UNFINISHED BUSINESS
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Richard Trumka’s legacy and his vision for labor in America By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor
oal miners are like longshore workers in that they’re tribal in nature. Distinctions are made based on how many generations your family has been a part of the profession and successive generations of children are raised to live, work and eventually die the way their fathers had — in the mines. Trumka was no different. Trumka’s father and grandfather worked in the mines. He, the brightest of his generation, wasn’t really supposed to go into the mines. He saw his father operate a machine in the mines. Enamored by his father’s deft and graceful manipulation of the machine, Trumka wanted to be like him. Trumka recounted to journalists the summer before he went away to college. He’d taken a job in the mine and his father told him, “The first drop of sweat, the first drop of blood, and you’ll never be able to get it out of your system.” Trumka later found his father’s words to be true. “There’s a real satisfaction to the work. When you open up a new section, you’re the first human being who’s ever set foot in that place. When you close a section, you’re the last human being who’ll ever be there.” Trumka idolized John L. Lewis, the iconic president of United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960, the way oldschool longshore workers revere Harry Bridges. There was never any question that Trumka would use his brains to get ahead. From a very early age, his ambition was to work for the union. Trumka was once quoted: “When I was in the eighth grade, I remember talking to my grandfather and saying that I wanted to help the Richard L. Trumka graphic by Suzanne Matsumiya
The Supreme Court’s real target — farm workers’ organizing rights p. 7
By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
With less than two weeks to go in the California recall campaign, the ex-fiancée of the leading Republican candidate, Larry Elder, accused him of waving a gun at her while high on marijuana in 2015, after which she broke off an 18-month engagement. “For a minute there ... I thought it was a Phil Spector moment,’’ Alexandra Datig told Politico, referencing the famed record producer who shot and killed actress Lana Clarkson in 2003. Elder denies it ever happened, of course. But it was eerily reminiscent of the last recall election, when the GOP front-runner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, faced a slew of accusations over his misogynist behavior — most of which were completely ignored until the Los Angeles Times published a last-minute round-up investigation. And it came on the heels of multiple misogynistic remarks surfacing from Elder’s past — denigrating women’s knowledge “about political issues, economics
and current events,” defending discrimination against women who might become pregnant, and chiding “hypersensitivity” to sexist conduct in the workplace — all of which drew sharp criticism from other GOP candidates, most notably, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. “When I saw those comments directed about women, directed about pregnancy discrimination, that’s not right,” Faulconer said. “That’s not right for anybody of any political party or background. That’s not what you want to have your governor doing or talking about.” But the differences between the two races are much bigger than the similarities, in at least four ways. First is the difference in how misogynistic behavior is viewed: The #MeToo movement has finally changed how seriously such accusations are taken, reflected in the fact that the Los Angeles Police Department is
now investigating the incident. But thanks to Donald Trump, GOP voters are virtually immune to those long overdue changes, when one of their cherished heroes is involved. Second is the difference in the candidates: Schwarzenegger was a much better-known, more mainstream, and popular figure, who went on to win a majority of votes. Elder is a niche-audience celebrity, a rightwing talk radio host who’ll be lucky to get half the votes that Gov. Gavin Newsom gets — but, leading a badly fragmented field, he’ll still be elected if Newsom fails to get more that 50% on the question of whether he should be recalled. As Politico put it, “A motivated GOP electorate and an indifferent Democratic base could be all it takes to force Newsom out.” Third is what’s driving the recall: The 2003 recall
September 2 - 15, 2021
Point Fermin’s Lighthouse Café reopens under new ownership p. 16
Grievance, Conspiracism and the California GOP
Chasing the dream — Leo Rossi and the possibility of freedom p. 13
The Great Replacement Election
Labor Day Edition
Neighborhood councils object to proposed suspension policy p. 5
[See Trumka, p. 10]
[See Election, p. 21] 1
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September 2 - 15, 2021
Labor Day Edition
Committed to Independent Journalism in the Greater LA/LB Harbor Area
Rep. Barragán, EPA Administrator Regan Tour Harbor By Julia Falcon, Editorial Intern
Labor Day Edition September 2 - 15, 2021
WILMINGTON — Rep. Nanette Barragán in- that the EPA is engaging with environmental jusvited Environmental Protection Agency adminis- tice leaders in preparation for another $50 miltrator Michael Regan to see and hear the effects lion in funding for air quality monitoring, includthat pollution has had on Wilmington. Wilming- ing grants specifically for communities. We’re ton was one stop on a California tour for Regan. making progress. Regan said he directed all of his EPA leadHowever, this was the first time activists of the Harbor Area were able to meet the director of the ership staff to incorporate environmental justice EPA in person. While he toured the 44th District, and equity in every single thing the agency does. Whether it’s, “Our regulatory activities, our activists were able to highlight the continued decades-long environmental injustices within the permitting, our policies, our contracting and our procurement, we will continue to fight to ensure district. Before the press conference started, Barragán and Regan heard from Wilmington residents and local activists as they recounted the effects of decades long impacts of pollution on their and their families health. Ashley Hernandez, Wilmington resident and community organizer for Communities for a Better Environment, spoke about the impact of oil refineries on her community without residents even knowing it. “A lot of youth that are in these spaces that are coming here in their formative years to play and learn and to achieve greatness are stuck smelling emissions, [these industries] have no business being near [our] communities or homes.” Barragán started off sympathizing with the community residents. “…[I]t’s a terrible injustice that people living in low-income communities, communities of color are often exposed to severe pollution that our neighbors in the more wealthy affluent communities are not. This pollution Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Michael Regan, in Wilmington on Aug. 19, during a tour of the Los harms the health of these communities Angeles Harbor with Rep. Nanette Barragán and local and it’s wrong. All of us deserve equal environmental justice activists. Photo by Chris Villanueva protection from dangerous pollution that every child in the United States of America regardless of where we live.” Barragán announced she is introducing a bill can safely drink from a faucet, can inhale a full that would establish a 2,500-foot public health breath of clean fresh air, can play outdoors withbuffer around oil and gas production. She noted out risk of environmental harm and do it where that this legislation is one that her “constituents they eat, live, learn and play,” Regan said. At the end of the conference, Barragán and have been asking for.” Barragán also spoke about the $1 trillion in- Regan walked over to an oil pumping site located frastructure bill that passed the Senate recently right behind the Boys and Girls Club of Wilmand efforts to insure that it comes through the ington, before proceeding to the USS Iowa at the reconciliation process to fight back against envi- Port of Los Angeles for a private meeting with local environmental justice activists. ronmental injustices. In the closed door meeting at the battle“Regan and I are going down to the Port of Los Angeles now. The port is an economic engine for ship longtime activists presented Regan with the region, providing jobs and [fostering goods] a list of existing zero emissions vehicles and movement and trade, but it is also a major source Port— Freight Transportation — Energy Fundof air pollution and water pollution that harms the ing Sources. They also voiced support for zeroemissions vehicles and opposition to natural health of our neighbors and community.” The twin ports of LA and Long Beach are the gas, drawing attention to recent reports that the single largest source of air pollution in the South- natural gas industry had hired a consulting firm ern California region. Regan took the podium to to hire local residents to testify at public hearings address the crowd on what the EPA began to do in favor of natural gas trucks, a clear subversion and what they were hoping to do moving forward. of public comment process. This meeting as well as Regan’s tour of the He first thanked Barragán for her support and noted that the EPA had recently been allocated rest of California was geared to gather the issues $50 million under the American Rescue Plan for that he intends to address as administrator of the community environmental projects. Regan noted EPA during his term.
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September 2 - 15, 2021
Labor Day Edition
San Pedro NCs Oppose New Suspension Policy By Hunter Chase, Community News Reporter
The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, or BONC, is considering passing an amendment to its code of conduct policy which would allow the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, or DONE, to suspend neighborhood council members for up to 90 days. DONE introduced this policy, which, if passed, will allow DONE to suspend any board members or committee members based on allegations of violating the city’s workplace equity policy or the commission’s code of conduct. During this 90-day period, board members or committee members cannot act on any matter that comes before their neighborhood councils. DONE can only suspend members with the written approval of the general manager of DONE, Raquel Beltrán. DONE will be the sole decision-maker regarding the suspension, the member cannot appeal it. However, DONE needs to petition BONC to remove the member. All three San Pedro neighborhood councils passed motions strongly advising BONC to drop the proposed amendment. Melanie Labrecque, treasurer of the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council, objected to the word “alleged” being used, as it means no proof is required. Labrecque pointed out that something similar happened to Sheryl Akerblom, who was a minutes taker for several Harbor Area neighborhood councils for seven years, who also is a contractor to this newspaper. DONE fired Akerblom based on allegations from unidentified neighborhood council members, based on Beltrán’s decision. No one from DONE ever told Akerblom what she
General manager for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, Raquel Beltrán. File photo
did wrong. She is now currently on the board of Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council. Doug Epperhart, president of Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council, said that DONE, the City Attorney and the City Personnel Department were among the agencies that wrote this amendment. The motions that the three San Pedro neighborhood councils passed in opposition to the amendment all have the exact same wording. This is because they were based on a motion drafted by a group of 15 to 10 neighborhood council representatives, many of whom are part of the Los An[See Suspension, p. 26]
UTLA Board Votes to Support Vaccine Mandate By Mark Friedman, Reporter
September 2 - 15, 2021
to $200 will upend efforts to end the pandemic. Meanwhile, anti-vaxxers, antimask demonstrators in Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District on Aug. 11 disrupted a school board meeting (with none wearing masks, violating LA County health orders) that was to propose mask and vaccination mandates for the 11,000 students. Let Them Breathe falsely argues face coverings are harmful to children physically, emotionally and mentally. The group had previously organized rallies and disrupted school board meetings throughout Orange County, including in the cities of Orange and Tustin. A similar protest organized by Let Them Breathe took place at Torrance Unified two days earlier, though that board meeting continued without delay. “We do not consent to mask mandates. We do not consent to testing,” Erin DiMaggio, a Peninsula resident, told the crowd. “This is segregation. This is discrimination.” Another, Sharon Pizzulli, said “It’s physically and mentally abusive.” They claim it is a violation of their personal freedom and call it “segregation.” Scientists affirm that the Delta variant (read mutation) will continue to circulate until “herd immunity” (90% vaccination rate) is reached. The unvaccinated pool will engender further mutations that will re-infect the 70% already vaccinated.
