RLn 1-7-21

Artist Takes a Stand on Knoll Hill

Peter Schroff brings a new vision overlooking the port

By Melina Paris, Editorial Assistant

[See Superlove, p. 9]

Spencer MacCallum and the Miracle of Mata Ortiz:

A Eulogy

By Zachary Caceres

Intermittent Fasting — A new relationship with calories p. 10

— James Preston Allen, Publisher

Spencer McCallum is most widely known for leading an economic and cultural transformation in the area surrounding the city of Casas Grandes in Chihuahua, Mexico. This regional renaissance has an unlikely source: hand-made pottery and Spencer’s totally unreasonable commitment to promoting it.

January 7 - 20, 2021

LA Coalition Campaigns for COVID Safety Measures p. 5

The Discovery of Juan Quezada

In 1976, Spencer visited a junk shop on the U.S.Mexico border. He spotted some beautifully painted clay pots with no manufacturer marks or names.

“I knew as soon as I saw the pots that whoever made them was someone special — someone who truly knew [himself or herself],” Spencer later recounted.

All the junk shop owner knew about the pots is that they were sold by some people from Mexico.

Spencer bought the pots, and by any reasonable standard, this should be the end of the story. Spencer should have gone home, put the pots above his fireplace and enjoyed his retirement.

Instead, he put the unsigned pots in his car, and without any information, drove into Mexico to search

Life after Mother ― Navigating probate and estate issues after a parent dies p. 4

The fact that Spencer MacCallum was the resident security guard at Angels Gate Cultural Center in its early days may not make him a prominent figure in San Pedro, but he is credited for the discovery of a style of pottery in Mata Ortiz, a village in Chihuahua, a state in northern Mexico. The miracle transformed that town into a world-recognized center of creativity.

He was a philosopher, an anthropologist, a visionary and my friend.

Spencer Heath MacCallum, born 1931, died Dec. 17, 2020 in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Spencer is the grandson, heir and namesake of inventor Spencer Heath. It was Spencer MacCallum who carried Heath’s ideas and spirit into the 21st century. To understand the remarkable life of Spencer MacCallum, we must first understand his grandfather.

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

Peter Schroff, inside “Superlove,” which is what he calls his house on Knoll Hill.

Photo by Arturo Garcia-Ayala

San Pedro isn’t your typical California beach town. Outside of James See’s Surfboards, and the now closed San Pedro Surf and Sport it’s not necessarily known for its surf culture except for a few surf bands. It is known worldwide for being the location of the largest industrial port complex in North America.

For centuries, San Pedro’s rugged coastline — and reputation — attracted explorers, fishermen, artists, bohemians, gangsters and war criminals, alongside other Angelenos looking for peace, quiet and sometimes a place to blend in or hide. As a consequence, at the terminus of the 110 Freeway, we encounter neighbors with unusual backstories and fantastical aims — such as surfboard craftsman Peter Schroff.

Three years ago, Schroff bought out the last holdouts on Knoll Hill and renovated the property into his new home, a studio and a couple of vacation rentals.

Those holdouts survived the port’s attempt to raze the hill in the 1990s in an effort to expand berth’s 97-102, now occupied by China Shipping. Those holdouts stuck around in 2007 when Eastview Little League was granted temporary use of Knoll Hill for its baseball fields until a permanent location could be secured despite community advocacy for broader community use. Spoiler alert: Eastview Little League is still there, and a dog park was installed at the foot of Knoll Hill as a compromise of sorts in 2008. Now the dog park is slated to be removed to make room for a new off-ramp for the 110 Freeway.

Schroff, however, intended for this space atop Knoll Hill to serve as a community gathering place overlooking the Port of

[See Spencer MacCallum, p. 3]

COVID-19 Cases in the U.S. as of Jan. 6, 2021: 21,760,024 • U.S. Deaths: 368,464 Los Angeles County Cases: 192,785 • Deaths: 11,071 • For up-to-date stats: www.randomlengthsnews.com

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January 7 - 20, 2021

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

Committed to Independent Journalism in the Greater LA/LB Harbor Area for More Than 40 Years

NC Requests Documentation on West Harbor Project

By Hunter Chase, Reporter

On Dec. 21, 2020, the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council voted 12-0 to request that the West Harbor project include the council in the planning process of the project, which means sharing environmental impact reports and Coastal Development Permits. Formerly the site of Ports O’Call, the new project will have restaurants and live entertainment, and is scheduled to begin construction in mid-2021. It is being developed by Jerico Development and Ratkovich Co., which are both part of the LA Waterfront Alliance.

Greg Ellis, board member of the CSPNC, said

Community Announcements:

Harbor Area Carson Drive-Thru COVID-19 Testing Center

In an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19, City of Carson elected officials unanimously approved partnering with U.S. Health Fairs to provide testing to all residents with no out of pocket costs. This includes those who are displaying symptoms and asymptomatic carriers. Those with severe symptoms such as high fever and shortness of breath will be redirected to a local Emergency Room.

Make an appointment at ushealthfairs.org/ carson-testing/. Bring photo identification or driver’s licence and registration confirmation when you arrive to testing.

For test results, call U.S. Health Fairs at 805625-9245 or text your name and the words “test results” to 805-357-5577, or go to Ushealthfairs. org .

Carson homebound residents age 65 and older can be tested at home by calling 310-9521719.

Venue: Congresswoman Juanita MillenderMcDonald Community Center, North Parking Lot, 801 E. Carson St., Carson The Department of Public Health has released a myth busting cheat-sheet for the COVID-19 Vaccine. The document addresses the Top 10 most circulated myths surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine.

Details: www.tinyurl.com/VaccineMisinformation

Household Hazardous Waste

The City of Rolling Hills Estates is hosting a household hazardous and electronic waste drivethru collection event. Event staff will only remove household hazardous and electronic waste from your trunk/pick-up bed. To dispose of sharps, you will be required to exit your vehicle and dispose of them in the designated area.

Time: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 16 Cost: Free Details: ci.rolling-hills-estates.ca.us Venue: Clark Field, Valley Drive between 8th & 11th streets, Hermosa Beach

[Spencer MacCallum, from p. 1]

Spencer MacCallum

for the artist who made them.

And, even more unreasonably, Spencer actually found him.

Juan Quezada was his name, and in addition to being an artist, he was a farmer in the hills of the remote town of Mata Ortiz. This was the 70s; there were no paved roads. People still used donkeys to get around. Quezada could not read and spoke no English. But he was a first-rate craftsman who derived his novel designs from fragments of indigenous pottery that he found in the hills.

Spencer and Juan Quezada became friends and business partners. Spencer became Quezada’s patron, paying him to continue to experiment and create new works. Meanwhile, Spencer, an anthropologist by training, traveled the United States to bring notoriety to Quezada’s masterpieces.

Today, Mata Ortiz pottery is a recognized artistic style. Single pots can fetch enormous sums at auctions and in fine art galleries around the world. Quezada took on apprentices. An industry was born. Apprentices evolved their own unique spins on the style and made names for themselves. PBS immortalized the whole story in 2005.

Mata Ortiz pottery

A local friend described Spencer’s death as “the end of an era for a whole region in Mexico.”

This is no exaggeration. It’s hard to overstate Spencer’s positive impact in the Chihuahua region across the ensuing decades — it’s full of potters, whose work and its tangents provide a livelihood to a majority of the townspeople. But it’s hard to understate just how challenging a transformation it was. The deserts of Chihuahua are beautiful and full of kind and hospitable people, but like so many places unlucky enough to be in the shadow

Spencer MacCallum died on Dec. 17, 2020. Right: A sample of pottery made in the Mata Ortiz style. Photos courtesy of Zachary Caceres

cast by the United States’ war on drugs, living and doing business in Chihuahua is no picnic.

I met Spencer in 2012, when he arranged for a local taxi driver to take me safely from Ciudad Juárez to Casas Grandes. After crossing the border from El Paso, the driver told me to lay on the floor of the car so as not to be seen while he drove through the desolate streets of Juárez at 3 a.m. I’ll never forget the boarded-up shops, the stray dogs, the pale streetlights — the chilly emptiness of a city where you don’t venture out at night.

Spencer faced endless problems with broken infrastructure, corruption, thievery, and narcotraffickers. He began constructing a factory to make artisan jewelry in the area, hoping to repeat the success with pottery. But the factory was seized by sicarios — machine-gun-toting hitmen. Just like that, hundreds of jobs and opportunities for local people vanished into the dry desert winds.

Yet, Spencer went bravely on, although he didn’t make a show of the enormous courage this

Board member Noel Gould said the developers are attempting to piecemeal part of the project. He said the developers keep talking about a separate environmental impact report, or EIR, for the amphitheater, while basing their overall EIR on the original plan for the project, which did not include the amphitheater.

[See West Harbor, p. 4]

required; in fact, his presence and manner could make him easy to miss. Slight of stature and unassuming and kind in nature, Spencer spoke so softly he was often hard to hear. While some will presume I am waxing poetic after his death, I can honestly say I never heard Spencer speak ill of anyone. Upon arrival in Casas Grandes, I got out of the taxi and into the passenger seat of an old pickup. Spencer was behind the wheel, and while riding around I became as acquainted with him as the town.

While cruising along the city’s outskirts, Spencer directed my attention to a specific house. His wife, Emmi, explained why. “That’s where the local thief lives,” she said. “He broke into our house and stole some things.”

“And what did you do?” I asked, expecting a swashbuckling tale.

