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Long Beach Considers Hiking Minimum Wage to $15 p. 3 Dear Opponents Submitted Signatures, Now Recall Effort of Carson Mayor Robles is Underway p. 5 The Money Fi$h: A Longshore Worker Stages the Story of His Life p. 11

China Shipping Mitigation—

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San Pedro’s Beach City Grill Close to Reopening p. 12

Teamsters President James Hoffa joins the picket line at the Port of Long Beach in solidarity with warehouse and port truckers Oct. 26. Photo by Slobodan Dimitrov.

Port’s Failure Reignites Calls for Fundamental Change

By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

And here I sit so patiently waiting to find out what price you have to pay to get out of going through all these things twice.

[See Mitigation, page 6]

Hoffa Signals Ongoing Escalation of Port Truckers Struggles

By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

O

n Oct. 26, after years of organizing, port truck drivers misclassified as “independent owner-operators” began their eighth “unfair labor practice” strike at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The strike drew in-person support from Teamsters president James P. Hoffa and two of the union’s vice presidents, while a pair of new developments signaled the further growth of the ongoing struggle.

First, truckers at one company became the first misclassified workers ever to simultaneously demand their rights as employees and their right to join a union.

Second, the Teamsters announced a wider escalation of organizing throughout the supply chain. Their new partnership with the Warehouse Workers Resource Center seeks to bring warehouse workers and truckers together and support Cal Cartage warehouse workers who went on strike Oct 28.

Hoffa was joined by Fred Potter, head of the Teamsters Port Division, and Ron Herrera, vice president of the Western Region and executive director of the National Hispanic Caucus.

“I bring you the pledge of support from 1.4 million brothers and sisters who support you here today,” Hoffa said at a Oct. 27 morning press conference at International Transportation Service Inc. marine terminal in Long Beach. “The whole country supports you. We will be here until this fight ends. We are just beginning.”

Hoffa credited Potter’s leadership for organizing hundreds of port drivers.

“But you see that sign there: ‘Justice for Port Drivers’?” Hoffa asked. “We’re just getting started.

And we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Potter said the strike that had just begun is an example of that work.

“This morning a majority of misclassified socalled ‘independent contractors’ at Intermodal Bridge Transport, ironically known as the IBT [the same initials as the International Brotherhood of

Teamsters], sent a demand to their employer, to be represented as employees and to be represented by the Teamsters Union,” he said. “On receiving no word back from the company, they took their picket signs and went on strike.They demanded a dignified and safe work environment. Something that everybody should have.”

Another example is the new partnership with warehouse workers, said Hoffa, elaborating in a press release.

“Yesterday, I visited with supply chain workers who haul imports and exports to and from the docks at our nation’s largest port, and with the warehouse workers who unpack and reload items onto trucks destined for major retailers like Amazon and Walmart,” Hoffa said. “Every one of these egregiously exploited workers shared stories of their inhumane working conditions and their determination to fight back, not just for themselves but for all of their supply chain coworkers.”

[See Truckers, page 6]

October 29 - November 11, 2015

he Port of Los Angeles has failed to implement 11 out of 52 mitigation measures (including six life-saving air-quality measures) contained in the 2008 final environmental impact report for China Shipping. The port publicly admitted these failures, which formed the basis for a new supplemental EIR process initiated on Sept. 18 to review and revise the measures “based on feasibility, effectiveness and other factors.” The process began with a “notice of preparation” and a 30-day comment period that ended Oct. 19.

The port originally tried to build the China Shipping terminal without a project-specific EIR. But a lawsuit initiated by local homeowners, represented by the Natural Resources Defense Council, resulted in an historic settlement in March 2003. It included a $50 million mitigation fund, and required a full EIR process, which was finally completed five years later.

The settlement also expanded the responsibilities of the Port

The Local Publication You Actually Read

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Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area

October 29 - November 11, 2015

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In 2013, the Port of Long Beach awarded about $2 million in seed money to help test the Advanced Maritime Emissions Control System, or AMECS.

The AMECS technology removes diesel particulates, NOx and other pollutants at the source by connecting to the ship’s stack at berth or at anchor. With AMECS in place, ship emissions are reduced 90-99%.

With the California Air Resources Board’s approval, AMECS can now be used as an approved alternative technology to shore power reducing dangerous emissions while at berth or at anchor. © 2015 All Rights Reserved.

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Community Announcements:

Harbor Area Inaugural South Bay Economic Forecast

California State University Dominguez Hills will host the region’s first South Bay Economic Forecast with a breakfast and panel discussion from 7 to 11 a.m. on Oct. 30 in the Loker Student Union ballroom on the CSUDH campus.

For decades, Los Angeles County’s South Bay region has been home to big industries such as international trade, aerospace, energy, and automotive. As these and other industries evolve and grow in the region, a focused analysis of key economic and employment drivers and the impacts and opportunities was warranted.

Hosted by the business news anchor for KNX 1070, Frank Mottek, the morning’s events will feature a report on real estate and housing trends by Jose Martinez, assistant professor of accounting, finance and economics at CSUDH; a panel with Praveen Penmetsa, CEO and founder of Motivo Engineering; Michael Keenan, director of planning and strategy at the Port of Los Angeles; and Andre Oosthuizen, vice president of marketing with Porsche Cars North America, Inc. They will look at their industries’ impact in the region. Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. will give a frecast.

Time: 7 to 11 a.m. Oct. 30 Cost: $95 Details: (310) 243-3337; www.csudh.edu/ economic-forecast Venue: Loker Student Union Ballroom, CSUDH, 1000 E. Victoria St., Carson

LB Considers Minimum Wage Hike Opponents, Supporters Want Study Scrutiny

By Zamná Ávila, Assistant Editor

San Pedro resident Rosa Casarrubias has worked as a waitress at the Long Beach Westin Hotel for nine years. Thanks to Measure N, a local ballot referendum approved in 2012 to raise the minimum wage for Long Beach hotel workers to $13 an hour, Casarrubias earns $13.78 an hour. But the 45-year-old mother said it’s not enough.

“The cost of living has changed,” Casarrubias said in Spanish. “Things are now much more expensive than before…. I [still] have to worry about how to pay the rent, gas, electricity.”

Aside from such day-to-day living expenses, Casarrubias also has her daughter’s incidental expenses as a college student. Casarrubias says there are many other families with similar or

worse situations, which is why she is advocating another increase in the city’s minimum wage.

In June, the Los Angeles City Council voted to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. In July, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to do the same in the

unincorporated areas of the county. In September, Long Beach announced that the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. would conduct the community review process for the Long Beach Minimum Wage Study, which the Long [See Wages, page 5]

O’Donnell Hosts Coffee Meet-and-Greet

Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell and Rep. Janice Hahn invite the public to join them for coffee and conversation. San Pedro residents will have the opportunity to share their thoughts on legislative priorities, learn about the constituent services available to them and discuss issues important to the local community.

Time: 8:30 to 10 a.m. Nov. 7 Cost: Free Venue: Bagels Galore, 2410 Western Ave., San Pedro The Sisterhood Ministry of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church is launching an effort to collect 200 or more new or gently used handbags and will fill them with essential toiletry items including deodorant, hairbrush, hand sanitizer, lip balm and mints, manicure set, pocket tissue, razor and shaving gel, shampoo and conditioner, soap or body wash, toothbrush and toothpaste, a wallet and a handwritten note of encouragement for women struggling with domestic abuse.

The filled handbags will be donated to various women’s shelters in the community that help women in transition, in need and escaping domestic violence situations.

Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays Nov. 1 through Dec. 12 Details: (310) 986-7718; http://mtsinaisanpedro. org Venue: San Pedro Chamber of Commerce, 390 W. 7th St., San Pedro

The Local Publication You Actually Read

Sisterhood Handbags for Hope

Rosa Casarrubias, waitress at the Long Beach Westin Hotel, welcomes the possibility of a $15 minimum wage. Photo by Phillip Cooke

Cats-only Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinics

October 29 - November 11, 2015

The Peter Zippi Fund for Animals is once again sponsoring a cat-only mobile spay/neuter clinic for Harbor Area residents. The date is Nov. 11 at Los Angeles Harbor College in Wilmington.

There is a $10 co-pay for residents of 90731 (only) and 90744 which includes vet exam, surgery, pain injection, and rabies, and other vaccines. Veterinary services are provided by Lucy Pet Foundation.

Time: Nov. 11 Cost: $10 Details: www.lucypetfoundation.org Venue: Los Angeles Harbor College, 1111 Figueroa Place, Wilmington [See Announcements page 4]

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Community Announcements:

Harbor Area

[Announcements, from page 3]

Women in Leadership Conference

Prominent national and regional female political leaders will discuss their paths to political leadership, the impact of the civil rights movement and the Watts Rebellion in shaping their paths and share their perspectives on public policy changes during the past 50 years impacting the Watts community and surrounding Los Angeles region. The unveiling of the Mervyn M. Dymally Monument in the Cal State Dominguez Hills Library will follow from 3 to 5 p.m.

Time: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Nov. 12 Cost: Free Details: www.csudh.edu/ mdaapei. to register Venue: Loker Student Union at CSUDH, 1001 Victoria St., Carson

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October 29 - November 11, 2015

Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area

Peck Park

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Boater Registration Open for 53rd Annual LA Harbor Holiday Afloat Parade

Boaters are encouraged to register now for the 53rd Annual Los Angeles Harbor Holiday Afloat Parade at 6 p.m. Dec. 5, at the Port of Los Angeles.

Invited to preside over the sparkling spectacular of boats is Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as Grand Marshal and 15th District Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino as Commodore of the Fleet to celebrate the nation’s largest international trade gateway with this year’s playful theme of Santa’s Minions.

The deadline for boater registration is Dec. 2.

Details: (310) 549-8111; laharborholidayafloat.org

Homelessness

report

Buscaino’s Homelessness Task Force Meets

SAN PEDRO — Law enforcement personnel and officials of Los Angeles County government convened on Oct. 15 in the first meeting of Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino’s committee on the “homelessness problem,” but a Random Lengths News reporter assigned to cover the event was turned away.

Buscaino, who represents the San Pedro area, selected the committee to address such issues as the coordination of food banks and feeding programs, the problem of panhandling and the lack of housing. The group plans to meet monthly for the first six months. The next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 19.

Homeless Vet’s Vermont Villas Officially Open HARBOR GATEWAY—The Vermont Villas officially opened for homeless veterans—especially the chronically homeless.

Health and social service resources are among the resident services to be offered at the facility. The four-story villas at 16304 Vermont Ave, Harbor Gateway, features 79 studio and one-bedroom apartments, common gathering spaces for residents and offices for staff. Common spaces include a teaching kitchen, a large courtyard with barbecues and resident vegetable gardens, a lounge, and meeting rooms.

Other amenities include on-site property management, offices for five on-site staff, who will provide supportive services for the residents, secured access and laundry rooms.

The apartments, which cost $22 million to build, are now being occupied by about 68 residents. It was a collaboration of Affirmed Housing and PATH Ventures that took more than two years to build. The apartments follow the model of permanently housing people who are homeless and then providing services such counseling and training.

LB Council Authorizes Winter Shelters

LONG BEACH—The Long Beach City Council voted 9-0 to authorize a winter shelter for homeless persons between Nov. 2, 2015 and March 15, 2016.

The shelter will open a month earlier than usual this year, in part due to forecasts of a wetter-than-usual winter. The facility will be operated by the Long Beach Rescue Mission, a provider for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which pays for the annual program. The shelter in Long Beach will be at 6845 Atlantic Ave.

Dear Censured, Robles Faces Recall Effort

By Lyn Jensen, Carson Reporter

used by his friends.”

Repp-Loadsman said many people had been fired when Sam Ghaly was briefly the city manager during Dear’s tenure as mayor. She fretted about what would happen to some people’s jobs if Dear became mayor again.

Green accused Dear of “bullying” Lisa Berglund in a dispute over a council agenda item on April 15, when tensions were high in City Hall after a close election. She said that after Dear “threatened” to call the Daily Breeze about Berglund’s conduct, Green—not Berglund— vomited.

Ramirez, the supervisor of the Carson Community Center, wept as she said she “felt intimidated” and “I attribute this climate to Mr. Dear.”

