RLn 12-6-18

Special Holiday Edition Through music and language, a student grasps keys to success p. 2 School safety panel calls for more counselors, fewer random searches p. 5 Curtain Call — Darkside: A powerful meditation on the search for Goodness p. 9

[See Unity, p. 4]

December 6 - 12, 2018

Children plying at the Wilmington Waterfront Park Winter Wonderland over the weekend of Dec. 1-2. Photos by Jessie Drezner

Visitors are treated to period entertainment, museum tours and decorated holiday splendor. In years past, a Queen Victoria era reenactor would receive guests for the two days and Jolly St. Nick would pose for photos with the children. This year, nearly 4,000 visitors enjoyed a walk through of the decorated mansion, trolley rides to the Drum Barracks, children’s crafts and more.

Then there’s the Wilmington Christmas parade with locally constructed floats and participants drawn from the immediate civic community such as schools, faith communities, social service organizations, civic

Winter Wonderland has become a fixture in Wilmington over the past 11 years. The Banning Museum transports guests to Christmas in the Victorian era, back when Los Angeles was smaller and its thoroughfares were filled with horses and buggies, and women were wearing big hoop skirts, and men actually practiced gentlemanly manners.

For more than a decade, the Port of Los Angeles has trucked in 20 tons of snow to Bayview Park, then the Wilmington Waterfront Park for children, mostly younger than 12, to play in.

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

Invoking the Spirit of Unity and Thanksgiving

1

Committed to Independent Journalism in the Greater LA/LB Harbor Area

Through Music and Language, Student Grasps Keys to Success

December 6 - 12, 2018

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

By Melina Paris, Staff Reporter

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Two recent graduates from Wilson High goes every morning to Signal Hill to run. One School in Long Beach have found their pathways of his goals is to join the cross-country team in to higher education, receiving full scholarships college. He was accepted with a full four-year through the arts, community service and sheer scholarship to Bowdoin College in Maine. Jairo tenacity. Random Lengths News recently profiled will be the first college graduate of his family.

But when Jairo first enrolled at Wilson High Tess Anderson and Jairo Izaguirre-Reyes.

Both students excelled in school through he had to take an art subject. He signed up for certain challenges. Jairo came through escaped guitar class.

“He never played any instrument before or a violent country; Tess survived a serious illness.

Ultimately, both stood out because of their own read music,” Farina said. “Today, according to resolve and strong support from both home and his teacher, he is not just a technical player, he is school. Tess and Jairo a performer.” each possess the common Jairo started with traits of strength and an acoustic guitar with compassion, both of metal strings. Then, for which are keys to what his birthday, he wanted drives them. First, a look an electric guitar. Farina at Jairo’s story. Tess’s agreed but told Jairo that story will follow in an he would love the classical upcoming edition. guitar. Eventually Jairo RLN sat with Jairo’s started with classical guitar stepfather, Daniel Farina. and found a love for it.

Jairo was born in San He completely Pedro Sula —one of the transitioned to playing world’s most dangerous classical music. He loves cities — in Honduras, Bach and began playing ranked one of the poorest difficult pieces. Jairo kept countries in the Americas, challenging himself further just before his birth. He and progressing with escaped with his mother classical pieces. He also and sister at age nine and plays guitar regularly in found asylum in Austria. Wilson High School grad, Jairo Izaguirre- some of the local nursing Reyes. Photo by Melina Paris That connection was from homes.

But there is more than music to Jairo’s daily Jairo’s Austrian great grandfather, which allowed the young boy’s family to apply for citizenship. activities. He volunteers in the Long Beach They have dual citizenship in Honduras and marathons and has participated in the Long Beach Youth Leadership Program, mentoring Austria.

Aside from the bitter cold, a shock from younger students in middle school.

Jairo is trilingual in German, Spanish and Honduran average temperatures of 80 degrees, Austria brought a positive change for Jairo. English. He has a certificate from the German Within three months he learned enough German government stating that he speaks at a college to participate in the school chorus during level in German, and he has the option to apply Christmas. He was also accepted into the most at the University of Berlin where they offer a sought-after middle school in the city: Gratz dual master’s degree. He hopes that Harvard will International Bilingual School. Jairo spent four recruit him, as he would like to major in business years there learning all of his subjects in German there. Bowdoin College is one of the junior Ivy and English. Even with these good experiences, League schools that Harvard recruits from. His Farina said the move affected Jairo. In Honduras major at Bowdoin is still undeclared, but he has Jairo had a “nice and accommodating life.” It an interest in and love for psychology.

What drives Jairo’s motivation? Farina said it was much harder for him in Austria.

“For instance, in Austria the government is Jairo’s desire to always improve himself.

“It’s the same with his running,” Farina said. helps you but they request two things, that you speak German and work,” Farina said. “They “Every time he runs, he tries to better his last also help you find jobs. His mom started working time. And academically, his mother instilled it but Jairo had to go to school by himself on public in him to challenge himself by taking the harder courses.” transportation.”

In one of Jairo’s major achievements, he got In 2014, Jairo relocated to Long Beach with his family. Since then he has steadily an ovation at his school awards night for taking excelled in his work both in and out of school. 15 AP classes; most students take up to eight.

He took 15 advanced placement courses and his Jairo passed them all with fours and fives. On his weighted GPA is more than 4.0 (a weighted GPA SAT he scored 1,600 points, which earned him is calculated by awarding additional points to a B grade. Farina asked him, “Are you B guy?” classes that are considered more challenging than Jairo said “No,” took the SAT again, and earned the basic curriculum). Jairo also participated all more than 1,600 points.

Farina and Jairo’s mother, Karen, instilled four years in cross-country and track, becoming one of the captains during his senior year. He still [See Graduate, p. 13]

Great deals right here in town for all your holiday shopping!

For the Holidays

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

December 6 - 12, 2018

3

Zero-Emissions Options Grow, But Is Port Paying Attention?

By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

December 6 - 12, 2018

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

As the Port of Los Angeles continues work on the latest China Shipping EIR (environmental impact report), this one dealing with mitigation failures of the 2009 plan, the Coalition for a Safe Environment is stepping up the focus on zero emissions technology, which was missing from the port’s first version, which was withdrawn under fire last year.

“The biggest change should be the new requirement that the China Shipping Terminal now incorporate all the new zero emission and ship emissions capture technology that did not exist at that time,” CFASE founder and executive director Jesse Marquez told Random Lengths.

“The Coalition For A Safe Environment will now play a major role in this regard.”

Marquez revealed that CFASE now publishes a monthly updated survey of all Zero Emission Technology Vehicles and Equipment related to Ports, Goods Movement and Construction.

“We will submit this survey list of all manufacturers, the vehicle or equipment name and model number,” he said.

On November 28, CFASE released the latest update of its survey, starting with eight Class 8 (heavy, semi-trailer) trucks, including trucks by BYD, Kenworth, Nikola, Toyota, TransPower, and US Hybrid. It also lists 10 Class 8 electric yard tractors, 93 electric forklifts, 22 electric locomotives, three electric ship-to-shore railmounted gantry cranes, and six electric rubber-

4

tired gantry cranes, among many others.

There is now a world-wide push to get off fossil fuels within the next decade or two, so the list of zero-technology options compiled

by CFASE will only grow longer. The question is, when will the port take action?

POLA declined comment for this story.

“That document was submitted as part of the CEQA process,” port spokesman Phillip Sanfield told Random Lengths via email.

“POLA response will be part of the CEQA process. We do not provide replies outside of the CEQA process.”

But the survey itself is a new document, updating past information, and it addresses the much broader issue of implementing zeroemissions technology port-wide, not just at China Shipping.

In his public comment on October 25, Marquez pointed to another aspect of the problem--vagueness in the EIR about when any new clean technology would actually be put into service. He worried that “some pieces of equipment might last 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and it’s their discretion as to when they might want to replace [them.”]

The longer the list of zero emissions technology gets, the larger the gap among the port’s green self-image and the reality of the air we breathe and the overheating planet.

[Unity from p. 1]

Wilmington Unity

groups and local businesses.

Maya Mexican Restaurant The degree of participation of local 401 N. Avalon Blvd., Wilmington businesses and civic organizations goes a When making inquiries, be sure to mention long way in community building, Lines of Operation Pilot Wheel/ Adopt A Pilot. Only communication and understanding are opened items that have been gently used, laundered and when community members give of themselves are size specific will be accepted. They cannot to each other. accept closet or cupboard, pantry items due to The non-profit organization, A Needy their size, disposal, ability to store and/or health Wilmington, has exemplified that spirit for about safety and liability issues. as long as there has been a Winter Wonderland Monetary donations can be made to A Needy in Wilmington.

Wilmington (ANW). It’s a 501(c)3 nonprofit This past year, A Needy Wilmington has organization. That means your donation is tax spearheaded efforts to support students and their families in need at Phineas Banning High School.

A Needy Wilmington launched the campaign, Operation Pilot Wheel/Adopt a Pilot three years ago. It collects clothing, food, toiletries, blankets, sheets, pillowcases and bath towels. A Needy Wilmington became a 501 (c)3 nonprofit and is able to accept Banning High School students and the nonprofit organization A Needy Wilmingmonetary donations. ton pulled out all the stops serving Thanksgiving dinner Nov. 22. Photo courtesy Each of the past of A Needy Wilmington three years, Los Angeles Homeless Services has counted deductible. The California Entity number is: fewer unsheltered people in Wilmington. In C3957955 and their Federal Tax ID is 82-355response, Wilmington’s civic community, 1385. local businesses, faith communities, students, Place a check in an envelope with your families and individuals are banding together to name on it, or give as a secret donor and drop give a hand up people living in cars, motels or the envelope off at Maya Mexican Restaurant. circumstances that have them crammed into a You can also donate to A Needy Wilmington single dwelling with multiple families. through: There are students with families from Cash app: aneedywilmington Banning High School who are in need of Gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/ assistance to get through this difficult voyage. opwaap2018 They are all in need of help of anything you Venmo: www.venmo.com/ANeedycan give. Monetary donations, gift cards are Wilmington welcomed. Donations will be accepted through Paypal: Paypal.me/aneedywilmington Dec. 15. The drop off location is:

Hahn Becomes Chair of the County Board of Supervisors

LOS ANGELES — On Dec. 4, Supervisor Janice Hahn assumed the role of chairwoman for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. This rotating role will allow the Supervisor to set the agenda for 2019.