Spencer gave me his report matter-offactly: “I went over, knocked on his door, and asked him to return what he stole.” Pause.

“And he did.”

Earlier this year, Spencer was run over by a truck in New Mexico. The thought of him being crushed by — pardon me — some reckless moron behind the wheel is too painful to bear. As seems to have been his habit, Spencer showed remarkable resilience over 2020. But, in the end, it was too much. Though cancer couldn’t claim him — the injuries he suffered at the hands of an inattentive driver did.

Rest in peace, Spencer MacCallum: Cherished friend and mentor; a man imbued with the creative spirit of humankind; a man beyond his time; a man who remade the world for the better. You will be missed.

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January 7 - 20, 2021

Start your journey toward a rewarding construction career in support of LAX’s multibillion dollar capital improvement program. To qualify, you only need to have a strong interest in a construction career, be 17.5 years of age, have a California identification card and a social security card. There will be a mandatory orientation at a date yet to be determined. That information will be included in information emails. The apprenticeship is an 8-week program, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Monday through Friday. Class begins Jan. 11.

Details: email HireLAX@lawa.org for info.

Venue: Los Angeles Southwest College, 1600 West Imperial Highway, Los Angeles

Board member Louis Dominguez said he initially thought the amphitheater was going to be small, but it was compared to the Greek Theatre, which is bigger than he thought.

However, Robin Rudisill, chairwoman of the council’s Planning, Land Use and Transportation Committee, said the amphitheater had been downsized from some 6,200 seats to 2,200 seats.

HireLAX Apprenticeship Readiness Program

Rendering of the West Harbor project, which begins construction in mid-2021. Photo courtesy of Studio One Eleven, Rapt Studios

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation

that at the end of the council’s Joint Planning and Land Use Committee meeting residents wanted more specifics about the state of the project’s permitting process — particularly the size of the proposed amphitheater and the amount of noise it will generate.

“We developed this motion which simply asked that West Harbor and the [city] council office provide us with a status report and status of where they are in their permitting process,” Ellis said. “We’d like to see copies of all of the applications so that we can review just where they stand, where they think they are in the process of getting their environmental impact reports done, or getting the appropriate statements of no response.”

Ellis said that after the council receives this information, it will figure out what position, if any, it will take on the project.

San Pedro resident James Campeau said this was the best approach to communicate with the project’s developers.

“It’s kind of evident that the community is just getting snubbed on everything,” Campeau said. “They’re just going to build it and forget about any community input.”

Life after Mother

A new monthly column explores navigating probate and estate issues from personal experience

By Lyn Jensen, Columnist

My mother left me utterly alone with her complicated estate, although her death was not sudden. For many years she resisted all pleading — from me, from my father, from phone solicitors —to make out a will or trust or anything remotely resembling one. Like my father, my mother died intestate. Unlike my father, her estate is greater than $166,250 and is therefore subject to probate and all its complications.

Her death was a kind one, compared to what victims of COVID-19 and their families must be undergoing, but any death is hard, and the situation she created made it harder. One year ago, in June, I found her on her bathroom

floor, no longer capable of understanding the situation.

First responders rushed her to the hospital, and on medical advice, she was placed in a memory care facility.

Barely more than a month later, she was taken to the emergency room for puffiness in her ankles — edema — a sign of lacking oxygen. She was put on a respirator and died within hours.

Dementia had already haunted her for two years, as her secretiveness and hostility mounted. She never gave up insisting she remain independent. Like many in a similar situation,

she clung to a foolish notion that she could just die in her house, alone, end of discussion. Her life just didn’t go according to that kind of plan and I venture no one’s life does. My first attempts to place her in board-and-care and/or find a live-in caregiver were not for the squeamish.

She had a lifelong habit of being secretive — to the point of dysfunction. When she was married to an alcoholic husband, it was understandable, but the secrets continued long after she divorced him. In her final years any [West Harbor, from p. 3]

West Harbor

January 7 - 20, 2021

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

“You can’t piecemeal CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act],” Gould said.

“Everything has to be considered as a whole project, even if they decided that they were going to add the amphitheater to the project later. It has to be looked at as an entire project and what kind of environmental impacts are going to need to be mitigated or what’s going to need to be changed about the project in order to make it so that it doesn’t violate CEQA.” Rudisill had reached out to the developers even before the CSPNC passed the motion but had not made much progress. Lauren Johnson, a representative of Jerico Development, told her that the project’s Coastal Development Permit was awarded through the Port of Los Angeles. As such, the project is operating under the 2009 San Pedro Waterfront Environmental Impact Report, as well as two project specific addenda. Johnson said that all these documents are public record.

However, Rudisill has not been able to find a copy of any of the documents. Rudisill asked Johnson where these could be found on Dec. 15,

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attempt by me or anyone else to discuss her finances was met with hysteria and “None of your business!” and outright denial, even though her situation wasn’t that big a mystery. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen much of what she possessed with my own eyes, heard about it with my own ears, during six decades of life with her.

So, like so many families facing a death that wasn’t planned for — a situation made more common by the COVID-19 pandemic — I must go through probate and arrange disposition for her possessions. It’s up to me to care for the house, the furniture, the valuables, the bank and credit union accounts, the stocks and bonds, and feed the cats, too, without knowing the full extent of what I’m dealing with. Navigating my life after my mother’s death resembles an anthropological expedition. I’m constantly reshaping my own life as I go and I invite others to accompany me and discover what I find and learn, month by month.

2020 and has not heard back from her.

In addition, these documents do not necessarily negate the need for further CEQA permits. If there is sufficient environmental impact, a separate EIR could be necessary, as well as a mitigated negative declaration.

Rudisill also contacted the California Coastal Commission to verify what Johnson said. Dani Ziff, coastal program analyst for the commission, told her that since the project was in the port, it had to be included in the port’s 2018 master plan. The commission reviewed the project’s environmental documentation and Coastal Development Plan for consistency with the port’s master plan and Coastal Act policies and did not appeal the project.

CSPNC is not the only neighborhood council interested in the West Harbor Project. The Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council’s Port Committee hosted a joint meeting with other Harbor Area neighborhood councils on Jan. 4, 2021 and drafted a letter asking for a community forum on the project. Port Committee Chairman Frank Anderson said his council wants to know more about the project and he believes the community wants to know more as well.

Long Beach Community Hospital Reopens

LONG BEACH ― The California Department of Public Health licensed Community Hospital Long Beach reopened Jan. 4. The new operator is Molina, Wu, Network.

Community Hospital Long Beach opened with 51 beds and space to add additional capacity later in the year. Beds will be used for pre-arranged physician-directed transfers of patients from local hospitals and nursing facilities. Community Hospital will expand its services offered, including the opening of the emergency department, in 2021.

The reopening has been in the works for the past two years.

Long Beach’s City Council approved a 45year lease of the Community Hospital property in October 2019. That lease commits the city to paying up to $25 million for seismic repairs necessary to reopen the entire campus.

LASD Continued “Super-Spreader” Enforcement Nets Over 90 Arrests

LOS ANGELES ― The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department COVID-19 Super-Spreader Task Force conducted operations at five separate locations across Los Angeles County on New Year’s Eve. Hundreds of detectives, patrol deputies and specialized response teams shut down super-spreader events in the cities of Hawthorne, Los Angeles, Malibu and Pomona.

The locations ranged from rented residences, vacant warehouses, hotels and shuttered businesses.

During the evening, deputies made several arrests, conducted advisements on proper COVID-19 safety protocols and recovered several firearms. Overall, 90 adults were arrested and cited for violation of the county’s safer at home order. One adult was arrested for possession of narcotics and loaded firearm. Over 900 people were warned and advised of the updated safer at home order, and five handguns were recovered from the super-spreader event in Hawthorne.

2020 Census Announces Completion of 99.98 of Addresses

By Mark Friedman, Reporter

Los Angeles County continues to report tens of thousands of new COVID-19 cases and hundreds daily, the highest infection and death count since the start of the pandemic. That is why a coalition of labor leaders, health experts and community organizations are demanding that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors urgently enact a “circuit breaker” — a strict fourweek lockdown in January to bring the virus under control.

At the same time, on the other side of the spectrum, restaurant owners in many parts of the state have been flouting state regulations prohibiting sitdown dining by claiming outdoor seating are recreational parks. Even more extreme are the anti-science, often racist and anti-vaxxer demonstrations primarily by white residents of Orange County and cities like Beverly Hills against mask-wearing mandates and other collective measures that local, state and national health leaders have suggested to reduce exposure to infection and thus death rates.

The Los Angeles coalition includes more than a dozen healthcare, labor and community organizations that represent tens of thousands of Los Angeles workers, including frontline healthcare workers, pre-K to 12th grade teachers and university educators, grocery store workers, hospitality workers, educational, housing and racial justice advocates.

The coalition sent a letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Dec. 16, 2020 and posted a public petition demanding the board to urgently plan for the four-week lockdown and to

provide immediate safety nets for businesses, workers and families so they can safely stay home.

“Healthcare workers throughout Los Angeles are reaching their breaking point,” said Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers. “They are understaffed, overworked and inundated with patients fighting for their lives.

COVID-19 cannot be allowed to spread following the December holidays the way it spread after Thanksgiving. We all have to work together to keep this from getting worse, and that starts with people having the financial security to stay home.”

The victims of COVID-19 are overwhelmingly essential workers, poor people, and people of color. According to the Los Angeles County Public Health, more than twice the number of Latinos in Los Angeles than whites have died from COVID-19. A Washington Post poll found that one in three Black Americans personally know someone who has died of COVID. Asians who become infected with COVID-19 are over four times as likely to die compared to other Angelenos. Residents of high poverty areas are dying at nearly twice the rate of wealthier residents.