When Chavez was interviewed she told Aarvig that she is Hispanic—and that she was offended because Dear once called her a bean-counter.

During her testimony at the council meeting

Carson Mayor Albert Robles faces a recall effort.

File photo.

[Wages, from page 3]

Minimum Wage Increase

economy,” said Dan Flaming, one of the report’s co-authors. “Low-wage workers, because they spend money immediately… create much more stimulus than higher income families, who have pretty high savings rates.”

This creates a demand for workers to meet the demand of additional consumption, Flaming said. The mix is about 70 percent full-time and 30 percent part-time jobs. Some mom-and-pop business may close, but about the same amount of businesses may surge. While there will be some job losses, the employment growth will be positive, he said.

Still, the Long Beach business community is nervous about the process of the study. Many are advocating caution and scrutiny.

“As this process moves forward, we remain committed to protecting our members and businesses from any type of ordinance that puts them at a competitive disadvantage,” said Jeremy Harris, senior vice president of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce at a Sept. 29 Economic Development Commission meeting.

“We understand there is momentum for increasing the minimum wage around the region and parts of the country. However, momentum alone should not be the reason to enact an ordinance.”

Business leaders would like the study to reflect Long Beach, rather than other regions.

Other factors to consider include the impact of payroll tax and employer contribution increases to Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and disability insurance.

Dustan Batton, public policy manager at the Los Angeles County Business Federation, agrees.

“Copy and paste policy is not the way to go,” Batton said. “Both city and county adopted mirrored ordinances that were originally drafted for out of state cities…. Input from the business community is crucial when developing a minimum wage ordinance, as businesses are the ones that will live or die from the decisions made.”

Harris said that because Long Beach borders other cities, which may not increase their minimum wages, business may consider moving out or not expanding into Long Beach.

It is important to define a small business and employees must mirror Long Beach, he said.

Also, “How will a minimum wage ordinance impact nonprofit jobs?” he asked.

Matt Peterson, owner of Legends restaurant and a member of the Belmont Shore Business Association board, worries about the cost of enforcement.

“Doing that enforcement takes dozens, hundreds of additional staffers,” said Peterson at the Sept. 29 forum. “I don’t know where that money is going to come from.”

Concerned about the threat of increased costs and inflation, Peterson said he wants any movement to increase the minimum wage to proceed carefully.

“If people want to get paid more it’s going to cost more in goods and services,” he said.

Though Flaming acknowledges that restaurants will feel a minimum wage increase the most, he said the effect on most other industries will be 7 to 8 percent increases in operating costs, which could be passed on without much impact on consumers.

“Overall, the increase in operating costs is closer to 1 percent across the board for all industries. It will benefit workers a lot but it will not have a significant overall impact in what consumers pay” he said. ” He said the $15 in 2020 will be worth about $13.56 today. The level of pay for a living wage varies depending on family size and number of people working.

“Inflation will have taken a bite out of it but it will still be a lot more than a lot of workers are being paid,” Flaming said.

“This will be a living wage, or close to it, for many households but will fall short for some households.”

Francisco Abdul Estim also supports the minimum wage increase. The 52-yearold banquet waiter said that even his $13.80 wage, does not afford him enough money to spend time with his wife and two children, who still live at home, or to go on vacations.

“Vacations are very important for all families, no matter how poor they are,” he said. “The needs are great, because one has to [See Wages, page 19] 5

October 29 - November 11, 2015

Beach City Council approved on Sept. 15.

“Right now we aren’t really talking about it much,” said Lawren Markle, a spokesman of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.

“It’s best for now to wait for the economists to produce the study.”

The Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. has attended three of six public study forums thus far to observe and listen to public comments.

So far, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. has met with the Economic Development Commission at a Mayor’s Roundtable and at the Economic Development and Finance Committee meeting on Sept. 29, Oct. 5 and 29, respectively. The corporation will issue its report for public comment after the Oct. 29 forum. The report will include a section that captures feedback provided at each public meeting.

“The scope of the study includes a review of prior nearby and relevant studies and other literature regarding minimum wage policy, a review of best practices of other municipalities,” said Juan Lopez-Rios, the manager at Long Beach’s Economic and Property Development Department.

A similar report is Long Beach Rising: A City that Works for Everyone, which was commissioned by The Campaign to Raise the Wage. Rusty Hicks, the executive secretarytreasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, is a co-convener of the Campaign to Raise the Wage.

The report maintains that the gradual increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Long Beach would have stimulus impacts for the region. It states that Long Beach has 81,300 residents working in Long Beach and other cities, including 22,300 residents who are working and have family incomes below the poverty levels. More than 54,000 workers employed in Long Beach will be affected by increases in the minimum wage.

“The essential thing the minimum wage is doing is keeping more dollars in the local

Chavez was still crying as she insisted that she never told Robles what Dear had said about him—that she had shared it only with colleagues —but that Dear “forced” her into his office “and he yelled at me.” Additionally, Chavez charged that Dear “made” city staffer Joy Simarago cry and “forced” her to leave a council meeting.

Chavez also rather bizarrely alleged that Dear somehow “threatened” the local sheriff’s captain, Chris Marks. Then Chavez went on to accuse Dear of having “different personalities” because sometimes he was angry and sometimes he smiled.

Hertz said Dear “categorically denies all charges,” expressing doubt about the dependability of the testimony gathered by Aarvig and the value of her presentation at the council .

“He (Dear) cannot control another person’s interpretation,” Hertz said. “He cannot control other people misinterpreting things that were not his intent.”

Hertz charged the outcome of the hearing was pre-determined,º a “kangaroo court.”

The meeting also featured a lengthy debate among Hertz, Soltani and council members about whether or not Dear’s constitutional rights were being violated.

Eventually, after voting unanimously to censure Dear, the council made five recommendations to staff. Those recommendations will be considered at another council meeting.

The Local Publication You Actually Read

Following what Carson City Clerk Jim Dear’s lawyer, Bradley Hertz, called a “kangaroo court,” the Carson City Council censured the controversial former mayor at its Oct. 20 meeting by a unanimous vote.

At the same meeting, Raul Murga, the president of a group of Dear’s supporters, notified Mayor Albert Robles that proceedings to recall him had officially begun.

Dear did not attend the council meeting where he was censured. He also refused to be interviewed by the private law firm that the city retained to investigate city employee complaints against Dear.

Hertz pointed out that the investigation authorized by the council did not derive from any criminal or civil proceeding. He alleged that most of the case against Dear was hearsay from witnesses who did not testify under oath.

City Manager Ken Farfsing insisted the city council was obliged to take “reasonable” measures “to protect city employees” from Dear after several of them accused him of “harassment’ and “racial animus.”

Hertz dismissed the complaints as “grudges.”

The case against Dear was laid out during a regular meeting of the Carson City Council

by Maria Aarvig, a private lawyer hired by the city—authorized by the council—to conduct the investigation and present its findings.

Aarvig quoted 16 accusations from her interviews with city employees. Those statements convinced Aarvig that Dear had violated the city code of ethics through his “attitude of racial disparagement” and “undeserved criticism of black employees.” Aarvig determined that Dear had allegedly further violated city procedures because he contacted staff members personally rather than through department heads and because he “engaged in personal attacks…on a personal level.”

Six witnesses, some who are current city employees and others who are former employees, testified against Dear at the council meeting, including former Treasurer Karen Avilla, Sheri Repp-Loadsman, Debbie Green, Regina Ramirez, Yolanda Chavez, Sylvia Rubio and Assistant City Manager Cecil Rhambo. As the specifics of their complaints were explored, the ambiance inside council chambers got emotional.

“I found his demands unethical and illegal,” said Rhambo, who recounted several incidents he said he had witnessed—among them Dear’s requests that staff’s confidential medical records be sent to him, that he wanted to sit on the city council dais even after being elected city clerk and that a patio be added to the clerk’s office.

Rhambo, who is African-American, also accused Dear of addressing him as “young man” or “young boy” during an argument at City Hall.

Rhambo said that on one occasion Dear refused to travel to Orange County for a meeting about plans for a stadium unless he was driven

by Monette Gavino, a city employee at the time.

Rhambo alleged that Dear’s behavior created “danger of sabotaging” the city’s plan for an NFL stadium.

Avilla said Dear yelled at her while she served as city treasurer, then “retaliated” against her by cutting her department budget and attempting to reduce her position to part-time. She further claimed Dear “allowed the city treasury to be

Chavez wept as she recalled the time Dear asked her if the office of the former City Clerk Donesia Gause, had been fumigated. Gause is AfricanAmerican. Chavez added that she lives in fear of harassment or intimidation from Dear.

Rubio, also weeping, said she feared Dear would run for mayor again. She complained that Dear was “constantly bad-mouthing” Robles. “I don’t know why Dear singled me out to yell at me about Robles’ incompetence,” she sobbed.

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Truckers Strike At the press conference Potter cited the historic nature of the port truckers’ twopronged objectives—securing their rights as employees and the right to join a union—and asserted that they represent growing labor activism.

“They join drivers from XPO Logistics, who went on strike this week, and drivers from Pacific 9 Transport, who’ve been on strike eight times now and who have been on strike for the past 14 days,” said Potter.

“These drivers are on the front lines of the fight in America to end wage theft. They are leading the way for Americans, including janitors, ex-con workers, entertainment workers, homecare workers, construction workers, and many many more. It’s an embarrassment in this country that companies will put the whole burden of their company on the backs of workers who have no say in what they’re paid and what their working conditions are. So we have to change that.”

As for warehouse workers, Potter connected their struggles in a press statement.

“Wage theft isn’t just about misclassification,” he said. “It’s about workers who are supposed be paid a living wage—and they’re not.

“And that is happening right here on port property, at the Cal Cartage warehouse, where the company is violating the city’s living wage ordinance. We support these workers and pledge to stand with them throughout their fight to help them secure dignity, respect and fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.”

Anthony Vallecillo, a Cal Cartage warehouse worker, gave an inside view of what’s going on.

“We came together about a year ago to improve our conditions at the warehouse,” Vallecillo said. “I got involved because I was tired of struggling to provide for my son, my family, and my wife.

“Most of us are working through a staffing agency, and I have been there for about three years, and I’m still a temp. Last December we filed a lawsuit. We believe that we should be paid living the city living wage, because the warehouse sits on city property.”

No one’s been fighting longer than the Pac-9 truckers—two-and-a-half years now.

“But before I could only dream that one [See Truckers, page 19]

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[Truckers, from page 1]

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[Mitigation, from page 1]

Mitigation Fail

Community Advisory Committee.

While the broader environmental and public health community was shocked by the news—and responded by calling for strong remedial actions in their public comments— local community activists viewed it as virtually inevitable.

The Source of the Compliance Failure

Random Lengths News Publisher James Allen sought more information on the unfinished mitigations through a Public Records Act request on Aug. 5. The port did not reply to the request until Sept. 22, more than a month later than the law allows.

Port spokesman Phillip Sanfield told the Los Angeles Times, however that, “there is absolutely no relationship” between Allen’s request and the release of the notice of preparation.

POLA Executive Director Gene Seroka told Random Lengths that he discovered the problem with the China Shipping EIR as early as this past April. Seroka said he informed Mayor Eric Garcetti in June and notified the Natural Resource District Council and the South District Air Quality Management District in the following months.

However, the port did not inform neighborhood councils or community litigants until the Notice of Preparation for the Supplemental EIR was released in September.

The port claims its monitoring either meets or exceeds the air quality mitigations outlined in the Amended Stipulated Judgement stemming from the China shipping lawsuit. It says that without Mitigation Monitoring Reports since 2011 it is impossible to prove what levels might have been attained had the port met all 52 of the mitigations measures—not just 41 of them. However, critics charged that the port’s assertions are questionable, that there is no safe minimum pollution level other than zero.

“It is more than clear that this policy of ‘ignoring the law’ in conducting port business is a longstanding and ingrained pattern of behavior,” Chuck Hart wrote in a notice of preparation comment letter on behalf of San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners United—one of two homeowner coalitions represented by the NRDC in the original lawsuit. Hart is the coalition’s president.

“It now appears we are again in a time when the only way the public can communicate with the Port is via the courts,” wrote Dr. John Miller, president of the other coalition (San Pedro and Peninsula Homeowners Coalition) in supplementary comments responding to the notice of preparation.