Labor Day Edition
As the polarization in Southern California and nationally deepens against mandated masks and vaccinations for access to public venues as well as K-12 schools and colleges, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, representing the tens of thousands of teachers and school employees, voted overwhelmingly to support a vaccine mandate for all Los Angeles Unified School District employees. The current surge in COVID-19 cases underscores why UTLA members fought so hard for mask mandates, ventilation, access to vaccines, and other safety measures for our schools. Those safety measures we negotiated include a COVID-19 task force at each school, their press release reports. They also called on the district to actively encourage and facilitate greater access to vaccination for parents, eligible students and the communities it serves. The district and LA County Department of Health must work together to increase outreach, vaccination clinics and testing in communities with low vaccination rates and high transmission rates. The California state university system has mandated that all students entering the campus for in-person instruction must be vaccinated. Many companies are doing the same. Unfortunately, websites selling phony vaccination cards for up
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September 2 - 15, 2021
Labor Day Edition
The Supreme Court’s Real Target —
Community Announcements:
Farm Workers’ Organizing Rights
Harbor Area
By David Bacon, Contributor
Stimulus Checks are on the Way
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As many Californians continue to struggle financially during the pandemic, the Golden State Stimulus program will provide cash assistance to those affected. Eligible Californians earning between $30,000 to $75,000 a year can soon expect to see the $600 payments. This round of stimulus checks is an extension of the Golden State Stimulus program, announced in January, which provided one-time $600 payments to low-income Californians earning less than $30,000 a year.
Speak Out at the SCAQMD Board Meeting
During the UFW campaign to organize grape pickers for the huge VBZ grower in Delano, Calif. (circa 2007), organizer Yolanda Serna, left, talks to workers eating lunch under the vines. Photo by David Bacon.
[See Farm Workers, p. 12]
Labor of Love Food Distribution
Join the Labor Day Drive-thru food distribution. Face masks are required and COVID-19 vaccines will be available. Organized by the LA/ LB Harbor Labor Coalition Time: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Sept. 6 Venue: Banning Park, 401 E. M St. Wilmington
Homebound Vaccinations Available
People who are homebound can request a vaccinator for an in-home vaccination by contacting the Public Health Vaccine Call Center that homebound residents can also fill out a form on the Public Health website to request this service. publichealth.lacounty.gov. Details: 833-540-0473; www.lacpublichealth. com/vaccination-request-form
Veterans Crisis Line
As people witness the sad and troubling turn of events unfolding in Afghanistan, these events may affect war-era veterans in many ways — some may be feeling a range of emotions in connection to the war(s). If you would like to speak to someone, contact: Veterans Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 and Press 1 or Text: 838255 or via the web at www. veteranscrisisline.net/ Women Veterans Hotline at 855-8296636; or contact the Vet Center Call Center: 877-927-8387 If you live in Los Angeles County and need resources, contact the Veterans Peer Access Network at 1-800-854-7771 and press *3 or click here: www.dmh.lacounty. gov/veterans/ Veterans may contact a Military & Veterans Affairs Veteran service officer directly by calling 877-4LA-VETS, 213-765-9680 or 213-765-9681 or via e-mail at outreach@ mva.lacounty.gov
Rental Relief For Angelenos
Beginning at 7 a.m. Sept. 1, Los Angeles residents can begin applying for rental assistance through California’s ‘Housing is Key’ program. When the application period opens this week, City of Los Angeles renters and landlords will be able to apply online or call if they need help filling out an application. Renters who have already applied to the City’s program will be provided with detailed instructions on next steps. Details: 833-687-0967; www.housing.ca.gov and hcidla.lacity.org.
September 2 - 15, 2021
and can actually change things. That’s really why growers hate the rule — because it’s a limitation on their power. According to Medina, “It gives people confidence that change is possible.” Growers hated the rule because it made organizing easier, and called it a “taking.” In an important way it is. Unspoken in the Supreme Court decision is that the real damage growers suffer is that farmworker wages will go up if organizing is successful. If the access rule helps them, it will cost the growers money. That’s not a respectable argument, though, even for rightwing lawyers and justices. Instead, Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Wen Fa claimed (and the Supreme Court agreed) that access damages growers’ property rights. Property rights trump the right of workers to organize. The majority opinion asserts, “No traditional background principle of property law requires the growers to admit union organizers onto their premises.” However, William Gould III, former chair of both the National Labor Relations Board and the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, says the access rule creates “a kind of public forum where everyone is congregated [that] is vital to union organizing efforts and our public policy which supports them.” He warns that the impact of the court’s decision will not be confined to farmworker organizing. “One of the Court’s casualties,” Gould charges, “may well be the constitutionality of legislation [the PRO Act] passed by the House in Washington, pending before the Senate, which would give expanded access to reply to employer captive audience speeches filled with anti-union propaganda on company time and property.” While the PRO Act’s passage is far from certain, the sights of growers and the Pacific Legal Foundation are also trained on a target closer to home. The Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, another rightwing legal think tank that filed an amicus brief in the Cedar Point case, has been trying to knock out another key provision of California’s farm labor law: mandatory me-
hard — and sometimes impossible — for people to meet with union organizers at home. According to the Handbook of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which administers California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act, “The access regulations … are meant to ensure that farm workers, who often may be contacted only at their workplace, have an opportunity to be informed with minimal interruption of working activities.” Organizing a union is a collective process. Workers need to talk with each other about it. When the Pacific Legal Foundation argued the Cedar Point case in 2017 before the Ninth District of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and lost, its attorney Wen Fa asserted, “All the workers live in houses or hotels. Many have cell phones.” Even if this were true, forming or joining a union at work is not like buying insurance. It is something people do together. For the tens of thousands of H-2A guest workers brought to California by growers every year, home visits are often forbidden in their company housing. “H-2A workers are even more impacted by losing the access rule,” Medina charges. “They don’t have the legal right to organize and they’re living in housing under the growers’ 24-hour control.” But the most important thing about the access rule is that it demonstrates that the grower doesn’t have absolute power at work. As an organizer for the UFW in the 1970s, and now as a journalist, I’ve seen what normally happens in the fields when workers start to organize. The crew foreman usually begins talking all day about how terrible the union is. He makes threats: If people join the union they’re going to be fired or the company is going to move its crop production elsewhere. Supervisors buzz around the field in their pickup trucks, watching everyone and making sure the workers know they’re being watched. Very often the company hires union busters. They talk to workers, while they’re working, as long as workers are in that field. When union organizers come into the field at lunchtime, it shows that the union has power too,
Two years ago, ignoring staff warnings, the South Coast Air Quality Management District Board, said it was okay with massive quantities of hydrogen fluoride or HF, a short distance from where over a million people live, work and play. Residents of the South Bay, Los Angeles and Long Beach regions live with danger and under a cloud of fear. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are vastly safer, commercially available alternatives to HF. Join the Zoom Meeting from PC, laptop or phone at www.scaqmd.zoom.us/j/93128605044 Meeting ID: 931 2860 5044 (applies to all) Teleconference Dial In +1 669 900 6833 or +1 253 215 8782 Time: 9 a.m. Sept. 3 Details: Link for speaking, www.aqmd.gov/home/ news-events/calendar/speaking
Labor Day Edition
ost of the media coverage of the recent Supreme Court decision about the farmworker access rule took for granted the way growers, and the court, defined this regulation. Jess Bravin in the Wall Street Journal called it “a regulation giving union organizers the right to visit farmworkers.” The first line of the rightwing majority’s opinion called it “A California regulation [which] grants labor organizations a ‘right to take access’ to an agricultural employer’s property.” The court, and the growers, deliberately confuse the mechanism of the rule with rights, calling it a right of organizers or organizations. It is not. The right the rule implements is simple. When workers are protesting and organizing a union in the fields, they have a right to talk to union representatives at work. It’s a right of workers, rather than a right of union representatives. Rolling back this right, and the ability of farmworkers to organize against their endemic poverty, is the main target of the Supreme Court’s attack. At Cedar Point Nursery, the grower that filed the case heard by the court, the stakes were clear. Cedar Point is a nursery growing rootstock for commercial strawberry growers in Dorris, a remote town in northern California near the Oregon border. Hundreds of workers migrate here from their homes in central and southern California every year to harvest, trim and pack the plants. In 2015 Cedar Point laborers walked out to protest conditions that included, according to worker Jessica Rodriguez, low wages, dirty bathrooms and harassment from supervisors. They called the United Farm Workers, which sent organizers and implemented the access rule to talk with them on the property. The strike lasted for just a day, and after the strikers returned to their jobs, the organizing effort fizzled out. No election was ever held to begin the process of trying to get a contract. What happened at Cedar Point is not unusual. The following spring in McFarland, in the densely farmed San Joaquin Valley, hundreds of workers struck the blueberry fields of Gourmet Trading over similar issues. Support for the organizing was overwhelming. They called the UFW after they’d struck. Once they returned to work the union filed for access, and workers held meetings after work at the ranch. They voted for the union a few days later, and today they work under a union contract. In 1996, during a huge campaign to organize the strawberry industry in Watsonville, UFW organizers visited picking crews in dozens of fields. They taped butcher paper on the walls of the port-a-potties during lunchtime meetings. Strawberry workers wrote down their demands for raising some of the lowest wages in agriculture, and planned marches to the company offices to announce them. In all these cases the access rule provided a way for workers to understand the organizing process and get help with it. Farmworkers need this because of the nature of the work. They are often migrants, working in a harvest in one area of California although they live in another. Cedar Point’s workers lived hundreds of miles from Dorris, and during the work season slept in motel rooms and temporary housing. At Gourmet Trading some pickers traveled an hour or more to get to the field every day. Those distances make it