Supervisor Hahn takes over the role previously held by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. During the board meeting the supervisors recognized Kuehl’s leadership over the past year and played a video recounting many of her accomplishments. Supervisor Hahn then delivered a speech on her chairship and nominated Supervisor Kathryn Barger to be Chair Pro-Tem. In her remarks following the swearing-in ceremony, Hahn invoked the memory of growing up in a political dynasty that included her father and uncle, both of whom served on the Los Angeles City Council in the 1950s and ‘60s and her father as a county supervisor through the 1970s and ‘80s.

“When I was born in 1952, my dad was already planning his run for the Board of Supervisors,” Hahn said. “My mom said when she brought me home from the hospital, the living room was essentially a campaign headquarters. I basically grew up in this county family. So, today becoming the chair and the face of this county is a poignant moment for me.”

Community Announcements:

Harbor Area Volunteer for the Homeless Count

At least 8,000 volunteers are needed to canvas the homeless population in more than 80 cities and 200 communities across Los Angeles County when the annual census of the region’s homeless people is conducted January 22-24. The census, overseen by the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, helps define the size and nature of the crisis of homelessness in the county, enabling more effective distribution of resources. South Bay/ Harbor Cities and East/West LA County will be canvassed Jan. 23. Volunteers are now being registered.

Time: Jan. 23: South Bay/Harbor Cities and East and West Los Angeles County Details: www.theycountwillyou.org/ volunteer

Belmont Pier Beach Clean Up

Enjoy the sun on your face and the good feeling making a difference and quite possibly saving the life of a seabird or turtle. Free parking. We will share some snacks and water. Bring your own reusable bottle.

Time: 12 to 1 p.m. Dec 16 Details: www.tinyurl.com/wwwfacebook-com-events-beach Location: Belmont Pier, Long Beach

East Wilmington Greenbelt Park

After years of negotiations, hurdles, and advocacy -— East Wilmington Greenbelt Park will finally benefit from $3 million worth of renovations from Prop. 40 funding. Renovations will include new workout equipment, rubberized surface play area, DG paving, synthetic multi-purpose fields, concrete walkway, new prefabricated restroom, futsal court conversion, and security lighting.

The project is projected to be completed by February 2019

School Safety Panel:

More Counselors, Fewer Random Searches

By Lyn Jensen, Reporter

Los Angeles Unified School District requires all of its middle and high schools to conduct “daily random” searches of students and lockers with handheld metal detector wands in order to find and seize weapons brought to school unlawfully. Schools with over 1,000 students enrolled must have four metal detector wands, used daily, while schools with less than 1,000 students need only have two, used daily.

This policy may be the most controversial finding by a panel, convened by Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer earlier this year, to address the issue of gun violence in Los Angeles district schools. In the aftermath of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida this past February, Feuer convened a Blue Ribbon Panel on School Safety.

With the cooperation of the district, the panel spent several months examining district efforts to keep schools safe from gun violence. The final report and its recommendations were made public in August.

Asked for comment, Rob Wilcox of the city attorney’s office stated, “The most controversial aspect of the report had to do with LAUSD’s random handheld metal detector search policy (wanding) and our recommendation that it be suspended while undertaking a large scale audit of the program.”

The panel found that the district’s internal audits of its random metal detector search policy have not shown the policy to be effective in recovering weapons. A 2014 audit of middle and high schools found 38 percent of schools did not have the required number of metal detector wands to carry out these daily searches. The data also showed that, of the 385

knives and firearms confiscated at district schools in 2016-17, a metal detector wand was involved in only five confiscations.

In response to concerns about its random search policy, the district has started a pilot program this school year, the results of which will become available this month.

From April to June, Feuer’s panel convened eight town hall meetings — one in every Los Angeles school board district. The panel received 415 public comments. The final report includes 33 recommendations including: • Requiring all campuses to have a single entry point, interior locking doors and working two-way intercoms and phones in all classrooms.

• Include information in the parent-student handbook that emphasizes the need for parents to be aware of the necessity for safely storing firearms, and requiring parents to attest at the beginning of each school year that if there’s a gun at home, it’s stored safely. The report asserts, “Even if troubled individuals had thoughts or vague plans to commit violence at school, they could not carry out a school shooting without a firearm.”

• Expand school mental-health programs to include placing a full-time psychiatric social worker at every school, and increasing cross-jurisdictional mental health collaboration.

• Adding a district-level school safety director because, “The District needs a single, accountable leader to oversee, coordinate, and effectively integrate its many important school safety efforts

… [and to] be exclusively in charge of assuring that all facets of school safety are integrated and effective.”

• Create a unified approach across law enforcement agencies to identify neighborhoods at risk for crime near schools and develop safe “passages to school” programs.

• The school district, the City of Los Angeles, or both, should sponsor state legislation to impose criminal liability on individuals who make [See School Safety, p. 13]

Operation Pilot Wheel Adopt a Pilot

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December 6 - 12, 2018

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DESIGNS

Eastbound traffic patterns coming off the Gerald Desmond Bridge have changed. One of two off-ramps to Pico Avenue closed permanently to enable construction crews to complete a new connector into downtown Long Beach.

The permanently closed off-ramp is on the south (right) side of the fork just before Pico Avenue, and closest to the Long Beach Container Terminal.

All traffic traveling east from the Gerald Desmond Bridge will still be funneled onto Pico Avenue where vehicles can reach either the northbound 710 Freeway or the Ocean Boulevard detour heading into downtown Long Beach. Instead of two off-ramps, there will be only one.

Details: www.newgdbridge.com

Don Marshall

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

A Needy Wilmington is looking for pilot captains to take the wheel.

There are students with families from Banning High School who are in need of assistance to get through this difficult voyage. The fall season is upon us and the coming winter is around the corner. Some are living in cars, motels or in multi families in one dwelling.

They are all in need of help of anything you can give.

When inquiring please make sure you to mention OPERATION PILOT WHEEL./ ADOPT A PILOT Details: (310) 929-0368; www.aneedywilmington.wixsite.com

5

Supporting Solutions, Not Neglect

Without more new jobs, will gentrification actually bring prosperity?

By James Preston Allen, Publisher

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

For some 50 years, I have witnessed the comings and goings of “great” plans for community development here in the Los Angeles Harbor Area and Long Beach. There have been far too many studies, community plans and town hall meetings through the years. And, through it all, far too much acrimony. I have often said over these five decades that if you want to start an argument just start talking about public land use.

From the bygone days when old Beacon Street was torn down, to the demolition of The Pike in Long Beach and the string of redevelopment projects on both sides of the harbor in between, there have been numerous false steps and dead ends before anything actually got built. The demolishing of Ports O’ Call is just the latest plan in which civic leaders were attempting to “do the right thing,” while promising prosperity. There are reasons for doubt and skepticism.

Joan Milke-Flores, the Los Angeles City Councilwoman who represented Council District 15 in the 1980s, proposed and started the Milke Walkway from White Point down to the harbor. It’s why there are a series of squared bricks embedded in the sidewalk along Paseo del Mar and beyond.

She was also the district’s first councilperson to spearhead San Pedro’s revitalization effort, one of several attempts to save downtown San Pedro after the canneries and shipyards closed, leaving a vacuum of 30,000 jobs.

Milke-Flores also ushered in a sweeping zoning change that allowed for higher density residential development, which you can see rising out of the older neighborhoods with two and three story stucco box apartments and the developments up on Capital Drive on the north end of town. After this, San Pedro was destined to become a “bedroom community.”

Replacing Milke-Flores was Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr., who spent most of his two terms in office trying not to get torpedoed in the battle over a large tract of navy housing land most of us still call Ponte Vista after it was given to the City of Los Angeles. President Ronald Reagan signed the McKinney-Vento Act in 1987, a law that provisioned that this land must first be used to benefit the homeless. The McKinney Act originally had 15 programs providing

a spectrum of services to homeless people, including the Continuum of Care Programs: the Supportive Housing Program, the Shelter Plus Care Program and the Single Room Occupancy Program, as well as the Emergency Shelter Grant Program. This law planted the seed of community conflicts to come.

The NIMBY’s in Northwest San Pedro weren’t having any homeless services placed in their part of town.

A deal was eventually struck that resulted in homeless support services provider, Harbor Interfaith Services receiving a $10 million buyout, which they used to purchase several properties in Central San Pedro that they operate today.

Most of Harbor Interfaith Services properties are operated without notice that the tenants were once homeless. Harbor Interfaith has become one of the leading and most respected homeless service agencies in Los Angeles County.

Even in the 1990s, homelessness as an issue was contentious if not an ignored community problem. It just wasn’t called a crisis. Only 25 years later a small portion of the former Navy housing would be rehabilitated to address homeless veterans. The remaining land, which was sold to one developer after another through years of fights with the community over the density level of the final development, remains unconstructed and vacant.

Next, San Pedro thought that it hit two homeruns in the game with the election of Mayor Janes Hahn and his sister Janice to represent Council District 15 following the fight to secede from Los Angeles. Both were San Pedro residents. During that time, the first stretch of waterfront promenade was built plus a new fire station, animal shelter and Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Division as part of Mayor Hahn’s commitment to keeping San Pedro “in the city.” The focus was to have the Harbor Area recognized for being the front door to the Pacific Rim for Los Angeles trade and commerce. The dream was short lived with the election of Antonio Villaraigosa as mayor, but Councilwoman Hahn persisted, expanding upon the two San Pedro redevelopment districts and the creation of two major parks, one in Wilmington and the other at 22nd Street, all on port properties.

However, one of the biggest land battles ever fought in this community was over the

December 6 - 12, 2018

Publisher/Executive Editor James Preston Allen james@randomlengthsnews.com

6

Assoc. Publisher/Production Coordinator Suzanne Matsumiya

“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 Vol. XXXIX : No. 25 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.