“This is a direct result of the dissolution of the PCAC. If that group were still in existence we would have been discussing the present problem collaboratively years ago and working collaboratively to resolve it.”

Miller served in several key posts in the Port Community Advisory Committee.

Gunter recalled the reaction of the NRDC lawyers on the original China Shipping lawsuit when she asked how the judgement was going to be enforced.

“I asked [NRDC lawyers] Gail [Ruderman] Feuer and Julie Masters at the time. I said, ‘Who’s going to be following up on these guys?’” Gunter recalled. “‘They’re saying that they’re going to be doing all this stuff, but how do we know that they’re going to comply?’ And, of course, they were shocked, because it’s legal duty under the law. But we already had a huge problem with trust, as far as the port goes, and of course, they never had that experience. I think they were kind of surprised that we would even have any concern about that follow-through. And, I remember them very clearly saying at the time, ‘No, the NRDC is engaged in this and don’t worry, we’re going to be keeping an eye on all of this.’”

But not close enough, obviously, particularly because of what happened several years later to make compliancechecking virtually impossible.

PCAC: The Missing Factor

A key result of the China Shipping settlement was the [See Mitigation, page 7]

between the adjacent community and port activities. It’s literally criminal that the only future successful communication to address mitigation from the port’s studied indifference to the community will be in the courts of law.

“It’s extremely disappointing to those of us to work hard and long conscientiously believing the cooperative model was working and could continue to work, and then to have politics come in, for whatever reason, and derail something that could have been and was a model for the rest of the nation. It’s extremely disheartening that people can’t see how they could really be a leader not just communally here, but

[Mitigation, from page 6]

Comment Letter Seeks Solutions

The NRDC comment letter addresses these concerns, along with much else.

“We strongly urge the port to work with the community to create a permanent and independent oversight committee, funded to conduct audits of the implementation of all committed mitigation measures, portwide,” [See Mitigations, page 10]

Community activists expressed little surprise at reports that the Port of Los Angeles has done little of the mitigations required under the China Shipping settlement, the shipping terminal pictured above. Photo by Phillip Cooke

There were also calls for the notice of preparation comment period to be extended to 90 days, as the port has commonly done in the past.

The Failures

Their work cost them their lives In the 1940s and ‘50s, workers came from all over the world to snatch up the good-paying jobs at the Harbor Area’s shipyards, factories and refineries. For many, the jobs afforded a way of life not previously experienced, allowing them to provide homes for their families and education and opportunities for their children.

Unfortunately, the cost for too many workers has been a diagnosis with asbestos cancer or mesothelioma from asbestos inhaled on the job decades earlier. Even more unfortunate is the number of family members who develop the illness from contact with asbestos brought home on the worker’s clothes, boots and skin.

The Law Office of Worthington & Caron, PC is standing by to help persons diagnosed with asbestos cancer. We can help you get quick access to the most effective medical treatments from the world’s top mesothelioma specialists. We can also help identify the companies responsible for your asbestos exposure and get you the compensation you deserve.

Call us toll free at 800-831-9399 or visit our website at www.mesothel.com for a free consultation and evaluation of your claim.

Attorneys John Caron & Roger Worthington

Since 1991 we have helped recover over $2.5 billion for our clients

800-831-9399 • www.mesothel.com The Law Offices of Worthington & Caron, P.C. 273 W. 7th St., San Pedro, CA 90731

October 29 - November 11, 2015

Two of the unimplemented measures dealt with ships, including: Electrical power for 100 percent of docked ships and 100 percent compliance with the 40-nautical mile Vessel Speed Reduction Program.

Three measures dealt with yard equipment, including one that aims to ensure that 70 percent of port trucks are running on liquefied natural gas through 2017 and 100 percent of port trucks starting in 2018.

There was also a measure addressing noise mitigation along with four traffic intersection improvement projects.

Comment letters, however, also called attention to another apparently unmet mitigation measure, AQ-22, “Periodic Review of New Technology and Regulations,” which calls for new technology reviews whenever there’s a lease amendment or facility modification, and additionally, “not less frequently than once every 7 years following the effective date of the permit.”

Because of AQ-22, the port is required to pursue the comment letters’ calls for consideration of new mitigation measures involving new technology.

In prepared remarks for the Oct. 7 scoping meeting, Executive Director Gene Seroka appeared willing to acknowledge past mistakes and assumed responsibility for fixing them.

“This is a situation that was inherited by this current port management team,” Seroka said.

“We are taking ownership. It must be addressed. The Board of Harbor Commissioners, along with the mayor and I are committed to fixing the issue. We are solution driven. And we are committed to ensuring that something like this never happens again.”

But it’s not clear that he

understands the depth of the problems or how profound the breach of trust is between the port and the community.

“At the time the Board of Harbor Commissioners decided to do away with PCAC, they claimed all of the mitigation, EIR stuff, had been done, and that PCAC’s job was finished,” Smith said. “But when James Hahn set it up [in 2001], it wasn’t for the China Shipping thing. That came afterwards.”

As she went on to explain, Hahn set out his vision in a letter stating three main points.

First, PCAC “was to assess the impacts of port developments on the Harbor Area communities, and to work closely with the soonto-be-formed local neighborhood councils,” meaning that he clearly envisioned a distinct role for PCAC as an umbrella organization.

The second point was “to review all past and present and future environmental documents, in an open public process,” June explained, adding, “Well, the port just wiped out the future. They said, well we completed all the past things, so we don’t need you anymore. Which was totally wrong.”

The PCAC’s third role was to “take a leadership role in creating communities...to make sure business concerns as well as community concerns were met.”

Hence, it was very clear that the PCAC was not supposed to be a temporary, narrowly-focused entity. It was supposed to facilitate a permanent transformation in how the port conducted its business, moving it away from its old, opaque, corporate, command-andcontrol way of doing things into a more transparent, democratic, collaborative style of governance.

At the time the PCAC was shut down, Smith presciently warned the Harbor Commissioners.

“The ghost of PCAC will linger on,” Smith warned. “It will be invoked with every future lawsuit from continued flawed EIRs and continuing neglect of the nexus

The Local Publication You Actually Read

assignment of additional oversight responsibilities to the Port Community Advisory Committee, which the port first dismantled, then completely dissolved, starting around the time it would have brought the failed implementation measures to light, had it been allowed to continue. “[Former POLA Executive Director] Geraldine Knatz started really doing everything she could to get rid of the Port Community Advisory Committee about the time we started looking very carefully at the mitigation monitoring,” Miller told Random Lengths. “When the PCAC EIR people started asking pointed questions about the mitigations, Geraldine Knatz moved to withdraw any support from the air quality committee,” former PCAC co-Chairwoman June Smith added.

Reconstituting the Port Community Advisory Committee— or creating some functional equivalent—is a recurring theme in many environmental and public health community forums, including the NRDC, which drafted a letter for a coalition of groups and individuals (including Smith). Similar letters also came from the Committee for a Safe Environment, as well as both homeowner coalitions involved in the China Shipping lawsuit.

Individual letters were submitted as well. More narrowly, a comment letter from public health and preventative medicine professors at USC and UCLA, drafted by USC’s Andrea Hricko called for “an independent third-party oversight committee to monitor the China Shipping agreements and compliance dates.”

While POLA appears to see this as fixing a glitch, Smith summarized the much broader understanding shared by many critics.

“We’re back to the whole question as to whether they’re going to continue to have a port that is run on the boss model, or whether we are going to move into the 21st century and take the bold step that we have begun to take with a more cooperative form of government and management,” Smith said.

Overall, the letters call for a much broader and deeper reconsideration than the port has envisioned. This includes consideration of new mitigation measures involving new technologies not available in 2008, changes in monitoring as well as governance to ensure that the problem never recurs again, and a more robust environmental review process. The federal government, was involved with the original review.

Impliedassertionsof“infeasibility” were widely questioned, along the with overall vagueness of the “project,” resulting from the fudge-factor term “other factors.”

for the whole nation and the world. I would hope that perhaps that idea, that they really could be this kind of leader in the world, in governance would drive them to do something productive here.”

7

Do Not Feed the Pigeons (the Homeless) It’s time to consider the consequences of criminalizing the homeless

By James Preston Allen, Publisher

W

hile the great homeless debate continues to inspire both citizen vigilantes and Councilman Joe Buscaino’s office to enforce the more than 24 Los Angeles ordinances against homeless people, the city agreed on Aug. 12 to pay $1.1 million to settle a suit with lawyers who successfully challenged a municipal ordinance prohibiting people without shelter from sleeping in their vehicles.

Then, just this past week, the Los Angeles City Council passed two more narrowly tailored ordinances outlawing people from sleeping in campers on public streets, including this statute for San Pedro: RESOLVE, pursuant to Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) Section 80.69.4 and California Vehicle Code Section 22507, to hereby prohibit the parking of vehicles that are in excess of 22 feet in length or over seven feet in height, during the hours of 2:00 AM and 6:00 AM, along West 25th Street between the City boundary on the west and South Patton Avenue to the east.

October 29 - November 11, 2015

Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area

The city’s $1.1 million payout comes as it enforces an ever-growing list of new laws against homelessness and homeless encampments as they’ve began to creep into residential neighborhoods over the past several years—a consequence of the lack of planning foresight when the encampments at more secluded areas like Harbor Regional Park or the railroad underpass near Lomita Boulevard and the 110 Freeway were cleared out. These and many other actions in Council District 15 appear to have been ordered by Joe Buscaino via the Los Angeles Sanitation Department with the help of Los Angeles Police Department, without any regard to where these homeless people would then move. And move they did, right down the street to residential areas of Harbor City, San Pedro and Wilmington.

Lawyers like Carol Sobel have warned that the new laws, which make it easier to dismantle camps and dispose of homeless people’s property, are unconstitutional. This seems to be the opinion of the Department of Justice, which recently won a case against

8

the City of Boise, Idaho.

Sobel says the settlement is one of a halfdozen agreements the city has reached with lawyers who brought civil rights challenges to recent police crackdowns on homeless people. In other words, Los Angeles is willing to pay millions in legal fees while still trying to criminalize poverty and then admitting, “being homeless is not a crime.” It just appears that everything a poor person does in public has become a crime.

Researchers at the UC Berkeley School of Law gathered information from 58 California cities and found there are more than 500 anti-homeless laws among them.

According to the study, all 58 cities have daytime laws that criminalize four kinds of basic activities that can be applied to the homeless: • Standing, sitting, and resting in public places; • Sleeping, camping, and lodging in public places, including in vehicles; • Begging and panhandling; • Food sharing.

Locally, the vigilante group operating under the Saving San Pedro hashtag on Facebook, led by none other than George Palazioli—one of the newly appointed “stakeholders” in Buscaino’s Homeless Taskforce—has mounted his own campaign to enforce panhandling laws. He has enraged anti-homeless sentiments as he attacks the food sharing programs of religious and nonprofit organizations that don’t provide other services.

His companion, Joanne Rallo, the newly minted columnist for the nativist San Pedro Today, has gone on her own mission—confiscating homeless shopping carts and dumping the contents in trash containers. These actions and more, well-documented in their copious Facebook postings, are on the edge of legality.

The tactics are confrontational, but without real solutions.

They resemble our own city councilman, who is still trying to be a “good cop” while not realizing that these actions jeopardize Los Angeles’ U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department funding for building supportive Publisher/Executive Editor James Preston Allen james@randomlengthsnews.com Assoc. Publisher/Production Coordinator Suzanne Matsumiya Managing Editor Terelle Jerricks editor@randomlengthsnews.com

“A newspaper is not just for reporting the news as it is, but to make people mad enough to do something about it.”

—Mark Twain Senior Editor Paul Rosenberg Vol. XXXVI : No. 22 Published every two weeks for the Harbor Area communities of San Pedro, RPV, Lomita, Harbor City, Wilmington, Carson and Long Beach. Distributed at over 350 locations throughout the Harbor Area.

Assistant Editor Zamná Ávila zamna@randomlengthsnews.com

• 70 percent of the homeless in the Harbor Area either lived or worked here prior to becoming homeless.

• In the Los Angeles Unified School District, Subdistrict 8, there are 2,886 students who are homeless.

