Corporate coziness is key concern in Congressional District 44 race pg. 6
p
Van Jones talks Prince, activism and green jobs at LB City College pg. 13 Local galleries mark significant milestones pg. 15
By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
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Bernie Sanders Comes to San Pedro May 27, see pg. 9
Tesoro Refinery Integration Project:
A Test of Wills By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor
May 26 - June 8, 2016
the latter. This was not a surprise, considering that about three-quarters of the more of the more than 500 attendees were refinery integration supporters—a good number of them clad in blue Tesoro t-shirts. Those who spoke represented youth programs, valedictorians, nonprofit organizations, labor unions and chambers of commerce. Without fail, each repeated the talking points Tesoro has been pushing since its workshops this past April, including: • Substantially reducing the refinery
emissions such as nitrous oxide, sulfur oxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter—the equivalent of which would be like removing 13,500 passenger vehicles from local roads each year. • Create 4,000 jobs and serve as a boost to the local economy Bruce Heyman, executive director of the Los Angeles Maritime Institute, was one of the first to speak on behalf of the refinery company. “Tesoro is often there investing in the community and investing in us—whether it’s hosting a table at community events so we can participate or underwriting a training session,” Heyman said. “One of the most impactful
Steve Salas, with his daughter, spoke against the Tesoro refinery integration plan on May 17. Photo by Anabell Romero-Chavez, Wilmington Wire.
The May 17 South Coast Air Quality Management District’s public hearing on Tesoro’s Carson refinery integration project was expected to consider extending the public comment period on the company’s environmental impact report and Title V permits. Instead, it was a competition between two visions of the refinery giant: Tesoro the trusted community partner and jobs generator; and Tesoro the bad air polluting neighbor. Those extolling Tesoro as the former easily out-distanced those denigrating the company as
Inset photo by Kelvin Brown, Sr.
The Local Publication You Actually Read
n May 17, Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke to campaign rally at California State University Dominguez Hills in Carson at what he called “the beginning of the final push to win California.” He promised that “we are in till the last ballot is cast.” California rarely has an opportunity to have its voice heard in selecting a presidential candidate, and now is no different, as the level of last-minute distractions mounts to a fever pitch. Accusations of violence by Sanders supporters at the recent Nevada state convention are a case in point, The accusations, reported as fact, included claims of chairs being thrown— a charge that Snopes.com labeled “false.” And so, it seems fitting that we Californians should do our best to set aside the flurry of distractions and focus as deeply as possible on what’s really at stake. A year ago, the political world was expecting an election contest between dynasties—Bush versus Clinton. But now, the entire foundation of existing elite governance is being called into question. On the Republican side, George W. Bush’s record remains an unmitigated disaster. On the Democratic side, Barack Obama’s 2008 promise of “hope and change” has only marginally been fulfilled. And, the dark side of Bill Clinton’s presidency—NAFTA, mass incarceration and ‘welfare reform’—looms much larger than ever before. So, unlike eight years ago, Hillary Clinton rarely refers back to that era. Instead, she prefers to blur the considerable differences that separate her from Sanders. [See Win, page 10]
[See Tesoro, page 5]
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Community Announcements:
Harbor Area Fair Housing Workshops
Long Beach, as a recipient of federal community development and housing funds, is conducting an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH). The AFH will explore issues such as disparities in access to renting or purchasing homes, unmet housing needs, lack of integration, and racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty. The city is hosting a series of workshops to provide opportunities for public input on May 28 and June 11. Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. May 28 Cost: Free Details: www.lbds.info Venue: Houghton Park, 6301 Myrtle Ave., Long Beach
FOLBA Student Essay/Poetry Contest
The Friends of Long Beach Animals is hosting its annual student essay/poetry contest. This year’s theme is “Be Kind to Animals.” All entries are due by June 1, 2016. There will be a cash prize for the top 3 entries in each grade category (elementary & middle school). Guideline include: one entry per student and one page only (up to 250 words). Be sure to include: first and last name, home address, telephone, grade level, school name. Send all entries via email to Deborah Turner, Humane Educator, at deborah@folba.org no later than midnight June 1. Details: deborah@folba.org.
Monthly Beach Cleanup
May 26 - June 8, 2016
Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area
Cabrillo Marine Aquarium invites the public to participate in our monthly Beach Clean-Up. Volunteers learn about coastal habitat, the growing amount of marine debris within it and the benefits of protecting this ecosystem. Time: 8 to 10 a.m. June 4 Details: (310) 548-7562; www.cabrillomarineaquarium.org Venue: 3720 Stephen M. White Drive, San Pedro. [See Announcements, page 6]
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Committed to Independent Journalism in the Greater LA/LB Harbor Area for More Than 30 Years
Family Ties Bind Palos Verdes Street Development By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor
In April, local newspapers reported that Omninet Capital LLC would finally build on the vacant property on Palos Verdes Street and between 5th and 6th streets. Local developer Gary Dwight spent three to four years trying to build the Palos Verdes Urban Village on the property, a development that included a five-story and an 18-story high-rise consisting of 251 residential units. Dwight had worked with city officials since 2005 to redevelop the 2.4-acre site that includes the C-worthy Paint store. Plans at the time called for residential units and 4,000 square feet of retail space. According to quarterly city report on the project in 2007, an Owner Participation Agreement enabled the project to go forward with a mix of townhomes and high-rise condos, plus 582 underground parking spaces. Under the agreement, 15 units were to be affordable to workforce families for 10 years and 20 public parking spaces were to be set aside on the site for 10 years. Dwight said that all the time he spent working with the city caused the window of opportunity—
Omninet Capital LLC’s managing partners include, left to right, Neil Kadisha, Benjamin Nazarian and Izak Parviz Nazarian. File photos.
framed by financing and time—to close. This forced him to sell the property to Omninet. Between that and the housing bubble burst, the property stayed vacant. That is, until now. Dwight, who says he has nothing to do with the project, said he’s just glad somebody is going to do something with the property. Omninet Capital LLC is a venture capitalist firm with a significant real estate portfolio that includes residential and commercial assets across five states. The managing partners of Omninet are Izak Parviz Nazarian, his nephew, Benjamin Nazarian, and his son-in-law, Neil Kadisha. The elder Nazarian is a self-made billionaire. He co-founded Omninet Corp. and has managed
numerous companies in industries ranging from construction equipment to aerospace and plastic equipment. From 1988 until 1994, he served as a member of the board of directors of Qualcomm. Nazarian serves on the International Board of Governors of Technion Institute of Technology and Tel Aviv University in Israel. Born into humble beginnings to Persian Jewish family in Iran, Nazarian was reared by his mother—a seamstress. His father died when he was five. When turned 18, Nazarian joined the Haganah in Genoa, Italy—the paramilitary predecessor of the Israeli Defense Forces, formed when the state of Israel was founded. [See Omninet, page 19]
Harbor Commission Approves 50-Year Lease San Pedro Public Market is Green-Lighted By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor
The Los Angeles Harbor Commission approved the LA Waterfront Alliance’s 50-year lease to build the San Pedro Public Market in a bid to redevelop Ports O’ Call Village. The $150 million development agreement included; • 168,600 square feet of restaurants, retail, entertainment, office space, over-water open space and parking, all linked by the promenade, in the initial phase. • An investment of $85 to $100 million by the developer. • A Los Angeles Harbor Department investment of $52 million for public access areas, including the promenade, town square, Sampson Way and Seventh Street realignment and a public landing for recreational boaters. Wayne Ratkovich described the end of the three-year negotiation for a 50-year lease as battle in which the combatants remained friends. He credited Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka’s steady management of the negotiations, Mayor Eric Garcetti’s support and Councilman Joe Buscaino’s persistence in getting the deal done. Anne Lee Carpenter, director of marketing for PortTechLA recalled the numerous attempts at revitalizing the Harbor Area in her 30 years as a resident of San Pedro. She said she has seen projects achieve some measure of success, but noted that no project or organization or the port
Rendering of the San Pedro Public Market. Courtesy of Port of Los Angeles.
alone can positively and permanently change the face of Harbor communities. Carpenter said she supports the San Pedro Public Market because it is just one of many projects happening along the waterfront that could permanently change the face of the Harbor Area in a positive way. She cited the grant for the Omni terminal, which the board had just approved earlier during the meeting, and the recent PortTech Expo showed that this port town is an emerging hub for technological incubators of green technologies. Lorena Parker, executive director of the San Pedro Business Improvement District said the San Pedro Public Market will result in an economic impact that is already beginning to be seen. Parker said she has noticed heightened expressions of interest by developers, who are bringing their clients to downtown San Pedro.
The Local Publication You Actually Read May 26 - June 8, 2016
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Explore the Underwater World from Above
May 26 - June 8, 2016
Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area
By Joseph Baroud, Contributing Writer
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There aren’t many ways for a diver, or someone who is thinking about taking it up, to connect with other divers. This year’s Scuba Show, June 4 and 5, at the Long Beach Convention Center, will offer divers that opportunity. The expo is humongous. The itinerary will feature seminars, hundreds of exhibition booths, cooking demonstrations and chances to win prizes ranging from diving gear to trips. “Hopefully you get excited about what to experience next,” said Mark Young, the scuba show’s producer. “When you return home, we want you to connect with your local dive community—the retailers, clubs, instructors and charter operators who can make it happen for you.” One exhibit provides a diving experience without going underwater. 360Heros, which developed the world’s first panoramic and underwater video and photo gear, is behind the demonstration. 360Heros offers cinematographers and researchers the ability to film content underwater at high resolutions. “[Virtual reality] is an opportunity for people to tell stories in a more impactful way than traditional media allows,” said Aissa Widle, event marketing coordinator for 360Heros. “Creating high resolution 360 video is something that is typically expensive and challenging. With our products, producers have access to affordable, high resolution equipment and can take their audience into the film.” The equipment was developed by Michael Kintner, the founder and CEO of 360Heros. The equipment uses the GoPro Hero3, Hero3 Plus and Hero4 cameras, which present video from a first-person point of view. “A long-time friend, Bill Macdonald, put us in touch with the Scuba Show,” Widle said. “Macdonald has been using our underwater rig called 360 Abyss for some time now and
The 2016 Scuba Show takes place on Saturday, June 4. File photo.
felt it was important to offer ways in which other film makers can share immersive 360 cinematography. 360Hero’s equipment is the first panoramic underwater video and photo gear. The equipment can shoot fully spherical video and photo content at depths as low as 1,000 meters. The lens shoots video at 7,500 by 3,750 pixels. Organizers are hosting a party from 7 to 11 p.m., June 4. It will take place outdoors, at the scenic Shark Lagoon at the Aquarium of the Pacific, just a short walk away. Miss California 2014, Marina Inserra, is scheduled to attend. Inserra is a professional diver and Miss Scuba Queen USA 2016. The seminars will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 4 and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 5. Single day tickets cost $10 for exhibits and $30 for seminars. Two-day passes for the 29th annual event cost $59. Details: www.scubashow.com/attendees/tickets.