As a signer of the letter, Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11 added: “COVID-19 has devastated the lives of hotel and food service workers — 90% remain unemployed.

Having lost $600-a-week unemployment benefit four months ago, they have fallen behind in rent and risk homelessness. As the virus rages through our membership, whose 20% positivity testing is double that of LA County’s rate, we are having

difficulty keeping track of who has perished. Bold leadership is necessary. Incremental safety orders merely rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Opening up outdoor dining again will neither make people safe nor put more than a handful of hotel workers back to work. Nothing short of massive direct economic relief — including the extending and increasing unemployment insurance and spending the state’s $26 billion surplus on relief — will save workers from illness and evictions.”

The state of California, like many other areas, has few intensive care unit beds, shortages of oxygen and personal protective equipment available and is burning out nursing staff.

As a solution, a national coalition of political, medical personnel (National Nurses union members and doctors), union leaders, Hollywood figures, Black Lives Matter and Native people’s leaders launched a Saving Lives campaign to demand that the U.S. government allow CubaUnited States collaboration on a vaccine, as well as to allow Cuban medical personnel entry into the United States to help those areas hardest hit by the virus — such as Native peoples’ nations, Black and Latino communities.

A caravan that urged Mayor Eric Garcetti and Gov. Gavin Newsom to invite Cubans to come help took place on Dec. 27, 2020 from the West Los Angeles Federal Building to Echo Park. It received extensive media coverage on Telemundo and NBC given the dire and deteriorating circumstances.

Cuba has an expertise unlike any other country in the world and successfully led the fight against Ebola in Western Africa. By contrast, Los Angeles County, with a similar population to Cuba, has had more than 10,000 deaths while Cuba has had less than 150 because of a stronger healthcare system not based on profits, but human needs.

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

January 7 - 20, 2021

WASHINGTON, D.C. ― In a New Year’s Eve announcement, Census Director Dr. Steve Dillingham announced that the country achieved a 99.98% completion of addresses. Census workers overcame attempts by President Donald Trump and his Republican allies to not count undocumented immigrants and refusing to allow an extension of the count the White House earlier supported.

In October, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to cut short the counting of every living American resident for the 2020 census by two weeks, despite warnings that doing so would result in inaccurate data with severe consequences for the next decade.

Lower courts had ordered the Trump administration to extend counting until Oct. 31.

The decennial survey, used to draw electoral districts and allocate $1.5 trillion in federal funds, was originally scheduled to end Sept. 30, but the Trump administration originally sought a one month extension because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In late August, the commerce department, which oversees the Census Bureau, reversed its position, saying it would try and complete counting by Sept. 30 and deliver the data used to determine how many seats in Congress each state gets by the Dec. 31 statutory deadline.

The reversal came even after the bureau’s own experts warned they could not meet those deadlines.

Dillingham credited the internet selfresponse tool that never went down once over the past year.

In Light of Surge, LA Coalition Campaigns for COVID Safety Measures

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2020 in the Rearview Mirror Careening from crisis to crisis

By James Preston Allen, Publisher

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

I would be happy if I never had to write about Donald J. Trump ever again. This week would be too soon. His roller coaster crises have just been exhausting, annoying and ridiculously absurd leading to stupid arguments with his devotees and cult followers who trust social media postings and wild conspiracy theories from newly minted fake “news” websites more than they do actual journalists. My gripe about the mainstream media is that it has taken them far too long to catch onto Trump’s grift. Too long for them to call him out as a liar and a cheat. And too late in pushing forward journalists with the stones to actually call him out directly at his press briefings.

Trump is never wrong, right?

Back in December of 2019, after Congress voted to impeach No. 45, my family was all seated around the holiday table.

I had this dark premonition of what the next year had in store. I didn’t want to spoil the celebration for I could not yet see what the dark clouds held past the horizon. It was just an inkling of what was to come. Perhaps if I had been more prescient I would have stood up and shouted a warning So we went from hearing the first reports of the novel coronavirus in December 2019, to submitting the articles of impeachment to the Senate on Jan. 16, 2020. Shockingly, against all the evidence, the Senate acquitted Trump after failing to reach the 67 votes to convict. No. 45 was still denying the seriousness of the coronavirus despite already knowing the truth. Remember when he famously said, “It will be over by spring”?

Well now it’s one year later with over 355,000 American dead from the coronavirus. We’ll be lucky if half of the population of the United States is vaccinated by June of this year.

Then, as COVID-19 was identified and named, the economy was shut down in March to stop the spread of the infection. This in turn collapsed the main street economy, caused millions of workers to lose their jobs and shuttered many “non-essential” businesses.

A new awareness emerged of just who was essential and who was not — elevating to “working class heroes” many who had previously been taken for granted, like front line nurses, employees of the postal service and grocery store workers.

Outside of the annual Labor Day rallies, being a working class hero hasn’t been celebrated in the American media since John Lennon’s song of the same name. His words are often considered too profane for radio: They keep you doped with religion and

sex and TV And you think you’re so clever and classless and free But you’re still fuckin’ peasants as far as I can see

These words now seem to resonate more to the younger set today.

The shut down also revealed the buying power of the American consumer, who was belatedly recognized for being the key economic driving force, with a collective buying power of $13 trillion per year or 70 percent of gross domestic product.

The economic crisis spawned by the pandemic should have toppled the Wall Street stock market, yet amazingly enough stocks soared, real estate prices rose and the fortunes of America’s wealthiest billionaires reached an unexpected zenith. All of this while the “not so essential workers” collected unemployment and food stamps if they were lucky and the small businesses that create the most jobs suffered.

People got angry and then there was the murder of George Floyd by police caught on video. Cities across this nation exploded in demonstrations that we haven’t seen in decades. Not even police commanders in many cities could condone the injustice of this or the many other killings of black and brown people across this land. Yet, Mr. Trump did not stand up and condemn it for what it was and instead accused the Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA movements for causing violence-being “terrorists.” Ignoring the actions of the far right militias and agent provocateurs.

As usual this president accused the wrong people just to prove he was right and never accepted any blame for any of his own actions that provoked these situations.

Between May 29 and June 7 the scene in front of the White House grew so tense that at one point Trump was escorted to the bunker with his wife and son for protection. And then on June 1 he unleashed the U.S. Park Police and the National Guard using tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray, sting ball grenades, horses, shields and batons to clear peaceful demonstrators from Lafayette Square and surrounding streets, creating a path for him to take a selfie in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church holding a bible.

All of this comes back as a seemingly distant memory as the nation continued to suffer from the worst pandemic in a century and the president continued to calculate his chances for winning

January 7 - 20, 2021

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

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Assoc. Publisher/Production Coordinator Suzanne Matsumiya

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

—Mark Twain Vol. XLII : No. 1

Published every two weeks for the Harbor Area communities of San Pedro, RPV, Lomita, Harbor City, Wilmington, Carson and Long Beach. Distributed at over 350 locations throughout the Harbor Area.

Managing Editor Terelle Jerricks editor@randomlengthsnews.com Senior Editor Paul Rosenberg paul.rosenberg@ randomlengthsnews.com Internship Program Director Zamná Àvila

reelection and holding mass rallies that spread the virus. And the virus did spread along with the conspiracy hoaxes, disinformation and fake news which became as viral as the disease itself making one wonder which was worse?

Some of us believed that if he could just be beaten at the polls on Nov. 3, we’d be done with him. This national nightmare would be over, but 60 lawsuits and 65 days past the 2020 general election, on the week Congress is to certify the Electoral College vote, Trump still has not conceded defeat for fear of being called “a loser.”

As of this writing, all eyes are on the tabulation of Georgia’s runoff election results and the MAGA demonstrations in Washington D.C. —the results of which will seal the fate of Presidentelect Joe Biden’s first term in office. What we are

witnessing is the revolt of the extreme right to democracy.

I don’t expect this to be easy nor for No. 45 to actually show up at President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20 and turn over the keys to the White House. He’s still going to be exclaiming, “the election was stolen” as he did on Jan. 6 even with no evidence to prove it. I’m not sure we can wait to have him ushered off the people’s property.

We may not yet breathe a collective sigh of relief on the day his time at the bully pulpit ends.

But unless and until he actually does pay the price for his high crimes and attempted coup d’état against the republic, we may never be safe from the influence of Don “The Con.” We will always be checking our rearview mirror just to make sure that he’s not following us.

Here’s What Happened with the Electoral College

By U.S. Representative Adam Schiff

Since the 2016 election, Donald Trump has careened from crisis to crisis, undermining our democracy at every stage. In doing so, he’s been enabled by Republicans in Congress, and this week [Jan. 6], we’ve truly reached a new and dangerous low. With Trump still denying the results of the election, his loyalists in Congress are now doing his bidding in a doomed attempt to ignore the people’s will and overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

They won’t succeed — we won’t let them — but you deserve to know what’s happening and just how dangerous this is.

For months, Trump has pushed conspiracy theories and made desperate last-minute attempts to hold onto power despite losing both the popular

Columnists/Reporters Melina Paris Staff Reporter Hunter Chase Staff Reporter Send Calendar Items to: 14days@randomlengthsnews.com Photographers Arturo Garcia-Ayala, Terelle Jerricks, Raphael Richardson, Chris Villanueva Contributors Zachary Caceres, Mark Friedman, Lyn Jensen, Ari LeVaux, Greggory Moore, Rep. Adam Schiff Cartoonists Andy Singer, Jan Sorensen, Matt Wuerker

vote and Electoral College in November’s election by a landslide. His legal team and supporters have lost at least 60 lawsuits in the courts. His own Department of Justice found no evidence of voter fraud. But nonetheless, on Jan. 3, we heard graphic evidence of the president pressuring Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State to “find” him the votes he needed to overturn the results.