• Los Angeles spends $87 million a year on arrests, skid row patrols and mental health interventions. housing.

If the Justice Department were to enforce sanctions against the city, as it did with civil rights abuse cases against the Los Angeles Police Department, the city could lose hundreds of millions in federal subsidies, plus millions more in legal fees. And, there would still be no timely means of clearing the homeless out of parks or business districts. In short, we are wasting precious tax dollars on policing and enforcement while jeopardizing millions in federal grants by continuing to do what historically doesn’t work.

From those who have studied this problem the most and from those who service the homeless community daily, the only solution to the current crisis is “shelter.” The housing-first model is the only one that has been proven to work, yet the city and our home-grown vigilantes want to pretend that we can clean up this mess by chasing homeless people out of the visible public domain.

Clearly, these people have lost their minds.

The evidence of the past two years proves that this approach is wrong and that the immediate solutions need to be explored to locate vacant public properties and to use these throughout the city as temporary transition centers.

To spread the responsibility more equitably, there should be at least one temporary transition

Columnists/Reporters Lyn Jensen Carson Reporter B. Noel Barr Music Dude Lori Lynn Hirsch-Stokoe Food Writer Gina Ruccione Restaurant

Reviewer Andrea Serna Arts Writer Melina Paris Culture Writer Calendar 14days@randomlengthsnews.com Photographers Terelle Jerricks, Phillip Cooke, Tommy Kishimoto, Slobodan Dimitrov Contributors Peter Mathews, Greggory Moore

Cartoonists Ann Cleaves, Andy Singer, Matt Wuerker Design/ Production Suzanne Matsumiya Advertising Representatives David Johnson, Jim Rocknowski rlnsales@randomlengthsnews.com Editorial Intern Arlo Tinsman-Kongshaug Display advertising (310) 519-1442 Classifieds (310) 519-1016 www.randomlengthsnews.com

center in every one of the 15 council districts.

They should be placed outside of residential and business areas while still located close enough to public transportation. If managed by reputable service organizations, these centers will give safe and sanitary shelter while providing the social services necessary to sort out the variety of causes and issues afflicting these people. It is both humane and cost effective.

Temporary transitional centers provide an active solution for what can be done now, rather than later, and could be executed as part of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s “state of emergency” for far less money than it would cost to build one 79-unit transitional apartment complex.

Continued reliance on enforcement only kicks the can down the pathway of failed past policies and solves nothing. It’s time for some different solutions and less cyber vigilantism.

Disclaimer—­Nothing in this editorial or the pages of this newspaper should be taken as the official position of the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council, of which I was elected president in 2014. Nor does it reflect the opinions of any of its board members. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Random Lengths News editorial office is located at 1300 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro, CA 90731, (310) 519-1016. Address correspondence regarding news items and news tips only to Random Lengths News, P.O. Box 731, San Pedro, CA 90733-0731, or email to editor @randomlengthsnews.com.

Send Letters to the Editor or requests for subscription information to james @ randomlengthsnews.com. To be considered for publication, all Letters to the Editor should be typewritten, must be signed, with address and phone number included (these will not be published, but for verification only) and be kept to about 250 words. To submit advertising copy email adv@randomelengthsnews.com or reads@ randomlengthsnews.com.

Extra copies and back issues are available by mail for $3 per copy while supplies last. Subscriptions are available for $36 per year for 27 issues.

Random Lengths News presents issues from an alternative perspective. We welcome articles and opinions from all people in the Harbor Area. While we may not agree with the opinions of contributing writers, we respect and support their 1st Amendment right to express those opinions. Random Lengths News is a member of Standard Rates and Data Reporting Services and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. (ISN #0891-6627). All contents Copyright 2015 Random Lengths News. All rights reserved.

RANDOMLetters

Volunteering for Our Town

I’ve been observing how things work in San Pedro for just over one year now, since moving here from an Orange County senior living community. It has taken me almost as long to learn of the wonderful services that Harbor Interfaith Services (HIS) provides, and I’m happy to have recently joined their army of volunteers on a very small basis. I did so after reading a lot about “our neighbors without shelter” in Random Lengths and other publications, not to mention seeing how much has been written, argued and despaired over. And, while it is apparently much too prevalent at this time to be solved completely, I feel this very well organized agency is making great strides in making a difference in people’s lives, not only the homeless, but working poor families.

Anyone looking for a very rewarding place to volunteer may find the same rewards I have. After all, it really does “take a village.” San Pedro is a wonderful town, in my humble opinion, one that has guts, character and personality.

Sheila Raymond San Pedro

Cigar Lounge: NUISANCE RULE 402

By Peter Mathews

On Oct. 5, in Atlanta, negotiators from the United States, Japan, and 10 Pacific Rim countries reached agreement on the largest free trade agreement in history, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, encompassing 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.

Previous Free Trade Agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, have worked very well for the top 1 percent, mostly super rich corporate owners.

For the bottom 99 percent of Americans, mostly workers, Free Trade and NAFTA have been a disaster, producing a net loss of 700,000 wellpaying American jobs. And yet, American corporate elites and their sponsored politicians are not content with the enormous riches they have gained from free trade and globalization.

They are pushing hard and fast to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership led

by President Barack Obama, almost all Republicans in Congress and a large number of Democrats in Congress. The bulk of their campaign contributions have come from corporate and big business interests such as the U.S. Business Coalition for TPP (see www. theguardian.com/us). They’ve also been heavily influenced by lobbying from big business and multi-national corporations.

Congress recently passed Trade Promotion Authority (“Fast Track”), which the president signed into law,

allowing him to negotiate TPP, TTIP, and other “free trade” agreements mostly in secret with the member countries. Three months after the president announces that he is going to sign it, the TPP will be submitted to Congress for a straight up or down vote, with no chance to amend it.

Although negotiated secretly, WikiLeaks has made some of TPP’s and TTIP’s proposals public. The TPP will “allow foreign corporations to sue the United States Government for actions that undermine their ‘expectations’ and hurt their business…” (Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen a Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S.,” by Jonathan Weisman, New York Times, March 25, 2015).

Corporations and private investors

would be allowed to challenge local, state, or federal government rules, regulations, actions, and court rulings before tribunals, made up of unelected judges, many of whom are corporate lawyers who are not American citizens.

Now multinational corporations, not government, will rule the people.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is just as nefarious as the TPP, only larger. The 29 TTIP nations compose 45 percent of global GDP. The TTIP consists of the United States and the 28 European Union countries. So, in 40 out of 195 nations in the world that make up over half of global GDP, multinational corporations will be able to block the democratic decisions of the American people and the people of these countries.

Peters Mathews is an author and professor of political science.

The Local Publication You Actually Read

A person shall not discharge from any source whatsoever such quantities of air contaminants or other material which cause injury, detriment, nuisance, or annoyance to any considerable number of persons or to the public, or which endanger the comfort, repose, health or safety of any such persons or the public, or which cause, or have a natural tendency to cause, injury or damage to business or property.

The provisions of this rule shall not apply to odors emanating from agricultural operations necessary for the growing of crops or the raising of fowl or animals. (Adopted May 7, 1976) What part of this does not apply to the City?

J. Olsen San Pedro Send Letters to the Editor to: letters @ randomlengthsnews.com. To be considered for publication, all Letters to the Editor must include your name with address and phone number included (these will not be published, but are for verification only) and be kept to about 250 words.

Multinational Corporations on Fast Track to Rule America and the World

Correction

October 29 - November 11, 2015

In the Oct. 15 edition of Random Lengths News “At Length” column, Publisher James Preston Allen indicated that there was a very narrow window of public comment with regard to the failed mitigations at the China Shipping Terminal. The statement was not entirely correct, as a spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles pointed out.

There are three opportunities for public comment during the environmental impact report process.

The first is at the beginning, with the notice of preparation. Some argue that this is the most important time for public comment because the agency has to then respond to its comments to draft the EIR. Then there is a public comment on the draft EIR. Finally, when the completed EIR is presented, there also is a public comment.

A recently leaked chapter from the secretive TTIP agreement shows that the “Free Trade deal is even a greater threat to environmental, labor, health, and human rights protections—including democracy—than we previously knew.” (“Newly Leaked TTIP Draft Reveals Far-Reaching Assault on US/ EU Democracy,” by Common Dreams, April 20, 2015). Just as the TPP does, the TTIP also establishes international tribunals composed of unelected “judges,” many of them corporate lawyers and pro-corporate bureaucrats.

These tribunals can rule against national or state governments (representing the people) when multinational corporations sue them for making and implementing safety regulations regarding food, labor rights, industrial chemicals, pesticides and other environmental regulations that may interfere with maximizing corporate profits.

The TTIP has been criticized by its opponents in the United States and the European Union, who claim that “TTIP may give too much power to corporations, especially foreign investors, and that it could undermine food safety and environmental standards, lowering U.S. chemical regulations and forcing Europeans to consume genetically-modified American foods and chlorinated chickens.” (“Is Europe on board for a new trade deal with the U.S. ?” by Bruce Stokes, Pew Research Center ). The EU admits that TTIP will cause European job loss to the U.S. since American wages and union rights are less.

It is time that working Americans, the 99 percent, stop Congress from approving the TPP (and eventually the TTIP) and destroying the American Dream.

PAID POLITICAL ADVERTISING

9

[Mitigations, from page 7]

Mitigations

October 29 - November 11, 2015

Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area

the letter reads. The closing paragraph adds: “Finally, this letter is not to be construed as a waiver of rights under the Amended Stipulated Judgment or under state or federal law, including the rights to arbitrate and/or litigate compliance

10

with existing China Shipping mitigation measures, all of which rights are expressly reserved.”

“There are a number of legal remedies available, but the big question is which is best to attain the desired goal” said NRDC senior attorney David Pettit, who drafted the letter, to Random Lengths News.

This ties into another key point of the letter,

that an EIR must analyze compliance “with relevant local, state and federal laws, which in this case includes the final China Shipping decision (“Court approval will be necessary,” if terms are changed), the ports’ Clean Air Action Plan, CAAP and the federal and state Clean Air Acts, and more than half a dozen other state and regional policies, regulations or laws.

“The CAAP has been based in part on using lease renewals to effectuate environmental improvements,” the NRDC warns. “If China Shipping is allowed to defeat this process by refusing to sign a new lease, then all port tenants will adopt China Shipping’s tactic and the CAAP itself will be in danger. Simply put, this new EIR must be considered in light of a complex web of legal requirements, and goals, not in sheltered isolation.

Several other crucial broad contextual points were made in the letter.

First, “With respect to the mitigation measures not included in the notice of preparation, measure AQ-22 has been triggered and should be complied with,” meaning that the list of mitigation measures must be expanded, or the failure to implement AQ-22 will only be made more severe.

In line with what’s required by AQ-22, the letter said: In the supplemental EIR process, the port needs to look at what mitigation measures are feasible now, not what may have been feasible in 2008....Given the advances in zero and low-emission technology since 2008, there is absolutely no excuse for the port to go backwards in its mitigation measures by, for example, allowing diesel drayage trucks at China Shipping in place of liquefied natural gas or better.

The letter also warned against unfounded claims of infeasibility: The port cannot hide behind conclusory claims of infeasibility; infeasibility determinations must be supported by evidence.

For example, the notice of preparation lists among the mitigation measures that were not implemented both Alternative Maritime Power and compliance with the 40-nuatical mile Vessel Speed Reduction Program. Yet, Seroka stated publicly that the port complied with these two measures at a rate of 98 percent and 96 percent, respectively. It is hard to imagine that these measures can be deemed “infeasible” if the port has admitted to have already substantially complied with them.

Other unimplemented measures “are identical to or very similar to mitigation measures committed to in the TraPac EIR,” meaning they “are clearly feasible for China Shipping, and if TraPac is not in compliance, then the port needs to publicly disclose that failure and fix that problem immediately as well.” The uncertainty pointed to here is yet another reminder of why restoring transparency, accountability and trust is so crucial.

The NRDC’s letter also proposed a list of additional mitigation measures to consider. These include:

• Phasing out diesel trucks in favor of trucks meeting or exceeding the emission levels of the Cummins Westport LNG engine recently certified by the California Air Resources Board.