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Democracy — What Matters Most is Who Shows Up
It couldn’t be much easier to vote NO on the recall retread election By James Preston Allen, Publisher
September 2 - 15, 2021
Labor Day Edition
California is not Florida, Texas, Georgia or Wisconsin where the Republican-majority legislatures are attempting to change the voting laws to suppress the votes of their opposition. Here, we probably have more voters than all those states combined — some 22,078,290 registered as of July 2021 and most of those 46.5% are Democrats. Yet, the minority Republican Party with just 24.1% — in third place behind No Party Preference — is forcing a recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom who was elected a few years ago with 61.9% He could be removed with just 50% plus one vote and replaced by any one of a passel of 46 candidates who gets a plurality (not even a majority) of votes. Call this wacky, but that is how Arnold Schwarzenegger, a bodybuilder and actor, became governor. It’s not time for a retread of our past mistakes. This is clearly an attempt by Republican functionaries of the “Stop the Steal” ilk to actually steal the governorship of California! This minority uprising is led by anti-vaxxers and COVID-19 deniers and MAGA insurgents over mask mandates, school opening regulations or forest fires (as if Newsom actually has control over the climate). This is just one more attempt to distract the public and the governor from doing what’s necessary in dealing with a trifecta of crises. The recall campaign is also backed by a slew of billionaires and large donors on both sides. One of those wealthy donors is John Krueger who came forward as the one behind the LLC, Proverbs 3:9 (a Biblical reference pointing to the line “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops”) that poured $500,000 into the recall campaign for Newsom’s removal. Krueger’s reason: he opposed Newsom’s strong anti-COVID-19 efforts, specifically the governor’s restrictions on indoor events that limited religious gatherings. As of the last reporting period, both sides had raised $65 million, but nearly 90% of that — $58 million — has flowed to groups supporting Newsom — leaving him with a significant advantage. Since Newsom is not technically a candidate, his backers are not constrained by spending limits. Limits only apply to those running for office (Newsom is already in office). The pro-recall effort has
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raised just $7.7 million. Still, this election is all about who shows up to vote regardless of how much money any one side raises and the fear (or aspiration) is that many people just won’t bother to send in their ballots. But wait! Wasn’t the mail-in ballot once the preference of Republicans? Not since Trump lost to Biden last year. The every-one-gets-a-ballot now seems to be a key democratic strategy for participatory governance. Perhaps the City of Los Angeles should try this next time. Even as recently as 2009 and 2014 off-year municipal elections and in some special elections turnout of eligible voters has been as low at 17.0% to 30.94%. Which means that less than a third and at times less than a fifth of the electorate has voted for a candidate that really doesn’t have a majority. This scenario has especially been true in Los Angeles’ 15th Council District where Joe Buscaino, who is now running for mayor, won reelection with just 12,497 votes last time. Even more troubling is the sad state of the Los Angeles’ 99 neighborhood councils that as recently as this year elected their members, many with less than 100 total votes cast. This dismal turnout is due to the ineptitude of the Los Angeles City Clerk’s office and the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (the last of these being an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard of one). These neighborhood councils are supposed to be the foundational learning ground for how democracy works and yet they are treated so poorly by the city that it makes one want to tear up the city charter and start all over again. Councilmembers like Buscaino have consistently undermined their influence and ignored their advice. One of the lessons we should glean from all of this is that democracy is messy, but it beats fascism. So, here we are again with a historical repeat of the Gray Davis recall scenario and an insurgency not unlike the Trump inspired attack on January 6 on the US Capital. Only this time it’s not being done with Confederate flags and bear mace. It’s being done by an idiot with a real bear, an Uncle Tom radio personality and a group of lesser Republicans who couldn’t find their way out of a holy roller camp meeting. And this is all inspired because of what: COVID masks? Vaccinations? And really the only thing you got is Gov. Newsom going to dinner
“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. 18
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.
during the quarantine at a high-end French restaurant in Napa, really? These are the causes for removal? Hardly! Just vote NO and let’s move on to curing this virus or is it two viruses? The other one being the
stupidity that seems to spread like the wild fires in the Sierras, sparked by fake news, pugnacious ranting by rightwing talking heads and conservative media outlets that invent more news than they report on facts.
Biden’s Revenge:
Fueling ‘Madness of Militarism’ in Afghanistan By Norman Solomon, Contributor
Joe Biden provided a stirring soundbite days ago when he spoke from the White House just after suicide bombers killed 13 U.S. troops and 170 Afghans at a Kabul airport: “To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.” But the president’s pledge was a prelude to yet another episode of what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the madness of militarism.” The U.S. quickly followed up on Biden’s vow with a drone strike in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province that the Pentagon said killed two “highprofile” ISIS-K targets. Speaking to the media with standard reassurance, an Army general used artful wording to declare: “We know of zero civilian casualties.” But news reports told of some civilian deaths. And worse was soon to come. On Sunday, another American drone attack — this time near the Kabul airport — led to reliable reports that the dead included children. The Washington Post reported on Monday that fam-
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ily members said the U.S. drone strike “killed 10 civilians in Kabul, including several small children.” According to a neighbor who saw the attack, the newspaper added, “the dead were all from a single extended family who were exiting a car in their modest driveway when the strike hit a nearby vehicle.” Words that Biden used last Thursday night, vowing revenge, might occur to surviving Afghan relatives and their sympathizers: “We will not forgive. We will not forget.” And maybe even, “We will hunt you down and make you pay.” Revenge cycles have no end, and they’ve continued to power endless U.S. warfare— as a kind of perpetual emotion machine — in the name of opposing terrorism. It’s a pattern that has played out countless times in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere for two decades. And it should not be a mystery that U.S. warfare has created still more “enemy” combatants. But neither the U.S. mass media nor official Washington has much interest in the kind of ra[See Revenge, p. 9]
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RANDOMLetters
Labor Tributes in Memory of Richard Trumka ILWU Statement on the Passing of Richard Trumka
The entire ILWU family mourns the loss of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka who passed away unexpectedly last night. Our condolences go out to Mr. Trumka’s family and all our siblings in the labor movement. “Richard Trumka’s workingclass values and commitment to organized labor were forged in the mines of Pennsylvania. He was a labor warrior with an unwavering commitment to uplifting all workers, improving workplace safety,and fighting to ensure that workers have a voice on the job,” said ILWU International President Willie Adams. “We will honor his legacy by continuing to organize the unorganized,and fight to win passage of the PRO Act and President Biden’s infrastructure package. Rest in power, Rich.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Statement on the Passing of Richard Trumka
Revenge
UCLA Labor Center Director Remembers Richard Trumka
I had the privilege of working with Richard Trumka for more than 25 years. He was the legendary leader of the United Mine Workers of America, and led powerful strikes building black and white unity among miners. In 1995, he became Secretary Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, and served as President beginning in 2009. When I served as the national president of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFLCIO, Rich Trumka was an important friend and ally who understood the link between worker justice and racial justice. He was always on the front lines of struggle, and his powerful oratory skills inspired workers to take action. Richard supported organizing campaigns across the country, and led the labor movement in the momentous 2020 elections to elect President Joe Biden and a democratic majority in the Senate. Rich Trumka dedicated his life to advance the interests of working men and women throughout the country, and his legacy will live on. Kent Wong Director, UCLA Labor Center
IBEW Mourns Passing of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
IBEW International President Lonnie R. Stephenson issued the following statement regarding the death of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: “The men and women of the IBEW join the entire American labor community in mourning the sudden death of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “Rich was a lion of the labor movement who rose from humble roots in the Pennsylvania coal
[Revenge, from p. 8]
Festival of Sail Postponed
We all continue to face the challenges of COVID-19 together and we all have to continue to plan and re-plan as we move through these challenges together. Last week we got word that the prudent decision had been taken to postpone the 2021 LA Fleet Week at the Port of Los Angeles until next Memorial Day, 2022. We agree with the folks who had the difficult job of making this decision. The large level of community spread of COVID-19 is just too high and is showing no signs of abating before the event was scheduled to start. The Festival of Sail Presented by LAMI during LA Fleet Week will also be postponed until Memorial Day, 2022. Further, we express our sincere thank you to the Port of Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles, U.S. Navy, their planning partners, supporters and most importantly the
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and the author of many books including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. He is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.