Harbor Commission Approves Multi Million Deal for Past Port President By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor On May 19, the Port of Los Angeles board approved a grant agreement with the California Air Resources Board to fund the Green Omni Terminal Project at the Pasha terminal, including a controversial $3.7 million of state money going to a company owned by former commission president, Nick Tonsich. “This concept is exemplary in its thought for the future and its planning,” homeowner activist Janet Gunter said in public
testimony. “We do see problems with the actual process that was used…. The Harbor Department staff applied for a grant from the California Air Resources Board with only Mr. Tonsich’s company written into the environmental piece for a shoreside emissions system. That would give him nearly $4 million of public money. This award is now granted for a system that has never been tested shoreside, when a more effective and shoreside-tested
competitor system was readily available. Why?” Kathleen Woodfield of the San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners Coalition raised another problem. “The ethics commission has been definitive that Mr. Tonsich may not have a financial relationship with China Shipping,” Woodfield said. China Shipping is the port’s largest terminal. Even if their were no other considerations, this would significantly reduce the value of investing in his technology as a port-wide solution to
reducing docked ship emissions. “The actions by staff and Mr. Tonsich may or may not be criminal, but at a minimum these actions are certainly highly unethical,” Gunter said. “A letter from former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo made that clear…. The issue of ethics and public trust is at the heart of the problem at the Port of Los Angeles. The public trust is what the Harbor Commission should be concerned about, not whether something is technically legal or illegal. “We should have public officials that raise the standards at the Harbor Department, not continue the practices that brought us systemic misconduct.” But Commission Vice President
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May 26 - June 8, 2016
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of time for experts to review the EIR and Title V permits. She was also concerned about the request to add 3 million barrels of oil storage capacity. “We’re rapidly moving towards a clean energy future,” Lear said. “It makes no sense to bring more crude oil into our harbor while we still have the worst air quality in the country.” Community activist and founder of Communities for a Safe and Environment, Jesse Marquez, said his group will only support a project when there is a net zero environmental, public health and public safety impact. “You cannot guarantee that,” Marquez said. He noted that regulatory agencies didn’t keep Exxon Mobil from blowing up or the fires at Tesoro facilities in Wilmington. Marquez echoed the health impacts of gas and oil refineries on neighboring communities, the high number of cancer clusters around the facilities and the costs these clusters have had on his family. “We need to have a health assessment impact study done,” he said. “You can’t tell anyone of us here how many have cancer, how many have lymphoma, how many have asthma, and [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease]? We do not know.” Marquez noted that a public health assessment along with a public health survey would provide a public health baseline by which to determine if air quality measures undertaken are actually working. “What is not being exposed here is that there is still going to be 75 tons of [volatile organic compounds],” Marquez said. “Yes, you have carbon recover systems up there but we need that on every piece of equipment, which means your storage tanks, ships, wherever they are, to eliminate that.”
In Random Lengths News
DESIGNS
examples for LAMI was that Tesoro hosted a work development seminar that lit a fire under our board.” Norman Rogers of United Steel Workers Local 675 represented 550 workers at the Carson and Wilmington refineries “This project will comply with the [Environmental Protection Agency]’s Tier III fuel standards and continue the good work of improving local air quality,” Rogers said. “We are also here because Tesoro provides good union jobs.” Wilmington resident, Steve Salas, said he was initially for the project until he learned more about it. “I’m here on behalf of Banning Park,” Salas noted. “Because there is no air conditioning there, we have to leave the doors wide open.” Quoting legendary community activist, Ken Melendez, Salas called Wilmington the most negatively impacted community on the West Coast. Salas wondered about the need for extra storage tanks and recalled the Texaco explosion during the 1990s. He also wondered how it was that San Pedro was able to remove three dozen tanks from City Dock 1, while Carson and Wilmington added more. “I talked to a lot of neighbors, Hispanic community members and nonprofits that wanted to talk but they were scared,” Salas said. “Why? [It’s] because they receive funding from Tesoro…. Don’t get me wrong, Tesoro does a lot of great things, but a lot of people were [afraid] to speak up, in fear of losing funding from Tesoro.” Salas attacked the company’s assertion that the refinery integration would create 4,000 jobs, noting most of them are seasonal or temporary jobs. San Pedro resident and member of Climate Action 350, Sherry Lear, expressed concern about the lack
David Arian pushed back on the criticism of Tonsich as a reason to delay approval. “This omni project is unbelievable and I totally support it,” Arian said. “The idea that we would step back from a project on this because of an accusation against one past commissioner is absurd.” “That will play out through the proper agencies….But, I’ve been in San Pedro my whole life and if you get five San Pedrans together to talk about somebody, they’ll identify that person from being a criminal to being a saint in the same discussion. So, I hear this crap all the time in San Pedro. Let’s see if it’s proven. We’ve got ways of dealing with that.”
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Corporate Coziness Key Concern in Race for Congress By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
May 26 - June 8, 2016
Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area
Almost a year ago, when Nanette Barragán entered the race to succeed Janice Hahn in Congress, Random Lengths called her a “grassroots fighter.” She was an upstart outsider candidate in a race the political establishment had seemingly pre-decided. The day Hahn announced she would be stepping down to run for the Los Angeles County board of supervisors, she turned around and endorsed State Sen. Isadore Hall to succeed her, just two months after he won his state senate seat in a low-turnout special election in December 2014. Hall had won with just 17,951 votes, which wouldn’t have gotten him past the primary in 2012. Hahn’s endorsement seemed wildly disconnected from the will of the district’s voters, particularly since Hall was a top recipient of oil company money in the state legislature—second only to his predecessor, Rob Wright. According to a 2014 report by Common Cause, Hall has also been a major recipient of contributions from tobacco, gambling, sugared beverage, and payday lending interests—all diametrically opposed to the welfare of Hall’s constituents. For example, twice since he announced, Hall helped kill a bill in committee requiring warning labels on sugary drinks—a measure supported by 78 percent of Californians, by 82.3 percent of AfricanAmericans and 85.3 percent of Latinos, according to in a field poll released this January. Yet, Hall still insists that fighting childhood obesity and diabetes are top legislative priorities. Hall quickly gained a slew of endorsements from fellow lawmakers, scaring off a dozen or more rumored aspirants. But not Barragán, then Hermosa Beach Mayor Pro Tem, who had played a key role in the landslide 3-1 defeat of “Measure
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Candidate Nanette Barragán for Congressional District 44. File photo.
O.” The measure would have opened up Hermosa to oil drilling for decades to come. Since then, Barragán has moved back into the district, where she was born and reared. She has not only built grassroots support, she’s also gained significant endorsements, including early support from the Climate Hawks Vote super political action committee. “I consider this the most important congressional primary in California from a climate perspective,” said R.L. Miller, Climate Hawks Vote co-founder and chairwoman of the state Democratic Party’s environmental caucus.“Climate Hawks Vote endorsed [her] very early and has been joined by League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club, representing Nanette’s strength as a climate hawk. And, we’re happy to see the broad coalition of support she’s assembled: Latinos, women, progressives (Democracy For America). Nanette has proven to be a strong fundraiser, which she needs going up against the machine politics forces backing Isadore Hall. “The working class people of her district want a shot at the middle class, clean air and clean water, and a brighter future for their children. Isadore Hall stands for big oil, big tobacco, big sugar, the gambling industry and billboard blight…. The more people hear about him, the more they support Nanette.” In addition to organizations, Barragán’s also gained support from a growing list of Congress members, and recently even the Los Angeles Times, which wrote that “only Barragán has demonstrated the integrity, courage and commitment to the environment that this industrial district needs. Voters should choose her on June 7.” Barragán recently spoke about what she considers is the most important factor in building support. “It’s just been getting my message out there and talking to people about my values which
are their values—whether it’s protecting our air and water, protecting and improving social security and Medicare, bringing better paying jobs, improving the waterfront or just improving quality of life issues,” she said. “The values that I have stood up for time and time again are the very values that were instilled in me growing up in this district.” Given the gridlocked state of Congress, the more informal role of facilitating local problemsolving within the district looms larger than ever. When asked what problems she’s observed while campaigning that would capture her time and attention, Barragán cited homelessness right off the bat, citing the efforts of city and county government, as well as federal policies that could be improved for veterans, for mental health services, and for affordable housing. “Housing prices are huge issue[s] here in LA, and we need to collaborate with local stakeholders, businesses and nonprofits to increase and build affordable housing,” she said. “We need to bring together local activists and leaders to make a bigger impact on this issue.... Bringing parties to the negotiating table as a lawyer would be an important piece to making sure we strategically tackle this problem with the best local and federal efforts possible.” Barragán would also take a similar approach to education. “ Mayor [Eric] Garcetti’s recent proposal that all [Los Angeles Unified School District] grads should get at least one free year of community college was a step in the right direction, and as a member of Congress, I would support free community college,” she said. “We need to increase Pell Grants to reflect the exponential rising cost of college…. Student debt is a financial crisis in this country.... We should allow people to refinance their student loans at lower, fair rates that don’t threaten their financial stability.” In contrast to Barragán’s advocacy for reducing financing costs, Hall has received more than $35,000 in campaign contributions from payday lending companies and their executives since entering the state assembly in 2008. He’s voted to help expand their businesses. A third issue Barragán cites is something related to what she is helping her mother with. “You shouldn’t have to be a lawyer to get your Social Security benefits or Medicare coverage,” she said “This is something I would work to solve through open-door constituent services and working on efforts at a national level to reform the system.” This ties into something else Barragán said about the strengths she would bring to bear in office. “My strength is that I’ve experienced and had to overcome the problems that people in my district face every day,” Barragán said. “I grew
up in a family of immigrants, so I know firsthand what immigration reform would mean to this community and how important it is that families here legally can get good jobs and health care. I really struggled to make it through school and I had to take on massive amounts of student debt to make it through college.” But she hasn’t just lived with these problems herself. “I also have the experience to help solve them,” she said. “As an attorney, I have spent my career advocating on behalf of people and [See Barragán, page 12]
Community Announcements:
Harbor Area [Announcements, from page 2]
Central SP Neighborhood Council Elections
Board selections for the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council and the Primary Elections will take place June 7. Time: 4 to 8 p.m. June 7 Details: http://tinyurl.com/ CentralSPNCCandidates, http://sanpedrocity.org/ candidate-filing-information Venues: Rancho San Pedro Housing Authority, 275 W. 1st St., San Pedro Anderson Senior Center, 828 S. Mesa St., San Pedro Cabrillo Avenue Elementary School, 732 S. Cabrillo Ave., San Pedro
Sharing Your Neighborhood with Coyotes
The Los Angeles Department of Animal Services has recently had an increase in the number of coyote sightings reported in residential areas and public parks. LA Animal Services urges the community to follow these prevention tips and actions to keep two and four-legged family members safe: · Never feed coyotes · Do not approach coyotes for any reason. · Closely supervise all children while outside. · Keep pets on leash and close by at all times. · Keep pet food and water dishes inside. · Secure food and trash at all times and remove all sources of water. · Remove overgrown brush and hanging bushes to improve visibility. · If a coyote approaches or acts aggressively, throw rocks, make noise, look big, and pick up small children and pets. Do not turn your back to the animal. · If a coyote attacks, call 911. Details: laanimalservices.com, keepmewild.com
Summer Artist Residency, Shop Front Studio Space
6021 is a professional artist studio situated in a shop front in North Long Beach. For the second year artist Angela Willcocks is offering two months of free studio space from June 15 to Aug.15. Details: awillcocks88@yahoo.com.