• Consideration of zero-emission cargo movement solutions, particularly from the China Shipping terminal to the near-dock rail yards.

• Consideration of deployment of “sock on a stack” ship emissions capture technology.

• Maximization of the on-dock rail potential at China Shipping in view of the current arrangements among shippers.

• Use of all-electric yard tractors as used in the

Long Beach Middle Harbor project.

• Terminating the China Shipping lease if China Shipping does not promptly agree to whatever mitigation measures are certified in the current supplemental EIR process.

Other comment letters provide an even broader range of criticisms and proposed mitigation measures.

“Typically, a company that fails to meet its environmental health obligations will be faced with sanctions, penalties or fines,” Hricko wrote, for example. “Please include information in the [draft] EIR about what these will entail.”

Similarly, the Committee for a Safe Environment asked for the draft EIR to include “a matrix of Penalties and Sanctions” for “failing to comply with legal requirements,” and also called for “disciplinary action against the City Attorney,” as well as suspension of two port staffers for their “failure to timely disclose to the public” the port’s failure to comply with the China Shipping EIR and related legal documents: Christopher Cannon, the port’s director of Environmental Management and Janna Sidley, the port’s general counsel.

As profound as the port’s historical pattern of failure regarding China Shipping may be, it cannot be understood in isolation.

Similar Concerns

In recent years, Gunter has been deeply involved on another front, trying to shut down or relocate the Rancho LPG facility, which similarly implicates the port’s lack of community concern.

“Rancho was introduced by POLA. It was totally facilitated through them, and the EIR that was conducted, everything was through the port,” Gunter said.

The recent explosion in Tanjin China highlights the local danger and policy failure, she said. Rancho’s tanks hold “a TNT equivalent that is over 1000 times greater than” the explosion in Tanjin, while Chinese law requires a 0.6 mile buffer zone, roughly 3,000 feet, while the Rancho facility was built within 1,000 feet of the nearest residents.

But Rancho was not an isolated problem, Gunter stressed, just as China Shipping’s multifaceted community impacts—and the port’s repeated failures to cope with them—don’t exist in isolation. Gunter drew attention the port’s 1981 master plan, which called for relocating hazardous terminals, but has never been followed in that regard, and is now being altered to remove that responsibility.

“In 1981, when they installed that, it was at the insistence of the LA Planning Department,” Gunter said. “They didn’t want to do it.”

An inter-departmental memo Gunter supplied makes it clear that the California Coastal Commission was a the driving force behind the relocation requirement.

“So for 35, whatever years it’s been since they instituted that document, they’ve effectively ignored it,” Gunter said. “There’s no responsibility to the public.”

In fact, Pier 400 was originally conceived to relocate such facilities away from the public.

“Not far enough now in retrospect, we realized that it’s not even close to far enough away,” Gunter said, “But they took that money, they took those efforts and dedicated them to not a relocation site, but a new container terminal. Once again superseding any consideration for the local public, and to the responsibility to protect them.”

This brings us back to choice described

by June Smith above, between the old boss model or moving into the 21st century “with a more cooperative form of government and management.”

By Greggory Moore, Contributing Reporter

J

ACE : Arts • Cuisine • Entertainment

Longshoreman John Cox in The Money Fi$h, which debutes at the Hudson Theatre in Hollywood. Photos by Michael Lamont.

ohn Cox navigated choppy seas from childhood to the premiere of his oneman show, The Money Fi$h, in Hollywood. But without the difficulties of the long voyage he never would have gotten at all.

At 13, Cox was already sure he was heading for nowhere. Struggles with an abusive stepfather and a mother unable to provide a solid foundation left him disaffected enough for the latter to bring him to a psychologist. But as Cox tells it, after she rattled off a litany of things wrong with Cox, the psychologist asked her to step outside so he could talk with Cox alone. “’Your mom will probably never bring you back here,’” Cox recalls him saying. “’So I’m going to tell the truth, son. You seem like a really tough kid, but there’s no easy way out of this situation you’re in. But one day it will end. So for the next five years, you’re going to have to be strong. Then one day you’re going to turn 18, and you can go do whatever the hell you want and make a better life for yourself.’

“When you’re a kid, you think that shit’s forever. But after he told me that I went home and look[ed] around my room and thought, ‘Five years? I can do five years.’”

There weren’t many bright spots in those five years, although during his senior year his English teacher proclaimed that Cox had a gift for writing, a gift he shouldn’t ignore. But Cox wasn’t ready to hear it.

“I was a punk kid,” he says. “I was like, ‘What am I going to do with that?’ […]

All I knew was working with my body, working with my hands.”

The quickest way out of his former life was the military. So after graduating from Torrance’s South High School, Cox covered up a childhood foot injury in order to enlist in the army. He made it through basic training without serious difficulty. But the injury began to catch up with him during the intensive training he underwent as an airborne ranger. After two years he received a medical discharge, not that he minded by then.

“I was stationed in Seattle with a group of good ol’ racist boys from the South,” he says. “They hated me because I was Hispanic. And after a year of being with them, I hated them, too.”

[See Fi$h, page 16]

October 29 - November 11, 2015

11

Beach City Grill Re-Opens:

The Culinary Journey Continues

By Gina Ruccione, Cuisine & Restaurant Writer Beach City Grill, the iconic restaurant in San Pedro, will finally re-open its doors at the end of October.

The grand re-opening will be a two-day event from 4 to 11 p.m. Oct. 31 and will continue on from 4 to 9 p.m. Nov. 1.

Originally opened in the 1980s by a well-loved member of the community, Larry Hodgson, Beach City Grill has been a staple in the San Pedro restaurant scene for decades. After Hodgson experienced some health issues several months ago, Beach City Grill closed its doors. Out of respect for his privacy, hardly any information was shared with the press or the rest of the community. Many wondered if the doors would ever open again.

Enter Stewart Smith, a school teacher with Los Angeles Unified School District for the past 12 years.

His lifelong dream has been to open a restaurant connected with the Hodgson. He purchased the restaurant at the beginning of October. Smith, eager to keep the integrity of the eatery, has opted to keep the same menu and same friendly faces we all know and love. Expect much of the same fare and international comfort food that has made Beach City Grill so unique.

Hodgson, who spent time in South America in the Peace Corps, fell in love with tropical atmosphere and the robust, full flavored cuisine of the area. Many of his signature dishes were unlike anything we had experienced in San Pedro. Hodgson will still be

Stewart Smith, the new proprietor of Beach City Grill. Photo by Terelle Jerricks

October 29 - November 11, 2015

INDEPENDENT AND FREE

around. He is currently training the new chef, Charles Romo, and he will still be making all of his signature desserts.

And who can forget those famous Cajun sweet potato fries? Exactly! See you this Halloween, folks.

I’ll be the first in line.

Location: 376 W. 6th St, San Pedro

12

Sirens Tea & Java to Open in November

Retired Deputy Sheriff Yolanda Regalado, has been fighting for the past year to open her community coffeehouse, Sirens Tea & Java in San Pedro After purchasing the old News Pilot building on 7th Street, Regalado had her mind set on going through some renovations. Yet, this has been more than she imagined.

The building had been neglected and vacant for so long that it became a rather arduous process, she said.

Regalado had hopes of opening on Oct. 17, but now she faces yet another obstacle: the health department.

Trying to maintain the integrity of an old building while converting it to a coffeehouse has had the health department spinning. The grand opening has now been pushed back a few more weeks.

The good news is that when it does finally open, Sirens Tea & Java will be the ultimate coffeehouse and community hangout. Regalado, a native to San Pedro, is very passionate about giving back to the community.

She hopes to inspire a communal atmosphere with open mic nights, poetry readings and a children’s area with a library.

Her brother, a firefighter who died in the line of duty, was the inspiration for Sirens. In turn she has had mural erected to honor those fallen.

Of course, there will be tea and coffee, but Regalado is also working with a local pastry chef who will bring in snacks and even vegan menu items. Sirens will also feature cuppings and tastings so patrons can sample different coffees and teas from all over the world.

Sirens Tea & Java should be open sometime in November.

Location: 356 W. 7th St., San Pedro Gina Ruccione has traveled all over Europe and Asia and has lived in almost every nook of Los Angeles County. You can visit her website at www. foodfashionfoolishfornication.com.

BEACH CITY GRILL

Let the culinary adventure begin anew—Beach City Grill has reopened featuring your favorites along with soon-to-be favorite new additions. Now serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and Sunday Brunch. Famous for Caribbean, Cajun specials, fresh seafood, salads, vegetarian and World Cuisine. Be sure to try the award-winning desserts

by Chef Larry Hodgson. Beach City Grill, 376 W. 6th St., San Pedro. (424) 287-0645 • www. beachcitygrill.net Big Nick’s Pizza Tradition, variety and fast delivery; you get it all at Big Nick’s Pizza.

The best selection of Italian specialties include hearty calzones, an array of pastas and of course, our amazing selection of signature pizzas. We also offer an excellent selection of appetizers, salads, beer and wine.

Call for fast delivery.

Hours: 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Sun.-Thurs., 10 a.m.11:30 p.m. Fri. & Sat. Big Nick’s Pizza • 1110 N. Gaffey St., San Pedro • (310) 732-5800 • www. facebook.com/BigNicks

St., San Pedro Nazelie’s Lebanese Cafe Nazelie’s Lebanese Cafe is a favorite of the neighborhood for the terrific kabobs, beef or chicken shawarma, lamb dishes and falafel.

Nazelie’s chicken and rice soup with lemon is like a warm embrace. Nazelie uses a recipe handed down in her family for generations, starting with homemade chicken broth, and adding a refreshing touch of lemon for taste and nutrients. Nazelie’s Lebanese Café, 1919 S. Pacific Avenue, San Pedro. (310) 519-1919 Niko’s Pizzeria One of downtown San Pedro’s s i g n a t u r e restaurants features a full Italian menu, huge selection of pizzas, Greek specialties and a beer and wine bar featuring a wide selection of beers on tap and by the bottle. Watch sporting events on plasma TV screens throughout the restaurant. Delivery service to all of San Pedro, Port locations and hotels. 399 W. 6th St., San Pedro (at the corner of Mesa and 6th sts.) • (310) 241-1400 PHILIE B’S ON SIXTH

Owner Philie Buscemi welcomes you to Philie B’s on Sixth, where New York–style pizza, Sicilian rice balls and pizza by-the-slice are the specialties. Fresh hot or cold sandwiches, gourmet pizzas and fresh salads are also served. Try the “white pizza” with smooth ricotta, mozzarella and sharp Pecorino-Romano cheeses topped with torn fresh basil. Extended hours accommodate San Pedro’s unique lifestyle and work schedules.

Catering and fast, free local delivery ($15 min.) available. Philie B’s On Sixth • 347 W. 6th Street, San Pedro (310) 514-2500 www. philiebsonsixth.com

Happy Diner The Happy Diner isn’t your average diner.

If you pay attention to its special menu on blackboards, it’s almost a certainty you’re going to find something new each week. The cuisine runs the gamut of Italian and Mexican to American continental. You can take your pick of grilled salmon over pasta or tilapia and vegetables, prepared any way you like. Try their chicken enchiladas soup made from scratch.

Happy Diner • (310) 241-0917 • 617 S. Centre

San Pedro Brewing Company A microbrewery and American grill, SPBC features handcrafted awardwinning ales and lagers served with creative pastas, bbq, sandwiches, salads and burgers. A full bar with made-fromscratch margaritas and a martini menu all add fun to the warm and friendly atmosphere.

Live music on Saturdays.

Hours: From 11:30 a.m., daily. San Pedro Brewing

Waterfront Dining Boardwalk Grill

The Whale & Ale San Pedro’s British gastro pub offers comfortable dining in an oak–paneled setting, featuring English fish & chips, roast prime rib, sea bass, rack of lamb, beef Wellington, meat pies, salmon, swordfish & vegetarian dishes. Open for lunch & dinner, 7days/wk; great selection of wines; 14 British tap ales, & full bar. Frequent live music. First Thursdays live band & special fixed price menu.

Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Fri. 11:30 a.m.-midnight Sat. & Sun. 1-10 p.m. Bar open late. The Whale & Ale • 327 W. 7th St., San Pedro • (310) 832-0363 • www.whaleandale. com Stripe Café Stripe Café Executive Chef Brett Hickey’s focus is on plantbased fare, with farm-to-table option highlighting his conscious cuisine. The​ quality food is fresh, organic and natural. Everything is made inhouse and brings the seasons in, while having good prices. Hickey’s menu is full of delightful surprises: salmon smoked each day, Nutella latte, lavender-infused olive oil cake topped with lemon curd, and daily fresh soups. The café​ is open for lunch, but pop-up dinners have already become highly anticipated special events. Stripe Café • 5504 Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes • Mon-Sat 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., • (310) 541.2479 SPIRIT CRUISES

An instant party!

Complete with all you need to relax and enjoy while the majesty of the harbor slips by. Their three yachts and seasoned staff provide an exquisite excursion every time, and all-inclusive pricing makes party planning easy! Dinner cruise features a three course meal, full bar, unlimited cocktails and starlight dancing. Offering the ultimate excursion for any occasion. Free parking. Spirit Cruises • 1199 Nagoya Way, LA Harbor - Berth 77, San Pedro • (310) 548-8080, (562) 495-5884 • www.spiritmarine.com

Include Your Restaurant in the Dining Guide In Print & Online • (310) 519-1442

October 29 - November 11, 2015

Casual waterfront dining at its finest!

Famous for slabs of Chicago-style baby back ribs, fish-n-chips, rich clam chowder, cold beer on tap and wine. Full lunch menu also includes salads, sandwiches and burgers. Indoor and outdoor patio dining available. Proudly pouring Starbucks coffee. Open 7 days a week. Free Parking.

Boardwalk Grill • 1199 Nagoya Way, LA Harbor - Berth 77, San Pedro • (310) 519-7551

PORTS O’ CALL WATERFRONT DINING Since 1961 they’ve extended a hearty welcome to visitors from every corner of the globe. Delight in an awe-inspiring view of the dynamic L.A. Harbor while enjoying exquisite coastal California cuisine and varietals. Relax in the plank bar or outdoor patio for the best happy hour on the waterfront. With the award-winning Sunday champagne brunch, receive the first Spirit Cruises harbor cruise of the day free. Open 7 days, lunch and dinner. Free Parking. Ports O’Call Waterfront Dining • 1199 Nagoya Way, LA Harbor - Berth 76, San Pedro • (310) 833-3553 www.Portsocalldining.com

Sonny’s Bistro and Think Café Sonny and Carly Ramirez are the husband and wife team behind Sonny’s Bistro and Think Café. Their hands-on attention to detail makes the restaurants successful, in both quality of food and service. Sonny’s Bistro’s lunch and dinner menus feature dishes made from locally sourced and hand–selected meats, seafood and seasonal vegetables. Try the $10 lunch menu served Mon. through Friday. Think Café serves breakfast in addition to lunch and dinner with fresh egg dishes, omelettes and griddlecakes. Both restaurants have a selection of fine wines and beers that complement the dishes. Sonny’s Bistro • 1420 W. 25th St., San Pedro. Hours: Mon-Fri, 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Sat and Sun. from 4 p.m. • (310) 548-4797. Think Café • 302 W. 5th St., San Pedro • Hours: Mon-Sat. 8 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m.- 2 p.m. • (310) 519-3662.

ACE : Arts • Cuisine • Entertainment

B u o n o ’ s A u thentic Pizzeria A San Pedro landmark for over 40 years, famous for exceptional award-winning pizza baked in brick ovens.

Buono’s also offers classic Italian dishes and sauces based on tried-and-true family recipes and hand-selected ingredients that are prepared fresh. Dine-in, take-out and catering. There are two locations in Long Beach. Hours: Sun.-Thurs.

11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri. and Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. • Buono’s Pizzeria • 1432 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro • (310) 547-0655 • www.buonospizza.com

Company • 331 W. 6th St., San Pedro • (310) 831-5663 • www.sanpedrobrewing.com

13

Copeland Gives Back with

Charity Master Dance Class

By Arlo Tinsman-Kongshaug, Editorial Intern Misty Copeland, principal dancer at New York’s famous American Ballet Theatre and national rolemodel to countless aspiring young women dancers who’ve been told they just weren’t right to make it— particularly dancers of color—will be hosting a master dance class at the place she began to conquer those obstacles.

From the stage of the Warner Grand Theatre, in front of a live audience, Copeland will lead 50 students through 90 minutes of the movements, knowledge, art and inspiration that have translated into her success.

Tickets to the master class set for Dec. 21 at 5 p.m., are $40 and $25—but $10 less for anyone who purchases tickets to San Pedro City Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker at the Warner Grand, which Copeland performed in as a young girl. Proceeds go to San Pedro City Ballet’s DancED Steps Up, which provides local public schools with a wider variety of dance instruction.

Copeland will also be the centerpiece and fundraising engine at a post-class reception, where tickets are $350 a piece and again benefit DancEd Steps Up. While Copeland is now one of the world’s bestknown and most-talented dancers, her first lessons were humble. They started when she tried out for

October 29 - November 11, 2015

INDEPENDENT AND FREE

Misty Copeland. File photo

14

the drill team at Dana Middle School. Even there, Copeland’s talent was obvious. The coach, Elizabeth Cantine, appointed her team captain and after working with her for a bit, suggested that Copeland take classes at the local Boys & Girls Club.

There on the basketball courts, Copeland began to learn the arts of ballet. She felt rather self-conscious about it, according to the account of her first ballet class that appeared in Rivka Galchen’s profile in the New Yorker.

“I was so embarrassed,” Copeland told the magazine. “I didn’t know anything the other girls in the class knew; I thought I was doing everything wrong.”

Later, however, that changed.

“One day it just clicked,” Copeland said. “I began to understand what it was.”

In that same profile, Copeland emphasized that she remains a student. As she returns to the site of her beginnings as a dancer to teach this master class, that’s a key to understanding who she is.

Time: 5 p.m. Dec. 21 Cost: $15 to $40 Venue: Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. 6th St. San Pedro.

(Artists+Activists) x Innovation =

Entertainment

Melina Paris, Columnist

Christopher Sorensen & Friends Halloween Spooktacular A haunting journey through original music and pop and jazz favorites with scary surprises.

Costumes encouraged. There will be free snacks and prizes for the best Halloween costume.

Talent + Opportunity + Engagement

Time: 8 p.m.

Cost: $5 to $10 Details: (310) 519-1314 Venue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro The Mad Reckless Fresh off a successful Las Vegas run of their hit production LIMELIGHT, Ridicula Imitatio Productions is proud to present its newest show.

Can you handle a night without rules?

Time: 9 p.m. Oct. 30 Cost: $10 to $20 Details: http://longbeach.harvelles.com/ Venue: Harvelle’s, 201 E. Broadway, Long Beach

Oct. 31

Artists and activist gathered at the Art Exchange in Long Beach on Oct. 19. photo courtesy of the Art Exchange

of their minds. Later, Galvez and Allen met at a Long Beach Arts Council meeting and the Knight Cities Challenge came up again. The challenge had a hard deadline of Oct. 27, so they decided to dive into this opportunity to bring these two groups, artists and activists, together.

The Long Beach Community Foundation is excited about artists and activists coming together in this way. It provides charitable services to encourage philanthropy and strengthen nonprofits to effect positive change and improve the quality of life for greater Long Beach. It has also signalled its support.

“There were so many great ideas and I see more potential for innovative collaboration,” Galvez said.

Caleb Quaye and the Faculty The Faculty features Charles Williams (keyboard), Doug Mathews (drums), Robert “Pee Wee” Hill (bass).

Time: 8 p.m.

Cost: $20 Details: (310) 519-1314 www.alvasshowroom.com Venue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

Nov. 1 Richard Sherman Trio Sherman and Grammy Award-winning vocalist Bili Redd have been playing music together for more than seven years in South Bay nightclubs and some benefits.

Time: 8 p.m.

Cost: $20 Details: (310) 519-1314 www.alvasshowroom.com Venue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

Nov. 3 The Dirty Little Secrets The Dirty Little Secrets do underground comedy and burlesque for 21-and-older with a two-drink minimum.

Time: 8:30 p.m., Nov. 3 and 10 Cost: $10 Details: http://longbeach.harvelles.com Venue: Harvelle’s, 201 E. Broadway, Long Beach

Nov. 5 The AmHam Show The Serial Killer of Comedy, Mike Muratore, is back. If you’ve never experienced Mike, you’ve never laughed until your face hurts.

Time: 9 p.m.

Cost: Free Details: (310) 833-0103 Venue: Croatian Cultural Center, 510 W. 7th St., San Pedro Madman’s Paradise presented by The Toledo Show In a world of film noir soul, twisted tales are told by the City of Angels’ falling angel, Toledo.

Time: 9 p.m.

Cost: $10 to $20 Details: http://longbeach.harvelles.com Venue: Harvelle’s, 201 E. Broadway, Long Beach

Nov. 6

Nov. 7 Henry Wolfe Creative arrangements with retro-pop undertones and lyrics filled with curiosity and truth.

Karpatok Hungarian Folk Ensemble It’s the 50th anniversary of this group, which is celebrating with a retrospective journey through a dancer’s life.

Time: 7 p.m.

Cost: $50 to $35 Details: (310) 548-2493; www.grandvision.org Venue: Warner Grand, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro American Monster Burlesque and Blues This fun burlesque and blues show guarantees a jaw-dropping good time for anyone 21 and older who can handle a two-drink minimum.

Time: 9 p.m. and 10:45 p.m.

Cost: $15 to $20 Place: Harvelle’s, 201 E. Broadway, Long Beach Details: (562) 239-3700 http://longbeach.harvelles.com

Nov. 13 The Show Ponies A sassy blend of indie-folk, old-time country and a touch of church-choir gospel. Instant classic Americana.

Time: 8 p.m.

Cost: $15 to $30 Details: (310) 833-4813 http://www.grandvision.org Venue: The Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro

Community Oct. 29

Great Pumpkin, Smilin’ Jack Phillips 66 welcomes the community to visit the Great Pumpkin, Smilin’ Jack, for his spooktacular appearance at the Los Angeles Refinery. View the holiday displays from your car and enjoy delicious caramel corn.

Time: 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 29 and 30 Cost: Free Details: (310) 952-6371 Venue: 1660 W. Anaheim St., Wilmington The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor From the darkest corners of your deepest hidden fears, Dark Harbor is resurrected again, its cast of sinister spirits delivering another Halloween season of bloodcurdling terror. Live your nightmares aboard the haunted Queen Mary and join our cast of ghouls, spirits and undead for an unforgettable and frighteningly authentic haunted experience.

Time: 8 p.m.

Cost: $20 Details: www.queenmary.com Venue: Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach

Oct. 30

OktoberBEAST Thriller Flashmob OktoberBEAST (Alpine Village’sHalloween version of Oktoberfest) would not be complete without Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Dance Thriller on stage with the O-Girls and get a free “OktoberBEAST Thriller” dance team t-shirt.

To participate get your Oktoberfest tickets for Oct. 30 or 31. Then, email your shirt size toavoktoberfest@gmail.com and let the organizers know which day you are coming. On the day of event, get a special wristband indicating you are a dance member. The dance will take place at about 9 p.m. You’ll get a shirt after the performance. A quick rehearsal will take place at 6:45 p.m. Oct. 30.

Time: Oct. 30 and 31 Cost: $15 Details: alpinevillagecenter.com [See Calendar, page 16]

October 29 - November 11, 2015

Lili Haydn She’s the “Jimi Hendrix of violin,” astounding with her fiery and virtuosic music and vocals.

Time: 7 p.m.

Cost: $15 to $30.

Details: (310) 833-4813; www.grandvision.org Venue: The Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro

Lado B Brazilian Project Catina DeLuna and her group Lado B recently released their first CD, Brazilian Project, featuring Brazilian music from several periods. The performances put the spotlight on DeLuna’s beautiful voice, the brilliant piano and inventive arrangements of Otmaro Ruiz.

Time: 8 p.m.

Cost: $20 Details: (310) 519-1314 www.alvasshowroom.com Venue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

ACE : Arts • Cuisine • Entertainment

To maximize the Knight Ridder Cities Challenge, the ArtExchange (ArtX), a visual arts center in the downtown East Village arts district, hosted (Artists + Activists) x Innovation, on Oct. 19. Local artists and activists were invited to share ideas about how to improve Long Beach.