Managing Editor Terelle Jerricks editor@randomlengthsnews.com Senior Editor Paul Rosenberg paul.rosenberg@ randomlengthsnews.com

China Shipping terminal that capped what one harbor commissioner termed “The 100 Years War” between the Port of Los Angeles and the community. With the threat to bulldoze the small promontory overlooking the harbor, north of the Vincent Thomas Bridge, a small group of San Pedro homeowners and the Natural Resources Defense Council took POLA to court and won on appeal a $65 million lawsuit that forced the port to mitigate its industrial polluting activities. The terms of that decision and resulting reverberations are still being felt nearly 20 years later. The recent Supplemental Environmental Impact Report for China Shipping is a residual consequence of the port’s failure to fully comply with the original settlement.

Since this time, the port’s pollution levels have declined significantly but are heatedly argued about, monitored and studied as never before. But the goal of “zero emissions” is still elusive and as distant as the technology to achieve it.

Councilman Joe Buscaino has now been in office since January 2012, first elected to a vacancy when Janice Hahn ran for Congress.

He has been elected twice and been involved in more land battles in various parts of his district than anyone since Svorinich. He has championed new housing development in every part of his district, including the infamous Sea Breeze in Harbor Gateway. This $72 million apartment complex got, developer Samuel Leung indicted, with one felony count of conspiracy to commit campaign money laundering and one felony count of offering to bribe a legislator.

Closer to the port, there are now some 420 housing units under construction, with only three units of them qualified for low income. Few affordable housing units are being planned in San Pedro if there’s any plan for them at all. Yet

Columnists/Reporters Lyn Jensen Reporter Richard Foss Restaurant

Reviewer Andrea Serna Arts Writer Melina Paris Staff Reporter Send Calendar Items to: 14days@randomlengthsnews.com

Cartoonists Ann Cleaves, Andy Singer, Jan Sorensen, Matt Wuerker Design/Production Suzanne Matsumiya, Brenda Lopez Advertising Representative Justin Shahian Sales1@randomlengthsnews.com

Photographers Terelle Jerricks, Jessie Drezner, Benjamin Garcia, Raphael Richardson, Editorial Intern Casey Warren Beatrice Jimenez Display advertising (310) 519-1442 Contributors (310) 519-1016 Leslie Belt, Mark L. Friedman, Ben- Classifieds (310) 832-1000 jamin Garcia, Ari LaVeaux, Russell Fax: www.randomlengthsnews.com Mokhiber, Greggory Moore

on the pathway to new residential gentrification we have now lost some 450 permanent jobs with the demolition of Ports O’ Call, which was expedited for no apparent reason and now the sale and forced closure of Harbor View House.

All of these new developments are chasing some dream of prosperity while ignoring the historic loss of 30,000 jobs from the Reagan era. This is the current predicament of solving the growing homeless crisis while ignoring sustainable solutions.

New housing is only part of the solution and providing shelter for the least in our community must be done. But the question remains: where are jobs that sustain a growing community?

Hightower Up Against the Corporate Wall

By Russell Mokhiber

For 10 years, Jim Hightower’s weekly column Little Puffs of Populism, has been distributed, week in and week out by Creators’ Syndicate to newspapers around the country.

Not one problem.

Until this week’s column, titled Free The Free Press from Wall Street Plunderers.

Earlier this week, Creators’ Syndicate informed Hightower they were not going to distribute this one.

Why not?

“The big, hedge-fund owned newspaper chains that Hightower calls out in his column are big customers of theirs [Creators’ Syndicate], and as such, they don’t want to risk [See Hightower, p. 7]

Random Lengths News editorial office is located at 1300 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro, CA 90731.

Address correspondence regarding news items and tips to Random Lengths News, P.O. Box 731, San Pedro, CA 90733-0731, or email: editor@randomlengthsnews. com.

Send Letters to the Editor to james@randomlengthsnews.com. To be considered for publication, letters must be signed with address and phone number (for verification purposes) and be about 250 words.

For advertising inquiries or to submit advertising copy, email: rlnsales@randomlengthsnews.com.

Annual subscription is $36 for 27 issues.

Back issues are available for $3/copy while supplies last.

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. Random Lengths News is a member of Standard Rates and Data Services and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. (ISN #0891-6627).

All contents Copyright 2018 Random Lengths News. All rights reserved.

we would still be a community of descending decay! Because there is NO “safety,” “health,” “quality of life”— “future.”

LA’s number one business is tourism, and we are a seaside with next to nothing to offer. What do we attract, that is above the poverty line? We only attract human problems...

Our ‘sell-out’ leaders use SP as a dirty stepping stone for their own political futures — and as long as folks (who know better) protect their deceit, we all suffer.

Fine that you finally agree that

our leaders have miserably and deceitfully, failed. Then, why keep forgiving/re-electing them so that they may steal more of your present and your future? Why pay them to condemn your Community?

How bad does it have to get before you all address the real source of our one-of-a-kind California seaside slum? Who will be left to defend our mutual public interest?

John Papadakis San Pedro

Hightower wrote.

“They know nothing about journalism and care less, for they’re ruthless Wall Street profiteers out to grab big bucks fast by slashing the journalistic and production staffs of each paper, voiding all employee benefits (from pensions to free coffee in the breakroom), shriveling the paper’s size and news content, selling the presses and other assets, tripling the price of their inferior product – then declaring bankruptcy, shutting down the paper, and auctioning off the bones before moving on to plunder another town’s paper.”

“By 2014, America’s two largest media chains were not venerable publishers who believe that a newspaper’s mission includes a commitment to truth and a civic responsibility, but GateHouse and Digital First, whose managers believe that good journalism is measured by the personal profit they can squeeze from it.”

“As revealed last year in an American Prospect article, GateHouse executives had demanded that its papers cut $27 million from their operating expenses. Thousands of newspaper employees shared the suffering of that $27-million cut in large part because one employee — the hedge fund’s CEO — had extracted $54 million in personal pay from the conglomerate, including an $11-million bonus.”

“To these absentee owners and operators, our newspapers are just mines, entitling them to extract enormous financial wealth and social well-being from our communities.”

I wanted you to be one of the first to know: today I have officially launched my campaign for Los Angeles County Supervisor representing the 2nd District. After discussing with my wife, Fabian, and our sons, we are excited to continue the progress we have begun in my time in the Assembly and Los Angeles City Council.

I am asking you to join me in these early stages of my campaign because you know where I stand.

I have always prioritized making Los Angeles a better place to live, work and raise a family. And you know as well as anybody that I will continue this work in the Supervisor’s office.

Herb Wesson, President of the LA City Council

RANDOMLetters

Open Letter to Joe Buscaino

Making homelessness your focus will not cure our seaside sickness.

The economic crisis in San Pedro is the community killer.

By civic design, ‘our’ Waterfront, which is our greatest economic resource, works only for the few, not the many. This myopic (status quo) devotion to industrial cargo, has killed the commercial,

residential and recreational industries. Our lack of community commerce gives our streets over to crime, poverty, drug addiction, homelessness and violence. No businesses. No jobs. No ‘life.’ No future!

Who cares to maintain order when there is nothing privately invested?

If we were to eliminate every derelict, bum, homeless, vagrant (whatever) from our landscape,

[Hightower from p. 6]

Hightower

offending them,” said Melody Byrd, an assistant to Hightower. Byrd. “But while Creators’ reluctance to anger these powerful interests is somewhat understandable, the implications are frightening. It’s one more example of this dangerous time for America’s decreasingly-free press that, ironically, Jim lays out in this very column.”

In a note to newspapers urging them to run the column anyway, Byrd wrote, “The American people deserve to know more about the entities that are squeezing so many of our community newspapers for cash and, in the process, choking our democracy.”

Byrd said that Creators’ Syndicate told her that while the hedge funds that Hightower fingered in his column don’t own the syndicate, they do own many of the newspapers to which the syndicate distributes.

“The demise of the real news reporting by our city and regional papers is a product of their profiteering owners,” Hightower wrote in the column. “Not the families and companies that built and nurtured true journalism, but the new breed of fast-buck hucksters who’ve scooped up hundreds of America’s newspapers from the bargain bins of media sell-offs.”

“The buyers are hedge-fund scavengers with names like Digital First and GateHouse,”

A Word from the LA City Council President

Gun Violence and Safety

Gun violence is at unacceptable levels and needs to be addressed.

A reasonable place to start to try and minimize gun violence is gun safety. Gun safety is acceptable to most gun owners. Gun safety does not take anyone’s guns, so the 2A people cannot object on that ground.

Gun safety should require that every gun owner attend safety classes yearly. The classes should include shooting the weapon.

Weapons are like itches that need to be scratched. People need to shoot them to alleviate the itch.

It’s also a way for them to blow off steam, which can divert them from violence.

The classes should also include anger management. People need to be trained how to recognize theirs and others’ unsafe symptoms, coping skills and where to locate options to deal with stress.

Every bullet and gun barrel should have a crisis center’s 800 phone number on them. This may prompt someone to look for an outlet other than shooting someone.

Also, all gun owners should have an anger management app on their mobile phones that will let them know they have options on how to alleviate stress.

John Henrichs San Pedro

Mr. Henrichs, At the very least there should be as much training to operate a gun as there is to drive a car, with annual registration and licensing.

One might ask, “at what age should a gun license be restricted?”

James Preston Allen, Publisher

Season of Gratitude

Thank you “ALL” for giving me my spiritual life back. I asked God to use me. He told me what my gift was through song I heard on the radio.

Hood family ministry, Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year. Riders come out and ride for Jesus.

Annette Cabrera Aguilar San Pedro

Student Letters

Editor’s note: In the past few weeks, Random Lengths News received a group of Letters to the Editor from the students of San Pedro High School English teacher Michael Kurdyla. Reading through the letters, the students did an admirable job following their teacher’s instruction to read and critique stories that piqued their interest. We will be select a few of the letters for print while posting the remainder online.

[See Letters, p. 15]

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

December 6 - 12, 2018

7

California Wildfires Disaster: Newsom Calls for Resignation of California Democratic Party Chair

Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom has called for the resignation of California Democratic Party chairman Eric Bauman in light of what Newsom called “very serious” sexual harassment allegations against him.

Newsom made his request one day after the Los Angeles Times reported allegations by 10 party staffers and activists that Bauman made crude sexual comments and engaged in unwanted touching or physical intimidation.

In response, Bauman said he planned to seek treatment for health issues and alcohol use.

Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said the governor-elect believes the investigation should move forward and the victims should be heard. But given the numerous detailed, severe and corroborated allegations reported by the Times, he believes Bauman’s resignation is the best course of action for the party.