On Jan. 6, Congress attempted to undertake its constitutional task to certify the Electoral College results — literally counting the votes that have already been certified by 50 states. This is normally a ceremonial task, since Congress doesn’t elect the president, the voters do, but not [See Electoral College, p. 7]

Design/Production Suzanne Matsumiya, Brenda Lopez

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RANDOMLetters 2020 Has Been Intense

This has been a year of tremendous pain and hardship, of multiple crises of biblical proportions. We have lost loved ones, experienced suffering and isolation, and struggled emotionally and spiritually.

This has also been a year of incredible hope and inspiration, of countless displays of heart and heroism, with abundant examples of the resilience and strength of our communities and of our families. Essential workers have led with quiet strength. Around the city, neighbors have supported one other, with food, with comfort and with love.

And this has been a year of remarkable clarity and revelation.

We are finally having a longoverdue reckoning over racism, inequity, and a broken economy.

We are seeing a growing insistence for dramatic and comprehensive action to address problems that have been denied or ignored for far too long.

Like so many of you, I have been challenged as never before by this tumultuous year — as a father and as a public official. We are called, constantly, to do better, and to rise and meet these moments.

We do it by drawing strength from our families, our neighborhoods, and the communities we are part of. We gain strength and faith from each other.

I look forward to working with you in 2021 to create a better Los

[Electoral College, from p. 6]

Electoral College

this year.

A dozen Republican Senators — including Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley — and over one hundred Members of Congress have pledged to reject those results in a last-ditch effort to throw out Americans’ votes and steal the election for Donald Trump.

It goes against the oath they swore. It goes against the very notion of free and fair elections.

It goes against our Constitution. It goes against our democracy.

All of that is abhorrent and anti-democratic.

It’s also deeply hypocritical. At this time last year, these same Republicans refused to hold Trump accountable during the impeachment for abusing his power, claiming on principle that ‘the voters should decide.’ Well, the voters decided — and Joe Biden won — but since it wasn’t in the GOP’s favor, Republicans no longer want the voters to decide either. So much for principle.

Never mind that the same election these Republicans falsely claim was rigged, was

Angeles.

Happy New Year, and take good care.

Mike Bonin, Los Angeles City Councilman, 11th District

Stealing Georgia: Raffensperger is No Hero

Despite the hype, an investigative report we released reveals Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is no hero defending democracy from Trump.

Rather, in this investigative film (produced by George DiCaprio, Thom Hartmann and Rosario Dawson, and narrated by Debra Messing), Raffensperger is exposed for using vote suppression Jim Crow tactics — even misleading a federal court to keep 198,000 Georgians from voting in

the very election in which they took office.

Apparently, that part of the election was just fine.

You may find yourself asking, why? Why are they willing to risk their reputation, their duty, their country to do this? I’ll tell you: a mixture of personal cowardice and political ambition to placate and satiate Trump’s far-right base which has been fed a steady diet of nothing but conspiracy theories.

When you excuse every illegal, unconstitutional and corrupt act by a man patently unfit for office, it leads you to the wildly antidemocratic moment we witnessed on the Floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. It takes your breath away. I know they won’t succeed with their last authoritarian gasp. We won’t let them. But we have to ask ourselves: what about four years from now? And after that?

This is not okay, and we cannot tolerate it.

It’s become clear that the fight to defend our democracy did not end on Nov. 3. Far from it.

We must let these Republicans know that we will hold them accountable.

This is the verifiable response to the Trump campaign’s claims of “voter fraud” that he has been pandering on Twitter? You can always count on Don to accuse his “enemies” of that which he is guilty himself.

Thanks for the update James Preston Allen, Publisher

20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

On Jan. 6 , 11 GOP Senators (so far) and possibly a larger number of GOP Representatives have announced their plans to object to certifying the Electoral College results from enough Blue States to erase the Biden-Harris margin of electoral college victory.

I invite your prayers that the God who, thus far, has saved us from our political aberrations will once again rescue these United States from the congressional

politicians who would dare to use the 20th Amendment as the playbook to allow their authoritarian, Dear (Cult) Leader and his sycophant Veep another Term in Office.

Beware! And Be Ready!

Bill Roberson Gardena

Community Alert State of the Port

The 2021 State of the Port of Los Angeles will be held virtually this year. Join to hear from Port of Los Angeles Executive Director, Gene Seroka who will provide an update on the State of the Port of Los Angeles. Register for free to receive the link a day before the event.

Time: 12 p.m. Jan 14 Details: www.2021-stateof-the-port-of-los-angelestickets

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

Adam Schiff is the U.S. Representative for California’s 28th congressional district since 2013.

Tuesday’s Senate run-off.

The report centers on the lawsuit by Black Voters Matter, Rainbow PUSH and other voting rights groups to return these voters to the rolls in time for the election.

It is based on our investigation released by the ACLU of Georgia.

In the film, we see that the Secretary of State literally shut and locked his office in the State Capitol to avoid complying with a federal judge’s directive to meet with me, Black Voters Matter and their legal team to return voters before the runoff election.

We hunt down and confront Raffenperger’s Director of Elections with evidence of Black and Hispanic voters illegally blocked from voting — and hand him a list of 198,000 Georgians wrongfully purged from the voter rolls (including, infamously, Martin Luther King’s 94-year-old cousin, Christine Jordan).

Greg Palast, Atlanta, Ga.

January 7 - 20, 2021

7

Trump’s Screechy Swan Song:

Lining Up Ugly Ducklings for Biden

By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

January 7 - 20, 2021

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

Donald Trump’s last-minute call for a $2,000 stimulus check — quickly passed by House Democrats, but blocked by Senate Republicans — speaks volumes about the dysfunctional state of American governance.

First, it was a cynical last-minute ploy, in which Trump once again pretended to play populist hero, after nine months of being AWOL, never having pushed for it before. He played hero just long enough to cost millions of Americans a week of uninsurance benefits before reversing himself and signing the stimulus package with the smaller $600 checks. Second, it was defeated by GOP lockstep intransigence — looking forward to opposing any Joe Biden efforts to restore the economy — despite massive bipartisan support, 87%, according to a Data for Progress poll. Finally, although seemingly substantial, the one-time $2,000 checks pale in comparison to the recurring payments that Democrats like Andrew Yang, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have proposed in the past, payments that echo policies adopted by almost all other advanced industrial nations.

In Denmark, for example, the government initially subsidized 75% of employees’ salary costs in order to prevent massive layoffs. Subsidies continue for subsets of the economy most directly impacted by COVID, which reduces economicallydriven resistance to complying with public health measures. This, in turn, helps to account for Europe’s much greater success in recovering from the first wave, avoiding a summer wave completely,

8

The global pandemic and related economic collapse has created large numbers of people who are new to food insecurity and never imagined they would be in need of food assistance. Photo courtesy of LA Regional Food Bank.

and limiting the severity of its ongoing second wave. While U.S. unemployment spiked to more than 14% in April 2020, it actually declined in the 19-member Eurozone, and though it’s since risen, it remains less than 1% above pre-COVID levels.

So, by prioritizing public health over the economy, Europe’s economy has done better, too. Here in the United States, prioritizing the economy has made everything worse. But not for everyone. We’re experiencing a k-shaped

recovery: the investor class is recovering nicely, with Wall Street setting new highs and 56 new billionaires since the pandemic began, according to the Institute for Policy Studies, while Main Street continues its precipitous decline. More than 110,000 restaurants — one in six U.S. eateries — have closed permanently or long term, according to the latest survey from the National Restaurant Association.

For more than 100 years, the GOP has presented itself as the party of business, representing Wall

Street and Main Street businesses alike. It’s always been a questionable proposition, given the fate of the American family farm as a shining example. But COVID-19 has shattered that illusion once and for all.

The drama began on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020, the day after Congress passed a $900 billion stimulus deal. In a speech posted to Twitter, Trump wrote: “I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 ... and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a Covid relief package.”

He didn’t explicitly threaten a veto, but that was clearly implied. In addition, the stimulus was attached to a $1.4 trillion omnibus government funding bill, which he had to sign by Dec. 28, 2020, or else the government would shut down.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately announced her support for the larger checks and introduced a bill authorizing them, seeking to pass it Dec. 24, 2020. But that was blocked by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, so it was introduced and passed through the normal process on the 28, shortly after Trump relented and signed the stimulus and government funding bill. But by then, two federal jobless programs that expanded and extended benefits had expired two days earlier.

The drama then switched to the Senate. A number of GOP senators made noises about supporting Trump’s call, but it couldn’t come to a floor vote without Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s consent, which clearly wasn’t in the cards. At one point, he said the House bill, “has no realistic path to quickly [See Swan Song, p. 13]

[Superlove, from p. 1]

Superlove on Knoll Hill

Los Angeles and the Vincent Thomas Bridge.

Schroff calls this place Superlove, a concept that will be explored later. Adjacent to the main house is an annex featuring six private surreally themed dining rooms, which he intends for this town’s creatives to run. These dining rooms include a community kitchen, two lounges, a stage, prop room, art studio, gallery, workshop and vegetable garden for guests. The home features art collections including vintage designer furniture. The architecture throughout the compound articulates a pan-Asian influence.