When talking about Afghanistan today, we need to always remember, and reiterate, that the Taliban (whom we were arming and dealing with until weeks before 9/11), after 9/11 made many public statements that they were willing to turn over Osama bin Laden if the U.S. provided evidence, not proof but evidence, that he was involved in the attacks of 9/11. We opted for war instead. Twenty years of war, fame and spotlight for U.S. war leaders, wealth for America’s many war manufacturers and the solidification of their presence in our economy, the building and control
Life-long Democrat
I’m a life-long Democrat. I was of legal age to cast my first vote for JFK in 1960. But today, I’m holding off casting my “No” vote on the recall ballot. Why? I’m waiting for the Democratic establishment to shed its hubris and provide a “Plan B” for those of us who want to hedge our bets by adding a credible Democrat as the “write-In” candidate on the recall ballot question 2. May I suggest our Lt. Governor Elena Kounilakis? After all, she already is the duly elected official next in line to succeed Newsom as governor should he die, become disabled, or otherwise unable to complete his term of office. It’s not yet too late to launch the multi-million $$ marketing campaign that will be necessary to bring this bright, capable, lady to the attention of enough Demo[See Letters, p. 21]
September 2 - 15, 2021
orders and appropriate the funds. Amid his administration’s botch of planning for the pullout, corporate media have been denouncing Biden for his wise decision to finally withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan. No doubt Biden hopes to mollify the laptop warriors of the Washington press corps with drone strikes and other displays of air power. But the last 20 years have shown that you can’t stop on-the-ground terrorism by terrorizing people from the air. Sooner or later, what goes around comes around.
Afghanistan and Endless War, An Alternative
Codepink’s online 20th anniversary 9/11 event, “Never Forget: 20 Years of the U.S. War on Terror.” Details of each can be found at codepink.org We offer these resources and actions in Good Faith, (a good ol’ Union bargaining phrase, no?), in the hope that Americans believein themselves-that we are so much better than this. Check it out. What does one have to lose except perhaps, one’s prejudice against peace? Rachel Bruhnke Codepink, San Pedro
tional caveat that retired U.S. Army Gen. William Odom offered during a C-SPAN interview way back in 2002: “Terrorism is not an enemy. It cannot be defeated. It’s a tactic. It’s about as sensible to say we declare war on night attacks and expect we’re going to win that war. We’re not going to win the war on terrorism.” By any other name, the “war on terror” became — for the White House, Pentagon and Congress — a political license to kill and displace people on a large scale in at least eight countries, rarely seen, much less understood. Whatever the intent, the resulting carnage has often included many civilians. The names and faces of the dead and injured very rarely reach those who sign the
mines to lead the greatest organization of working men and women in the world. “Despite rubbing elbows with presidents and world leaders over the 26 years he served as an elected officer of the AFL-CIO, he never lost sight of the coal miners and working people he grew up with and worked alongside. “As the youngest president of the United Mine Workers of America at just 33, he began a career of standing up for the overlooked and lifting up the men and women who built America’s middle class. “At the AFL-CIO, first as secretary-treasurer and then as president since 2009, Rich was a powerful voice on the national stage for the 12.5 million working men and women and the 56 constituent unions he represented. “You could always count on Rich Trumka to be there when things got tough. His was a voice that spoke truth to power, both in government and in the corporate world. He demanded dignity for workers and held accountable those more concerned with profits than people. “Rich was a friend to me and to the 775,000 active and retired members of the IBEW. He’ll be dearly missed.”
of oil and gas pipelines in Central Asia, and a military foothold just that much closer to, as Kissinger called it in the 1970’s, “the soft underbelly” of the Soviet Union, that is of course now, with many “...ztands”conveniently broken off from it, just Russia. A country surrounded on almost all sides by U.S. and “NATO” military bases. But I guess they are the aggressors. I’m still trying to figure that one out... I would encourage your readers to visit the websites of Veterans For Peace and Codepink (you will be led to many more useful sites) for a plethora of current information and analysis on Afghanistan. Additionally, Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! have recent incredible interviews, as does Michael Moore with Medea Benjamin. Many, many U.S. veterans are speaking out, right now, about the last 20 years of war. In the traumatic wake of 9/11 20 years ago, many, many Americans knew that war was not the answer. Millions around the world eventually took to the streets to prevent war. They were right then, and they are correct in their prescriptions for today. Listen to them for once. The Planet can’t handle the climatic changing effects of war and militarism, and humanity can’t handle the endless murder of each other. Two other efforts I would steer your readers to would of course be the events of our 6th annual L.A. Harbor Peace Week, as well as
Labor Day Edition
“The Congress and country are shocked and heartbroken by the passing of an unsurpassed titan of labor: Richard Trumka. Personally and officially, I am greatly saddened by his passing, which is a great loss for the men and women of labor, and indeed, for all hardworking Americans. “Richard Trumka dedicated his life to the labor movement and the right to organize, from his work as an attorney for the United Mine Workers of America to his decades-long leadership of the AFL-CIO. Richard’s leadership transcended a single movement, as he fought with principle and persistence to defend the dignity of every person — whether speaking out against apartheid and discrimination abroad or fighting bigotry and racism here at home. His courage in speaking truth to power made a difference for millions and made him a cherished ally in our mission to advance the health, financial security and well-being of working families. “Richard Trumka’s life was a testament to the power of organiz-
ing and mobilizing for progress, and his leadership leaves a legacy of inspired advocacy for workers. May it be a comfort to his wife Barbara, their loved ones and the millions of men and women of AFL-CIO that so many mourn their loss and are praying for them at this sad time.” Rep. Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
LA Fleet Week Foundation. It took a ton of teamwork over the last few months to get us to the point where we would be able to have the event. I would personally like to thank our team of hardworking volunteers, staff, and the numerous partnering organizations that worked so hard to prepare us for this year’s Festival of Sail Presented by LAMI. With the planning mostly completed and now just delayed, I hope you will join us on Memorial Day 2022 for the best LA Fleet Week and Festival of Sail Presented by LAMI! Bruce Heyman Executive Director of LAMI, San Pedro
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‘Because he’s Black.’ I said, ‘Look around this town. Nemacolin’s a dying town. There’s no jobs here. Our kids are moving away because there’s no future here. And here’s a man, Barack Obama, who’s going to fight for us and you’re telling me you’re not going to vote for him because of the color of his skin?’” A pause before the punch. “‘Are you out of your ever-loving mind, lady?’”