LB Harbor Commission Appoints Director of Real Estate

LONG BEACH — The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners promoted Eamonn Killeen to lead the Real Estate Division at the nation’s second-busiest seaport.

The Director of Real Estate generates revenue through leases of Port of Long Beach property and facilities and plays a crucial role in implementing environmental policies.

Killeen has been with the POLB since 2002, starting as a leasing officer, then as senior leasing officer in 2009 and assistant director of real estate in 2014. He has been the acting director of real estate since June.

During his time at the POLB, Killeen secured lease agreements with several port tenants and coordinated the land acquisition for projects including the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement and the Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility.

Killeen’s appointment is effective Dec. 8.

LA County Library has New, Improved Mobile App

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

LOS ANGELES — LA County Library has launched a new mobile app, available for iOS and Android, with a range of new features and functions. The app makes it easy to browse the collection, get details on items, make a selection, check out an item or place a hold for later pick up, and renew items previously checked out. Customers will be able to check out eBooks and audiobooks with one-click, and either stream in their browser or link to their OverDrive account.

The app can be downloaded through LA County Library in the App Store or Google Play.

Natural Disaster or Preventable Social Catastrophe?

By Mark L. Friedman, RLN Contributor

Working people in Paradise, Magalia and other California towns were hit by one of the worst wildfires in state history in November.

The Camp Fire burned over 150,000 acres in Butte County beginning Nov. 8. As this issue of Random Lengths News goes to press there are 77 confirmed fatalities while 12,000 structures, mostly houses, have been destroyed.

At the same time, the Woolsey Fire in Los Angeles and Ventura counties burned 96,949 acres. There are three confirmed fatalities and 1,472 structures were destroyed.

These results constitute a social catastrophe.

But the disaster isn’t the result of the fires; it was caused by the workings of an economic system that puts the profits of capitalist builders, investors, utility company executives and insurance magnates before the lives of working people. The murderous toll could have been largely prevented.

Hundreds are still missing and unaccounted for. Most people in Paradise received no warning that the fire was roaring into the town. The alert system was voluntary, and less than half the residents were on the list. Those who tried to flee found roads blocked by fire, debris and the sheer number of people attempting to escape. Some burned to death in their cars.

By contrast, everyone with a cellphone in the wealthy town of Malibu got an Amber Alert message warning of the fire danger there.

Human solidarity

Workers from the area pooled resources and bought tents and bedding to provide shelter for the refugees. Most arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs. Volunteers organized free food and clothing distribution booths. There was even a table with food for pets.

An ad hoc group of students from Chico State University got together and brought sandwiches to the tent city. Under pressure to help, Walmart provided portable toilets and water bottles.

The six overcrowded government-run shelters in the area became centers of an epidemic, the highly contagious Norovirus, shaken by vomiting and diarrhea. Dozens were hospitalized.

Denise Chester, a housewife with three children, a construction worker husband, told

December 6 - 12, 2018

Government indifference?

The state flag flies amid raging fire in Paradise, Calif. File photo

reporters she got no alert. “At first I grabbed a water hose and tried to save my house and the two houses close to it.” Fortunately, she got her children and their dog, and joined other residents to fight their way out of town. “We organized a caravan of 10 people,” Chester said. “I knew a back way out and we took it. We went on dirt roads, but we survived. My house was completely burned to the ground.”

Fred and Sally Hugg’s farm in Concow survived when they were able to beat back the fire. They organized to gather and take in some 200 animals from people who had to flee, including 100 chickens, 60 ducks, 20 goats, three pigs and four donkeys. They’ve gotten help from other volunteers and members of the Future Farmers of America.

Almost all of those involved in the largest search effort in California history — trying to find survivors or human remains in Butte Country — are volunteers.

More than 1,000 of those fighting the fires have been California prison inmates who volunteered for the dangerous duty. Two prisoners are among the five firefighters severely burned in Paradise on the first day of the fire.

Inmates are paid just $2 a day, with an extra $1 for each hour when they battle an active fire.

“They claim that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has set up shop in Chico to help us,” said a victim of one of the wildfires.

“I called their office and they told me that it would take 10 days just to get an application.

We have friends in Redding where we could stay but we have no gas and no money to get there. I contacted the Red Cross and asked them for $40.

They said they couldn’t help.”

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company in Northern California has been heavily criticized.

Fire investigators found that PG&E’s refusal to spend money to upgrade their infrastructure has been responsible for some of California’s worst fires in the last three years.

Conditions on Nov. 8 warranted a preemptive power shutdown, but PG&E bosses decided not to order one. Then they reported they had a problem on one of their high-voltage power lines near Paradise. Fifteen minutes later, the Camp Fire broke out in that area. Authorities say this is most likely the cause of the fire.

Places like Paradise are in what is called wildland-urban interface. Housing is built near forests and associated brush and grasslands.

Fully one-third of all housing in the U.S. is built in this kind of area.

The steps necessary to minimize fire danger are no mystery: clearing the ground of debris and dead plants; removing fallen trees; conducting periodic controlled burns; not stringing electric wires near dense forests, and instead putting them underground; and using fire-retardant materials in construction. But under capitalism, builders, utilities and governments deem these steps too expensive. PG&E finds it more profitable to pay the fines than to take preventive measures to stop or retard fires.

In addition, the impact of climate change, droughts, proliferation of dead trees due to bark beetle infestation all contribute to the California tinderbox.

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Maribella Magaña as Emily in Tom Stoppard’s Darkside, at Garage Theatre. Photo by FreshFrameFoto.com

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

A Powerful Meditation on the Search for Goodness forced to reexamine some deeply held convictions. […] Ethics Man is [now] a Nietzschean egoist. […] The rules are made by whoever has the will to make them.”

We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore, and for someone in search of the Good (Nietzsche wasn’t), such ratiocination doesn’t necessarily satisfy, so Emily treks ever deeper into her psychic wilderness, losing touch with the real world as she fantasizes about how she might address humanity on the subject: They know the world is fucked if something isn’t done. They know what has to be done. They don’t understand why nobody is really doing it. The system is locked somehow, they don’t know why. They’re looking up at me. Can Emily McCoy save the world? I explain it to them as if I’m talking to children. When I’m done … [they] sit there, stunned. But next [See Curtain Call, p. 12]

December 6 - 12, 2018

mily has a problem. She’s at university studying a bit of philosophy and she’s increasingly troubled by her investigations into the status of the Good, particularly as highlighted in thought experiments proffered by Professor Baggott. Is it Good, for example, to divert a runaway train full of passengers from plunging off a cliff if by doing so you kill an innocent boy playing on the tracks?

It’s a consideration that transports Emily from lecture hall to the land of thought experiments, where she meets up with that now-deceased boy.

They are soon joined by the superhero (or should we say: Übermensch?)

Ethics Man – Baggott behind the mask – who floats to earth after taking his doomed plane’s sole parachute (the premise of another well-known hypothetical), leaving his fellow passengers, a banker and a politician, to go down with the airship.

“I was a utilitarian consequentialist,” Baggott explains, “but I’ve been

E

By Greggory Moore, Curtain Call Columnist

9

W

ith a soft serve ice cream machine, a deep fryer, and a refrigerated counter full of fresh seafood, John’s Fish Market in Vineyard Haven, MA, could be mistaken for many an East Coast fish market.

You sit at the picnic tables and eat baskets of fried fish, oysters, scallops and belly clams. lobster rolls and smoked bluefish, fresh local flounder, lemon sole, striped bass, tuna and fluke.

But the addition Chef Kevin Oh, of Perak, Malaysia, sets John’s apart from the competition.

Chef Oh is equally difficult to understand, despite having immigrated 31 years ago. Yet even without perfect fluency, his integration into the local fabric is complete. He and Glenn Pachico, the thirdgeneration owner, are in perfect sync.

“We have the same thing in mind,” Glenn says.

“Making people smile with good food.”

“He’s made it so I don’t want to eat American food anymore,” his wife Sheila admits.

Looking East has long been a tradition in the Pachico family. In the late 1950s, while dragging a net in deep waters on the edge of the “canyon wall,” as he calls the Continental Shelf, Glenn’s dad John Jr. hauled up a 36-pound lobster. “Its crusher claw fed 15 people,” Glenn recalls. The

Chef Oh’s Spicy Malaysian Seafood Curry

By Ari LeVaux, Flash in the Pan

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

One medium shallot, minced.

Two heads of garlic, sliced.

Two cubic inches fresh ginger, peeled and sliced.

(Prep a little extra of everything, in case you want to adjust the flavor) Hot Pepper (to taste) 1 teaspoon shrimp paste (optional) Procedure Add all ingredients, minus the galangal, to a Cuisinart-style food processor or high-speed blender. Work until it’s paste. Or use a mortar and pestle for serious mojo points. Add a little oil if necessary to keep things flowing. Adjust flavors as you see fit.

This paste can be used to make coconut curry. Chef Oh explained how to make seafood curry, as follows.

Chef Oh’s Seafood Curry

relatively petite five-pound pincher claw from that mammoth crustacean remains on a shelf in a utility room in the back of the building, a room that also houses a freezer, an office, several lobster tanks, and Chef Oh’s kitchen.

Chef Oh creates a new menu each summer, combining his Far East flair with fresh, East Coast seafood. This summer’s menu includes halibut from the Gulf of Maine prepared with ginger and scallion, as well as local swordfish with Malaysian molee sauce, and the sweetest, most savory scallops in the sea, gently cooked with cream and spinach.

These were bay scallops, harvested in cold water and frozen before they had the opportunity to warm up.

Last November, in an offshore location that remains undisclosed, they hit the jackpot

December 6 - 12, 2018

5 fresh kaffir lime leaves. Chef Oh’s come from his daughter’s tree in San Diego.

Cubic inch fresh turmeric, peeled and sliced.

Chef Oh’s Malaysian seafood curry.

10

curry for two, so I’ll base the quantities on that.

Remove the outer dry leaves and thin-slice. Or use lemongrass powder.

Ingredients

on oversized bay scallops. I had been eating them for days, usually raw, in their deep umami glory, but sometimes with lemon and hot sauce, and of course sometimes with mayonnaise. But my favorite way to eat those scallops might be in Chef Oh’s Malaysian Spicy Seafood Curry.