Because the Press Telegram was once owned by Knight-Ridder Inc., Long Beach, where the newspaper is based, is among 26 places across the nation eligible to receive ongoing funding from the Knight Foundation for programs intended to attract and keep talented people, expand economic opportunity and create a culture of engagement.

It’s the legacy of John S. and James L. Knight, brothers whose names were once atop the largest newspaper chain in the country. It’s called the Knight Cities Challenge.

The facilitators of (Artists + Activists) x Innovation recognize that artists and activists do not connect that much. Nicolassa Galvez, CEO of the ArtExchange, said she kept hearing conversations about the importance of collaboration among both groups, but it was only happening on a small scale, usually among people who already knew each other.

“This evening’s purpose is to hold a space for Long Beach artists and activists to connect or reconnect and brainstorm innovative ideas for cross-collaboration,” said Kenny Allen, one of the event facilitators, who is also managing director of Evolve Theatre and the marketing and membership director for the nonprofit organization Teaching Artists Guild.

Other facilitators were John Thatcher Montgomery, an ArtX Studio artist and the lead organizer of PechaKucha Nights Long Beach, and Janay Watts, an activist-scholar and emerging writer who organizes with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and facilitates youth intergroup dialogue through restorative justice.

Attendees came from the Long Beach Arts Council, Long Beach Fresh and Housing Long Beach, as well as a variety of freelancers who came to participate through writing and videography, among other means.

After the preliminaries—a few icebreakers, a few assessments of assets, and the identification of issues—attendees broke into four or five brainstorming groups. That’s where the action happened.

People got to know each other.

They aired out concepts for a better Long Beach. At least 75 were recorded, shared and eventually combined under more expansive umbrellas.

Categories included the attraction and retention of talent, quantifying important digital technologies and media to increase access and information sharing, the engagement of artists in activism and community, increasing civic and community engagement, identification of new spaces to move community forward and bridging socio-economic gaps.

Montgomery and Galvez had recently been focusing on a grants writing cycle for ArtX to fund creative projects, which they presented to the local Knight foundation. The Knight Cities Challenge was also in the back

Oct. 30

Time: 8 p.m.

Cost: $15 to $30.

Details: (310) 833-4813; www.grandvision.org Venue: The Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro

15

[Fi$h, from page 11]

[Calendar, from page 15] Venue: Alpine Village, 833 Torrance Blvd., Torrance

Oct. 31 Howl-o-ween Pet Parade Well-behaved pets, their parents and families are invited to the LA Waterfront Howl-o-ween Pet Parade, from the downtown harbor to the Fanfare Fountain in San Pedro. Costumes are encouraged but not required.

Time: 9 to 11 a.m. Oct. 31 Cost: Free Details: lawaterfront.org Venue: Downtown Harbor, San Pedro Southbay Pavilion Mall-o-Ween Register for the costume contest and the pumpkin carving contest online. There will also be face-painting and a magic show.

Time: 5 to 7 p.m.

Cost: Free Details: www.southbaypavilion.com Venue: Southbay Pavilion

Nov. 1 San Pedro Día de los Muertos Festival Celebrate the special lives of dirt-nappers at the 4th annual San Pedro Día de Los Muertos Festival in Historic Downtown San Pedro.

The streets will fill with art, culture, food and entertainment. There will be a sacred altar competition and exhibition, along with craft vendor booths, a food court, children’s stage and play area and main stage entertainment.

Time: 3 to 9 p.m.

Cost: Free Details: www.spdayofthedead.com Venue: 6th Street, between Pacific Avenue and Mesa Street, San Pedro

Nov. 6 United For A Cause Music Festival Justice For Murdered Children is looking to unite the community around peace while focusing attention on murdered children. It kicks off Friday with a cruise night peace ride through the community, candlelight vigil and ends with reggae on the waterfront. Saturday features a BBQ cook-off, a red and green Chilli Cookoff as well as music from around the world. Sunday’s activities include a car and bike show for charity and music by Low Key Band .

Time: 3 to 10 p.m. Nov. 6 through 8 Cost: Free Details: (310) 738-4218 Venue: Ports O’Call Village, Berth 75, San Pedro

Bully Olympics 2015 Join Bully Breed Clothing in welcoming the West Coast’s finest bully dogs. Enjoy live music, barbers, tattoo booths, car showcase plus much more. No dogs in heat, no aggressive dogs and no outside food or beverages allowed.

Time: 9 a.m.

Cost: $10 to $25 Details: www.queenmary.com Venue: Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach Leland Park PAB Community BBQ Come out for the face painting, crafts and free hot dogs. There will also be a flashlight walk at 6 p.m.

Time: 2 to 6 p.m.

Cost: Free Details: http://nwsanpedro.org/ Venue: 863 S. Herbert Ave., San Pedro

INDEPENDENT AND FREE

Nov. 7

Theater

October 29 - November 11, 2015

Nov. 6

16

Stick Fly The annual trip to Martha’s Vineyard by a wellto-do African-American family confronts issues of race, class and deep family secrets, forcing them to face their uncertain, yet, optimistic future.

Time: 8 p.m. Nov. 6 and 7, and 2 p.m. Nov. 8, through Nov. 22 Cost: $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors Details: (310) 243-3589; www4.csudh.edu/ theatre-arts/buy-tickets Venue: Edison Studio Theatre, CSUDH, 1000 E. Victoria St., Carson

Nov. 7

Hay Fever The Long Beach Playhouse continues their 87th Mainstage Season with Noel Coward’s classic comedy Hay Fever. The play examines what was supposed to be a quiet weekend away with the Bliss family, while it turns into a ridiculous, banter filled farce.

Time: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m.

Sundays, Nov. 7 through Dec. 5 Cost: $14 to $24 Details: (562) 494-1014; www.lbplayhouse.org Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach

Art

Nov. 1 10th Annual Dia de Los Muertos Group Art Exhibition and Celebration Celebrate the 10th Annual Día de los Muertos art exhibition, cultural event and celebration of life.

All artwork will have as the main theme calaveras (skulls) celebrating life as they come down to visit.

DJ CHeeBo will be spinning his muerto sounds.

Pan de muerto and tequila tasting to make a toast to the remembrance of loved ones.

Time: 3 to 10 p.m.

Cost: Free Details: (562) 225-8535 Venue: Gallery Azul, 520 W. 8th St., San Pedro

Nov. 5 Sam Arno Retrospective: 1995 – 2015 South Bay Contemporary at The Loft presents a retrospective of the works of Sam Arno. Arno is a former art and creative director for various Los Angeles ad agencies. As a graphic designer, he received numerous awards for packaging, outdoor billboards and magazine advertising.

Arno was a founding member of Angels Gate Cultural Center. He had work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art Rental and Sales Gallery and has shown his work at LAX, the Bridge Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park and in galleries in Long Beach, Palm Springs, Idyllwild and throughout Los Angeles. He prefers abstract art, but has also created landscape and “cosmos” paintings.

Time: Opening reception, 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 5.

The exhibition continues through Dec. 18 Cost: Free Details: (310) 429 0973 Venue: SBC Studio at The Loft, 401 S. Mesa St., 3rd Floor, San Pedro Be Friends With Your Burning New Works by Hyung Mo Lee Hyung Mo Lee’s practice reflects many of the aesthetic and philosophic strategies associated with the Italian Arte Povera (literally poor art) movement whose artists attacked corporate mentality with an art of unconventional materials and style, often incorporating found objects.

Lee’s drawings, sculptures and installations are notable for their radical choice of materials and emphasis on laborious, time-consuming process. His Sumi Ink drawings, both delicate and dynamic, are meditations on geologic time — strata rendered brush-stroke by brush-stroke — while sculptural works expand on lessons learned from drawing. Found objects are negotiated to the point of transformation, often bordering on dissolution, always stressing materiality and physicality, evocative of myth over scientific rationalism.

Time: Opening reception, 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 5.

The exhibition continues through 28 Cost: Free Details: (310) 429 0973 Venue: SBC STUDIO At the LOFT, 401 S. Mesa St, 3rd floor, San Pedro Artists and Writers Cornelius Projects presents a gathering of artists and writers reading in conjunction with the current exhibition, I cann’t eggsplane: Peggy Reavey. The participants include poet Amy Gerstler, artist and writer Benjamin Weismann, writers Michelle Latiolais and Jim Krusoe. There will also be a performance by Planet Queens (writer, critic and curator Kristine McKenna and musician Weba Garretson).

Time: 1 to 6 p.m. when the red flag is flying Cost: Free Details: (310) 266 9216 corneliusprojects@gmail.com Venue: Cornelius Projects, 1417 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro

MONEY FI$H

Cox remained in Seattle for a year, working as a waiter until the brother of a woman he was dating clued him in to how much money he could make as a commercial fisherman in Alaska. With no better idea of what to do next, he crossed the border.

Based on what he had endured in the military, Cox was confident that the life of a fisherman would be a breeze.

“I went out [to sea] cocky, believing that nothing could beat me,” he says. “Next thing you know, I’m out there on the Bering Sea in winter time with 40-foot swells and I’m seasick. Three weeks in, after working 20-hour days, I was mentally and physically broke.

I had never felt so low in my life. I had to rebuild myself. I told myself I would never get cocky again.

Cockiness kills.”

It was then Cox found a humility that would prove invaluable to his personal growth, opening him up to a series of mentors who over the ensuing four years would help shape the person he was to become.

“Their words resonate with me to this day,” he says. “Stuff that I learned on that boat helped me make this crazy thing [The Money Fi$h] a reality.”

One of those mentors was Kim, a marine biologist who came on board during his final year at sea.

“She blew my mind, “ Cox says. “She opened my mind to a whole new world of possibilities.”

Within a year she was his wife.

Glimpsing this new world of possibilities moved Cox closer to leaving the old world behind. So after a four-month stretch in which he caught a serious lung infection, was nearly killed and saw a comrade die, it was time to begin the next phase of his life.

“I felt I had become this person who was giving his life away for money,” he says. “Eventually what happened is I outgrew the boat.”

Shortly after quitting the fishing business, he and Kim moved to San Pedro, where they opened a coffeehouse they would operate for “three long, hard years” before throwing in the towel.

“We lost everything, everything, every penny I made on the boat,” Cox says. “The IRS was after me and everything.”

In need of money, Cox landed a gig as a longshoreman. But he soon became discontent with a life of nothing but physical labor. He yearned for a creative outlet.

“I wasn’t happy,” he says. “I felt like I wasn’t doing anything that was me.… My wife said, ‘You’re a creative person. You’re always putting together creative stories. Don’t you realize you do it naturally?’”

So Cox enrolled in community college, where he began to take writing and acting classes. Before long he was landing roles in plays and short films.

“As soon as I stepped into that world, it fit like a glove,” he says. “At first I thought theatre was something for weak-minded people. I was turned off [by my conception] of all the flamboyance. But then I realized how crazy it really is. It’s really hard to step in front of people and do that! It gave me the same rush of being alive as when I was on the Bering Sea or preparing to jump out of a plane.”

It also provided him with clarity he had never before experienced.

“It’s like the 405 is crowded at 5 o’clock, but then I step on stage, and all the cars are pulling off the road, and it’s totally empty, and I’m just driving along,” he says.

But because Cox was “casualing” as a longshoreman (he had not obtained a full-time position and the flexibility that comes with it) he found himself in a kind of limbo, unable to fully pursue his artistic passions.

Finally, after more than a half-decade on the job, Cox became a full-time longshoreman and began to undertake the project that would become The Money Fi$h.

He first wrote a series of short pieces documenting individual stops on the journey of his life. Eventually he saw all this work as of a piece, an opus on which he would need to focus the whole of his artistic efforts in order to realize fully. He stopped acting entirely and for

Photo by Micahel Lamont

years poured himself into its realization.

That realization came later than he expected.

Earlier this year the Hudson Theatres decided to world premiere The Money Fi$h. A director was chosen; a set was built; and a lighting concept was created. But one month before opening, Cox insisted on doing a rewrite.