The community is invited to visit and Schroff plans to conduct performance, art and design workshops in this “community art complex.”

Ironically, the offshoring of surfboard manufacturing to low-wage Southeast Asian countries inspired his performance art of taking a chainsaw to surfboards manufactured in places like Thailand. Schroff staged his notorious demonstration in 2016, wearing Hello Kitty underpants as he destroyed a HaydenShapes Hypto Krypto surfboard. The absurdity of his current circumstances isn’t lost on Schroff. “[I] ended up on a hill overlooking all the Chinese junk imported into this country, ‘the gatekeeper,’” Schroff said. “Surfboards are one of the last handmade products made in this country ... it’s a dirty job but somebody’s gotta do it.”

If people have learned one thing collectively in 2020, it’s that community can help make things better. Schroff is on a mission to connect the community, especially the youth through art, performance and creating.

Young Designer

January 7 - 20, 2021

[See Superlove, p. 11]

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

Peter Shroff poses in his San Pedro home on Knoll Hill. Photo

by Arturo Garcia-Ayala

Born in Newport Beach, Schroff took up surfing at 11 years old. He began designing his own surfboards at 14, creating his first board on his family’s kitchen table. Soon after, he began to shape surfboards at home, under the moniker “Underdog.”

Schroff spent years reinventing and perfecting the modern twin fin board. At this time the Schroff label was born alongside the genesis of high performance surfing known as Echo Beach.

“I lived in Newport for the early part of my life,” Schroff said. “It was a community.

It’s where I began surfing and my ambition drove me to make surfboards — and making the best surfboards possible.

“Then, Newport turned into a vacation rental, summer beach resort dead end town.”

Eventually, Schroff’s surfboard designs rose to the level of art. Then he stopped making them. Schroff returned to making surfboards after a 25-year hiatus. But upon his return, he found a surfboard culture that had been reduced to a “pop-out culture” [A term for the mass manufacturing of surfboards with the aid of machines in largely Southeast Asian countries].

Schroff spent those 25 years pursuing an arts education and arts interests in the 1980s downtown Los Angeles arts colony. He enrolled into California Institute of the Arts in Santa Clarita and spent time in downtown Los Angeles, visiting galleries and attending art shows for most of his life. Moving there was an obvious choice for him. After moving there, Schroff founded the design company Superlove and launched successful brand campaigns for surf industry leaders such as Quiksilver, Gotcha, O’Neil and Ocean Pacific.

Attending CalArts introduced Schroff to the concept of “art and commerce” leading him to question if the two can coexist. Since then, he’s kept one foot in art and one foot in design. After 40 years he’s still experimenting with freedom and creativity. Indeed, his Superlove creation mirrors what he created when he resided in downtown Los Angeles and Venice, respectively. While living in Los Angeles, he rented a warehouse at 4th and Alameda, in the center of the arts community where several of his “art family” lived.

“Studio 3-A blossomed, as a performance space where we held performances nightly and invited the community to perform their works,” Schroff said. “A few years later developers started to move in, develop the warehouses in our area, rent shot up from 20 to 30 cents a square foot to 85 cents, LACE [Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions] our community gallery moved out, our watering holes [Gorky’s, Cocola, etc.] moved out, The Wall & Boyd closed … the artist moved out.”

In 1987, Schroff bought a house in Venice, a threestory steel, concrete and glass modern minimal floor complex to house an expanded operation with two exotic rentals and studios.

He hosted performance workshops in a converted garage and built another studio to house a design studio where community members worked on projects for retail, restaurants, night clubs, advertisements and events. The project was featured

9

T

January 7 - 20, 2021

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

he New Year is often a time to contemplate one’s relationship with calories. After months of culturally sanctioned gluttony, we find ourselves suddenly facing a cold empty chasm, facing a familiar question: Will we fill this void with purpose, or leftover eggnog?

The pandemic holidays of 2020 were unique, of course. The usual peer-reviewed parade of excesses moved to Zoom, which didn’t stop the snacking, lounging and binge drinking that in many homes has, in fact, been in full swing since March. All of which conspire to leave the average American all the more fat and lonely than ever by year’s end.

In the beforetimes, January was always the busiest month of the year for gym signups, with the first being the busiest day.

In the duringtimes of 2021 it will be more complicated, but losing weight will remain a top resolution.

Weight loss is a problem that stumps so many people, even while the answer could not be more obvious. What other problem can be solved by doing less?

Less eating, that is. Exercise is important for many, many reasons other than calorie burning. But trying to lose weight with exercise alone is like trying to wipe water off the floor without bothering to turn off the faucet that’s overflowing the sink. We need to consume fewer calories, which means confronting hunger. Most people who can afford the choice will avoid that feeling, when they should probably make friends with it.

Consider the expression to “stay hungry.”

It means, basically, to stay motivated. To keep after your goals and shape your dreams, rather than to lazily graze upon an all-you-can-eat

10

Intermittent Fasting

By Ari LeVaux, Flash in the Pan Columnist

Photo by Ari LeVaux

pasture of your past achievements.

In the context of weight loss, those hunger pangs are the feelings that come from actual work, like the ache in your thighs after leg day at the gym. And new research appears to suggest, meanwhile, that fasting can improve your workout – including muscle building — while exercise can increase the caloric burn of a fast.

Like some magic pill that burns fat and builds muscle, the budding field of fasted training might be the answer to your New Year’s blues.

Not to be confused with starvation, fasting

BIG NICK’S PIZZA

Tradition, variety and fast delivery or takeout—you get it all at Big Nick’s Pizza.

The best selection of Italian specialties include hearty calzones, an array of pastas and our amazing selection of signature pizzas. Call for fast delivery. Hours: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sun.-Thurs.; 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Big Nicks’ Pizza, 1110 N. Gaffey St., San Pedro, 310732-5800, www.bignickspizza.com

BUONO’S AUTHENTIC PIZZERIA

Family owned and operated since 1965, Buono’s is famous for exceptional award-winning brick oven baked pizza. Buono’s also offers classic Italian dishes and sauces based on tried-and-true family recipes and hand-selected ingredients that are prepared fresh. Takeout and delivery at all three locations.

Hours: Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Fri. and Sat. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Buono’s Pizzeria, 222 W. 6th St., San Pedro 310-547-0655, www.buonospizza.com

CONRAD’S MEXICAN GRILL

Conrad’s menu reflects the cuisine of his native Oaxaca with a fresh focus on local, seasonal ingredients for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It features classic dishes from Oaxaca and regional Mexico, such as

mole sauces, ceviche, empanadas and sopecitos. Conrad’s also features an inventive vegetarian and vegan menu. Order online for curbside pick up and delivery. Open Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sun. noon to 8 p.m. Conrad’s Mexican Grill, 376. W. 6th St., San Pedro • 424-264-5452, www.conradsmexicangrill. com

HAPPY DINER #1

The Happy Diner #1 in Downtown San Pedro isn’t your average diner. The selections range from Italian- and Mexican-influenced entrées to American Continental.

Happy Diner chefs are always creating something new—take your pick of grilled salmon over pasta or tilapia and vegetables prepared any way you like.

Call for takeout breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hours: Mon. - Sat. 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Sun. 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Happy Diner #1, 617 S. Centre St., San Pedro, 310-241-0917, www.happydinersp.com

HAPPY DINER #2

Built on the success of Happy Diner #1, Happy Diner #2 offers American favorites like omelets and burgers, fresh salads, plus

is the deliberate refraining from eating. It’s an ancient practice tied to many religions and cultures, from Native American vision quests to Ramadan.

Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, ushered in the modern era of fasting, now known scientifically as caloric restriction, with his 2003 research on mice. The study suggested that long-term calorie-restriction increased the little mammals’ lifespans. Subsequent work by Mattson and others documented cognitive improvements

pasta and Mexican dishes are served. Call in your order for curbside pickup. Hours: Mon. - Sat. 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Sun. 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Happy Diner #2, 1931 N. Gaffey St., San Pedro, 310-935-2933, www.happydinersp.com

HAPPY DELI

The Happy Deli is a small place with a big menu.

Food is made-to-order using the freshest ingredients.

Breakfast burritos and breakfast sandwiches include a small coffee. For lunch or dinner select from fresh salads, wraps, buffalo wings, cold and hot sandwiches, burgers and dogs. Delivery to your home or office available. Hours: Mon. - Sat. 6 am. to 8 p.m., Sun. 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Happy Deli, 530 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro, 424-364-0319, www. happydelisp.com

SAN PEDRO BREWING COMPANY

A micro brewery and American grill, SPBC features handcrafted award-winning ales and lagers served with creative pastas, BBQ, sandwiches, salads and burgers. Order your growlers and house drafts to go! Open daily 12 to 8 p.m. for takeout and delivery through Grubhub, Postmates and Doordash. San Pedro Brewing Company, 331 W. 6th St., San Pedro, 310-831-5663, www.sanpedrobrewing.com

in mice on calorie-restricted diets, again confirming age-old wisdom. This work helped spawn the popular diet called Intermittent Fasting, or “IFing,” for short.

IFing focuses on the timing of meals, rather than their content. Most adherents shoot for 16 hours of no eating, including the time spent sleeping. If you sleep for 8 hours, then you’d be fasting for about half of your waking time on any given day. One could just as accurately call the diet intermittent feasting, which is part of why it’s so popular.

Martin Berkhan, the weightlifter, irreverent blogger, and owner of the Leangains brand, isn’t shy about eating an entire cheesecake in a sitting, or poking fun at people who do sit-ups.

