Two Ports

leadership in these areas, the Port of Long Beach is number one.”

In part, the differences reflected the two men’s backgrounds — but also the two cities whose ports they lead. Seroka has headed POLA since 2014, following a 26-year career at American Presidents Line, while Cordero’s experience is much more diverse — from his three decades as a lawyer specializing in workers’ compensation cases, to his long tenure on POLB’s board, and the board of the Federal Maritime Commission, which he chaired for four years, where he received multiple awards for assisting industry stakeholders to accomplish their goals.

While the two ports are roughly equal in size, Los Angeles has almost nine times the population of Long Beach, and POLA is far from LA City Hall, as well as most of the city’s commercial and population centers.

But both men are ultimately responsible to newly-elected mayors: Karen Bass, LA’s first Black female mayor, and Rex Richardson, Long Beach’s first Black mayor. Their roles will be significant, said Joe Lyou, president and CEO of the Coalition for Clean Air.

“I expect Mayor Bass to take her zero emission port pledge seriously,” Lyou said. “The Los Angeles port needs to shift from prioritizing profits to prioritizing public health, which means eliminating pollution from ships, terminal equipment, trucks and trains. They have a long way to go.”

CCA’s deputy policy director, Christopher Chavez, was the sustainability co-lead for Richardson’s transition team. He pointed to three things Richardson proposed in his State of the City address: council’s motion stated. “Every Angeleno should be able to trust that when they call Emergency Services they will deliver safe, compassionate, effective services that truly meet the moment.”

City council staff said that while Los Angeles has seen success with pilot programs such as the therapeutic vans operated by the LA County Department of Mental Health and the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), neither have yet acquired the capacity to meet the demand, nor the severity of certain mental health crises.

Street Improvements Coming to Anaheim Street in Wilmington

The Department of Transportation has implemented a number of changes on Anaheim Street in Wilmington, with the goal of improving traffic safety and connectivity between Figueroa Street and Henry Ford Avenue. Some of the revisions include:

• Removing one travel lane in each direction between Figueroa Street and Eubank Avenue;

•Curb extensions with paint and plastic bollards;

• Removing parking between Eubank Avenue and Alameda;

• A new protected bike lane;

• Upgrades to sidewalks, traffic signals, and pedestrian crossings;

• Bicycle intersection improvements, pedestrian-scale lighting, and street trees.

Residents have expressed concern about the impact of these changes, and it is appropriate for the city council to receive an update on the status of the project, as well as the methodology and metrics for evaluating its effectiveness.

Councilman Tim McOsker made a motion to direct the Department of Transportation to report on the effects of traffic calming measures and safety improvements to Anaheim Street between Figueroa Street and Henry Ford Avenue.

• Doubling the Clean Truck Rate from $10 to $20 per 20-foot equivalent container unit

• Installing 100 truck chargers on port property

• Creating a local fund to help replace dirty trucks

As it stands, POLB seems to be moving much faster in making use of the fees generated so far. “We started our first grant program last September to help subsidize the purchase of ZE trucks,” Seroka said. “So far we’ve had four applicants, that’s four trucks. Why the low number? Because these trucks are not only costly, they’re not commercially available yet,” he said (though that’s not strictly true). “So last month we issued a separate grant to get more pre-production ZE big rigs on the street. Thanks to that funding a total of six million dollars was awarded to two local trucking companies who will use the funds to purchase a total of 22 pre-production battery electric trucks.”

But POLB is moving much faster by focusing on infrastructure, while CARB provides vehicle funding. “In September we held a groundbreaking for 30 charging units that would be built at the 4 Gen trucking yard by Electrify America for the 61 zero-emission battery electric trucks that 4 Gen announced it was purchasing,” Cordero said.

“God willing, our new mayor will see the disparity going on between these two ports and recognize the ingrained and unjust policies embraced by the Port of LA,” Gunter said. “We can only hope that Mayor Bass will make changes that restore the priority of environmental protections to its proper first place position.”

Today in America, the facts on Black maternal healthcare are disturbing. You can find statistics that point to this national health hazard on the website for Birthing Justice, a social documentary, which offers data — and solutions — on the maternal healthcare system in this country, and birth stories of Black women.

Birthing Justice executive producers and co-writers Denise Pines and Jacoba Atlas approached Monique Matthews to direct this film (which Matthews also co-wrote). Matthews said the social documentary was designed to shift policy but also to amplify and highlight the activists, the birth care professionals and the parents who are actively working to make change. As Matthews said, when you want things done you have to go to the people.

“We don’t want this to be above anyone,” she said. “We created this from the people to amplify their voices.”

The film focuses on real-life birthing traumas that American Black women have experienced and does not shy away from the main culprit of these traumatic experiences, racism. Matthews said that before Pines and Atlas approached her to direct Birthing Justice, she didn’t know how bad the situation was. As she dug deeper into the story, she realized that there were women she had known for 20 to 30 years but she didn’t know that they had suffered a traumatic birthing experience, such as preeclampsia. She said people don’t share.

“It’s horrible,” said Matthews. “I remember going away to college and hearing later about one of the girls I grew up with who died giving birth.”

Matthews had a cousin who died in a hospital