the port. This last item involves a significant investment in Port-related green technologies, the creation of a Marine Science Institute and the attraction of college level institutions in both the arts and sciences. Each of these initiatives are already in play but will take continued vigilance. Success doesn’t always go to the best or the brightest idea, but to those who persist.