Arts Council Annual Grant Applications Now Available
The Arts Council for Long Beach is pleased to announce that its 2016–17 annual grant applications are now available. The applications and guidelines are at artslb.org/services/grants. All grant applications due or postmarked by June 1. Details: lisa.desmidt@artslb.org. Venue: Arts Council for Long Beach, 350 Elm Ave., Long Beach, CA 90802
Bernie Sanders Speaks to Carson
Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council Elections
By Christian L. Guzman, Contributing Reporter Suits, tattoos, hijabs and piercings were all part of the diverse attire of attendees on May 17 during a rally for Bernie Sanders. About 21,000 people overflowed the StubHub Center in Carson to see the presidential candidate. “I’ve been waiting for someone like Bernie to run for president my whole life,” said Connie Kazmer, one of the attendees. “Before he was even running I saw him speak out against the Koch Brothers. He cares about the people.” “[Sanders] has been on the compass of justice,” said actor and activist Danny Glover, who formally endorsed Sanders in February. “He does it with passion and love…. And, let me tell you something, you never get too old for [that]!” When Sanders took to the stage, he quickly addressed mainstream media calls for him to drop out of the presidential race to enable Hillary Clinton to focus her campaign against Donald Trump. “Do you think that California shouldn’t take part in choosing the next president?” Sanders asked. Thousands of “boos” answered in reply. “I agree with you on that,” Sanders said. “This is the beginning of the final push [for us] to win California.”
But he acknowledged the tough road ahead. “We have a steep hill to climb, but we have been climbing since day one,” 0Sanders said. “Let’s have the largest turnout in the history of [California]. Let’s show the world that this state will lead us into a political revolution.” He was able to change some hearts at the event. “I wanted to get informed,” Joanna Sanchez said. “I listened to Hillary Clinton, then I came here. Throughout the whole speech I was in favor of Bernie. I fully support him now.” Sanders reiterated his stances on social and economic issues. He said that if he were to become president, he would push to fund free tuition by taxing Wall Street, institute a federal minimum wage of $15, reform the immigration system and end the for-profit prison system. He addressed global climate change and its effect it is having on California. “Wildfires have destroyed 18,000 acres of land in California,” Sanders said. “You have seen massive mudslides and rising sea levels.… We need to put a tax on carbon to [help curb] a fossil fuel industry that destroys the planet with impunity.” [See Carson, page 19]
VOTE ON JUNE 7 VOTE FROM 4 - 8 PM AT:
Anderson Senior Center 828 S. Mesa St. Cabrillo Elementary School 732 S. Cabrillo Ave.
We are committed to serving the many and varied interests and concerns of all the stakeholders in the CeSPNC
Rancho San Pedro 275 W. 1st St.
OR VOTE ON JUNE 14 FROM 4 - 8 PM AT:
POLA High School 250 W. 5th St., San Pedro
vote for this SLATE of CANDIDATES 4 James Preston Allen—Current president, dbusiness owner and Central SP resident ** †
4 4 4 4
Frank Anderson—Current port chair, Central SP resident Rachel Bruhnke—Teacher, POLA High School, Central SP resident Kenneth Collins—Math tutor, Central SP resident Christian Guzman—Stakeholder
4 Alexander Hall —Community organizer, Central SP resident 4 Debra A. Hunter—Current board member, business owner, transportation, access and mobility specialist and Central SP resident
4 Carrie Scoville –Current board member, stakeholder, work force development director—transportation and logistics
4 Jane Castillo—Central SP resident, Neighborhood Watch block captain 4 Khixaan Obioma-Sakhu—Current secretary of board, Central SP resident
4 Ivan Sulic—Stakeholder, government representative, Central SP resident ** 4 ARMY LINDERBORG—Central SP resident 4 Joe Lazo—Central SP resident An estimated 21,000 people overflowed the StubHub Center on May 17 when Sen. Bernie Sanders brought his presidential campaign to Carson. Photo by Kelvin Brown Sr.
The Local Publication You Actually Read
www.CentralSanPedroUnited.com
*Primary Election Day. Some precincts will have Central SP Neighborhood Council voting. **Endorsed by Congresswoman Janice Hahn. † Endorsed by Assemblyman Warren Furutani.
May 26 - June 8, 2016
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The Times are Finally a-Changin’:
Obama in Vietnam By James Preston Allen, Publisher
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
—American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978).
May 26 - June 8, 2016
Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area
While President Barack Obama was in Vietnam the week of May 22, he acknowledged what previous administrations since the 1960s have been loathe to do: that Vietnam is ideologically closer to the United States than it is to China. “What’s this?” You might say. How is it that we spent more than a decade fighting the communists in Southeast Asia, at a loss of some 58,000 American soldiers and $173 billion (equivalent to $770 billion in 2003 dollars)? These numbers were supplied by the Defense Department. Veteran’s benefits and interest adds $1 trillion in 2003 dollars. This was a war that, in retrospect, never needed to be fought and never needed to divide our nation. It left a generation of veterans traumatized and disabled. This visit wasn’t just about Obama pivoting U.S. foreign policy toward Asia. It was also about burying the ghosts of the Vietnam War. The president has been criticized for including our former adversary and human rights abuser in the Trans Pacific Partnership. But the president deftly delivered a history lesson, noting how Communist Revolutionary leader, Ho Chi Minh, evoked the American Declaration of Independence in Vietnam’s own declaration of independence after World War II, which read: All people are created equal. The Creator has endowed them with inviolable rights. Among these rights are the right to life, the right to liberty and the right to the pursuit of happiness. The president expanded upon the values of universal human rights as articulated in the constitutions of democratic societies, noting: The United States does not seek to impose our form of government on Vietnam. The rights I speak of, I believe, are not American values; I think they’re universal values written into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They’re written into the Vietnamese constitution, which states that “citizens have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press and have the right of access to information, the right to assembly, the right to association and the right to demonstrate. That’s in the Vietnamese
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constitution. So really, this is an issue about all of us, each country, trying to consistently apply these principles, making sure that we—those of us in government—are being true to these ideals. In recent years, Vietnam has made some progress. Vietnam has committed to bringing its laws in line with its new constitution and with international norms. With these particular references to core human rights and with their uncanny resemblance to certain “inalienable” rights found in our own founding documents, it was perhaps Obama’s intent to make this a teachable moment while cementing the contentious Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement. His speech was probably one of the most cleverly executed criticisms I have ever witnessed. And yet, all these years after the end of the Vietnam War, even with the vast understanding of how historically wrong it was, the ghosts of this nightmare still haunt both our national psyche and our politics. I’m sure that there are still some gung-ho conservatives who still want to reargue this war, just as there are conservative academics who attempt to rewrite this history. In my mind, it was right for Obama to put this war to rest. One can only speculate what would have happened if it hadn’t been fought at all. Would President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty have succeeded without the political opposition to the Vietnam War? Would President Richard Nixon ever have been elected to launch the War on Drugs as a political gambit against the anti-war protestors? The true cost of the Vietnam War on our civil society and our political history may never be fully calculated. But 43 years after the end of that war, there is only one presidential candidate who is addressing the fallout from that era with an aspirational message: Sen. Bernie Sanders. A few weeks ago, I served as the caucus convener for the Sanders’ campaign in the City of Carson. I listened to some of the most moving speeches delivered by delegate contestants. Many young Latino men and women, and many first generation graduates who were just out of Publisher/Executive Editor James Preston Allen james@randomlengthsnews.com Assoc. Publisher/Production Coordinator Suzanne Matsumiya Managing Editor
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college explained why they supported Sanders. It was an emotionally moving moment. I told them, “I have been waiting for you to be here for over 40 years.” This was odd because most of them were not even that old. We are witnessing educated young people rising up against authoritarian rule of the elite— not just locally, but across this nation and around the world. From Hong Kong to Tahrir Square in Egypt; from the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York to activists at our own Los Angeles City Hall and police commission meetings, there is push-back. This is a response to the refrain of “enough is enough.” And, it is beginning to shake the power structure of governments. Sanders is right. This is not just a campaign
to elect him president. It is a revolution to shake the foundations of corporate capitalism. Even as polls show Sanders gaining ground on Hillary Clinton in California—46 to 48 percent, respectively—there is considerably more to be gained than just delegates or a nomination. This is reminds me of a 1961 Bob Dylan tune— Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won’t come again And don’t speak too soon For the wheel’s still in spin And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’ For the loser now will be later to win For the times they are a-changin’
One City, One Council: Three Races
By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor Most people in San Pedro are quite aware of the tensions over this year’s neighborhood council election. That is, unless you have been under a rock for the past year. This tension began 10 months ago, when Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council became a target for attack after affirming tiny homes as a viable alternative to addressing homelessness until permanent housing could be provided. The sight of indigent people accompanying multiple shopping carts filled with collected stuff grated on the nerves of more than a few. This frustration was vented largely on social media and neighborhood council meetings by the likes of the local group, Saving San Pedro and other community members that take an enforcement first stance against the homeless. The Central San Pedro Neighborhood
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Council was one of the first public bodies in the city to directly address homelessness. The social media chatter about the growing encampments on Ante Perkov Way and at the U.S. Post Office on Beacon Street, was only background noise until this point. The chatter crystallized into a backlash after Councilman Joe Buscaino’s homeless forum in September 2015. From then on, neighborhood council meetings became packed, emotional affairs with the Homeless Taskforce and the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council board president (this paper’s publisher), James Preston Allen—a frequent target of their outbursts. Out of this context emerged James Baeza, Robert Campbell and George Palaziol from the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council, and [See Council, page 9]
Random Lengths News editorial office is located at 1300 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro, CA 90731, (310) 519-1016. Address correspondence regarding news items and news tips only to Random Lengths News, P.O. Box 731, San Pedro, CA 90733-0731, or email to editor @randomlengthsnews.com. Send Letters to the Editor or requests for subscription information to james @ randomlengthsnews.com. To be considered for publication, all Letters to the Editor should be typewritten, must be signed, with address and phone number included (these will not be published, but for verification only) and be kept to about 250 words. To submit advertising copy email rlnsales@randomelengthsnews.com or reads@randomlengthsnews.com. Extra copies and back issues are available by mail for $3 per copy while supplies last. Subscriptions are available for $36 per year for 27 issues. Random Lengths News presents issues from an alternative perspective. We welcome articles and opinions from all people in the Harbor Area. While we may not agree with the opinions of contributing writers, we respect and support their 1st Amendment right to express those opinions. Random Lengths News is a member of Standard Rates and Data Reporting Services and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. (ISN #0891-6627). All contents Copyright 2016 Random Lengths News. All rights reserved.