If only I knew how to make it at home, and write about it for this column, I mused. He doesn’t usually give away his secrets, Glenn told me. I nodded, solemnly. “I don’t blame him,” I mustered.

Two days later, I sat in the office space behind the fish counter, between a half-eaten piece of fried fish and Chef Oh. He’d agreed to share the recipe with me, and gave me his blessing to share it with you.

Some of his ingredients are in dried form, despite being available fresh, such as lemongrass and galangal, which he prefers to use in powdered form. Another tricky ingredient to find is basil mint. I’ve made a note-to-self to order seeds to become self-sufficient. In the meantime, the combination of basil and mint, go figure, works just fine.

Chef Oh’s Curry Paste Ingredients One good stick of lemongrass will make enough

Aforementioned Chef Oh’s Curry Paste One can full-fat coconut milk or cream Fish sauce One cubic inch fresh galangal, peeled, sliced and set aside Salt, pepper Lemon or lime, or lemon and lime.

Basil mint, or basil and mint.

Olive or other oil, or butter, or coconut oil Seafood (preferably scallops harvested in cold water and processed and frozen immediately) Seasonal veggies like peas, garlic scapes, salad turnips or whatever is freshest Procedure Thaw scallops overnight, and marinate them in lemon/lime. Add oil to a pan on medium heat. Fry the curry paste, working it around and browning it a little. Add the coconut and veggies, and heat to a simmer. Add the sliced galangal, and the salad turnip slices if using, and any other fast-cooking veggies. Look to add water if it’s at all too thick; the curry should be on the thin side, for the moment.

When it tastes right, add the seafood (but not the lemon juice), and reduce heat to low.

It is very important, Chef Oh emphasized, to cook the seafood slowly, so it cooks gently and is soft and delicate. Garnish with basil mint, or basil and mint, and serve.

DEC 6 - 12 • 2018 Kusama — Infinity ENTERTAINMENT Dec 6

Live Music on First Thursday Live music at The Whale & Ale and other venues.

Time: 6 p.m. Dec 6 Cost: Free Details: (310) 832-0363 Venue: The Whale & Ale, 327 W. 7th St., San Pedro

Dec 7

Acoustic Soul Express Acoustic Soul Express makes its regular stop at Babouch Moroccan Restaurant on the second Friday of each month.

Time: 7 to 10 p.m. Dec. 7 Cost: Free Details: (310) 831-0246 Venue: Babouch Moroccan Restaurant, 810 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro Harbor Groove Band Come and celebrate all our December birthdays with the Harbor Groove Band at Godmothers.

Time: 9 to 12 p.m. Dec. 7 Cost: Free Details: (310) 833-1589 Venue: Godmother’s Saloon, 302 W. 7th St., San Pedro First Fridays at First A rising star on New York City’s music scene, cellist Ben Capps has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls, and at the Kennedy Center.

Time: 12:15 p.m. Dec. 7 Cost: Free Details: (310) 316-5574 Venue: First Lutheran Church and School, 2900 W. Carson St., Torrance

Dec 8

Stevie Wonder’s Annual Benefit Concert The one-of-a-kind artist has thrilled with his musicianship since he was a child prodigy.

The prolific songwriter continues to give even more with the 21st annual House Full of Toys,

Home for Christmas Soprano Jennie Olivia and baritone Ben Lowe present an evening of holiday music and conversation.

Time: 4 p.m. Dec. 9 Cost: $10 to $20 Details: (310) 320-3818; www.palosverdes.com/classicalcrossroads/HomeForChristmas Venue: First Lutheran Church & School, 2900 W. Carson St., Torrance

Dec 12 Calle Mayor Middle School Winter Concert The annual holiday performance will feature the concert band, jazz band and choir.

Time: 7 p.m. Dec. 12 Cost: $7 Details: (310) 533-4548 Venue: James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Dr., Torrance

Dec 15

A Celtic Christmas “World’s most recorded piper” Eric Rigler and guitarist Dirk Freymuth bring acoustic holiday cheer. Featuring Wanda Law on fiddle and viola, and special guest Nuala Kennedy on vocals and flute.

Time: 8 to 10 p.m. Dec. 15 Cost: $30 Details: www.alvasshowroom.tix. com Venue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

Dec 7

Dec 16 Swingin’ Jingle Bells by Harbor Jazz Ensemble A concert of jazzy holiday arrangements and swingin’ American tunes by 9-piece Harbor Jazz Ensemble.

Time: 4 to 6 p.m. Dec 16 Cost: $5 Details: (310) 547-2348 Venue: People’s Place, 365 W. 6th St., San Pedro The Lettermen Christmas Show Enjoy an afternoon of seasonal songs and hits from The Lettermen, such as Put Your Head on My Shoulder, Goin’ Out of My Head/Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You. Time: 2 p.m. Dec. 16 Cost: $55 to $75 Details: (562) 916-8500; www.cerritoscenter.com Venue: Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 18000 Park Plaza Drive, Cerritos

THEATER Dec 8

A Christmas Carol In this quick-paced, theatrical retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic tale, the ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future show Ebenezer Scrooge the poverty of his material wealth and the blessings that come with generosity.

Time: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sundays, Dec. 8 through Dec. 23 Cost: $20 to $24 Details: www.longbeachplayhouse.org Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach

DANCE Dec 6

Hot Chocolate Nutcracker Don’t miss this original holiday classic, written, directed and choreographed by Debbie Allen.

Time: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6, 7 and 1 and 7 p.m. Dec. 8, and 2 p.m.

Artist Yayoi Kusama is the subject of a film by director Heather Lenz, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will screen at the Art Theater in Long Beach on Dec. 9.

Details: www.72268.formovietickets.com

Dec. 9 Cost: $40 to $110 Details: www.thehotchocolatenutcracker.com Venue: Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach

Cost: $7 to $10 Details: (310) 548-2493; cash at door Venue: Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro

Dec 7

The Nutcracker Long Beach Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker boasts dazzling special effects, grand-scale scenery, and radiant dancing performed with a live symphonic orchestra and children’s choir Time: 2 p.m. Dec. 15, 16, 22, 23 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 15, 21, 22 Cost: $34 to $78 Details: www.longbeachnutcracker.com Venue: Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center, 300 Ocean Blvd., Long Beach

The Nutcracker 25th Anniversary San Pedro City Ballet, home of American Ballet Theatre superstar Misty Copeland, presents its 25th annual production of The Nutcracker, with artistic direction by Cynthia and Patrick David Bradley.

Time: 7 p.m. Dec. 7, 8 and 2 p.m.

Dec. 8, 9 Cost: $19 to $39 Details: www.grandvision.org Venue: Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro

Dec 8 Lipstick, Shoes and Fancy Moves A mosaic of dance companies performing hip hop, ballet, Chinese dance and more.

Time: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 8 Cost: Free Details: www.tutudance.org Venue: James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Dr. Torrance

Dec 13 POLA High School Holiday Dance Show The “POLA Bears” show off their considerable dance skills to enliven your holiday.

Time: 7 p.m. Dec. 13

Dec 15

Dec 19 DANCE TECH 4th Annual Winter Show Port De Ballet presents students, from two years to adult, in a WWIIera dance tribute to veterans and active military.

Time: 7 p.m. Dec. 19 Cost: $25 to $35 Detail: (310) 525-0634 Venue: Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro

ARTS

Dec 6

First Thursday Art Walk The National Watercolor Society will be open for the December Artwalk Time: 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 6 Cost: Free Details: (310) 831-1099; www.nationalwatercolorsociety.org

The Winter Show Dael’s expansive abstract paintings demonstrate masterful control of color and composition while achieving the artist’s goal of “not overshooting the mark.” The show runs Dec. 7 through Jan 2.

Time: 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 7 Cost: Free Details: www.pvartcenter.org Venue: Palos Verdes Art Center, 5504 W. Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes

Dec 8

EMERGE: Art Fair A unique art fair that features the work of seven emerging to mid-career artists based in Southern California.

EMERGE will showcase a diverse range of media, including paintings, works on paper, and sculptures.

Time: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 8, 9 Cost: Free Details: www.lbma.org Venue: Long Beach Museum of Art, 2900 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach

FILM

Dec 7 First Fridays Family Festival Knock out all of your holiday shopping in one night and support local businesses.

The Expo will be open hosting Uptown Village Market.

Time: 6:30 to 9: 30 p.m. Dec. 7 Cost: Free Venue: Bixby Knolls, Long Beach

Dec 9

Kusama — Infinity Now the top-selling female artist in the world, Yayoi Kusama overcame countless odds to bring her radical artis-

[See Calendar, p. 12]

Dec 14

Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce Hot on the very high heels of the epic extravaganza, a 24-decade history of popular music, the incomparable artist returns with the ultimate holiday survival guide — Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce.

Time: 8 p.m. Dec.14, 15 Cost: $26 to $116 Details: (310) 825-2101; www.cap.ucla.edu Venue: Royce Hall, UCLA, 10745

December 6 - 12, 2018

Dec 9

Stevie Nicks Illusion: A Tribute to Stevie Nicks & Fleetwood Mac The vocals of Diana Grace are spot on as Stevie Nicks from the early years of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Time: 4 p.m. Dec. 9 Cost: $20 Details: www.alvasshowroom.tix. com Venue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

Loving Tuscany With exuberant canvases, violent and subtle brushstrokes, thick palpable texture, Frank’ O’s paintings evoke Tuscany, but that is only in the surface.

Time: 6 p.m. Dec. 6 Cost: Free Details: www.msartgallery. com Venue: The Loft Studios and Gallery, 401 S. Mesa St., San Pedro

Colors of Christmas For 25 years, Peabo Bryson, Taylor Dayne, Jon Secada and Deniece Williams have delighted audiences with this seasonal show. The annual tradition returns with a stellar lineup to deliver holiday cheer.

Time: 8 p.m. Dec. 8 Cost: $55 to $100 Details: www.cerritoscenter. com Venue: Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 18000 Park Plaza Drive, Cerritos

Tribute to Glenn Miller Combining big band favorites with holiday classics, the Tex Beneke Orchestra will sweep you along in the spirit of the season.