[Trumka, from p. 1]
Richard Trumka’s Legacy
September 2 - 15, 2021
Labor Day Edition
miners,” he recalls. “I thought maybe I should become a politician but he said no — be a lawyer.” After graduating from Pennsylvania State with a degree in accounting and going to law school at Villanova University School of Law, Trumka joined the United Mine Workers’ legal staff in 1974. When Lewis left the UMW’s presidency in 1960, the union was led by ineffectual at best, criminal at worst, leadership (think William Anthony Boyle, who was convicted in 1974 of conspiracy in the murder of opponent Joseph A. Yablonski, his wife and daughter), Trumka who participated in contract negotiations in 1974, was angered by the ineptitude he witnessed. He left the legal department to work as a coal miner to gain the five years mining experience to run for union office and build a political organization. Trumka drew to himself a new generation of UMW leaders, many of whom had college educations but were working in the mines, as they paid well. Joe Corcoran was one of those. For decades, particularly under Lewis’ reign, the UMW was considered the biggest and most militant
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labor union, able to throw its weight around in Democratic politics. Trumka returned that reputation with his elevation to the presidency and leading the anti-aparthied fight in the mid 1980s. He made broadside attacks on Shell oil, which was a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell group. The company owned many of the South African mines which used indentured and enslaved labor force under the apartheid system. At the same time he achieved the best contract that the miners had in 20 years. When Trumka led a successful nine-month strike against the Pittston Coal Company in 1989, the union and the strike became a symbol of resistance against employer cutbacks and retrenchment for the entire labor movement. Pittston’s refusal to pay into the industry-wide health and retirement fund created in 1950 was in line with what was happening across industries and Fortune 500 companies at the time. Trumka became the secretary general of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, and eventually succeeded John Sweeney as its president. Trumka promised to lead a more
Unfinished business
Circa 1995, Richard Trumka, left. speaking with Teamster General President Ron Carey. Photo by Slobodan Dimitrov
aggressive advocacy of the working class. A profile, written by Washington Post staff writer Alec MacGillis, offered a useful metaphor to describe Trumka, as well as the characteristics needed by modern day labor leaders to succeed. Borrowing football terminology while referencing Trumka’s football playing days in high school: Truthfully, if there is a useful metaphor in Trumka’s gridiron days, it is
more nuanced than the evocation of brute force he might prefer. The monster man is defined by versatility, being able to stop the big fullback in the middle or pick up speedy receivers on the flank. Likewise, Rich Trumka is a mix of inside and outside man. He is a bulldog who, with his burly build and thick shoe-brush mustache, looks every bit the third-generation coal miner he is, one who led one of the few successful high-stakes strikes of the past half-century. But he is also a veteran Washington lawyer who consults with academics and keeps a well-thumbed copy of anti-globalization polemicist Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine close by. Labor journalists would comment on Trumka’s duality — the old school union hall leader/grassroots organizer and the Washington, D.C. lawyer with left leaning politics. It was because of Trumka’s caliber of leadership, that big labor got Barack Obama into the White House — an achievement punctuated by a YouTube moment in which Trumka took the podium of a large Las Vegas convention hall and told steelworkers not to allow bigotry to be the enemy of what was best for labor and the working class: There is not a single good reason for any worker, especially a union member, to vote against Barack Obama. There’s only one really bad reason to vote against Barack Obama. And that’s because he’s not white. Trumka then related an encounter he’d had during the primaries with a woman in his home town of Nemacolin, a Democratic loyalist who said she was voting for Hillary Clinton because there was “no way that I’d ever vote for Obama: “I said, ‘Why’s that?’ “ he told the steelworkers. “And she said, ‘Well, he’s Muslim,’ and I said, ‘Actually he’s Christian just like you and I, but so what if he’s Muslim?’ Then she shook her head and said, ‘Well, he won’t wear that American flag pin on his lapel.’ I looked at my lapel and said, ‘I don’t have one and, by the way, you don’t have one on either.’ …‘Well, I don’t trust him.’ I said, ‘Why’s that?’ She dropped her voice a bit and said,
In the same speech, he articulated the vision of a labor movement “that stands by our friends, punishes its enemies and challenges those who, well, can’t seem to decide which side they’re on.” He was indeed talking about the politicians who want to turn out the big labor vote, “but who somehow always seem to forget workers after the votes are counted.” Indeed, the Obama years were a disappointment, particularly on the game changing Employee Free Choice Act, which would have made it easier for workers to unionize and get a first contract. Or even the health insurance “public option,” a government insurance offering that would compete with private insurers in new governmentbrokered insurance exchanges. Obama advocated for it as a candidate but got amnesia in his fight for Obamacare. Labor’s disappointment shouldn’t have been a surprise as Democrats lost in 2014 and 2016, forcing the party to return contrite and with a suite of policy initiatives focused on labor and the working class in 2017. The biggest of those policy initiatives was the Employee Free Choice Act, version 2.0, now called the PRO Act. There are a couple hundred labor related bills stalled in Congress. One has been signed into law, Senate Joint Resolution 13, which rescinds an earlier rule change by the Republican dominated Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which would have required the commission to provide information to employers upon initiating the settlement, or “conciliation,” process, including a summary of the facts of a case, the identities of witnesses and alleged victims, and the legal basis for a finding that discrimination has occurred. The PRO Act is considered to have a low chance of getting to President Joe Biden’s desk due to a closely divided Senate. To use another football terminology: Trumka and his generation has gotten the ball close to the red zone. The next generation of bold and aggressive labor leaders have to get the ball into the end zone. Richard Louis Trumka (July 24, 1949-Aug. 5, 2021) was an American attorney and organized labor leader. He served as president of the United Mine Workers from 1982 to 1995, and then was secretary-general of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009. He was elected president of the AFL–CIO on Sept. 16, 2009, at the federation’s convention in Pittsburgh, and served in that position until his death.
Los Angeles Port Pilots Association, ILWU Local 68
Happy Labor Day!
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Labor Day Edition September 2 - 15, 2021
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[Farm Workers, from p. 7]
Farm Workers
September 2 - 15, 2021
Labor Day Edition
diation. Under this procedure, when workers vote for a union and the grower won’t agree to a contract, the ALRB (California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Board) can appoint a mediator to craft a settlement. That can then be adopted by the board and imposed on the grower as a first contract. The Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence supported a challenge to mandatory mediation by Gerawan Farming, Inc. In 2017 the California Supreme Court ruled against Gerawan, and held the process constitutional. It would not be unlikely to see growers take a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking a decision upholding property rights. Ultimately, the Agricultural Labor Relations Act itself could either be taken off the books, or, as it was in the 1980s, rendered so weak as to be virtually useless to farmworkers and farmworker unions. In 1975, when California passed the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the UFW had a big impact on the wages and working conditions of California farmworkers. At that time the base wage in a union contract was about two and a half times the minimum wage. At the end of the ’70s the union had 40,000 members paying dues at any given time. During those years, when I was an organizer for the union, we’d won elections to represent about 160,000 workers. That’s not the case today. In her defense of the access rule, ALRB attorney Victoria Shahid argued that it was not used often enough to impose a real burden on growers. In 2015, she noted, the UFW only used the access rule on 62 of California’s 16,000 farms. The decline in the union’s strength has had a direct impact on the living standards of farm-
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workers. Today their wages hover around the minimum wage. Each year growers bring a mushrooming number of H-2A guest workers into the state’s fields. “Even undocumented workers have more rights than H-2A workers,” Medina charges. In this context, eroding the right of farmworkers to organize will have immediate consequences. For the UFW and other unions trying to rebuild their strength in the fields, access has been a very important tool. On the ALRB’s current agenda is an access request filed by the Teamsters Union to go onto the property of a cannabis grower. Workers in the industry today are organizing rapidly, and unions use access to go into the greenhouses to talk with them. Losing the access rule is not going to stop farmworkers from organizing in California and elsewhere — or stop unions from helping them. That is the key to raising their wages and fighting this country’s epidemic of rural poverty. Farmworkers were not helped, however, by the relative silence of the labor movement in the face of this attack on their rights. And because other workers need these same rights desperately — to access and mandatory mediation — the labor movement’s silence hurts their efforts as well. The Supreme Court may have made a predictable decision in the Cedar Point case. But a much more vocal and militant response can and should push hard to force its rightwing majority to retreat. Start with the question the court so artfully dodged — when growers enforce poverty for the country’s 2.5 million farmworkers, who is “taking” from whom? Editor’s note — This article originally appeared in The Nation magazine, 7/2/21
Chasing the Dream
Leo Rossi and the Possibility of Freedom By Melina Paris, Assistant Editor
S
an Pedro native Leo Rossi is on a mission to help people. He spent his early life touring as a road crew member with the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan and many other iconic bands of the classic rock era. He moved up through the ranks and when Fleetwood Mac was at its height and needed its own crew, Rossi stepped up, becoming tour director. For himself and his crew, Rossi said this work became about what they could do to make the bands reach their next pinnacle and help them go higher. “Put them in the right hotels ... in the right situation where they could be creative. Not work them too hard where mentally when there’s a day off they can’t function. It was never about greed or money, or getting over on somebody,” he said. “It was about honing your craft to make a difference in a changing world.” Molded from the highs of these experiences over two decades with people who became his second family, and then coming through his own loss, Rossi says he has learned a thing or two.