weekend, upset that I hadn’t been
to vote, I went online to see if RANDOMLetters able there was any way for me to vote.
the San Pedro committee, which sponsors the Juneteenth celebration every year at Peck Park. Gatlin laughs at the thought of people thinking they could win a city council seat after getting a few hundred votes to sit on a neighborhood council. “I recall sitting at a council meeting arguing over the color of a couch at Peck Park,” Gatlin said. “If we had one big San Pedro council, do you think we would have spent an hour talking about a couch? Instead of a lot of arguing, we could have been so much more productive.” When he was still active in the neighborhood councils, Gatlin researched the possibility of creating a single San Pedro council and converting Central, Northwest and Coastal into satellite councils, from which five or so members participate on the main San Pedro council. Thirty-three candidates are now running for 17 seats in the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council, a council that once had difficulty getting enough people to run for their board. The most promising aspect of the Central neighborhood council race is the large number of new stakeholders looking to get involved and the amount of attention the race is getting. One candidate, an expectant mother and newlywed, Army Lindborg, said she wanted to organize backyard fruit exchanges and pop up stores at vacant lots around town. Another was army veteran and business owner, Lashonda Roberts, who wants to encourage more businesses to open up in downtown San Pedro and address homelessness. Then there’s Lucia Alonso, an academically accomplished stakeholder working on her bachelor’s degree in psychology and a philosophy doctorate in social work. She wants to work on public safety and quality of life issues, as well serve as conduit for Spanish language households to the neighborhood council. The crop of candidates running for Central Neighborhood Council is the youngest, most diverse and most credentialed in recent memory.
One Council
Harbor Police Advisory Board President Mona Sutton. Palaziol is also one of the founders of Saving San Pedro — now known on Facebook as Saving San Pedro from the Homeless Enablers— a humorously sarcastic face of what some described as a hate group after they allegedly bullied members on social media. It is in this context that stakeholders from throughout San Pedro began paying attention and participating in Central’s neighborhood council and perhaps reigniting the One San Pedro, One Council idea. Conversely, the Northwest council has experienced so little drama that the current council is running unopposed in their June 11 election. The most recent effort for a one council for one San Pedro, was the one led by community leader Joe Gatlin. Janice Hahn was well into her second term as a council member for District 15, the port community advisory committee was running strong, and Gatlin was serving on Central and Northwest San Pedro neighborhood councils. Mr. Gatlin was the Joe that everyone thought of before former senior lead officer Joe Buscaino became District 15’s councilman. Gatlin noted that when he was growing up there was no Coastal, Central or Northwest San Pedro. He recalled the unity and pride residents had in their identity as San Pedrans. In his mind, the creation of three separate neighborhood councils is the worst thing that could have happened to San Pedro. “Being divided like that, it hurt us,” Gatlin said. He believes that the fact that there are three councils means that they don’t speak as a single voice. As a result, the port can do as it likes and little progress has been made on issues such as the development of the waterfront. After serving his terms, he’s stayed away from the neighborhood councils, choosing to impact his community in other ways, such as reviving the local chapter of the NAACP and heading
The vast majority of them are looking to build community while addressing San Pedro’s most intractable problems. These are people, who are not necessarily born here, but who see the potential of this community with fresh eyes. These are people who chose to make Pedro their home. See the full list of candidates at http:// sanpedrocity.org/candidateswho-have-filed. The election will take place on June 7 at three locations, Anderson Park, Cabrillo Elementary School and Rancho San Pedro and then, on June 14, at the Port of Los Angeles High School. http:// sanpedrocity.org/candidatefiling-information
of the need to certify that all ballots are legitimate. In the recent Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council selection exactly 687 people cast ballots of those only 199 were cast by individuals who were stakeholders who were not residents (27.5 percent). These people had to show proof of stakeholder status, like you referred to above. Of this group only 59 voters claimed status by showing affiliation with Saving San Pedro or less than 9 percent of the total votes cast. Had online voting have been allowed hundreds of their Facebook “friends” might have voted with no real way of knowing who they are or certifying the results. James Preston Allen, Publisher
Community Alerts
Bernie Sanders Comes to San Pedro May 27
On May 27, Sen. Bernie Sanders will be at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum at the foot of 6th Street. The event starts at 10 a.m. It is free and open to the public. Arrive early. Admission is first come, first served. For security reasons, do not bring bags and limit what you bring to small, personal items like keys and cell phones. Weapons, sharp objects, chairs, and signs or banners will not be allowed through security. Free parking available at Ports O’ Call Village, $2 parking (cash or credit) at USS Iowa Battleship parking lot, or use the Harbor Blvd./6th St. bus stop on Bus 205.
Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council Results
The following candidates were selected join Coastal San Pedro’s council: James Baeza Jeanine M. Bryant Robert Campbell Erin Carter Luis Dominguez Doug Epperhart Robert Farrell Gayle Fleury Adele Healy April Juarez Robert Milling Jonathan David Myers George Palaziol Dean Pentcheff Shannon Ross Natalia E. Schroeder Brian Vasallo
May 26 - June 8, 2016
Council, from page 8]
I just read the article on the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council in the May 12-25 Issue of RLN and had a few questions. You state that “only in-person, written, public ballots can be accepted” surprised me. Over the
Dear Susannah, Some of the neighborhood councils in the Los Angeles city system are experimenting with other forms of voting this season. The by-laws and the rules of the local councils do not allow for it and this is why: Some councils don’t trust online voting and think it could be abused by people using multiple email addresses or false identities to vote more than once. They also don’t trust that the city clerk’s office is efficient or vigilant enough to ferret out voter fraud or accurately determining “stakeholder status.” And because these are neighborhood (s) elections, and not elections with a verified voter registration rolls, there are no private votes because
Apparently not, but it is possible to have electronic voting or voting by mail according to the Empower LA website, and a number of neighborhood councils can vote electronically or by mail. Before I start writing letters about having the other voter options provided, I thought I’d check if there is something that I don’t know
on letterhead stating that you are an ongoing active participant in an organization, membership card, receipt for dues, “a flyer, weekly calendar or newsletter,” a printed advertisement or web page; or other similar documentation. Giving the examples would have been helpful. I assume you will have an article about the Central Neighborhood Council election coming up. That council has made an effort to make it easier for more people to vote and notes what a residence-out-ofdistrict needs for evidence on its election page. Thank you for your good work. Sorry to go on and on. Basically I wanted your take on the electronic and by-mail voting. Susannah Roff de la Cruz San Pedro
The Local Publication You Actually Read
Neighborhood Council Selection
that would limit SP to in-person voting within a 4-hour period. By the way, the last paragraph “Proof of stakeholder status for community interest stakeholders must be consistent with and substantially equivalent to the evidentiary proof required of stakeholders “who live, work or own property” seemed a bit discouraging. The accepted forms of documentation on the empowerla website include a letter
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[Win, from page 1]
Can Bernie Win?
May 26 - June 8, 2016
Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area
Early in his speech, Sanders pointed back to his campaign’s beginnings, labeled as “a fringe candidacy.” “We were 60 points behind Secretary [Hillary] Clinton in the polls, we had no political organization, no money, very little name recognition,” He noted. “A lot has changed in the past year. As of today we have won 19 state primaries and caucuses and over 9 million votes.... I think we’re going to win here in California.” A few minutes later Sanders’ announced he had won the Oregon primary, raising his total to 20 state victories. Sanders said he was “especially proud” that in every race, “we have received a significant majority of the votes of young people.” “We are winning people 45 years of age or younger,” he said, “And what that tells me is that our vision, a vision of social justice, economic justice, racial justice and environmental justice. That is the future of this country.” Win or lose, Sanders has already indelibly altered the political dynamics by giving voice to that vision. “Sanders can win California,” labor lawyer Diane Middleton said. “Tens of thousands of voters are wildly enthusiastic about his platform: war as a last resort (not first alternative), an end to the rigged economy that only works for the 1%, universal healthcare, free college tuition, ending private prisons for profit, no more Citizens United. The majority of the American people support all of these ideas, as proven by one poll after another.”