Time: 2 p.m. Dec 9 Cost: $40 to $80 Details: (310) 544-0403; www.PalosVerdesPerformingArts. com Venue: Norris Theatre, 27570 Norris Center Dr., Rolling Hills Estates

Dickson Court, Los Angeles

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

TaikoProject + Sumie Kaneko in Concert TaikoProject collaborates with shamisen and koto virtuoso Sumie Kaneko for one night only.

Time: 8 to 9:30 p.m. Dec. 8 Cost: $25 Details: www.brownpapertickets.com Venue: Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro

which helps children, people with disabilities and families in need.

Time: 8 p.m. Dec. 9 Cost: $35 to $179 Details: (213) 742-7340; www. axs.com/artists/105623/steviewonder-tickets Venue: Staples Center, 1111 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles Anita Chang and Rodney Oakes Los Angeles Harbor College Music Department presents an eclectic concert with Anita Chang and Rodney Oakes, performing music

by Franz Schubert Impromptu Op. 90, D. 899.

Time: 3 p.m. Dec. 9 Cost: Free Details: (310) 233-4429 Venue: Los Angeles Harbor College recital hall, 1111 Figueroa Place, Wilmington

Venue: National Watercolor Society, 915 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro

11

[Curtain Call from p. 9] shopping in the museum shop.

Time: 1 to 4 p.m. Dec. 9 Cost: $5 Details: (562) 206-2040; www.rancholoscerritos.org Venue: Rancho Los Cerritos, 4600 N. Virginia Road, Long Beach

Dec 11

DEC 6 - 12 • 2018

[Calendar from p. 11]

tic vision to the world stage.

For decades, her work pushed boundaries that often alienated her from her peers and those in power in the art world.

Time: 11 a.m. Dec. 9 Cost: $11.50 Details: www.72268.formovietickets.com Venue: Art Theatre Long Beach, 2025 E. 4th St., Long Beach

Dec 15

Hale County This Morning, This Evening The Sundance awardwinning film is set in a predominately African American community in rural Alabama.

It provides an emotional impression of the historic south.

Time: 4 p.m. Dec. 15 Cost: Free Details: vteames@csudh. edu.

Venue: California State University, Dominguez Hills, Marvin Laser Recital Hall.

Use Parking Lot 6, 1000 E. Victoria St., Carson

COMMUNITY Dec 6

December 6 - 12, 2018

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

San Pedro Tree Lighting Come and join the festivities at the annual San Pedro Tree Lighting.

Time: 4 to 8 p.m. Dec. 6 Cost: Free Details: (310) 732-4515 Venue: Peppertree Plaza 638 Beacon St., San Pedro

12

Dec 7

City of Lomita Tree Lighting Ceremony Join the annual Tree Lighting Ceremony which includes holiday performances, complimentary hot chocolate and photos with Santa.

Time: 5:30 p.m. Dec. 7 Cost: Free Details: (310) 326-0140; www.lomita.com/cityhall Venue: Lomita City Hall, 24300 Narbonne Ave., Lomita Discovery Lecture Series Dr. Ian Fenty of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory will discuss current projections of future global sea level rise and describe current NASA research to study the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Time: 7 to 9 p.m. Dec.7 Cost: Free Details: (310) 548-7562; www.lecture@cmaqua.org Venue: John M. Olguin Auditorium, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, 3720 Stephen M. White Drive, San Pedro Palos Verdes Art Center Holiday Sale Shop for artistic holiday gifts for the season Time: 6 to 9 p.m. Dec 7 and

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 8 Cost: Free Details: www.pvartcenter.org Venue: Palos Verdes Art Center, 5504 W. Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes

Dec 8

Los Serenos Nature Hike Explore the tide pools at Abalone Cove Shoreline Park Time: 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 8 Cost: Free Details: (310) 544-5375; www. rpvca.gov Location: Abalone Cove Shoreline Park, 5970 Palos Verdes Drive South, Rancho Palos Verdes

Harbor City Winter Wonderland There will be real snow, food Santa Claus and Kids activities.

Time: 4 to 8 p.m. Dec. 11 Cost: Free Details: (310) 548-7515 Venue: Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, 25820 S. Vermont Ave., Harbor City Harbor City Skatepark Groundbreaking Join the groundbreaking of this permanent skate park at Harbor City Recreation Center.

Time: 3 to 4 p.m. Dec. 11 Cost: Free Details: (310) 548-7729 Venue: Harbor City Recreation Center, 24901 Frampton Ave., Harbor City

Dec 12

Garden Bed Workshop Get hands-on experience building and painting beds that will make up the open harvest community garden at the library.

Time: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 8 Cost: Free Details: www.lbpl.org Venue: Mark Twain Neighborhood Library, 1401 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach

Wilmington Tree Lighting Join the annual Wilmington Tree Lighting Celebration.

Time: 4 to 8 p.m. Dec. 12 Cost: Free Details: (310) 732-4515 Venue: Wilmington Town Square Park, 105 W. I St., Wilmington

Holiday Bazaar Artist Pop-Up Yogalution will be hosting a holiday bazaar, connecting local Long Beach creatives to gather and share their gifts.

Time: 5 to 9 p.m. Dec. 8 Cost: Free Details: www.yogalutionmovement.com Venue: Yogalution Movement and Ayurveda, 3141 E. Broadway, Long Beach

Nightmare Before Christmas Beer Festival Come aboard the historic Queen Mary for this Nightmare Before Christmas inspired beer festival.

Time: 6:30 to 10 p.m. Dec. 14 Cost: $42 Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ nightmare-before-christmas Venue: The Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach

City of Carson Winter Festival Winter Fest includes holiday craft vendors, food trucks, arts and crafts, children’s entertainment including a snow run.

Time: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 8 Cost: Free Details: (310) 847-3570 Venue: Juanita Millender-McDonald Community Center, 801 Carson St., Carson Dickens Holiday Celebration Christmas carol performances 11a.m, 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., includes activities, play with reservations and holiday lunch.

Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 8 Cost: $25 Details: (310) 515-7166; www.printmuseum.org Venue: International Printing Museum, 315 W. Torrance Blvd., Carson 65th Annual Daisy Avenue Christmas Tree Lane Parade Join the 65th annual Daisy Avenue Christmas Tree Lane parade.

Time: 5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 8 Cost: Free Details: www.longbeach.gov/district7/community/projects/daisylane-parade/ Venue: Daisy Ave. between Pacific Coast Highway and Hill Street, Long Beach

Dec 9

Rancho Los Cerritos Old Time Christmas Festival Make historic crafts, enjoy holiday music from a live brass band and carolers, strike the piñatas, listen to storytellers in the library, sip warm cider, get started on holiday

Dec. 14

Dec 15

I Dig Long Beach Celebrate the planting its 4,000th tree in the Ridgewood Cove neighborhood.

Time: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Dec. 15 Cost: Free Venue: Ridgewood Cove, 5033 Rose Ave., Long Beach Holiday Donation Drive at MMCC Los Angeles Live music, greet donors, coloring book signings, special guests, holiday gift shopping and more.

Time: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 15 Details: (310) 548-5677; www.marinemammalcare.org Venue: Marine Mammal Care Center of LA, 360S. Gaffey St., San Pedro

Dec 16

Holidays & Healing Rudy Caseres, an award-winning mental health advocate, presents a storytelling event to foster healing and strength.

Time: 6:30 to 9 p.m. Dec. 16 Cost: Free Details: www.thegardenchurchsp.org Venue: The Garden Church, 429 W. 6th St., San Pedro

Dec 19

Righteous Function A fundraiser to benefit Food4Kids, includes wine, appetizers and silent auction.

Time: 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 19 Cost: $25 Details: www.righteousfunction@brownpapertickets.com Venue: District Wine, 144 Linden Ave., Long Beach

Curtain Call: Darkside

day fucked-upness is on the

turn, like floodwater starting to go down. Glaciers, rain forests, pollution, destruction, starvation…

“What do you say to them?” the boy asks.

“That’s the part I’m still working on,” she says.

It’s intractable work, though, and it’s driving her mad.

Darkside is Tom Stoppard’s always-clever, often-brilliant exploration of how searching for the Good in a world without a reliable roadmap might lead one to madness. And while his words are wonderful in their own right, part of his masterstroke is incorporating The Dark Side of the Moon into the text. More than mere mood-setting, the lyrics and even sound effects of Pink Floyd’s timeless classic are themselves parts of the story, voices in Emily’s head. Breathe, breathe in the air / Don’t be afraid to care / Leave but don’t leave me / Look around, choose your own ground.

When Emily gets the chance to live out her fantasy — within her fantasy, at least — by addressing that mass of lost souls searching for the Good, from on high she holds forth passionately, mouthing words that we hear as the wordless wailing of Great Gig in the Sky, a gorgeous human voice soaring to the heavens, before finally melting into Emily’s articulated plea: The earth is a common.

You can’t save it for yourself, but you can save it for others, and the others will save it for you. The other is us, and we are the other. We are of a kind.

We are natural born to kindness, which means to act as our kind, as kin to kin, as kindred, which is to act kindly. What is the Good? It is nothing but a contest of kindness. To be unkind is against nature …

[When] we live for trickery and gain, we turn against nature, and nature will turn against us.

The flaws in this production are mostly audiovisual. Director Eric Hamme and crew aren’t quite able to stitch together script and sound seamlessly. The music is her madness (Dark Side of the Moon is, after all, about losing one’s mind from

trying to move through our morally opaque world), and we should be overcome by it with her. To this end the lighting and visual effects ought to be sharp enough to focus our attention where it needs to be in a given moment—on an actor’s face or voice, on Roger Waters’s lyrics, in a haze of atmosphere; but they almost always feel generic, like an iTunes visualizer setting with elements that would be the same no matter what music was playing. Too much of the time the stage feels naked and static.

The blocking is also less than ideal, with the downstage action playing effectively only to a small part of the house.

If the stage were a baseball diamond, home plate would be the downstage extreme and the audience would be sitting along the first and third-base lines. Show up early and position yourself as close to home as possible.

Part of the reason to sit there is to fully enjoy the performances. Despite the greatness of the text, Darkside would die a hard death without an actor who can humanize Emily — she’s a person in pain, nothing hypothetical about it — and Maribella Magaña makes her real.

Paul Knox also does a good job making Baggott not just Ethics Man (a bit campy by design) but also a real man increasingly troubled by the conundrums he’s been teaching all these years, particularly when he sees what they’re doing to his favorite pupil.

