Stephen M. White’s Troubling Legacy Reckoning with the racist legacy of our Founding Fathers By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor
[See White, p. 4]
The statue of Stephen Mallory White at the entrance to Cabrillo Beach. White helped secure the harbor for Los Angeles, but also supported anti-Chinese policies. File photo
Green Terminal White Elephant Exposed Past POLA president Tonsich is sued By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
Les Enfants Terribles: An auspicious start to Long Beach Opera’s new era p. 9
the beginning on multiple counts — because of the lack of demonstrable technology, the lack of an open-bid process, and the involvement of Tonsich himself, who some believe is forbidden from receiving port contracts flowing from policies he had a hand in creating. POLA staff has used the project’s structure — with CAEM as a subcontractor and the California Air Resources Board, or CARB, not POLA, as the funding source — to fend off the latter two objections. But at the recent June 3 Harbor Commission meeting, the activists have once again seized on the perceived lack of technology. Jesse Marquez, founder and president of Coalition For A Safe Environment, and Janet Gunter, an initiator of the 2001 China Shipping lawsuit, both sent letters to the commission concerning the ShoreKat system as the board prepared to rubber-stamp the extension of the project schedule, as was previously done on April 16, 2020. Marquez also called in a public comment, causing the extension to be pulled from the consent
People age 16+ vaccinated in LA County: 5,400,962 (64.9%) • Seniors: 1,178,203 (85.8%)
June 10 - 23, 2021
Mayor Joe Buscaino: The “Messiah” we don’t need p. 7
Almost five years after the Port of Los Angeles unveiled Pasha’s Green Omni Terminal as a model for the future, an ugly truth buried in the heart of it was finally openly admitted at the June 3 Harbor Commission meeting. While it may still approach being “the first all-electric operated terminal” as Mayor Eric Garcetti promised at a July 12, 2016 press conference, it will not capture or offset the carbon emissions of docked ships, thus exposing a significant gap between “all-electric” — the means — and “carbon neutral” — the goal. A lot of greenhouse gases will still be generated; it didn’t have to be that way. Chris Cannon, POLA’s chief environmental officer, stated under questioning that the controversial ShoreKat system, developed by Clean Air EngineeringMaritime or CAEM, owned by former Harbor Commission President Nick Tonsich, is no longer expected to play any positive greenhouse gas role. Local environmental activists have questioned the ShoreKat system from
See No Evil: Despite citizen input, less than .4% of LB police abuse complaints sustained p. 2
Real People, Real News, Really Effective
Stephen Mallory White’s statue was originally located at the center of Los Angeles’ justice system in downtown Los Angeles for decades. First it was in front of the Red Sandstone Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. Then it was moved to the lawn in front of the Hall of Records. Next it was located in front of what is now the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. Then finally, after more than 80 years and perhaps 60 years of off-and-on lobbying from San Pedro civic leaders, it was located at Cabrillo Beach overlooking the San Pedro breakwater on a street that bears his name. For several decades, the county refused the entreaties of Harbor Area civic leaders and representatives to move the statue to some place of prominence at the Port of Los Angeles. During a period when awareness of Los Angeles racial history was heightened — a time when an African American mayor was at its helm — three African American city councilmen and the most revered supervisor by the African American community, Kenneth Hahn, was on the county board, a bureaucratic decision was made to ship the statue to San Pedro. This happened at the same time civic leaders like “Mr. San Pedro” John Olguin and White’s great great granddaughter were advocating for the statue’s move to Cabrillo Beach. Judge Michael L. Stern, who presided in civil trial courts in Los Angeles County since his appointment in 2001, said that White’s legal work to uphold the Chinese Exclusion Act, “disqualifies him from continued recognition by a statue standing in his honor, let alone the continued use of his name on a Los Angeles public school.” He went on to call White an “outmoded relic of a bygone era,” and that, “it is time to retire the statue of Stephen M. White.” The question now remains of what to do with this historic statue that presides over the Port of Los Angeles — a port dependent on Pacific Rim trade dominated by Asian nations.
[See Green, p. 3]
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