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The Mistake of Running for Obama’s Third Term
Indeed, Bill Clinton’s first national pollster, Stan Greenberg, has been making a related argument throughout this election cycle: that Democrats need to be bold, think big and speak frankly about the obstacles to overcome. In an interview with Huffington Post this past October, on the release of his book, America Ascendant, he warned that it was a mistake for Democrats to run for President Barack Obama’s “third term,” as Hillary Clinton has seemingly done. “That’s not what the country wants,” Greenberg said. “It’s not what the base of the Democratic Party wants…. The Democratic Party is waiting for a president who will articulate the scale of the problems we face and challenge them to address it.” Obama’s mistake had been to downplay the scale of the obstacles, he said. “Reform politics is exciting, once you have a leader educating the country on the scale of the problems, and the fact there’s a path and a way to bring reform and change,” he said. “When you talk about Bernie Sanders, about what he wants to do, people say, ‘Well that can’t be done,’” said Julian Burger, president of the Progressive Democratic Club. “Then you say, ‘What’s wrong with trying? What if someone tried and least got 10 percent? You know that’s a lot better than nothing…. So I think people should be aware the fact that at least one candidate is not throwing up his or her hands and saying there’s nothing we can do. And we’re just going to have
Sen. Bernie Sanders was the center of a lot of attention during his May 17 campaign event at the StubHub Center. Photo by Kelvin Brown, Sr.
to live with it.” “For me, this has become the values election,” said Sanders supporter Robert Farrell, a former Los Angeles city councilman. “What you believe? Why do you believe it? And, who do you think are the best people, the best man, the best woman, to carry forth what’s in your heart and what you value as an individual?” This is particularly important in reaching those who don’t often vote. The fact that the Sanders campaign has activated so many voters really excites Farrell. “Each and every state we go to, we’re bringing about change in the way the Democratic Party function in that particular state,” he said. The problem is that Sanders is up against a
century-old voting deficit. Ever since eligible voter participation peaked in the late 1800s, America’s participation rates have lagged significantly, and with a decided class bias. In the South, this was driven by black disenfranchisement efforts, which disenfranchised poor whites as well. But significant, if less drastic, declines occurred in the North, too. In 2008, Democratic participation shot up momentarily, spurred by a combination of revulsion against eight years of Bush-Cheney and two potentially historic candidates. But two years later, Democratic participation plummeted, allowing Republicans to make unprecedented gains, not just in Congress but in state legislatures, where they aggressively gerrymandered [See page 11]
[from page 10]
legislative districts. This, effectively blocked majority rule for the rest of decade in many locales. That result, in turn, further depressed participation—augmented by a variety of voter suppression laws—which is why Sanders faces a particularly steep barrier. Yet, he remains undeterred. “This campaign understands a very, very important historical lesson,” Sanders said. “That lesson is that no real change has ever occurred in our country from the top on down. It has always been from the bottom on up.” He went on to cite a series of examples, from the fight to organize labor and create the American middle class, to the fight against slavery and segregation, to the movement for women’s equality, to the much more recent and more rapid victory of gay marriage, and the ongoing struggle for a $15-an-hour minimum wage. “If five years ago somebody stood up here and said, ‘Bernie, you know this seven-and-aquarter minimum wage, that’s really awful; that’s terrible, we’ve got to raise it to 15 bucks an hour,’ the person next to him would have said, ‘Fifteen dollars an hour! You are nuts! You’re thinking too radically. You’re an extremist,’” Sanders said “But then what happened—and we’ve got some of them here—workers in the fast food industry went out on strike. Workers in McDonald’s and in Burger King and in Wendy’s and in Subway, and all these places, they told their community and they told the world, they cannot live on sevenand-a-quarter an hour, and then you know what happened, after the strikes and demonstrations, in Seattle, here in Los Angeles, in San Francisco: $15 dollars an hour. And, if I have anything to say about it, and as president I will: $15 an hour in every state in this country.”
The Democratic Challenge
The challenge faced by Sanders and his supporters is translating that enthusiasm and commitment into a broader agenda and a more institutionalized form, particularly when institutions as a whole have long been so seriously compromised. “My evaluation of Bernie is that I like everything he says, but he doesn’t have any way to get it done,” said Pat Nave, who is supporting Hillary Clinton. “It’s not going to happen…. Back in ‘68, I was at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. That’s where Diane (his wife) and I met. We hounded Hubert Humphrey all through the campaign, made sure that Richard Nixon got elected, I don’t think that was our intent, but we were just so mad at Johnson and Humphrey for the Vietnam War that we shot ourselves in the foot and made sure we got Richard Nixon as a president.” The same thing happened with Nixon’s reelection in 1972, he went on to say. “I’ve had enough of principled candidates who have no pathway to winning,” he said. “I no longer wish to be a martyr.” There are two problems with this analysis. First, Clinton has no idea how to get her agenda passed, either. The past six years prove that. Second, Sanders might actually be a stronger candidate than Clinton, as months of head-tohead polling against Trump suggests. Sanders thinks mobilizing people power can have impact, but Nave reminds us how Republicans ignored Obama’s popular support from the moment he took office. He’s got a point. But Obama never really tried to mobilize his supporters to influence Republican lawmakers directly. There was never any Democratic effort
remotely like the Tea Party effort to shut down Democrats’ town hall meetings in the summer of 2009. That’s not to say Democrats should have bombarded Republicans with death panel-style lies. But it is to say that the Fight For Fifteen movement could have the capacity to further expand the influence it’s already had—influence far beyond what anyone imagined when the
movement first began. All this suggests is that—for all its intensity— the debate between Sanders’ and Clinton’s supporters has yet to fully flesh itself out. Nave pointed out that in Wisconsin 18 percent Sanders’ supporters didn’t bother to vote for any of the down ballot candidates. This allowed a [See California, page 12]
The Local Publication You Actually Read May 26 - June 8, 2016
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[California, from page 11]
California’s Primary Relevance conservative Republican to be elected to the state supreme court. The failure to educate his voters on this score indicates a significant gap. But Burger argued that even if Sanders is not the Democratic nominee, what he’s accomplished is monumental. “It’s huge,” Burger said. “Look at Hillary Clinton. Everything she was talking about at the beginning of the campaign was the same crap that she was talking about in 2008, there were no changes, and then Bernie Sanders comes into the race.” The result has been a debate about how— not whether—to move in a more progressive direction. “This is a great opportunity to make
[Barragán, from page 6]
Barragán Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign cards have become signs of the times. Photo by Kelvin Brown.
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some real tremendous changes this country,” Burger concluded. To bring that about, Sanders argues, the Democratic Party itself needs to be revolutionized from the bottom up, as well as infused with new blood. It could also benefit by absorbing the lessons of its more successful allies, such as the ILWU. “I’m working with longshoremen for the first time with the Sanders campaign and I am absolutely fascinated,” Farrell said. “It’s really something to see representative leadership and
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families who have been failed by the system.... What I’ve learned is that people can’t do this on their own. They need someone who can bring people together, someone who’s not in it for themselves, but who actually wants to find solutions for their constituents.” It’s overwhelming likely that Barragán and Hall will both make it through the primary and face each other in November, so there will be plenty of time for voters in the district to weigh their competing arguments, as well as their track records. But one helpful example to consider is the ongoing public threat posed by the Rancho LPG facility. This past year, after activists approached him, Hall originally promised a State Senate hearing on the dangers posed by Rancho LPG. But the meeting was first postponed, then repurposed for a much more general forum in late March, which was largely boycotted by local activists. “I will not waste my time in Sen. Hall’s sham to try to ‘placate’ the potential victims of such an overwhelming disaster,” homeowner activists Janet Gunter announced. But Barragán said she has strong concerns about the tanks, especially since Plains All American have already proven to be careless when it comes to our environment and making sure their facilities are safe and up to code. “I took a position on this very early on and signed on to a letter demanding more oversight
a constituency that really is comfortable with their leadership, and they’re doing something special.” No other union has as much democratic accountability built into its basic structure—it’s been an enduring source of strength for more than 80 years. It’s just the sort of example one might hope the Democratic Party is prepared to embrace, if it wants to be a lifelong home to all the younger voters that Sanders has motivated and inspired.
of the tanks,” Barragán said. “I’ve met with community leaders and marched with them to raise awareness about the site.” She said that if she were to get into Congress she would push for greater oversight and a full report on the potential dangers along with options to relocate the tanks. “This should be a given with the mistakes that have already been made by Plains All American, but I also think there needs to be a local component to this,” she said. “Some efforts have been made but they have not lead to any action, we need to do more, especially now in light of the recent indictment.” Retired oil industry consultant Connie Rutter said Barragán met with Gunter and her some months ago and seemed to understand the danger. “We certainly would welcome her input,” Rutter said. “The logical place to start would be to endorse the LAUSD resolution, Tony Patchett’s petition to the EPA and a promise to ride herd on the EPA’s Kowtoing to the American Petroleum Institute.” “The most important thing I want voters to know before this election is that this district needs someone who shares our values and will be a champion on the issues that we care about,” Barragán said. She’s done a lot to convince many that she’s the one for the job. But as Rutter’s remarks indicate, there’s still more that remains to be done.
Black, Green Conversations with the Purple One Former “Green” Advisor for the Obama Administration Speaks on Prince and Green Jobs at Long Beach City College By Melina Paris, Contributing Writer
More than a month after his untimely death, tributes to Prince continue to rain on — in purple. Think pieces by the reams on his importance to music, black culture and the music industry are being rehashed, reprinted and rethought of anew, but only after the coroner’s report conclusively reported that Prince didn’t die from an overdose on illegal substances and or complications from AIDS. But perhaps the most interesting stories to come since Prince Rogers Nelson died are the revelations of the forward thinking and black conscious-filled philanthropy that he engaged in outside of the spotlight. In April, CNN political correspondant Van Jones focused on climate change, green collar jobs and Prince’s unsung legacy at Long Beach City College. To help his audience understand his relationship to the artist, who was formerly known as “The Artist,” Jones painted a picture of his own life, before he became a special advisor on green jobs during the Barack Obama administration’s first term. A Tennessee native, Jones recounted his journey to California by way of Yale Law School. He moved to the Bay Area in the spring of 1992 after the San Francisco-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights hired him as legal observer during the trial of the Los Angeles Police Department officers who beat Rodney King. Jones [See Conversations, page 16]
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Former Obama administration advisor, Van Jones spoke to students about the environment, green jobs and the late singer, Prince, April 20, at Long Beach City College. Photo courtesy of Long Beach City College.
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5th Annual West Coast BBQ Classic at the Queen Mary By Gina Ruccione, Cuisine and Restaurant Writer
Serving the AND Seven Communities of Cuisine the Harbor Area INDEPENDENT FREE >> Arts • • Entertainment
The 5th Annual West Coast BBQ Classic at the Queen Mary featured barbecue styles from across the country. The May 14 event included slow-cooked hickory barbeque from Texas and southern Memphisstyle barbeque. The annual competition is officially certified in California and sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. The barbecue championship brought Southern California’s most accomplished champion pitmasters together to compete for a $10,00 cash prize and the coveted title of West Coast BBQ Pitmaster Champion. This past year, I showed up late and ran around trying to shove as many samples of barbecue in my mouth, before I shlepped my body home and threw myself on the couch. With 44 teams competing this year, it was nearly impossible to try everything, but I gave it my all. I made it a point to take my time, reacquaint myself with many of the contestants and, of course, sample everything along the way. Teams are expected to submit entries in four categories: pork, chicken, brisket and ribs. Certified judges, who spend their day tucked away in the judges’ tent, rate the entries on presentation, taste and everything in between. Attendees are able to cast a vote also but just for their overall favorite team. The winner receives the People’s Choice Award. That award means nothing to the judges— and often the West Coast BBQ Pitmaster Champion isn’t the people’s favorite. The general public is voting on everything else — like whether or not the booth is aesthetically pleasing or if someone is
May26 26--June June88,, 2016 May
[See BBQ, page 15]
BBQ styles from throughout the nation came together at this year’s West Coast BBQ Classic.