A Young Knight’s Start
September 2 - 15, 2021
[See Rossi, p. 18]
Rossi’s tale started at San Pedro High School. His stage production class took a field trip to the Long Beach Convention Center. Curious, Rossi snuck backstage, was caught and as punishment had to work a couple weeks as a stagehand. His efforts were rewarded with a job and he never looked back. “It was all circumstance, destiny and fate,” Rossi said. “When those things hit me I went with it because it felt good. For years I took my past for granted. It wasn’t entitlement, conceitedness, or arrogance. It was because it was the only life I really knew.” As Rossi matured, he realized just how amazing his past was. He had always written his memoirs with the idea of someday writing a book. But he just hung on to the writings. During this time, after his tour life ended, Rossi started a business. He leased casino cruise ships that were going to sail out of Long Beach for two to three-day cruises with
Leo Rossi present day. Above, Rossi, circa 1975, at the Long Beach auditorium. Photos courtesy of Leo Rossi
Labor Day Edition
He said primarily, he relearned the possibility of freedom, during his talk last month at The Artistry Lounge and Gallery in San Pedro. Rossi’s aim is to help people through his presentations, which he said are more like one act non-fiction plays. His Knights of Rock interactive shows include multimedia with original, rare photos of his tours, including videos and music and concludes with a Q&A session. Either on his own or sometimes with the group of men he toured with, Rossi narrates his experiences and the lessons he learned while working on the road with these huge bands and their crews. It’s no small feat moving a tour — a literal city, Rossi said — on the road from town to town across the country. In Rossi’s estimation, he became known as the go-to-guy to fix things — a problem solver. He said he did this while watching the magic these groups brought to stages nightly, in front of thousands, knowing everything worked because everyone worked together as a family. Rossi noted that it’s no secret that humanity needs unity. His solution: Teach through hope and not through fear. He posited that many people have become so numb that they can’t feel pain. Rossi spoke to RLn about 20K Watts and how he began giving his presentations, which are based on his 2019 book, Knights of Rock. It’s a life story about growing up in San Pedro, “literally tripping into the world of music.” All the donations Rossi receives from his presentations go to his deceased son Ryan’s charity, 20K Watts, which owns the book. Rossi doesn’t believe in charging, saying it’s like music, his talks are made to be heard. Ryan was the eldest of five children. His mission, which his father promised he would carry on, was to help children in extreme poverty and orphans. Ryan, who was a songwriter, died of cancer in 2011 at 27 years old.
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MUSIC Sept. 2
mike watt + the secondmen San Pedro is having a night of music Sept. 2 in conjuction with the First Thursday Artwalk featuring the perfect musician to set the night off right: mike watt + the secondmen will perform live at 8 p.m. on the corner of 6th and Mesa streets after Dave Widow & the Line Up performing at 7 p.m. Time: 7 p.m. Sept. 2 Cost: Free Venue: Corner of 6th and Mesa streets, San Pedro
Sept. 3
Cornet Chop Suey Named after a somewhat obscure Louis Armstrong composition, Cornet Chop Suey is best known for a variety of styles while applying its own exciting style to traditional jazz, swing, blues and “big production” numbers. Time: 4:30 p.m. Sept. 3 Cost: $107 (Adult) — includes a boxed dinner and dessert with the show. Details: www.palosverdesperformingarts.com; 310-544-0403 x221 Venue: Norris Theatre, 27570 Norris Center Drive, Rolling Hills Estates
Sept. 4
Jon Snodgrass & His Buddies Enjoy a live music show, 21 and over. Time: 8 to 11 p.m. Sept. 4 Cost: $15 Details: www.recessops.com/ collections/tickets Venue: The Sardine, 1101 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro
September 2 - 15, 2021
Labor Day Edition
Sept. 8
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Central Avenue Jazz Festival The 26th Annual Central Avenue Jazz Festival is back virtually. Tune in on three consecutive nights to celebrate West coast jazz with some of LA’s finest musicians. Performances include the Dean Family Sept. 8; the Central Avenue Experience Sept. 9 and Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band Sept. 10. Time: 7 p.m. nightly from Sept. 8 to 10 Cost: Free Details: Streaming here: www.linktr.ee/centralave jazzfest Venue: Online
Sept. 10
Fist Fight On Ecstacy Dr. Know Hiding Inside Live music at The Sardine, 21 and over. Time: 8 to 11 p.m. Sept. 10 Cost: $12 Details: www.recessops.com/ collections/tickets Venue: The Sardine, 1101 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro Raymond Lee Parker Pianist Raymond Lee Parker, who has toured nationally, will play jazz and blues. Time: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 10 Cost: $10 Details: www.collageartculture.com Venue: Collage, 731 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro Beach Life Festival A one-of-a-kind boutique music festival located on the shores of Redondo Beach will feature performances by Jane’s Addiction, Counting Crows, Ziggy and Stephen
Marley performing their father’s songs and Cage The Elephant. Time: Sept. 10 to 12 Cost: $125 Details: www.beachlifefestival. com Location: 137 N. Harbor Drive, Redondo Beach
Sept. 11
Long Beach Camerata Singers, 9/11 Remembered Join in to honor and remember those who were lost on Sept. 11, 2001 with an evening of music and unity. The 12-voice ensemble will present works by American composers, beginning with music that memorializes our shared experience, and ending with pieces that offer words of hope and unity for the future. Time: 5:30 p.m. Sept. 11 Cost: Free Details: www.longbeachcameratasingers.org/events Venue: Marine Stadium Park, address
Sept. 16
John Papadakis Come September, give it to the Greek. Enjoy a night out at the Catalina jazz club where vocalist John Papdakis will be joined by the Lou Forestieri Quartet. Time: 7:30 p.m. doors open, show at 8 p.m. Sept. 16 Cost: $35 Details: 323-466-2210; www.catalinajazzclub.com Venue: Catalina Jazz Club, 6725 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood JP McDermott & Western Bop With a repertoire of rockabilly, ballads and drinking songs, McDermott and his band play a fun, fresh mix of songs by Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Roy Orbison, as well as a bunch of fine original tunes in the same vein. Time: 7 to 8 p.m. Sept. 16 Cost: Free, $5 donation suggested Details: https://tinyurl.com/eldorado-summer-concerts Venue: El Dorado Nature Center, 7550 E. Spring St,. Long Beach
Sept. 17
Andy & Renee & Hard Rain Southbay favorite folk-rockers play their exquisite cover album Back to Georgia, featuring an colorful array of classic Americana, including Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues and Emmylou Harris’ Till I Take Control Again. Time: 8 p.m. Sept. 17 Cost: TBA Details: www.grandvision.org/ grand-annex/events.asp Venue: Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro
Sept. 18
Cubensis Acclaimed Grateful Dead revivalists, the band remains loyal to the original music and fans. Time: 8 p.m. Sept. 18 Cost: $23 and up Details: grandvision.secure.force. com/cubensis Venue: Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro Aloke Dasgupta Dasgupta, master musician from India, who has toured internationally, will play with a tabala drummer. Time: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 18 Cost: $20 Details: www.collageartculture. com Venue: Collage, 731 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro
Sept. 23
Sarah Lee Guthrie Sarah Lee sings originals plus
the iconic songs made famous by her father, Arlo, her grandfather, Woody and their comrades in music. Ticket holders can join her pre-show sing-along, What Woody & Pete Had to Say. 5 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. Sing-along space is limited to 30. Time: 8 p.m. Sept. 23 Cost: $28 and up Details: grandvision.secure.force. com/sarah-lee-guthrie Venue: Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro
Sept. 24
Top of The World: A Tribute To The Carpenters The Carpenters, the popular brother/sister duo of the ’70s and early ’80s created some of the most unforgettable ballads and melodic pop songs. This eightpiece band brings the most authentic versions of the Carpenters’ music to the stage like: Close To You, We’ve Only Just Begun and Rainy Days and Mondays. Time: 8 p.m. Sept. 24 Cost: $90 and up Details: www.app.arts-people. com/carpenters-tribute Venue: Norris Theatre, 27570 Norris Center Drive, Rolling Hills Estates
Sept. 25
Tongva Storyteller Tina Calderon and Jessica Gudiel Calderon is a culture bearer who tells ancient stories and Gudiel uses Indonesian shadow puppetry. They will discuss their collaboration. Time: 2 p.m. Sept. 25 Cost: $10 Details: www.collageartculture. com Venue: Collage, 731 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro Italian Heart Strings Singer and dancer Michelle Jaeger Jones presents an uplifting night of iconic Italian music and dance. Jones is joined by worldrenowned tenor Aaron Blake and singer/dancer Eduard Sargsyan, with musical direction by recording artist and U.N. Ambassador for Peace Wole Oni. Time: 7 p.m. Sept. 25 Cost: $25 to $100 Details: www.italianheartstrings. com Venue: Warner Grand Theater, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro
THEATER Sept. 10
Noises Off After 18 challenging months without a show or an audience, the Long Beach Playhouse has announced it is reopening on Sept. 10 with Michael Frayn’s play Noises Off. Time: 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, 2 p.m. Sun., Sept. 10 to Oct. 9 Details: 562-494-1014; www.lbplayhouse.org Cost: $14 to $27 Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach
Oct. 20
Blues in the Night Conceived and originally directed by Sheldon Epps, this Wren T. Brown directed production will begin showing in the fall. With little spoken text, the interweaving stories are defined through glorious songs that cover the range of this indigenous American art form, from Bessie Smith to Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Alberta Hunter, Jimmy Cox and Ida Cox. Come check out the post-show talkback with the cast on Oct. 31. Time: 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday from Oct.