Berkhan schedules his workout for the end of his fasting window, and follows the workout with a no-holds-barred feast.

Love him or hate him, and regardless of whether you want Grand Canyon abs, Berkhan did a lot to organize the impact of caloric restriction on body building. Intermittent fasting is particularly effective, he says, because human growth hormone is naturally released in the early stages of a fast. Berkhan believes this fasting window is a powerful opportunity for the body to make the most of exercise — he does consume protein just before his regimen of squats, benches, and pull-ups, all with hundreds of pounds of added weights, but his belly is not full. The reason he can get away with all the cheesecake is that those big muscles require a lot of energy to work that hard, and they will get that energy from his fat cells after depleting the sugar in his blood.

Exercising with an empty belly is not for everyone. But if you are willing to push against [See Fasting, p. 11]

TAXCO MEXICAN RESTAURANT

We are proud to serve our community for almost four decades with generous plates of traditional Mexican Call in your order for pickup or order online for delivery through Doordash.com Open Sun. and Mon. 12 to 8 p.m.; Tues.-Sat. 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Taxco Mexican Restaurant, 28152 S. Western Ave., San Pedro, (310) 547-4554, www.taxcorestaurantpv.com

WEST COAST PHILLY’S

Welcome to West Coast P h i l l y ’ s Cheesesteak and Hoagies w h e r e authentic Philly ch ee se ste aks meet the waterfront in San Pedro. Along with serving the classic cheesesteak, West Coast Philly’s puts its unique twist on its cheesesteaks and hoagies. Also on the menu are subs, burgers, wings and salads.

Order online or call for pickup in the rear parking lot or delivery via Postmates, Doordash and Grubhub.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. West Coast Philly’s, 1902 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro, 424-264-5322, www.westcoastphillys.com

Support Independent Restaurants • Dining Guide online: www.randomlengthsnews.com/dining-guide

[Superlove, from p. 9]

Superlove

in the Los Angeles Times and various design publications. By 2015, much of Venice’s boardwalk facing the beach duplicated Schroff but Venice’s charm and culture was displaced by high paid tech employees and developers.

Back to the Ocean

“It was time to move to a place with some elbow room to cultivate, San Pedro,” he said.

“I spent 31 years in Newport: 31 years in LA and now my final 31 years — I’m going to [live [Fasting, from p. 10]

Fasting

your comfort zone, it does get easier. Mattson told the health blog Inverse that it takes about a month before the hunger pains from a skipped meal go away, which coincides with the period when you can measure and feel the diet’s benefits, including insulin sensitivity in those with diabetes, lower blood pressure, and even a lower resting heart rate. Fasting increases blood levels of ghrelin, a hormone that suppresses appetite, thereby making you less hungry — a counterintuitive idea that’s confirmed by virtually anyone who gives fasting a serious try.

Like any diet or health regime, intermittent fasting or “fasted training” only work if you stick to them. Americans act with a sense of entitlement about food, that it’s all ours for the taking and don’t you tread on that right. But don’t you want to see your own abs once, or once more, before it’s too late? You don’t need to run up Mt. Everest every morning to get there. Just be cool with being a little hungry. It’s the price of progress.

Editor’s note: As with any health-related advice, seek the counsel of your health care provider before altering your diet or fasting.

to] be 93 — are going to be spent in San Pedro,” Schroff said. “San Pedro is still off the beaten path … still rough around the edges. I ventured up and down the coast for the glove that fits to house the future Superlove headquarters. I’m a surfer and I like the ocean and I like the Harbor, the working Harbor.”

Schroff describes the residents who live in San Pedro as “down-home” salt of the earth types of people. He said he finds that those who stumble upon his Knoll Hill abode love what they’re up to. Superlove is the name of his operation, which he described as a weird mysterious thing.

Superlove is the zone that he always operates in. He referenced David Byrne’s film project American Utopia … perhaps, borrowing the lyric, ‘The world is making sense and they’re destroying each other. So we operate in the zone of not making sense.’

Asking what do the senses really want, Schroff replied that they don’t want to shop at Target or Walmart. Instead, they want to be a community; they want love and attention. What’s important to him is community, interacting and creating together.

“This project has been developing for over 20 years,” Schroff said. “I have a lot to offer the community. We gave our operation the Superlove title in 1998 as a reference of giving back more than you take. If everyone gave back more than they take, what would the world look like?”

Schroff presented and answered his own question, offering a circular solution that could’ve been inspired by surfing tubular waves.

“Why do kids join gangs?” he asked, rhetorically.

He gave myriad reasons, including drugs, weapons, a sense of belonging. He suggested giving them self-expression, or letting them take an improv class and learn self-expression.

Schroff imagined they could express themselves and perhaps take a different turn, adding the

world would go a lot differently if people didn’t ignore issues for a shortcut.

“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” Schroff said. “Kids can be on a teeter totter. [There’s one] way to the gangs and insecurities or they can take improv classes and discover who they are.”

Schroff has studied with some of the best improv teachers and he wants to work with youth, including in gangs, in this way.

“I can relate to gang kids,” Schroff said. “I got my eardrum punched out confronting the gangs up here [on Knoll Hill]. I said, ‘I don’t mind you coming up here and having some romance but be respectful. Don’t throw your trash up here, don’t do donuts in the lot next door and throw the dust up.’ Then after getting a busted eardrum we hugged and shook hands. I have no problem working with kids and confronting them and standing up to be a man and be a mentor. I have no problem relating to younger folks wherever they may be. Most of my friends … are half my age or a fraction of my age. Through my experiences in life and my training and practice I’ve learned to be very good with young folks and very respected by them.”

He pointed to the job center at the foot of

Knoll Hill, Harbor Occupational Center, saying it would be nice to work with them, to have students work in the restaurant, maintain the gardens and do things to earn a living.

Eventually, Schroff hopes to get support from the city. He referred to the proposal at West Harbor, saying they want to make San Pedro into another Marina del Rey. He argues if people step in as a community, we can regulate it so that it grows culturally rather than sells out for simple condominiums.

“If we can build the voice and the productivity of the community, can you imagine the voice and the power we would have in inspiring other communities?” he said.

Schroff said in 1998 he tied a red ribbon on his finger. It reminds him to be peaceful and to not have anxiety. He paints it every week because it wears off. The ring is his reminder to relax and take a deep breath, and that he is going to be of service because being of service makes him happy.

“I wouldn’t look at it as a noble cause,” Schroff said. “I would look at it as an internal being that wants to share its wisdom on a poetic life.”

Details: www.schroffsurfboards.com

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

January 7 - 20, 2021

11

JAN 7 - 20 • 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Time: Jan. 16 Details: https://tinyurl.com/magiclevit

Joel Gaines in Concert Gaines, a piano and keyboard virtuoso with a warm and inviting vocal style, has been entertaining audiences around the world. His concert will be streaming live on YouTube.

Time: 7 p.m. Jan. 9 Cost: $20 to 40 Details: https://tinyurl.com/joelgaines-toca

Jan. 8

Jan. 9

Jan. 16

Magic Up Close This truly interactive 45+ minute performance by award-winning close-up magician Jonathan Levit will blow your mind. Unlike any televised performance by a magician, you know that there are no camera tricks, edits or special effects as it is happening live via Zoom.

FILM

Happy Feet Come watch the 2006 computeranimated hit musical comedy film directed, produced and co-written

by George Miller.

Time: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Jan. 8 Cost: $30 Details: eventbrite.com Venue: The Roadium Open Air Market.

Location: 2500 Redondo Beach Blvd., Torrance

Jan. 14

Wild & Scenic Film Festival The Wild & Scenic Film Festival inspires environmental activism and a love for nature through film. Wild & Scenic shares an urgent call to action, encouraging festival-goers

ART

COMMUNITY

Family Art Workshop Angels Gate Cultural Center’s Family Art Workshops are now being held on Zoom. Each month features a different art project led by an Angels Gate Cultural Center artist-teacher, suitable for all ages and skill levels. Register today to receive a supply list and Zoom link prior to the event. Children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

Time: 1 to 3 p.m. Jan. 16 Cost: Free Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ virtual-family-art-workshop

One Team Scavenger Hunt Long Beach Twenty-plus challenges, two hours, and one epic adventure.

Your team will solve puzzles, complete challenges and explore historic landmarks.

Time: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Jan. 9, 10, 12, 18 Cost: $19.99 Details: https://tinyurl.com/lbscavenger-hunt Venue: Recommended Parking, 100 Pacific Ave., Long Beach

Jan. 22

Nature Club for Families Join in for behind the scenes, virtual activities from the nature centers, animal encounters and fun at the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy.

Time: 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Jan. 11 Details: https://pvplc.org/

Jan. 16

to learn more about what they can do to save our threatened planet.

Traditionally the 5-day flagship festival is held annually in Nevada City and Grass Valley, California.

In 2021 the festival will move to a 100% virtual platform.

Time: Jan. 14 to 24.

Cost: $50 and up Details: www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/festival

Jan. 15 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Come watch this 1989 comic scifi film involving an inventor who accidentally shrinks his own and next-door neighbor’s children.

Time: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Jan. 15 Cost: $30 Details: https://tinyurl.com/ishrunk-the-kids Venue: The Roadium Open Air Market.

Location: 2500 Redondo Beach Blvd., Torrance

Behind the Mask Behind the Mask investigates the role of the mask in contemporary artistic explorations and understandings of race, gender, sexuality, mythology, histories and futures.