1639 S. Palos Verdes St., San Pedro • (310) 831-2629 RSVP (310) 223-6970 • www.dalmatianamericanclub.com
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Father’s Day Brunch
Celebrate on Sunday, June 19 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Chef Tony and Chef Chuey will prepare delicious brunch selections, served with complimentary champagne mimosas and $3 Bloody Marys. In addition to the regular breakfast selections, Father’s Day Brunch will feature a carving station of roast turkey and ham. Cost: $25 adults and seniors; $15 children 7-12, 6 and younger free! RSVP (310) 223-6970 by June 17.
Retired Elks Monthly Luncheon, Wed. June 8
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passing out watermelon, while hungry crowds gather for meaty samples. I actually read through some Yelp reviews of the event and again, many complaints were unfounded. Some attendees were upset about waiting in line to try samples. It’s a barbecue competition, not a restaurant, folks. Wait your turn. If I was competing for $10,000 in cash, I might be slightly more worried about plating pulled pork for the judges tent, than
Join the retired Elks Club members for lunch and entertainment. Social hour: 10:30 a.m. Lunch: 11:30 in the club’s Grand Ballroom. Cost: $20. RSVP by calling (310) 831-9991.
Next Casino Day Trip: Tues., June 14 to Viejas Casino
Have fun and support the Club! Cost: $25 per person. RSVP: Gojko Spralja at (310) 831-9306.
Member Benefits
Members and their families receive a generous discount on Club rental for private parties and special occasions. The Club provides onsite full service catering. For information: (310) 831-2629.
San Pedro Galleries Mark Accomplishments By Andrea Serna, Art Columnist
Art—making it, showing it to an interested audience, and perhaps selling it to someone who appreciates your labor—is rigorous work. Don’t let anyone sell you on the cliché of the artist disconnected from the harsh realities of life. An artist’s work is almost entirely inquiry-based and self-regulated. It requires a singular dedication rarely found in the 9-to-5 world. This month, three San Pedro galleries mark their diligence and success in the challenging art market. Gallery 478 and Warschaw Gallery have joined together to celebrate the career of artist Neal Nagy, while the spunky Gallery Azul celebrates its 10th anniversary in business. [BBQ, from page 14]
BBQ Champions
Gallery Azul
Gallery Azul has established a reputation as a cultural gallery staging themed shows, which focus on informing the community about events that impact society. Artists and gallery owners Cora RamirezVasquez and Ray Vasquez have a reputation for providing a venue for emerging artists. As the name would imply, their gallery exhibits work influenced by Latin American art, music and literature. Ten years is a landmark in any business. The past decade has been characterized by galleries closing across the country, as the shifting economy has changed how people relate to art. It helps that the
[See Galleries, page 16]
came in third place overall. Not a bad spot for a onewoman team. The Coachella-based Big Poppa’s Smokers won the top prize, while the Banning-based Left Coast Q took second place. For details about the West Coast BBQ Classic and Kansas City BBQ Society events, visit their website http://www.kcbs.us
Benn Clatworthy
GRAND
VISION
PRESENTS
GREEN ASHES Friday, June 3
7:30 pm Door • 8 pm Concert Bold Celtic Rock, from fierce rebel songs to soulful traditional ballads Tickets & Info:
310.833.4813 | GrandVision.org
The Grand Annex | 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro
June, 2016
ENTERTAINMENT May 27
Space Rock Experience new and progressive rock from Magnuson, Stage 11, Lobate Scarp, Zachary Kibbee. This event is for ages 21 and older. Time: 9 p.m. May 27 Cost: $10 Details: (310) 327-4384; www.alpinevillagecenter.com Venue: Alpine Village, 833 Torrance Blvd., Torrance The Mad Reckless Ridicula Imitatio Productions is proud to present its newest show, The Mad Reckless. Ladies grind together the glamour of sexy burlesque with the high energy of modern dance. Time: 9 p.m. May 27 Cost: $10 to $20 Details: http://longbeach.harvelles.com Venue: Harvelles, 201 E. Broadway, Long Beach
May 28
Alphonse Mouzon Enjoy a night of all-star jazz and funk. Time: 9 to 11 p.m. May 28 Cost: $20 to $30 Details: (562) 432-5240 Venue: Roscoe’s Seabird Lounge, 730 E. Broadway, Long Beach
May 29 Memorial Day Extravaganza Blues & Burlesque Variety Show MC Zach Miller and special guest comedians will be hand to make your belly ache. The show is followed by the Dirty Little Secrets Burlesque, T-Bone Cappone and the Catholic Guilt. Time: 2 p.m. May 29 Cost: $15 Details: http://longbeach.harvelles.com Venue: Harvelles, 201 E. Broadway, Long Beach
May 31
Harvelles Comedy, Burlesque The best comedians in the world come to Harvelle’s every Tuesday to work on their acts in the sexiest venue beneath the streets of Long Beach. The comedy combines well with the burlesque of the Dirty Little Secrets. Time: 9 p.m. April 5 Cost: $10 Details: (562) 239-3700; http://longbeach. harvelles.com Venue: Harvelle’s Long Beach, 201 E. Broadway, Long Beach
June 3
MOVE Does Prince Enjoy a celebration of music by Prince. Time: 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. June 3 Cost: Free Details: The First Friday Street Fair Venue: EXPO Arts Center, 4321 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach
331 W. 6th St., San Pedro
(310) 831-5663
www.SanPedroBrewing.com
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars Lola’s Mexican Cuisine’s Lola’s Outdoor Retro Cinema returns to Sunnyside Cemetery featuring a live concert Tribute to David Bowie by Long Beach’s MOVE, followed by a rare outdoor screening of the 1973 concert film, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Time: 7:30p.m. June 4
San Pedro Ballet Presents: Dance Through the Decades During San Pedro Ballet School’s annual summer recital students display their commitment to dance through ballet, tap, jazz, modern and contemporary. Time: 2 p.m. June 5 Cost: $20 to $25 Details: www.grandvision.org Venue: 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro
June 11
En La Noche Experience the vibrancy of Latin American music. En la Noche presents Tres Souls and Los Cambalache—two performances not to be missed. Time: 7 to 10 p.m. June 11 Cost: $15 and $20 Details: (562) 437-1689; www.molaa.org Venue: Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach
June 11 5th Annual Uptown Jazz Festival The annual Uptown Jazz Festival is being headlined by Goapele and DW3. Come and enjoy music, food, vendor booths and the Kids Zone. Time: 12 to 8 p.m. June 11 Cost: Free Details: http://tinyurl.com/UptownJazz Venue: Houghton Park, 6301 Myrtle Ave., Long Beach
COMMUNITY May 29
Third Annual Antique Roadshow Bring out from your attic your hidden treasures and have them appraised by one of three appraisers that’ll be at the Antique Roadshow. The appraisals are free. Each person is limited to two items. RSVP by May 26. Time: 4 to 8 p.m. May 29 Cost: Free Details: (310) 833-1002 contacthouse1002@gmail.com Venue: HOUSE 1002, 1002 Pacific Ave., San Pedro
May 30
Tea by the Sea Celebrate the beauty of San Pedro’s lighthouse and its accompanying gardens by having a cup of tea with friends and family. Time: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 30 Cost: Free Details: (310) 241-0684 Venue: Point Fermin Lighthouse, 807 W. Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro
June 1
Hear. Poetry. Now. Written word is brought to life through an evening of poetry featuring the City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellows and Writ Large Press artists, including Sarah Maclay, Claudia Rodríguez and Lynne Thompson. Time: 7 p.m. June 1 Cost: Free Details: www.grandperformances.org Venue: Grand Performances, 300 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles
June 3
From Sewers to Sanddabs Environmental supervisor, Jeff Armstrong, of the Orange County Sanitation DistrictOcean Monitoring Program, will describe the
May 26 26 -- June June 8, 8, 2016 2016 May
June 4
June 5
Green Ashes Green Ashes has depth, range and brazen musicianship. The band’s music runs the gamut from fierce rebel songs to soulful ballads. Time: 8 p.m. June 3 Cost: $20 to $120 Details: www.grandvision.org Venue: 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro
Cost: $12 Details: http://tinyurl.com/LBC-Ziggy-Stardust Venue:Sunnyside Cemetery, 1095 E. Willow St., Long Beach
The Local Publication You Actually Arts • Cuisine • Entertainment >> INDEPENDENT AND Read FREE
making sure everyone in line tried a sample in a timely fashion. Several teams stood out, primarily because I had the opportunity to sit and talk to the competitors and hear their stories. Passion for barbecue reigns true at these events but the quality and dedication to hone in on their craft totally shines through. A member of the Southern California Restaurant One team in particular really stole the show: Writers Association, Gina Ruccione has traveled Lady of Q, a one-woman traveling team, who’s been throughout Europe and Asia and has lived in almost swooping up barbecue accolades wherever she goes. every nook of Los Angeles County. You can visit her Humility goes a long way, but in a man’s barbecue website at www.foodfashionfoolishfornication.com. world, she’s truly made a name for herself. She pulled up her food truck alongside the judges tent and Live Music stayed in the parking lot, away from the masses. Saxophonist In fact, her samples were actually not available to the public. 3rd Thursday Sat., May 28, 6:30-8:30pm Slightly shy, but totally determined New Orleans Jazz Band Benn’s distinctive, muscular saxoFridays and focused, she was more phone & flute standout in his unique Rob on the Piano, 7 pm interested in putting energy into her arrangements of standards from Cole Saturdays food, rather than entertaining the Porter & Marvin Gaye to the Beatles. Jazz Guitar, 6:30 pm crowd — and with good reason, she
Arts Cuisine Entertainment May 26 - June 8 • 2016
[See Calendar, page 16]
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[Calendar, from page 15]
Arts Cuisine Entertainment May 26 - June 8 • 2016
department’s monitoring of treated wastewater that gets released into the Huntington and Newport beaches. Time: 7 to 9 p.m. June 3 Cost: Free Details: www.cabrillomarineaquarium.org Venue: Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, 3720 Stephen M. White Dr., San Pedro
June 4
Steinfest Steinfest is coming back in June with Festmeister Hans and Fräulein Gretel beer. Time: 8 p.m. June 4 Cost: Free Details: www.alpinevillagecenter.com Venue: Alpine Village, 833 Torrance Blvd., Torrance
8,, 2016 May 26 - June 8 2016
Serving the Seven Communities the Harbor Area INDEPENDENT AND FREE >> Arts of • Cuisine • Entertainment
LB Vegan Food & Music Festival This all vegan, outdoor festival features live music, food trucks, food booths, activities and a cruelty-free marketplace. Time: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. June 4 Cost: Free Details: lbveganfest.com Venue: 295 E. Shoreline Drive, Long Beach
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Lysistrata Lysistrata is the classic Greek story of the women of Greece using sex to control the men. The play is a comical account of one woman on a mission to end the Peloponnesian War. Time: 8 p.m. May 27 and 28 Cost: $14 to $24 Details: (562) 494-1014; www.lbplayhouse.org Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach
May 28
Street Food Cinema Encore, Tribute: Purple Rain Join with fellow fans in watching an encore presentation of the film, Purple Rain in tribute to Prince. Bring a chair, preferably ones only six inches off the ground. The proceeds will benefit City of Hope, one of the charities that Prince supported. Time: 5:30 p.m. Cost: $13 and $16 Details: www.streetfoodcinema.com Venue: Street Food Cinema, 700 Exposition Park Drive, Los Angeles
June 3
Pacific Islander Festival Discover the rich and diverse cultures of the Pacific Islands through traditional craft demonstrations, ethnic cuisine, educational programs and live entertainment. Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 4 and 5 Cost: $17.95 and $29.95 Details: aquariumofpacific.org Venue: Aquarium of the Pacific, 100 Aquarium Way, Long Beach
Los Zafiros Lorenzo DeStefano presents his award-winning tribute to Los Zafiros, a group known as “The Beatles of 1960s Cuba.” The film features interviews as well as engaging performance footage of the band. Time: 7 to 9 p.m. June 3 Cost: $10 Details: (562) 437-1689; www.molaa.org Venue: Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach
June 5
June 5
San Pedro Shred Festival of Skate 2016 The San Pedro Shred: Festival of Skate is the first-ever sanctioned skateboarding festival in the greater Los Angeles area. It encompasses a wide range of skateboarding disciplines including: downhill, street, and transition. Time: 9:30 a.m. June 5 Cost: Free Details: www.facebook.com/SanPedroShred Venue: Lookout Point (across from Angels Gate Park), San Pedro Third Annual Euro Bierfest! Come to Euro Bierfest to try out the origins of all of the beer styles you’ve come to know and love. Discover Belgian sours, English porters, French ciders and German doppelbocks. Time: 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. June 5 Cost: $25 Details: www.alpinevillagecenter.com Venue: The Alpine Village, 833 Torrance Blvd., Torrance
THEATER May 27
Toy Story Come and enjoy the movie that made you feel horrible for throwing away your old toys. Time: 8:30 p.m. May 27 Cost: Free Details: (877) 446-9261 www.pacificbattleship.com Venue: Battleship Iowa, 250 S. Harbor Blvd., San Pedro A Raisin in the Sun When the family patriarch dies, a poor AfricanAmerican family living on Chicago’s South Side, must decide what to do with the soonto-arrive insurance settlement. Questions of race and politics, of assimilation and historical awareness are seamlessly interwoven in this touching family drama. Time: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through June 18 Cost: $20 Details: lbplayhouse.org Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach
Dog Film Festival The majestic Crest Theater in Westwood is being taken over by dogs at Los Angeles’ first-ever Dog Film Festival™. Celebrating the remarkable canine-human bond, the Dog Film Festival™ is the perfect place to gather with friends and other dog people in the city. Time: 1:30 p.m. June 5 Cost: $20 Details: www.dogfilmfestival.com Venue: Crest Theater,1262 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles
ARTS June 2
First Thursday Art walk Preview South Bay Contemporary is hosting a preview of John Sollom’s 300 Paintings for Sue and Hung Viet Nguyen’s Ancient Pines. Stallon’s work exhibits a signature thick, loose brush stroke carries extreme likeness of his subjects. Nguyen has been visiting the ancient bristlecone pine Forest (Big Pine City, Calif.) for many years. Time: 6 to 9 p.m., June 2 Details: (310) 429-0973 southbaycontemporary.org Venue: South Bay Contemporary, 401 S. Mesa St., 3rd Floor, San Pedro Poetic Illusions Cherry Wood Gallery in the News Pilot Building features works by Richard Parker that includes oils from the Pastel Sticks series and charcoals and pastels from the latest series of large scale ink and pencil erasers. Time: 6 to 9 p.m. June 2 and 2-5 p.m. Saturdays through June 30 Details: (213) 840-5717, www.richardparker.net Venue: 374 W. 7th St., rear gallery, San Pedro
June 3
First Fridays Summer Session Everyone’s favorite time of year is upon us: Summer! Enjoy great art and music. Time: 6:30 p.m. June 3 Cost: Free Details: http://firstfridayslongbeach.com Venue: First Fridays Long Beach, 4321 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach
[Galleries, from page 15]
Galleries
couple has careers to keep the gallery afloat. RamirezVasquez is a licensed counselor whose practice is in the same building as the gallery. Ray Vasquez is dean of students at Narbonne High School in Harbor City. The couple plans to present its largest group show of artists, all who have exhibited at the gallery during the past 10 years. Artists exhibiting are from Riverside, Pomona, Claremont, Long Beach, San Pedro, San Francisco, Signal Hill, Los Angeles, Monterey Park and Venice. The show opens from 6 to 9 p.m. June 2, during the San Pedro Art Walk. The artists’ reception is from 6 to 10 p.m. June 25. Gallery Azul is at 520 W. 8th St., San Pedro.
experiment with shape, color, and texture in their painting. The influences of David Park, Manuel Neri and Nathan Oliveira, to name but an essential few, are traceable in his work. Nagy received his education at San Jose State College for Industrial Design and Art and later at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel Allende, Mexico. In 2006 Nagy was selected for an important “Bay Area Figurative” exhibition, where he showed alongside Diebenkorn, Park and Oliveira. Neil Nagy: An Introspective runs through Aug. 27. Gallery hours at Gallery 478, 478 W. 7th St., and Warschaw Gallery, 600 S. Pacific Ave., are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and by appointment. Details: (310) 732- 2150, (310) 600-4873.
Gallery 478 and TransVagrant@Warschaw Gallery
Gallery 478 and TransVagrant @ Warschaw Gallery presents Neil Nagy: An Introspective. The twovenue exhibition will open from 6 to 9 p.m. June 2, with an artists’ reception from 4 to 7 p.m. on June 4. Nagy’s abstract figurative work is well-known in the San Pedro art scene. Early in his career Nagy was influenced by the second wave or Bridge Generation, as it is often called. The Bay Area figurative artists were part of an active art movement in the early 1950s and 60s. Although these painters started out painting in what was called an objective style, deploying abstract shapes in large space, they soon migrated to using the physical world and representative subjects to [Conversations, from page 13]
Conversations
described his politics at that time as “far left of Pluto.” About 10 years later, when he founded the human rights organization, the Ella Baker Center, Jones received an anonymous donation of $50,000. He sent the check back. It was sent again and returned again. This continued until he got a call from a lawyer asking him to cash the check. Jones was worried about who the check might be from. No stranger to misdirected scandals, he didn’t want to be tricked into another one. The lawyer told him he could not say who the check was from, but his favorite color is purple. This marked the beginning of Jones’ friendship with Prince. Jones went on to describe Prince’s type of friendship. In other media reports, Jones noted that Prince didn’t call when things were well, but would check on you when he knew you were down. One of those down moments was when Jones resigned from his post in the White House following attacks from conservatives over his activism in his younger days. Jones noted that he was distraught at the time. Prince reached out to him. They talked about continuing the great things that Jones wanted to do. The artist said he would support him in these ventures. Their partnership began. Jones recounted a conversation he had with Prince following the killing of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen shot by a neighborhood watch coordinator in 2012. Trayvon essentially was killed because he was wearing a hoodie. Prince asked Jones how he felt. Jones recalled replying that just because Trayvon was wearing a hoodie doesn’t make him dangerous. Then Jones recounted Prince’s retort: “If a black kid wears a hoodie they are a thug and if a white kid wears one, they are a Mark Zuckerberg… There are not enough black and Latino Mark Zuckerbergs. We should help kids from the hood learn all technology.” Out of this conversation, Prince helped finance initiatives launched by Jones’ nonprofit Dream Corps,
Neil Nagy
which aims to lift people out of poverty through green job training and job creation; #YesWeCode, which aims to connect young people to careers in technology; and #cut50, which works to popularize bipartisan alternatives and practical solutions to help America safely and smartly reduce its jail and prison populations by 50 percent within the next 10 years. Jones recalled Prince quipping, “so that kids in hoodies could be mistaken for kids in Silicon Valley.” The heart of Jones’ lecture was to persuade students and especially minority students to embrace creating technology. He said this isn’t done by just downloading and making other people money. Rather, it’s done by teaching how to upload, how to make your own app and to make money that way, versus being a ball player or rapper. He cited the fact that even Jay Z created “Tidal,” his own tech company and that Dr. Dre made more money with technology when he sold “Beats Electronics” to Apple. The self-described first billionaire of hip-hop, Dre made $620 million in 2014 according to Forbes magazine. Jones said that this generation has tremendous opportunity. “I was 24 when I graduated law school,” Jones said. “If I had the abilities (then) that we have now, I’d have been called a god. Everyone has a phone in their back pocket and they treat it like a toy.” Jones has called Prince a major activist behind the scenes, noting that in response to the violent arrest of protesters in Baltimore following the police killing of Freddie Gray, Prince organized a concert and asked attendees to wear gray instead of purple. When gun violence increased in Chicago, he threw another concert there. Jones has reported on CNN that while he threw these concerts, Prince utilized local vendors from the community to be involved putting them together. Beyond the tributes to Prince’ musical legacy, beyond the gossip surrounding his rivalry with Michael Jackson, and beyond the legendary shade thrown from stages around the globe, Jones wanted the world to know the side of Prince they never got to see: an artist willing to put up his art, heart and wealth to make a difference.
A R T G A L L E R I E S | O P E N S T U D I O S | L AT E D I N I N G & S H O P P I N G | L I V E M U S I C O N T H E S T R E E T S
South Bay Contemporary at the Loft SKYLINE
Preview for John Sollom’s 300 P a i n t i n g s fo r Sue and Hung Viet Nguyen, Ancient Pines on June 2 First T h u r s d ay A r t Walk from 6-9 p.m., with music by Jay Perris and Lorenzo Gigliotti. Artist’s reception June 11, 6-9 p.m. with live music by Tyler Babcock and Billy Stobo. Continuing through June 26 is Skyline, an exhibition of sculpture by over 35 artists, curated by Ben Zask. Skyline Artist Talk: June 11, 4 -5:30 p.m. Gallery hours: 1-5 p.m., Thurs.-Sat. or by appointment. South Bay Contemporary at the LOFT, 401 S. Mesa St., 3rd floor, San Pedro, (310) 429-0973, www.southbaycontemporary.com.