20 to Nov. 7 Cost: $37 to $55 Details: 562-436-4610; https://ictlongbeach.org Venue: International City Theatre, 330 E. Seaside Way, Long Beach
ART
Sept. 2
La Loteria For the month of September Gallery Azul will be celebrating Hispanic heritage by re-envisioning La Loteria cards portraying Mexicanos in various underrepresented professions. This is meant to inspire not only the Mexican community, but all Hispanic, Latinx, Chicano/a, and Afro LatinX in professions lacking diversity. Details: galleryazul.com Venue: Gallery Azul, 520 W. 8th St., San Pedro soundpedro2021 Experience the VBODOBV — Virtual BreakOut During the OutBreak Videos — sounding videos responding in diverse and personal ways to ideas about (and experiences with) sound and aural perception. VBODOBV | dEvolution is in three parts, each with curatorial themes. Au Naturel and Personnel now available to watch on youtube at www.agcc/soundpedro Time: Online through Nov. 27 Cost: Free Details: www.soundpedro.org First Thursday Artwalk First Thursday Artwalk kicks off with live music at 6th and Mesa streets, food trucks on the Artwalk perimeters and guided Artwalk tours will gather at 6 p.m. in The Artistry Lounge at 491 W. 6th St. Galleries are welcoming guests, and masks will be required for all indoor locations. Open galleries include: The National Watercolor Society, Gallery Azul and POLAHS Pixels Creative Space. Time: 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 2 Cost: Free Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ guided-first-thursday-artwalk-tour Location: Downtown San Pedro POLAHS Pixels Gallery Grand Opening The opening features an exhibit of POLAHS Digital Photography pathway student work from Iceland. Join the gallery grand opening with a ribbon cutting, live music and appetizers. Time: 5 p.m. Sept. 2 Cost: Free Details: 310-832-9201; www.polahs.net Venue: Pixels Gallery, 439 W. 6th St., San Pedro
Sept. 11
OPaf (Other Places art fair) Fluid in definition, bonded by an intention to operate in other places outside the traditional art gallery systems, OPaf features participants presenting site-specific booths encapsulating their projects and programming. Representing the growing movement of hard-to-define art spaces, OPaf provides an alternative art fair structure designed specifically for these unconventional projects. Time: 12 to 6 p.m. Sept. 11, 12 Cost: Free Details: http://www.opaf.info/ Venue: Battery Leary-Merriam, Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro
DANCE Sept. 12
San Pedro Festival of the Arts Enjoy a free family event featuring dance. Artists featured at Alvas
include Pranamya Suri, Louise Reichlin & Dancers/ Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers, Degas Dance Studio, Aoi Aihara, LL Moves, CalliOpus Contemporary Dance, Leah Hamel, VIDA-Vannia Ibarguen Dance Arts and Dorcas Román Dance Theatre. A vaccine card and masks are required. Time: 4 p.m. Sept. 12 Cost: Free Details: 310-519-1314 Venue: Alvas Showroom, 1413 W. 8th St., San Pedro
Sept.16
Let ‘im Move You: This is a Formation Let ‘im Move You is a series of works choreographed by jumatatu m. poe and Jermone Donte Beacham that stem from their research into J-Sette performance. “J-Sette,” or “Bucking,” is a performance style popular in the Southern United States, practiced widely among majorettes and drill teams at historically Black colleges and universities, and also among teams of primarily queer men who compete at gay clubs and pride festivals. Time: Sept. 16 to 18 Cost: $13 to $25 Details: www.redcat.org/event/let-im-move-you-formation Venue: REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., Los Angeles
Sept. 19
San Pedro Festival of the Arts Dance Performances on the Lawn Featuring 29 dance companies in performance with a different program each day. Artists featured include Megill & Company, Paso de Oro Dance Company, Freaks With Lines, Fusion Flamenco, Katrina Ji, Selcouth, Megill & Company, Re:borN Dance Interactive, Kairos Dance Company, ShowtimeKatusha and Contemporary West Dance Theatre. A vaccine or negative COVID-19 test and masks required. Time: 1 to 4: 15 p.m. Sept. 19. Cost: Free Details: 213-458-3066; https://triartsp.com Venue: Anderson Memorial Senior Center, 828 S. Mesa St., San Pedro
LITERATURE Sept. 10
Divas of Rock San Pedro native Leo Rossi will deliver his presentation on the divas of rock, based on his book Knights of Rock from his days as a roadie and eventual tour manager for some of the greatest rock bands of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Time: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 10 Cost: Free Details: 310-982-0523; http://theartistryla.com/ Venue: The Artistry Lounge, 491 W. 6th St., San Pedro
Sept. 19
History is Delicious Author Joshua Lurie talks about his new children’s book. RSVP. Time: 2 p.m. Sept. 19 Cost: Free Details: www.collageartculture. com Venue: Collage, 731 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro
FILM
Sept. 2
Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth To Power Documentary Director Abby Ginzberg’s feature length documentary, tells the complex story of Representative Barbara Lee, a steadfast voice for human rights, peace and economic and racial justice in the US
Congress who cut her teeth as a volunteer for the Black Panther Party and was the lone vote in opposition to the broad authorization of military force following the September 11 attacks Runtime: 83 Minutes | Rating: Not rated Time: Three-day rental from time of purchase Cost: $6 to $8 Details: www./watch.laemmle. com/videos/barbaraleesp/doc Venue: Online
Sept. 19
Amazing Grace Torrance Cultural Arts presents this award winning documentary followed by talk back with Grace Fisher and filmmaker Lynn Montgomery. See how Fisher, a 23-year-old Santa Barbara woman, overcame obstacles from a paralyzing disease. There will be a Q&A with Grace, the Fisher family and filmmaker Lynn Montgomery immediately following the screening. Time: 2 p.m. Sept. 19 Cost: Free Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ amazing-grace Venue: James R Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance
COMMUNITY Sept. 2
LA Harbor Peace Week 2021 A week of activities will happen Sept. 2 through 6 in San Pedro as an alternative to the normalization of war during the U.S. military’s “LA Fleet Week.” Instead, Peace Week promotes the solutions of peace. All events are free. Details: To contact or get involved; call 310-971-8280 or go to sojournerrb@yahoo.com Peddle Peace Not War Bike Ride Time: 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 3 Location: Meet at 11th and Pacific Ave., ride to 6th St., and Harbor Blvd. to USS Iowa Meet Up With a Peace Vigil No Space Farce/Canvas Time: 6:30 to 8 p.m. Sept. 3 Location: USS Iowa, 5th St., and Harbor Blvd., San Pedro WWII Anti-Fascist history car tour Time: 10 to 12 p.m. Sept. 4 Location: Meet at San Pedro DMV. Peace with China Cultural Evening on Zoom This cultural event includes food, speakers and music.