“I did a reading, and an LA critic who was there said, ‘It’s good, but it’s too long. It’s going to be two hours, [not including] intermission, and you’ll get killed on reviews,’” Cox recounts. “I drove home, and I said: ‘I have to rewrite it. I gotta cut it and start it from Alaska and refer back to the [earlier moments].

I’m not going down like this. I’ve put in too much time to go down because it’s too long.’ It was an act of desperation.…Everybody was freaked out. My director, my producer was scared. They said, ‘It’s too late.’ I said, ‘The hell it is.’”

After a sleepless week, Cox completed—for real, this time—the artistic work of his life. The Money Fi$h opened on Oct. 1. When asked how it feels to be at this point after all this time and life, he cannot hold back the tears.

“Everything in my life that happened—my abusive childhood, military training, going to Alaska, all the bullshit—brought me to this point and gave me the strength to make it through,” he says. “I felt like everything was against me to make it happen, you know? It’s like [the world is set up] to make you push your dreams aside and follow what other people [say you’re supposed to do]. This was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Up until weeks before [opening], I didn’t see it happening. And then when I thought it might happen, I didn’t see it happening the way I hoped it would, at the highest level that it could happen…on every level. You hope it will be this magical experience that people will find entertaining.…Everything in my life, everything that I’m about, was coming towards that moment.”

Not surprisingly, the theme of The Money Fi$h is the theme of Cox’s life.

“I was a guy who came from nothing,” he says.

“No one gave me a damn thing, and I was a stupid, punk kid. But I went out there on this boat and I found my way. Instead of being cocky, I started listening to people that I respected.… I learned how to constantly change and grow. You don’t [necessarily] know who you are. You might be living one way and not know that you’re someone else. Live to learn and discover.…

All along the way there were people who offered their love to me, mentorship, and I took it, and I moved up.… And eventually what happened was: I outgrew the boat. I said, ‘My life’s bigger than this boat. I need to go find my true self.’”

Now, he finds himself onstage in Hollywood, playing out the story of his life for all to see. Where it goes from here, only time will tell. But in this life, John Cox is at sea no more.

The Money Fi$h plays at the Hudson Theatre (6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood ; hudsontheatre.com) Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. through Nov. 22. Details: themoneyfishplay.com.

South Bay Contemporary

THE LOFT: SAM ARNO RETROSPECTIVE, 1995-2015

Sam Arno was a founding member of Angels Gate Dultural Center.

His work has been shown in LA County Museum of Art rental gallery, LAX, the Bridge Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park and galleries in Long Beach Palm Springs, Idyllwid an Los Angeles. The show opens on Nov. 5 with a reception for the artist and continues through Dec. 18.

SOUTH BAY CONTEMPORARY PRESENTS HYUNG MO LEE, BE FRIENDS WITH YOUR BURNING

The title of the show, Be Friends with Your Burning is from a poem

by Rumi. Hyung Mo Lee’s practice reflects many of the aesthetic and philosophic strategies associated with the Italian Arte Povera (literally poor art) movement. Found objects are negotiated to the point of transformation, often bordering on dissolution. The artists states, “In these works, I’m using a paintbrush which I’ve not used in many years. It’s a drawing practice, back to basics, a practice that will lead to, I would think, a larger scope of what’s to come from practice.” The show opens with a reception for the artist on Nov. 5 and runs through Nov. 28.

Michael Stearns Studio 347 MORTAL AND IMMORTAL

The exhibit will address the endings of life as well as the eternal beginnings of life on this planet. Michael Stearns Studio 347 is open each month during the First Thursday Artwalk and by appointment. Contact michael@michaelstearnsstudio. com or 562.400.0544.

Studio Gallery 345

Studio 345 will have new work showing as well as books,boxes, scarves, jewelry, and unframed work. Guest artist will be Margie Rust. 1st Thursdays 6-9 p m; appointments please call Pat (310) 374-8055 or Gloria (310) 545-0832. 345 W. 7th St., San Pedro.

Gallery 478

nancy Crawford / selected works

Painted figures and landscapes rendered at a palpable distance, light diffused, imagery softened—the flowing transitions, the smooth equalizing surface–clarify the content and make the representation credible. Through Nov. 30. Curated by Arnée Carofano. Open First Thursday, 6-9 pm. hours Mon.-Fri. 11 am to - 5 pm and by appointment, (310) 732-2510. Gallery 478 is located at 478 W. 7th St., San Pedro.

ACE : Arts • Cuisine • Entertainment

Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thurs., Fri. and Sat. (call when you arrive) (310) 429-0973. South Bay Contemporary, At the LOFT, 401 S. Mesa St., 3rd floor, San Pedro. www.southbaycontemporary.com

Michael Stearns, Every Mother’s Son, mixed media installation.

October 29 - November 11, 2015

17

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18

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DBA/legal filings N O T I C E O F I N T E N T TO ADOPT INITIAL STUDY/ NEGATIVE DECLARATION FOR THE PASHA STEVEDORING AND TERMINALS LEASE RENEWAL PROJECT The City of Los Angeles Harbor Department (LAHD) has prepared this Initial Study/ Negative Declaration (IS/ND) to address the environmental effects of the Pasha Stevedoring and Terminals Lease Renewal Project. The proposed Project includes a lease renewal for up to 30 years to allow continued long-term operations including the handling of primarily steel slab and breakbulk. Proposed operations would be similar to current operations and inclusive of omni-terminal operations at Berths 174-181 and breakbulk operations at Berths 206-209 and Berths 153-155. There would not be any improvements or physical modifications to the existing three terminals as part of the proposed Project.

The IS/ND is being circulated for a period of 30 days for public review and comment.

The public has an opportunity to provide written comments on the information contained within the IS/ND. The 30-day review period will start on November 9, 2015, and end on December 8, 2015.

A copy of the document is available for public review on the Port of Los Angeles’ website at: http://www.portoflosangeles. org; the LAHD Environmental Management Division located at 222 West 6th Street, San Pedro; the Los Angeles City Library Central at 630 W. 5th Street; the Los Angeles City Library San Pedro Branch at 931 S. Gaffey Street; and at the Los Angeles City Library Wilmington Branch at 1300 North Avalon.

Comments on the IS/ND should be submitted in writing prior to the end of the 30-day public review period and must be postmarked by December 8, 2015. Please submit written comments to: Christopher Cannon, Director City of Los Angeles Harbor Department Environmental Management Division 425 S. Palos Verdes Street San Pedro, CA 90731 Written comments may also be sent via email to ceqacomments@portla.org. Comments

sent via email should include the project title in the subject line and a valid mailing address in the email.

For additional information, please contact James Bahng with the LAHD Environmental Management Division at (310) 732-0363.

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2015231510 The following person is doing business as: Garret Garage Door, 1536 W. 25th St., San Pedro Ca 90732, Los Angeles County. Registered owners: Garret R. Joyce, 2503 S. Carolina St. #A, San Pedro, CA 90731. This Business is conducted by an individual.

The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) S/.

Garret R. Joyce, Owner. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on Sept. 08, 2015. Notice--In Accordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920. A fictitious name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920. were to expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner.

A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before the expiration.The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see section 1411 ET SEQ., Business and Professions code).

Original filing: 09/17/2015, 10/1/2015, 10/15/2015, 10/29/2015

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2015229526 The following person is doing business as: Zvending, 2840 Peck Ave., San Pedro, CA 90731, Los Angeles County.

Registered owners: Michael John Zvanich,2840 Peck Ave., San Pedro, CA 90731. This Business is conducted by an individual. The date registrant

[continued on following page]

[Truckers Strike, from page 6]

[Increase, from page 7]

Truckers Strike

day we would unite and we would fight,” Amador Rojas said at the press conference.

Now he’s confident.

“When we unite, and we fight we win,” Rojas said. “We will not stop until Pac-9, as a company, submits to the law, to the demand that they return the wages that they be illegally deducted from our paychecks.

Humberto Canales has worked for XPO Logistics for seven years. “They’ve always treated us without dignity, stealing our wages, misclassifying us. This is our third strike against them.

“We want the future for our families better, dignified, and to have the respect for the newer generation that will come in this world. I have a small son, six-month and he was born as they say in the midst of the strike, and a lot of my brothers and sisters were Teamsters, and I don’t want him to grow up seeing that we’re being pushed around by these exploitative companies. And this time we’re going to go all the way until we win.”

The faith community was represented at the press conference by Rev. William Smart, who heads the Southern California chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by Dr. Martin Luther King.

“I’m here because Dr. King gave his life in fighting for sanitation workers in Memphis Tenn., and was gunned down there in the midst of fighting for workers.” Smart explained. “Dr. King understood something that, all of us, [including] President Hoffa, and that is America does not treat its workers right. America does not honor the work we put in. Right now, the economy is improving but workers are still at a low. Hotels are coming back but the workers are still low. [Changes] are taking place in the trucking industry, but they refuse to recognize us.... So we’re here following a long tradition in the labor movement…we have to strike to get

Increase Wages

Truckers began their eighth “unfair labor practices’ strike Oct. 26 at the Port of Long Beach.

Photo by Slobodan Dimitrov.

work more hours.”

However, he would like some assurances to come with a new ordinance. When Measure N passed there were some negative impacts that seeped down to workers. Personnel at his work are expected to work more “to account for the increase” in minimum wage and in many occasions they are penalized by having their hours being cut, he said.

“Instead of it helping us how we hoped, it had bit of negative impacts, because there were never any protections for us,” said Estim, who has worked at the Long Beach Westin Hotel for 26 years.

“We need the legal protection that says, ‘Raising the minimum wage to the worker doesn’t mean they should cut hours or augment an overage of work,’ because then we’ll be worse off.”

Casarrubias agrees, but said that there are lessons to learn. She said that when measure N passed managers at the hotel said it wasn’t something good because they would have to raise the cost of the rooms and food and they were going to lose clients.

respect. We have to protest for our families to be fed. And we have to picket in order for us to get benefits. So, in the tradition of the Black church, let me tell you this: ‘Keep on fighting!

Keep on fighting!’”

At the end of his remarks, Hoffa emphasized that they were putting four companies on strike that day.

“We’re putting four companies on strike today, and tomorrow,” he said. “We’re just beginning this battle. We aren’t going away.

We’re going to be here again. We’ll be here tomorrow. We’ll be here next week. We’ll be here the week after that. The Teamsters are going to win. We’re going to win.”

Professional Automotive Care You Can Trust Since 1931

[from previous page]

a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see section 1411 ET SEQ., Business and Professions code).

Original filing: 09/17/2015, 10/1/2015, 10/15/2015, 10/29/2015

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October 29 - November 11, 2015

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2015243618 The following person is doing business as: Able Design and Fabrication, 1550 W. Mahalo Place, Rancho Dominguez, CA 9220, Los Angeles County. Registered owners: ADF Inc., 1550 W. Mahalo Place, Rancho Dominguez, CA 9220. This Business is conducted by a corporation. The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above:12/07/1993. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a

crime.) S/. Louis Mannick, President.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on Sept.

22, 2015. Notice--In Accordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920. A fictitious name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920. were to expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before the expiration.

The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see section 1411 ET SEQ., Business and Professions code).

Original filing: 10/01/2015, 10/15/2015,

The Local Publication You Actually Read

DBA/legal filings started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) S/. Michael John Zvanich, Owner. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on Sept. 03, 2015. Notice--In Accordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920.

A fictitious name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920. were to expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before the expiration.

The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of

“If you think about it, these companies don’t lose absolutely anything,” she said. “Measure N passed and they started to cut our hours but raised the cost of food and rooms.”

Flaming said that one of the benefits of having a city minimum wage is that there is a legal basis for local enforcement of labor law.

“Right now, workers are dependent on an understaffed division in the state department of Industrial Relations for protection, and often they don’t get help,” he said.

“Both the LA city and county minimum wage ordinances and the ordinance proposed for Long Beach have strong enforcement provisions for protecting workers against wage theft such as being paid less than the minimum wage, not being paid for all hours worked, or not being paid overtime rates when working overtime.

This applies to informal workers as well as formal workers. None of the provisions of these ordinances are dependent on workers being unionized. Everyone gets these protections.”

The Long Beach City Council is expected to review the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. report, the summary of public comments and other information on minimum wage in early December 2015.

19

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October 29 - November 11, 2015

Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area