Studio Gallery 345
new works on paper and canvas
NEIL NAGY: AN INTROSPECTIVE
Neil Nagy’s nearly 50-year career has its roots in the Bay Area figurative movement, known for fusing abstract expressionism and figuration in psychologically charged canvases that explored human isolation and alienation. Whether working directly from life, or reconstructing memories where the figure appears only partially realized, Nagy’s concern is with presence in the face Toro, oil on canvas, 2005. of absence. The two-venue exhibition will be open on June 2 from 6-9 p.m., with an artist’s reception on Sat., June 11 from 4-7 p.m. The show runs through Aug. 27. Gallery 478, 478 W. 7th St., and Warschaw Gallery, 600 S. Pacific Ave. Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Mon.-Fri. and by appointment. (310) 732-2150 or (310) 600-4873.
Cherry Wood Gallery, News Pilot Art Space Poetic Illusions
Richard Paker’s Poetic Illusions will feature works including oils from the Pastel Sticks series, and charcoals and pastels from his latest series of large scale ink and pencil erasers. “[I] have beenn especially Factis OV 12 #2, 30 x 44”, charcoal and enchanted by his ability to ink on paper. transform the quotidian in our material culture, with its otherwise forgettable content, into a source of pure aesthetic delight,” said Selma Holo, director of the USC Fisher Museum of Art. Open June 2 First Thursday and Nationals Ink and Pencil Eraser #1, every Saturday through June 30 30 x 44”, pastel and ink on paper. from 2-5 p.m. 374 W. 7th St., Cherry Wood Gallery, (213) 840- 5717.
Michael Stearns Studio 347 SURFACE TENSION
Michael Stearns Studio 347 presents John Hillis Sanders in an exhibition titled Surface Tension. Sanders’ career spans five decades. His original works reflect his movement within mediums spawned by necessity and concept. The work continues to grow and alter using space as inspiration. Open for First Thursday Art Walk June 2 from 6-9 p.m. and Wed. through Sat., 2-6 p.m. Michael Stearns Studio 347 is at 347 W. 7th St., San Pedro. www.michaelstearnstudio. com John Hillis Sanders, White Quarters, 35”X35”X4” acrylic paint, stainless steel and wood.
First Thursday Special
4
of Pizza $ 99 Slice + Draft Beer From 3 pm to close Exp. 6/30/16
(310) 514-2500 Fri., June 3, 6 pm Sun., June 5, 2 pm PV Children’s Dancing Through Choir and Hills the Decades San Pedro Ballet School’s Academy
Music Miracles Assn. presents choral favorites. Tickets $16 cash at the door.
summer recital takes you on a journey through dance. $25/$20 at www. dancingthroughthedecades. bpt.me, or 310.732.1861.
Fri.-Sun., June 17-19 The Music Man
Encore Theatre Group’s production of the beloved musical comedy. Fri & Sat., 7:30pm, Sat & Sun., 2pm. $45/$39/$34 encoreentertainers.org or 310.896.6459.
A Slice of Pedro!
347 W. 6th St., San Pedro www.PhilieBsOnSixth.com
The Local Publication You Actually Arts • Cuisine • Entertainment >> INDEPENDENT AND Read FREE
Pat Woolley and Gloria D. Lee show new work including watercolors from their extensive travels in France. Pat’s children’s book illustrations are displayed, as well as unique jewelry and other small gifts from France. Open 6-9 p.m. on First Thursday and by appointment. For more information, call Gloria at (310) 545-0832 or Pat at (310) 374-8055 or artsail@roadrunner.com. 345 W. 7th St., San Pedro, www.patwoolleyart.com
Gallery 478 and TransVagrant @ Warschaw Gallery
Elite Dance Studios’ Spring production features feats of Terpsichore that will astound. Adults $18/seniors & children 12 and under $12. WGT.tix.com
Thurs., June 30, 6 pm Swan LakE
Culmination of San Pedro City Ballet School’s Summer Intensive workshop for dancers, ages 6 to 9. ADMISSION IS FREE.
May 26 26 -- June June 8, 8, 2016 2016 May
Sun., June 26, 4 pm Dance Through the Decades
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OBITUARY
CLASSIFIED ADS
“PEDRO GIRL” Passes Shirley Ann Duarte
April 14, 1936-May 18, 2016
Shirley Ann Duarte passed away peacefully May 18, 2016 at Little Company Of Mary in Torrance, Ca. She was born in Denver Co. to Stefanie and Walter Solich. The family moved to Los Angeles when Shirley was a young girl. They eventually moved to San Pedro where Shirley attended San Pedro High School graduating in 1954. Shirley met her first husband Carroll F. Smith, who was in the navy stationed at Terminal Island, at a dance hosted by the local YMCA. They married and had 4 children. Jody Williams, Tracy Smith, Christy Donner & Craig Smith. She later had another daughter Doreen Donaldson. Here second husband Richard “Mousey” Duarte, a longshoreman, preceded her death by 27 years. Shirley never remarried. Shirley had a great affection for San Pedro and will be missed by many loving friends and family. Shirley had eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
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Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area
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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
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DBA/legal filings Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2016064793 The following person is doing business as:(1) Sunshine Consulting, (2) INFI Systems, 302 N. 5th St., San Pedro, CA 90731, Los Angeles County. Registered owners: Rajat Bhattacharya, 4309 Mesa St., 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/. Rajat Bhattacharya, owner. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on Jan. 22, 2016. 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: 04/14/16, 04/28/16, 05/12/16, 05/26/16
Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2016080084 The following person is doing business as: Palos Verdes Electric Company, 257 W. 13th Street,San Pedro,CA 90731. Los Angeles County. Registered owners: Clay Binkley, 257 W. 13th 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: 03/29/2016. 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/. Clay Binkley, owner. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on April 1, 2016. Notice--In Accordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920. A fictitious name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920. were to expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before the expiration.The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see section 1411 ET SEQ., Business and Professions code). Original filing: 04/28/16, 05/12/16, 05/26/16, 06/09/16
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[Omninet, from page 2]
Omninet
After repatriating to the newly formed nation of Israel, he served in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War as a member of the 7th Armored Brigade. When the war ended, Nazarian started a gravel transportation business and acquired a cement factory. He returned to Iran in 1957 and expanded his construction business, overseeing the construction of many government buildings. He developed close ties with the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He fled Iran to the United States with his family after the 1979 Iranian Revolution when his name appeared on a kill list. Much of his assets and wealth were confiscated by the new regime. He settled in Los Angeles. But in a turn of fortune, he met Irwin M. Jacobs and Andrew Viterbi, who had developed the OmniTRACS system, a system was deemed one of the world’s
most “technologically advanced two-way mobile satellite communications and tracking systems.” In 1985, Nazarian co-founded Omninet with Jacobs and Viterbi, initially to track the flow of trucks from one construction site to another. The start-up later merged with Jacobs and Viterbi’s Qualcomm and has become one of the world’s largest chipmakers. Benjamin Nazarian is responsible for Omninet’s overall investment strategy and serves on the Omninet Investment Committee. Benjamin oversees Omninet’s acquisitions and the management of its investments. Benjamin is credited with growing Omninet Capital into a vertically integrated real estate firm, essentially creating a private company that acquires, builds, finances and manages a real estate portfolio. Benjamin had founded other companies, most notably in the mobile wireless industry, including WannaGo, a mobile software company whose app products include ListaPost and WannaGo.
Prior to WannaGo, Nazarian was the managing partner of Omninet Capital, where he grew the company into a vertically integrated real estate firm with operations. He has also served as a lead investor and board member on a number of tech startups for more than 15 years. Nazarian created his first app around saving your favorite places inside lists. Neil Kadisha, serves as chief executive officer and is primarily responsible for providing leadership and strategic planning to Omninet investments. Neil also serves on the Omninet Investment Committee. For more than 14 years, Neil served on the board of directors of Qualcomm. He also serves on the Boards of various privately held companies and charities. Omninet Capital’s development on Palos Verdes Street, does not, as of yet, have a name. But their renderings are similar to a project the company is building in Phoenix—a project announced this past summer. That development has two mixed-use buildings, totaling 467 residential units and nearly 20,000-square feet of retail space. The buildings will feature five above ground levels and two underground parking levels. Existing buildings on the properties will be razed to make way for the development.
[Carson, from page 7]
Sanders in Carson
Fracking has been a contentious issue in Los Angeles and in Carson. Sanders differentiated himself from Clinton by expressing his view on the practice. “I believe [that] to [ensure] clean drinking water, we need to move to ban fracking,” Sanders said. “As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton pushed fracking technology on countries around the world.” Sanders decried the U.S. government for not guaranteeing health care to all Americans and for allowing the pharmaceutical industry to influence the price of medical care and medications. “I congratulate those who put [the Drug Price Relief Initiative] on the ballot which will control prescription drug prices,” Sanders said. “Let’s pass it.… The pharmaceutical [industry] may not like it, but the American people do.” Attendee Juan Del Toro, who along with others at the rally said the candidate is relatable, summed the reasons people should vote for Sanders in seven words. “Authenticity is the main factor for me,” Del Toro said. California’s primary election is June 7.
A view of Omninet’s project in San Pedro from Palos Verdes and 6th streets.
The Local Publication You Actually Read May 26 - June 8, 2016
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“Bernie Sanders is the best candidate for America’s working families.”
WE CALL ON UNION MEMBERS AND ALL WORKING PEOPLE TO UNITE BEHIND A CANDIDATE WHO PUTS WORKING FAMILIES FIRST!
May 26 - June 8, 2016
Serving the Seven Communities of the Harbor Area
—ILWU International President Robert McEllrath
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ILWU International President Robert McEllrath with presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders. The ILWU’s International Executive Board endorsed Sanders on March 24th.
“Bernie Sanders is the best candidate for America’s working families,” said ILWU International President Robert McEllrath. “Bernie is best on the issues that matter most to American workers: better trade agreements, support for unions, fair wages, free tuition for students at public colleges, Medicare for all, fighting a corrupt campaign finance system and confronting the power of Wall Street that’s making life harder for most Americans.”
The ILWU represents women and men who work in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada and Panama.
www.ilwu.org Paid for by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union - Political Action Fund and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.