Time: Jan. 22 Details: gallery@angelsgateart. org; www.angelsgateart.org Borderline Borderline explores the notion of the border — both as a metaphor for our lived experience and as a tool to undermine the certainty of the territories it defines. By occupying the in-between space that exists between two distinct conditions, the exhibition defiantly trespasses into adjacent space, breaks down conventional barriers and explores new territories.

Time: Jan. 22 Details: gallery@angelsgateart. org; www.angelsgateart.org

Jan. 9

Jan. 11

Curbside Crafts for Youth: Straw Rockets Pick up your craft kit at any Torrance Public Library location during curbside hours. Kits will be available, beginning on the date listed, while supplies last. Recommended for school-aged youth.

Time: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 11 Details: https://tinyurl.com/curbside-rockets Venue: All Torrance libraries, Torrance Science at Home Join Ms. Denice for a cool, easy science project you can do at home. Join the pre-recorded session on Facebook and discover all the fun of science you can do at home in your pajamas.

Time: 9:30 a.m. Jan. 11 Details: https://www.facebook. com/WilmingtonBranchLAPL

Jan. 13 LB Gay Men’s Virtual Speed Dating The perfect opportunity to find a virtual companion! All the fun and efficiency of in-person speed dating events brought to your doorstep.

Time: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Jan. 13, 14 Cost: $25 to $27 Details: https://tinyurl.com/lgbmen-speed-dating

Jan. 14 Biography and Memoirs Group Zoom for this discussion. Send an email to MGeorge@TorranceCA. gov by Jan. 12 for the invitation link to join.

Time: 12 p.m. Jan. 14 Details: torranceca.gov

Jan. 15 Tidy Up for a Clutter-Free 2021 Join author and decluttering humorist Jamie Novak as she shares her tips for clearing clutter, how to decide what to keep, and how to let stuff go. To join the presentation on Zoom, send an email by Jan. 13 to SBuehler@TorranceCA.gov.

Time: 10:30 a.m. Jan. 15 Cost: Free Details: torranceca.gov

Jan. 20 Manga Otakus Book Group Dscuss your favorite manga, current reads and discover new series Pre-registration required.

Recommended for ages 9 and up.

Time: 3:30 p.m. Jan. 20 Details: torranceca.gov, 310-618-5964

January 7 - 20, 2021

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

Free Speech Facing Extinction

12

After 61 years of independent and community-based media, our financial circumstances continue to slide into the abyss of uncertainty. We may have to think the unthinkable; we may be forced to shut down.

Show your your support for KPFK today!

Donate: www.KPFK.org • 818-985-KPFK

[Swan Song, from p. 8]

Trump’s Swan Song

Sen. Bernie Sanders, giving a speech on why stimulus checks should be $2,000 per person, instead of the eventually settled on $600. File photo

of Economics reported on a study of 18 high-income countries over the last five decades “to estimate the causal effect of major tax cuts for the rich on income

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income people who in the midst of this pandemic are in desperate economic condition.”

In fact, if McConnell and his fellow Republicans were so concerned about socialism for the rich, they could have scrapped the original stimulus bill, which had “a provision that some tax experts call a $200 billion giveaway to the rich,” according to a Dec. 22 New York Times story. In the March 2020 stimulus bill, tens of thousands of businesses received government loans with forgiveness promised if they kept employees on payroll during the pandemic. What’s more, it would be tax-free.

But businesses wanted more.

“Not only should the forgiven loans not be taxed as income, but the expenditures used with those loans should be tax deductible,” The New York Times wrote.

And that’s exactly what they got.

Compared to less than 1% going to the top 5%, in this case, they noted one expert’s estimate that 60% — $120 billion — would flow to the top 1%. So, if socialism for the rich really bothered Republicans, they’d never have passed the new stimulus bill — at least not as written now.

But their professed deficit concerns are no more believable, either.

Back in 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney told then-Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill that “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter,” a far more accurate reflection of what Republicans actually believe.

They only care about deficits when it involves spending money on folks who aren’t already comfortable, if not filthy rich.

A “War on Poverty”? Horrors, you’ll bankrupt us! Mortgage our children’s future! Trickle-down tax cuts for the rich? No problem! In fact, they’ll pay for themselves. Or so Republicans say.

But both beliefs are false, and new evidence against them appeared shortly before Christmas.

On the tax side, a working paper from the London School

working paper, Prep School For Poor Kids: The Long-Run Impacts Of Head Start On Human Capital And Economic Self-Sufficiency. That study found that “Head Start generated large increases in adult human capital and economic self-sufficiency, including a 0.65-year increase in schooling, a 2.7-percent increase in high-school completion, an 8.5-percent increase in college enrollment, and a 39-percent increase in college completion.”

In short, the impacts increased at higher levels of achievement, rather than diminishing, as some might expect.

“These estimates imply sizable, long-term returns to public investments in large-scale preschool programs,” the working paper concluded.

So, as the curtain closes on Trump’s time in office, Republicans are scrambling to change the rules for Biden to play by. But the rules they want him to follow are the ones that drove us off the cliff in the first place.

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

pass the Senate,” which is Mitchspeak for saying he would not allow a vote.

McConnell did, however, craft a perfect poison pill alternative: a bill that would increase the stimulus checks to $2,000 (but not increase the additional amount for children or allow additional payments for all dependents), repeal a law protecting internet companies from liability for posts on their websites, and set up an advisory committee to study the integrity and administration of the 2020 general election. These were all things Trump called for when he signed the bill, but Trump asked for them because he wanted all of them, McConnell put them all together because he wanted none. The proof was simple: it never got a vote.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it, “a cynical ploy” when McConnell introduced it on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020 and Bernie Sanders underscored its absurdity two days later, when he proposed a floor vote for both McConnell’s bill and the House stimulus — confident that only the later could get the necessary 60 votes. McConnell chose to allow neither.

In justifying their opposition, Senate Republicans made two main arguments. First — as long predicted — they’ve miraculously rediscovered their abhorrence of deficits, after passing Trump’s massive tax cut, and second, they’ve embraced a new horror: socialism for the rich, a charge rolled out because a small fraction of the $2,000 checks would go to people who don’t desperately need it.

“You want to talk about socialism for the rich and it’s not the bill that puts $2,000 into working class hands all over the country. That ain’t socialism for the rich,” Sen. Sanders said in a floor speech.

“I’m delighted that after talking on the floor of the senate for years about socialism for the rich, finally, that has gotten across to my Republican friends,” said Sanders in another floor speech. “Of course, it’s what we do every single day. That is why we have the incredible level of income and wealth inequality that exists in this country because decade after decade, we have used this money to provide massive tax breaks to the rich and provide corporate welfare to corporations who don’t need it. That is socialism to the rich.”

Sanders went on to note that “According to the Tax Policy Center, less than 1% of the benefits of the direct payments — that’s the $2,000 for the working class adults Senator Schumer and I am talking about — less than 1% will go to the top 5% of Americans. Virtually, nothing goes to the very, very rich. An overwhelming majority of those funds go to the middle class, the working class, low-

inequality, economic growth, and unemployment.” It found that “major reforms reducing taxes on the rich lead to higher income inequality as measured by the top 1% share of pretax national income,” but that “such reforms do not have any significant effect on economic growth and unemployment.”

So, not only do tax cuts not pay for themselves, they don’t produce any significant economic growth at all for the whole economy. They produce economic growth for the wealthy, but that just fuels growing income and wealth inequality. It doesn’t trickle down. This was the prime result of the Trump tax cuts: cutting business taxes gave them more money, which Trump promised would raise wages by $4,000. Instead, it went mostly to stock buybacks, driving up stock prices, making the rich even richer.

On the invest in people side, the day before Christmas, the National Bureau Of Economic Research published a

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Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2020183675 The following person is doing business as: (1) John Hart, 210 Whalers Walk Suite #123, San Pedro, CA 90731, Los Angeles County.

Registered owners: John McCormick, 210 Whalers Walk Suite #123, 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: 01/2000. 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/. John McCormick. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 11/10/20. 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: 12/03/20, Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2020223575 The following person is doing business as:(1) Girls in Focus, 2039 Trudie Drive, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275, Los Angeles County. Registered owners: Girls in Focus, 2039 Trudie Drive, Rancho Palos Verdes Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275,. This Business is conducted by a corporation.

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/. Dunja Merell Djordjevic, President.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 12/22/20.

Notice--In accordance with

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Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2020213812 The following person is doing business as: (1) Livid Media, 29505 S Western Ave, Suite #104, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275, Los Angeles County. Registered owners: Kenneth Roy Brewer, 924 Wycliff Ave, San Pedro, CA 90732. Meri Gyetvay, 524 W Hamilton Ave., San Pedro, Ca 90731.

This Business is conducted by a general partnership.

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/.

Kenneth Roy Brewer, General Partner.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 12/11/20.

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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: 01/07/21, 01/21/21, 02/03/21, 02/17/21

[continued on p. 15]

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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: 01/07/21, 01/21/21,

For answers go to: www.randomlengthsnews.com

JOBS

ACROSS

1 “Cinderella Man” antagonist Max 5 Stacks of cash 9 First name in Fighting Irish history 12 Sansa’s sister on “Game of Thrones” 13 ‘80s-’90s TV legal drama with a license plate in the title screen 14 “Star Trek” captain 16 Show excessive stubble, perhaps 18 High point?

19 As originally located 20 Old-timey hangout with a counter 22 Step unit 23 Repair tears 24 ___ the cows come home 25 Huge success 26 ___ Nublar (“Jurassic Park” setting) 30 Party invitation blank 32 Dark times?