The standout supporting role is Matthew Anderson as the Witch Finder, bringing a menace that augments the visceral range of the onstage action. Robert Young offers a few quietly-charming moments as the descendant of another famous thought experiment.

On opening night all of the actors occasionally hit their lines too much on the nose —Stoppard’s writing rewards letting the words do the heavy lifting — but I suspect they will lay back a bit as they get into the groove during the month-long run.

As written, Darkside is a radio play whose original production was by the BBC in 2013. Two years later, the Garage Theatre peeps were the first — as in ever — to adapt it for the stage. It went over well enough that Stoppard — a historical giant of theatre, with

four Tonys and an Oscar to his credit — sent one of his people from merrie ole England to the little ol’ Garage to see what the fuss was, and the show received the official Tom Stoppard stamp of approval.

The point of this review is to talk about the current reprise, not that original production, so I’ve avoided comparisons between the two.

But past experiences influence present experience, so I figure it’s only fair to disclose that your faithful reviewer saw this show through eyes that saw the original, however much or little that fact influenced his review.

While discussing the Garage Theatre’s challenges in staging Darkside back in 2015, Stoppard told me (yeah, I’m name-dropping — it’s Tom Stoppard, for fuck’s sake!) that “every scene is difficult, when not impossible.” The Garage has bravely taken on those many challenges, coming out the other side with mixed results.

But whatever the shortcomings in the production, this is a truly great play, one that stays with you long after you leave the theater if you’re able to focus on the message, which seems even more pertinent today than just a few years ago. “The ice is melting. Your drink is getting warm,” Emily says as Pink Floyd plays us out.

A wall of water is heading for your patio.

From space you can see the coal furnaces glowing.

We consume everything.

We’re dying of consumption.

Hardwoods are toppling for dashboards. The last rhino has given up its horn for a cancer cure that doesn’t work. The last swordfish is gasping beneath a floating island of plastic as big as France. The weather report is a state secret.

And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too, I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.

Times: Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m. through Dec. 15 Cost: $18-$25 Details: www. thegaragetheatre.org Venue: The Found Theater, 599 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach

[School Safety from p. 5]

School Safety Panel

credible threats to a school, even if no specific individuals are named.

• Update and consolidate threat reporting into one singular campaign with a visible brand similar to Colorado’s Integrated Safe2Tell campaign, originally created in response to the 1999 Columbine school shooting.

• Research and develop age-appropriate trauma training for students to respond in active shooter situations with a trauma-informed debriefing session afterward.

[Graduate from p. 2]

Graduate

in Jairo the belief that a person must have a balance between mind, soul, and body.

He developed that balance with academic excellence, superb music skills and a healthy physique. And in this last year Farina saw a moment when that door opened for Jairo.

When Jairo went to visit Farina’s stepfather in a nursing home, he brought his guitar to play for him. When he saw how happy it made Farina’s stepfather and everyone else, Jairo said that he wanted to keep going back to play for them at least every month.

From escaping violence and finding asylum to acclimating, essentially, to a new world, twice, Jairo found his muse in music and language. Through these expressions, he has harnessed his path toward higher education.

• Suggest how to pay for these reforms through means such as encouraging the business community to “adopt” schools, providing funding from the philanthropic community, attracting federal and state grants, supplemental state funding, state bonds, local taxes and local revenue measures.

Panelists included 21 authorities in education, public safety, gun violence prevention, law enforcement, mental health, public health, and architecture. Feuer, Daniel Barnhart and Gloria Martinez of UTLA, Juan Flecha and students Ben Holtzman and Julia Macias representing the school district, Joey Hernandez and Krystal Torres-Covarrubias of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, former Los Angeles council member Greig Smith, former city controller Laura Chick, and Chief of the Los Angeles School Police Department Steven Zipperman were some of the participants.

The expansion of mental-health programs was addressed at considerable length. One finding was that while a significant percentage of the district’s students suffer trauma at home or in violent neighborhoods, there is an acute shortage of mental health professionals in district schools.

Recent screening of 8,000 Los Angeles district students found that 26 percent are at high risk for traumatic stress. Additionally, of the 48,000 LAUSD students surveyed in 2017, 19 percent reported they had been bullied in the past year.

The importance of mental health services in preventing gun violence was stated, “Researchers have identified a common theme among case studies of school attacks: In most

cases, the perpetrators grappled with stressors to their mental or emotional health and displayed symptoms suggesting they could not cope with these stressors.”

The report also cautioned, “Though mental health issues don’t typically lead to violent behavior, sometimes they do, especially for students who feel isolated and desperate.”

Another finding was that LAUSD previously had a successful peer counseling program that empowered students to build positive

relationships, reach out to peers at risk of becoming isolated on campus, and de-escalate potentially violent interactions. As a result the panel recommended, “LAUSD work with the Associated Student Body Presidents to implement student-led peer counseling programs at every LAUSD school.”

Link to report: https://tinyurl.com/The-School-Safety-Report

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

December 6 - 12, 2018

13

DBA & LEGAL FILINGS

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Graphic Design Digital Marketing Custom & Union Printing 1300 S. Pacific Ave. San Pedro 310.519.1442

les on Nov. 6, 2018. 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 where it expire 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: 11/15/2018,

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2018287814 The following person is doing business as: (1) Rosy Scenario, 461 W. 6th Street, San Pedro, CA 90731, Los Angeles County. Registered owners: Rose McGillivray, 461 W. 6th Street, 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/.

Rose McGillivray, owner.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on Nov. 15, 2018. Notice-In accordance with subdivi-

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PLEASE HELP! The animals at the Harbor Animal Shelter have ongoing need for used blankets, comforters, pet beds.* Drop off at Harbor Animal Shelter 957 N. Gaffey St., San Pedro 888-452-7381, x 143 PLEASE SPAY/NEUTER YOUR PET! *In any condition.

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Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2018280385 The following person is doing business as: (1) Harris Realty, (2) Harris Enterprises, (3) Golden Greek Charters, (4) Golden Greek Leasing, 870 W. 9th Street #200, San Pedro, CA 90731, Los Angeles County. Registered owners: George J. Harris, 870 W. 9th Street #200, San Pedro, CA 90731. This Business is conducted by a corporation. The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: 05/1976. 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/. George J. Harris, President.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Ange-

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sion (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 where it expire 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: 12/06/2018, 12/13/2018, 12/20/2018, 01/10/2019

11/29/2018, 12/6/2018, 12/13/2018

“Suit Yourself”— all four are represented.

© 2018 MATT JONES, Jonesin’ Crosswords

11/29/2018, 12/6/2018, 12/13/2018

Bulletin Board

Don Marshall CPA, Inc.

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2018274532 The following person is doing business as:(1) Barricade Services, 3602 S. Cabrillo, San Pedro, CA 90731, Los Angeles County. Registered owners: David Cheek, 3602 S. Cabrillo, 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: 11/2013. 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/. David Cheek, Owner.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on Oct. 30, 2018. 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 where it expire 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: 11/15/2018,

For answers go to: www.randomlengthsnews.com

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61 Rita of 2018’s “The Girls Tour” 62 “His Master’s Voice” company 63 “___/Tuck” (medical drama) © 2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords

DBA & LEGAL FILINGS NOTICE INVITING BIDS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City of Long Beach, California, acting by and through the City’s Board of Harbor Commissioners (“City”) will receive, before the Bid Deadline established below, Bids for the following Work: ON-CALL ASPHALT PAVING, TRAFFIC STRIPING, AND OTHER RELATED SERVICES at VARIOUS LOCATIONS LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA AS DESCRIBED IN SPECIFICATION NO. HD-S3025A

Bid Deadline:

be submitted no later than January 2, 2019, at 5 p.m.

Questions received after the pre-Bid question deadline will not be accepted.

Questions must be submitted electronically through the PB System. Emails, phone calls, and faxes will not be accepted.

Questions submitted to City staff will not be addressed and Bidder will be directed to the PB System.

NIB - 3 Mandatory Pre-Bid Meeting.

The engineering staff of the City’s Harbor De-

Prior to 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.

Bids shall be submitted electronically via the Port of Long Beach PlanetBids (PB) System prior to 2:00 p.m.

Bid Opening:

Electronic Bid (eBid) results shall be viewable online in the PB System immediately after the Bid Deadline.

Contract Documents Available:

Download Contract Documents from the Port of Long Beach PB System Vendor Portal: www.polb.com/sbe Click on the POLB Vendor Portal 1. Register and Log In 2. Click “Bid Opportunities” 3. Double-click on respective bid Project Title 4. Click on Document/Attachments tab 5. Double-Click on Title of Electronic Attachment 6. Click “Download Now” 7. Repeat for each attachment For assistance in downloading these documents please contact Port of Long Beach Plans and Specs Desk at 562-283-7353.

Mandatory Pre-Bid Meeting:

Christopher Greiner, christopher. greiner@polb.com

Please refer to the Port of Long Beach PB System for the most current information.

NIB - 1 Contract Documents.

Contract Documents may be downloaded, at no cost, from the Port of Long Beach PB System Vendor Portal website.

Bidders must first register as a vendor on the Port of Long Beach PB System website in order to view and download the Contract Documents, to be added to the prospective bidders list, and to receive addendum notifications when issued.

NIB - 2 Pre-Bid Questions.

All questions, including requests for interpretation or correction, or comments regarding the Contract Documents, must

Bidders are encouraged to RSVP for the Pre-Bid Meeting through the PB System; located under the “RSVP” tab of the Prospective Bidder Detail. Following the meeting a list of Pre-Bid Meeting signedin attendees will be available on the PB System. Note that

NIB - 6 Contractor’s License.

The Bidder shall hold a current and valid Class “A” or Class “C12” California Contractor’s License to construct this project.

NIB - 7 Contractor Performed Work. The Contractor shall perform, with its own employees, Contract Work amounting to at least 50% of the Contract Price, except that any designated “Specialty Items” may be performed by subcontract.

The amount of any such “Specialty Items” so performed may be deducted from the Contract Price before computing the amount required to be performed by the Contractor with its own employees. “Specialty Items” will be identified by the City on the Schedule of Bid Items. The bid price of any materials or equipment rental costs from vendors who are solely furnishing materials or rental equipment and are not performing Work as a licensed subcontractor on this project shall also be deducted from the Contract Price before computing the amount required to be performed by the Contractor with its own employees.