35 Firing figure 36 Tourists’ warm-weather wear 39 2011 NBA champs, for short 40 Exciting way to take the world 41 “Middlemarch” novelist

43 Tangerine cover 44 Leading 47 ___ Aviv, Israel 48 Peachy keen 51 “File not found,” for example 53 Was still in the running 56 Phony 57 “Moral ___” (Adult Swim show) 58 Lizzo song of 2016 60 Rotary phone part 61 Starts the betting 62 To ___ (precisely) 63 Music collection 64 Marcel Duchamp’s art style 65 Overseer

DOWN

1 Send packing 2 “___ just the cutest?”

3 Made ___ (flirted, in a way) 4 Circle measurements 5 Cartoon baby’s cry 6 “Sad to say” 7 Swiss host city for the World Economic Forum 8 Any ABBA member 9 Aliases, for short 10 Basic file format that allows for bold and underlining 11 Ornate cupboards

13 “Geaux Tigers” sch.

15 Laws of planetary motion discoverer 17 Chest chamber 21 “That’s sooo cute!”

27 Checkbook record 28 Godiva’s title 29 Audibly in shock 31 Damage 32 “___ I’m told” 33 East, in Spain 34 Louboutin item 36 Islands off Spain 37 Movie that brought on “Army of Darkness” 38 “25 Words ___” (game show) 39 Way of doing things 42 Prof’s helpers 44 Faithful about 45 Plenty 46 “1984” working class 49 1977 George Burns film 50 Shell source in the Mario Kart series 52 Clean-up clinic 54 “___ Well That Ends Well” 55 Two-___ sloth 56 ___ de deux (two-person dance) 59 Genetic info carrier

[from p. 14]

DBAs & LEGAL NOTICES

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2020213812 The following person is doing business as: Blady’s Local Handyman, 242 W 11th StreetSan Pedro, CA 90731, Los Angeles County.

Registered owners: Bladimir Olando Diego Garcia, 242 W 11th StreetSan 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/.

Bladimir Olando Diego Garcia, Owner This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 11/10/20. Notice-

Charlotte Menefee

-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: 01/07/21, 01/21/21, 02/03/21, 02/17/21

CITY OF CARSON, CALIFORNIA 701 E. Carson Street, Carson CA 90745

NOTICE OF INVITATION FOR BID (IFB) 20-10 Notice is hereby given that the Purchasing Manager of the City of Carson will receive bids for: PROJECT NO. 1628 TRAFFIC SIGNAL INSTALLATION TAJAUTA AVENUE AND DEL AMO BOULEVARD

NOTICE OF INVITATION FOR BID (IFB) 20-09 Notice is hereby given that the Purchasing Manager of the City of Carson will receive bids for: PROJECT NO. 1611 TRAFFIC SIGNAL INSTALLATION CENTRAL AVENUE AND DIMONDALE DRIVE

PROSPECTIVE QUESTIONS DUE: 01/21/21| 05:00 PM

IFB DUE: 02/04/21| 05:00 PM BIDS MUST BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY

PROSPECTIVE QUESTIONS DUE: 01/21/21 | 05:00 PM IFB DUE: 02/04/21 | 05:00 PM BIDS MUST BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY

All questions or request for interpretation regarding this IFB solicitation must be submitted online through Planet Bids within the date and time specified. Bidders are not to contact City personnel or Elected Officials with any questions or clarifications concerning this IFB other than through Planet Bids. Any City response for this IFB that is not posted through Planet Bids is unauthorized and will be considered invalid.

All questions or request for interpretation regarding this IFB solicitation must be submitted online through Planet Bids within the date and time specified. Bidders are not to contact City personnel or Elected Officials with any questions or clarifications concerning this IFB other than through Planet Bids. Any City response for this IFB that is not posted through Planet Bids is unauthorized and will be considered invalid.

TO ACCESS AND REGISTER FOR THIS BID, PLEASE VISIT http://ci.carson.ca.us/Finance/Bidding.aspx

TO ACCESS AND REGISTER FOR THIS BID, PLEASE VISIT http://ci.carson.ca.us/Finance/Bidding.aspx

TO GO TO THE CITY’S WEBSITE AND CLICK ON THE LINK “BIDDING/RFP OPPORTUNITIES” OR PLEASE REFER TO: https://www.planetbids.com/portal/portal. cfm?CompanyID=32461

TO GO TO THE CITY’S WEBSITE AND CLICK ON THE LINK “BIDDING/RFP OPPORTUNITIES” OR PLEASE REFER TO: https://www.planetbids.com/portal/portal. cfm?CompanyID=32461

DATED: 12/24/20

DATED: 12/24/20 SHELLY ROOT, SENIOR BUYER, ON BEHALF OF SANDER HUANG PURCHASING MANAGER

SHELLY ROOT, SENIOR BUYER, ON BEHALF OF SANDER HUANG PURCHASING MANAGER

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The beloved matriarch, who was preceded in death by her stepson Bernard Courtney, daughter Ona Lee Snyder, sister-in-law Virginia Pizzini Wright, granddaughter Kristie Lee Hammer, and recently reunited with her stepdaughter Eileen Hershberger, leaves her son Quentin Pizzini and wife Helene of San Pedro; son-in-law Duke Snyder and wife Jan of Springville; daughter-in-law Sylvia Pizzini and husband Marty of Citrus Heights; grandson Les Hammer of Pasadena; grandson Bret Hammer, wife Leslie and daughter Cassandra of Lacey, Washington; grandson Ken Pizzini, wife Holly and daughter Emily of Citrus Heights; granddaughter Judy Mikelsen, husband Michael and son David of Waltham, Massachusetts; granddaughter Vickie Hershberger of Redondo Beach; granddaughter Cathy Scheitlin, husband Mark and son Nathan of Louisville, Colorado; greatgrandson Stephen Hammer of Canyon Country and a host of friends.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Harbor Animal Service Center at 957 N. Gaffey Street, San Pedro CA 90731. Telephone 1-888452-7381.

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During World War II, the family lived in Massilon, where Charlotte worked in a department store. After the war, the couple decided to leave Ohio, now that their older children were married, and take their younger children with them to California.

In 1947, the family settled in Glendale, only to break up. Charlotte divorced Marion, unaware that Fortune’s wheel was about to turn. While working as a waitress at a popular diner, she met decorated Navy veteran and master carpenter Paul Pizzini.

Shortly after their marriage in 1951, Paul adopted 12-year-old Quentin — the first member of a large, extended family that within a decade included grandchildren by Ona Lee and her husband Rod Hammer and Quentin and his wife Sylvia.

In 1976, Charlotte and Paul celebrated their 25th anniversary — three weeks before Paul lost a valiant battle with cancer. In spite of her grief, Charlotte continued to work in cosmetics at a La Cañada Flintridge pharmacy. At 65, she found love again when she married Jerry “Shorty” Menefee, owner of a local dry cleaning shop, in 1978. Their marriage proved to be an enduring and happy one until his death in 1997.

“I was privileged to have been married to Paul and Jerry,” she recalled.

“They were both great, selfmade men.”

After the sale of the shop, Charlotte bought a home in San Pedro. She lived alone until she was nearly 100, when she moved to the assisted living center Harbor Terrace. But family and friends showed up

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Memory is love.

every year for a birthday party at the Pizzini palazzo, followed by a movable feast at the 22nd Street Landing.

101 102 103... right up to 107 when Congresswoman Nanette Diaz Barragán presented the guest of honor with a Certificate of Congressional Recognition.

In a final, supreme act of charity, Charlotte Menefee willed her body to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Her generous, life-affirming gift summed up a Christian life, inspired by her favorite hymn “Others” by Charles Meigs and Elizabeth Shields: “So when my work on earth is done, And my new work in Heaven’s begun, May I forget the crown I’ve won, While thinking still of Others.”

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CITY OF CARSON, CALIFORNIA 701 E. Carson Street, Carson CA 90745

The family of Charlotte Menefee held a private memorial service via Zoom on the eve of what would have been the 108th birthday of their beloved “Granny.”

The spunky centenarian — believed to have been the oldest resident of San Pedro — died of natural causes on July 20, 2020 at a local hospice.

Alert, sharp and strongwilled to the end, she left the world the same way that she came into it — on her terms.

“We remember Granny for giving us life and love and security,” said her grandson Les Hammer. “What more could we ask for?”

Born in Waseca, Minnesota on November 17, 1912 — seven months after the sinking of Titanic — six-year-old Charlotte survived the pandemic of 1918 that sickened all but one member of her family and killed 675,000 Americans. She recovered and resumed daily lessons in a one-room schoolhouse, followed by routine chores on the family farm — feeding the chickens, fetching water from the well or milking the cow.

“You didn’t milk the cow when you felt like it,” she recalled. “You milked it when it was time.”

In 1930, Charlotte — who had blossomed into a beautiful, blue-eyed and willful young woman of 18 — ran away from home in the middle of the Depression to marry Hubert Killion. Like downtrodden characters out of “The Grapes of Wrath,” the couple trekked from town to town in search of work. With characteristic determination and grit, Charlotte cleaned houses, waited tables or worked as a cook in boarding houses. In 1933, the ragged pair wound up in the farming community of Orrville, Ohio, where their daughter Ona Lee was born.

Hard times cost Charlotte her marriage. But her fortunes improved when she married Marion Courtney, the father of her stepchildren Bernard and Eileen and son Quentin (born in 1939).

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January 7 - 20, 2021

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