NIB -8 SBE/VSBE. This project is subject to the Port of Long Beach (POLB) Small Business Enterprises (SBE)/ Very Small Business Enterprises (VSBE) Program. The combined SBE/VSBE participation goal for this project is twenty percent (20%), of which a minimum of five percent (5%) must be allocated to VSBEs. POLB expects all Bidders to achieve the combined SBE/VSBE participation goal. Award of the Contract will be conditioned on the Bidder submitting an SBE2C Commitment Plan dem-

This Project is subject to compliance monitoring and enforcement by the Department of Industrial Relations. No Contractor or Subcontractor may be listed on a bid proposal for a public works project unless registered with the Department of Industrial Relations pursuant to Labor Code Section 1725.5 (with limited exceptions from this requirement for bid purposes only under Labor Code Section 1771.1(a)). No Contractor or Subcontractor may be awarded a contract for public work on a public works project unless registered with the Department of Industrial Relations pursuant to Labor Code Section 1725.5.

Contractors and Subcontractors must furnish electronic Certified Payroll Records (CPRs) to the Labor Commissioner’s Office, and in addition, hardcopies or electronic copies shall be furnished to the Port of Long Beach.

NIB - 10 Project Labor Agreement. This project is not covered by a PLA. NIB -11 Trade Names and Substitution of Equals. With the exception of any sole source determination that may be identified in this paragraph, Bidders wishing to obtain City’s authorization for substitution of equivalent material, product, or equipment, are required to submit a written request for an Or Equal Substitution using the form included in Appendix A together with data substantiating Bidder’s representation that the non-specified item is of equal quality to the item specified, no later than fourteen (14) calendar days after City’s issuance of Notice to Proceed (NTP). Authorization of a substitution is solely within

NIB -12 Prequalification of Contractors. NOT USED. NIB -13 Bid Security, Signed Contract, Insurance and Bonds. Each Bid shall be accompanied by a satisfactory Bidder’s Bond or other acceptable Bid Security in an amount not less than ten percent (10%) of the Base Bid as a guarantee that the Bidder will, if Conditionally Awarded a Contract by the Board, within thirty (30) calendar days after the Contract is conditionally awarded to the Contractor by the City, execute and deliver such Contract to the Chief Harbor Engineer together with all required documents including insurance forms, a Payment Bond for one hundred percent (100%) of the Contract Price, and a Performance Bond for one hundred percent (100%) of the Contract Price.

All Bonds shall be on forms provided by the City.

NIB -14 Conditional Award of Contract and Reservation of Rights.

The Board, acting through the Executive Director, reserves the right at any time before the execution of the Contract by the City, to reject any or all Bids, and to waive any informality or irregularity. The Conditional Award of the Contract, if any, will be to the responsible Bidder submitting the lowest responsive and responsible Bid. If the lowest responsive responsible Bidder fails to submit the required documents including insurance forms, bonds and signed Contract within thirty (30) calendar days after Conditional Award of Contract, the Board reserves the right to rescind the Conditional Award and Conditionally Award the Contract to the next lowest responsive and responsible Bidder.

NIB -15 Period of Bid Irrevocability. Bids shall remain open and valid and Bidder’s Bonds and other acceptable Bid Security shall be guaranteed and valid for ninety (90) calendar days after the Bid Deadline or until the Executive Director executes a Contract, whichever occurs first.

NIB -16 Substitution of Securities. Substitution of Securities for retainage is permitted in accordance with Section 22300 of the Public Contract Code.

NIB -17 Iran Contracting Act of 2010. In accordance with Public Contract Code sections 2200-2208, every person who submits a bid or proposal for entering into or renewing contracts with the City for goods or services estimated at $1,000,000 or more are required to complete, sign, and submit the “Iran Contracting Act of 2010 Compliance Affidavit.”

Issued at Long Beach, California, this 12th day of November, 2018.

Mario Cordero, Executive Director of the Harbor Department, City of Long Beach, California Note: For project updates after Bid Opening, please contact plans.specs@polb. com.

RANDOMLetters [Letters from p. 7]

RE: “You Came Here to Suffer”

I am a freshman here at San Pedro Olguin High School. Your article personally inspired me and touched my heart. It is very important to spread the message of immigration.

It is especially important that people understand the suffering that immigrants go through on a daily basis. Immigrants are being treated like animals! Doing hard labor in the sizzling sun under pressure is unfair.

Instead of letting them take breaks, they work non-stop.

Doesn’t the constitution state that all men are equal?

Then why aren’t we all treated the same? We’re all human. We all work hard and strive everyday to live. We all breathe the same air and have feelings.

Immigrants shouldn’t be treated this way based on where they’re from. It’s cruel and depressing, Kailee Murillo San Pedro High School

A Monument for Jim Gladson

I am a freshman at San Pedro High School. After reading the Random Lengths article, School is Where the Kids Are, written by Mark L. Friedman talking about who Jim Gladson was and the funeral recently held for him, it made me realize what a great person he was.

He founded the Los Angeles Maritime Institute Topsail Youth program.

This is program takes many students from the Los Angeles Unified School District and other school districts around San Pedro, teaching them about sailing and the marine environment. I was lucky

enough to be a part of this program, it was a wonderful learning experience for me and all of my peers.

He started this program when he saw the positive effect sailing had on students.

Even students with learning disabilities. Instead of giving up on them, Gladson took them out sailing and changed their lives.

The title of this article was one of Jim’s famous quotes.

Gladson was irrepressible. When he had a goal in mind, he went for it and there was no stopping him. In 2010 he received the lifetime achievement award for “A Lifetime of Dedication to Sail Training.”

I believe it is crucial to recognize what a great person he was. Gladson, like many people, was very interested in making sure he could do everything he could for people. He linked helping out students with sailing and everyone thought it was a great idea.

I think that somewhere in San Pedro there should be a monument or memorial in honor of Jim Gladson.

He did so much good for the students of San Pedro and in the article, it only states that everyone posthumously remembers Gladson as a good person. By the author stating this, he is persuading everyone to believe what a great person Jim Gladson was. I do believe he was a great person, and in conclusion, I think somewhere in San Pedro there should be a monument named after him because of everything he has done for our community.

Giovanna Sinay San Pedro High School 15 December 6 - 12, 2018

Copies of all Port insurance endorsement forms, SBE/ VSBE Program forms, Harbor Development Permit Applications and other Port forms are available at http://www.polb.com/ economics/contractors/ forms_permits/default.asp.

NIB - 5 Contract Time and Liquidated Damages. The Contractor shall achieve Affidavit of Final Completion of the Project within two (2) calendar years as provided in Paragraph SC - 6.1 of the Special Conditions, from a date specified in a written “Notice to Proceed” issued by the City and subject to adjustment as provided in Section 8.2 of the General Conditions.

FAILURE OF THE CONTRACTOR TO COMPLETE THE WORK WITHIN THE CONTRACT TIME AND OTHER MILESTONES SET FORTH IN THE SPECIAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING THE ENGINEER’S APPROVAL OF AFFIDAVIT OF FINAL COMPLETION, WILL RESULT IN ASSESSMENT OF LIQUIDATED DAMAGES IN THE AMOUNTS ESTABLISHED IN THE SPECIAL CONDITIONS.

NIB -9 Prevailing Wage Requirements per Department of Industrial Relations.

This Project is a public work Contract as defined in Labor Code Section 1720. The Contractor receiving award of the Contract and Subcontractors of any tier shall pay not less than the prevailing wage rates to all workers employed in execution of the Contract.

The Director of Industrial Relations of the State of California has determined the general prevailing rates of wages in the locality in which the Work is to be performed. The rate schedules are available on the internet at http://www.dir. ca.gov/dlsr/DPreWageDetermination.htm and on file at the City, available upon request.

Bidders are directed to Article 15 of the General Conditions for requirements concerning payment of prevailing wages, payroll records, hours of work and employment of apprentices.

the discretion of the City.

For the link to the Port of Long Beach PB System and for information on this Project and other upcoming Port projects, you may view the Port website at http://www.polb.com/economics/contractors/default.asp.

partment will conduct a prebid meeting at 10:00 a.m., on December 18, 2018, in the 1st Floor Training Room, of the Port of Long Beach Interim Administrative Office, 4801 Airport Plaza Drive, Long Beach, CA 90815.

Attendance is mandatory for the Contractors. It is not mandatory for Subcontractors but highly recommended. Each Bidder shall attend the mandatory Pre-bid meeting. The City makes no guarantee that existing construction and site conditions matches construction depicted on record reference documents. It shall be the Bidder’s responsibility to identify existing conditions. EACH BIDDER MUST ATTEND THE MANDATORY PRE-BID MEETING. FAILURE TO ATTEND THE MANDATORY PRE-BID MEETING SHALL DISQUALIFY YOUR BID.

NIB - 4 Summary Description of the Work. The Work required by this Contract includes, but is not limited to, the following: Provide and conduct asphalt pavement milling, application of slurry sealing, installation of paving materials, miscellaneous pavement patching and repairing services, construction and repair of curbs, butters and sidewalks at specified locations. In addition, placement of thermoplastic roadway traffic striping and pavement markers, and painting or repairing pavement markings.

onstrating the Bidder’s intent to meet the combined SBE/ VSBE participation goal. If the Bidder’s Commitment Plan does not demonstrate intent to meet the combined goal, the Bidder shall demonstrate that it made an adequate good faith effort to do so, as specified in the Instructions to Bidders.

The Port’s SBE Program staff is available to provide information on the program requirements, including SBE certification assistance. Please contact the SBE Office at (562) 2837598 or sbeprogram@polb. com. You may also view the Port’s SBE program requirements at www.polb.com/sbe.

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Project Contact Person:

Date/Time: December 18, 2018 at 10:00 a.m.

Location: Port of Long Beach Interim Administrative Office (IAO) 1st Floor Training Room 4801 Airport Plaza Drive Long Beach, CA 90815

attendance at the pre-bid meeting can be used to satisfy a portion of a Bidder’s good faith efforts to meet the SBE/ VSBE participation goals listed below.

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December 6 - 12, 2018

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