Sept. 12
Agaves: Species, Cultivars and Hybrids Jeff Moore takes a deep dive into the world of agaves, both cultivated and in their native habitat. His fifth self-published book about succulents will be available in midSeptember and also on his website, www.solanasucculents.com. Time: 1:30 p.m. Sept. 12 Cost: Free Details: Zoom, link on events page at southcoastcss.org
Sept. 11
Time: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 4 Cost: $15 donation/sliding scale Details: Meeting ID: 825 1936 4683 Passcode: 799199 Peace Picnic and Rally V4P Tribute, teen memorial, war kills the planet Time: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 5 Location: Peace Park 6th St. and Harbor Blvd. The Alternative to War Global conference on sustainable development, a U.S. returned Peace Corps-led, Zoom event Time: 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 6 Details: Zoom information will be posted soon
Sept. 4
Sept. 18
California Coastal Clean-Up Day You can join the Aquarium of the Pacific in cleaning up Long Beach as part of the statewide Coastal Clean-Up Day. The public is invited to help aquarium staff clean the beach. Help protect our ocean and marine life by picking up trash. Gloves, bags and a spirit of camaraderie will be provided. Please look for the aquarium booth to check in and receive your cleaning supplies. Time: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Sept. 18 Cost: Free Details: 562-590-3100; aquariumofpacific.org/events/info/california_coastal_cleanup_day/ Venue: The Peninsula and lot at Ocean and 72nd Place, Long Beach
Location: 300 E. Ocean Blvd. Long Beach
Sept. 26
Southern California Weaving & Fiber Festival The Southern California Handweavers’ Guild will present its 2021 Weaving & Fiber Festival at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, 3341 Torrance Blvd. on the Torino Festival Plaza. Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 26 Cost: $1 Details: torranceca.gov Venue: Torrance Cultural Arts Center, 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance
Oct. 30
25th Annual Historical Cemetery Tour This one-of-a-kind living history event provides an amazing opportunity to remember the lesserknown and well-known figures in Long Beach history. Time: 9 to 3 p.m. Oct. 30 Cost: $1 to $25 Details: 562-424-2220; www.hslb. org/event/25th-cemetery-tour
September 2 - 15, 2021
Moompetam: American Indian Festival In celebration of the local American Indian cultures, the Aquarium of the Pacific will host its seventeenth annual Moompetam Festival. This celebration will feature traditional cultural crafts demonstrations, storytelling, music and dance celebrating the indigenous California maritime cultures, including Tongva, Chumash, Acjachemen, Costanoan, Luiseno and Kumeyaay. Advance reservations required for everyone. Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 18 to 19 Details: 562-590-3100 or aquariumofpacific.org/events/info/
ONGOING
Rancho Los Cerritos In-person Experiences The Rancho has self-guided tours available in English, Spanish, Khmer and Tagalog. Docent-led tours are available in English dur-
ing public hours. Spanish tours are by appointment. Time: Wednesday to Sunday 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost: Free Details: www.rancholoscerritos. org and for Spanish tours. Rancho@RanchoLosCerritos.org Venue: Rancho Los Cerritos, 4600 Virginia Road, Long Beach
Underwater Artists An aquarium educator will guide young artists in creating art in steps by making and sharing observations of their ocean animal art subject during this virtual class. The theme for Sept. 4 is coral reefs and the theme for Sept. 18 is whales. Using live animal webcams and dynamic media, participants will discover animal facts, explore ocean science, and apply what they learn. The aquarium asks that child participants be supervised by an adult during the program. Time: 10 to 10:45 a.m Sept. 4 and 18 Cost: $10 Details: 562-590-3100; aquariumofpacific.org/events/info/underwater_artists/
Sept. 12
Docent Guided Nature Walk Walk through coastal sage habitat along the eastern bluff of the reserve. Enjoy coastal views, see World War II sites and possible gray whale sightings. Banners will be placed along PV Drive, side street and sidewalk near the parking lot. Please wear sturdy walking shoes and prepare for the warm/ cool/windy weather. Hiking difficulty is moderate. Time: 10 a.m. Sept. 12 Cost: Free Details: 310-544-5260; www.losserenos.org Location: Ocean Trails Reserve (East Bluff & Gnatcatcher Trails)
Sept. 24
Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is a three-day, two evening festival, combining world-class racing with a wide variety of activities for the whole family, on the streets of downtown Long Beach. Fans will see five racing events headlined by the NTT IndyCar series and North America’s top sports cars, drifting, historic race cars and Robby Gordon’s jumping super trucks will be showcased during the weekend. Off the track, the Acura Grand Prix will have the popular lifestyle expo, family fun zone and food trucks from greater Los Angeles. Time: 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fri., Sat. and 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sun. Sept. 24 to 26 Cost: $20 and up Details: www.gplb.com/event-info
Venue: Sunniside and Municipal Cemeteries, 1095 E. Willow St., Long Beach
Labor Day Edition
Los Cerritos Wetlands Habitat Restoration Join a monthly habitat restoration event at the Los Cerritos Wetlands. Activities include removing non-native plants, planting native plants, collecting seeds from rare plants for later use, and collecting trash. Events are led by trained naturalists and local educators. Everyone is welcome. Children under age 14 must be accompanied by an adult. No registration is required. Arriving around 10:15 a.m. is recommended. Time: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sept. 4 Cost: Free Details: aquariumofpacific.org/ events/info/los_cerritos_wetlands_habitat_restoration/ Location: Participants will be greeted by Los Cerritos Wetlands staff at the corner of Pacific Coast Hwy and 1st Street in Seal Beach.
First Responders Day Contact your union or association to purchase discounted tickets for friends and family members before coming to the aquarium. Active personnel should present their employee ID or professional organization membership card at the aquarium. Advance reservations required for everyone. Time: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 11 Cost: Free for fire, medical, EMS and police personnel. General admission, $26.95 to $36.95 and free for children under age 3 and aquarium members Details: 562-590-3100 or aquariumofpacific.org/events/info/first_ responders_day/ Venue: Aquarium of the Pacific, 100 Aquarium Way, Long Beach
moompetam/ Cost: $26.95 to $36.95 and free for children under age 3 and aquarium members Venue: Aquarium of the Pacific, 100 Aquarium Way, Long Beach
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fter months of renovations, the Lighthouse Café reopened Aug. 3, retaining most of its menu and staff, despite changing hands. Cindy and Jason Fogle, the new owners, have a long-time connection with San Pedro and the Lighthouse Café. Jason Fogle was born in San Pedro and his father worked at a San Pedro hospital for 30 years. “We had our first apartment here [on 39th Street] and our first house, so we’ve been coming [to the Lighthouse Café] for 30-plus years,” Cindy Fogle said. “We’ve always loved it; always had it in the back of our mind that it would be a great place to own someday.” Jason Fogle said that this past year he happened upon a broker’s site that had a listing for “a little café in San Pedro, quiet neighborhood, tons of apartments around.” After calling the broker and signing a nondisclosure, they discovered that it was the (previously known as) Lighthouse Café and Deli. “We saw it going downhill a little bit and we had a vision to bring it back to its old glory days and get the neighborhood excited to be here again,” Jason Fogle discussed. The Fogles made a same-day offer and soon after they became owners of the new Lighthouse Café. Then, they shut it down to do a full renovation. “It’s been a process, but it’s been a fun process,” Cindy Fogle commented. The building is 100 years old. Renovations ranged from exposing an original brick wall that adds to the cafe ambience to installing new plumbing and wiring. “Everything is brand new, but we wanted to save some things: the stained glass, the mural,”
September 2 - 15, 2021
Labor Day Edition
BIG NICK’S PIZZA
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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. We are taking all safety precautions to protect our diners and staff. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay updated on new developments. Call for fast delivery or to place a pick up order. Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mon.-Thurs.; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fri.Sun. Big Nicks’ Pizza, 1110 N. Gaffey St., San Pedro, 310-732-5800, www.bignickspizza.com
BUONO’S AUTHENTIC PIZZERIA
Family owned and operated since 1965, Buono’s is famous for 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 fresh ingredients. Now limited dine-in and patio service, takeout and delivery. 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
Pt. Fermin, San Pedro —
Lighthouse Café Reopens Under New Ownership By Marisol Cruz, Editorial Intern By Lyn Jensen, Reporter
improvements so they offered to contribute to the renovations as well. The landlords commissioned a local artist, Brenda Gonzalez, to paint a mural on the outside of the building. Jason Fogle said Gonzalez pulled inspiration from the established decor, such as the booths. The light blue and white booths have orange windsurfers on them, paying homage to the real orange windsurfer that hung from the ceiling when the Fogles frequented the café. Now, the mural dons the orange windsurfer as well. The Fogles retained the main cook, who has worked with the restaurant for more than 25 years, and most of the staff. “The first thing when people come in, they ask, ‘Is Arnie still here?’” Jason Fogle said. The Fogles plan to add new dishes, such as a Monday football night special. They also are recruiting more cooks who are bringing new ideas. “[But we] need to get fully staffed before that happens,” Jason Fogle said. “In that time, we’ll work on a dinner menu and then do a relaunch once we’re fully staffed.” The Fogles are pleased with the response the new Lighthouse Café has been met with. “The reception has been great, the neighborhood’s been great [and] the regulars have been wonderful,” Cindy Fogle said. Editor’s note — Lighthouse Café is temporarily closed while they obtain permits for renovation.
New owners Jason and Cindy Fogle of the Lighthouse Café on 39th Street and Pacific Avenue in San Pedro had their soft reopening on Aug. 3. Photo by Arturo Ayala-Garcia
Jason Fogle stated. “Keep the original but make it ours,” Cindy Fogle agreed.
CONRAD’S MEXICAN GRILL
Conrad’s reflects the cuisine of Oaxaca with a focus fresh on local, seasonal ingredients for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Now Conrad’s features Peruvian dishes, as well as an inventive Mexican vegetarian and vegan menu. Dine in, dine al fresco or order online for curbside pick up and delivery. Hours: Mon.-Sat. 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. S. 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 Mexicaninfluenced 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. Dine in or al fresco or call for takeout. Hours: Mon.-Wed. 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thurs.Sat. 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and Sun. 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Happy Diner #1, 617 S. Centre St., San Pedro, 310-241-0917, www.happydinersp.com
Details: www.lighthousecafesanpedro.com Location: 508 W. 39th St., San Pedro
They also put in a garage door on the side of the café, letting in light and fresh air. The landlords were appreciative of the new
HAPPY DINER #2
Built on the success of Happy Diner #1, Happy Diner #2 offers American favorites like omelets and burgers, fresh salads, plus pasta and Mexican dishes are served. Order online for delivery or call for pickup. Hours: Mon. - Sat. 6 a.m. to 10:30 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. Order online or call for takeout or delivery. 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, house drafts and cocktails to go (with food purchase)! Open daily 12 to 8 p.m. for indoor or al fresco dining, takeout and delivery through Grubhub, Postmates and Doordash. San Pedro Brewing Company, 331 W. 6th St., San Pedro, 310-831-5663, www.sanpedrobrewing.com
WEST COAST PHILLY’S
Welcome to West Coast Philly’s Cheesesteak and Hoagies where authentic Philly cheesesteaks 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. Happy hour from 2 to 6 p.m., Mon.-Thurs. Indoor dining or order online or call for pickup. 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 [See Calendar, page 16]
Making LA Businesses Enforce COVID-19 Mandates is Bad For Business A hospitality industry advocacy organization called the Independent Hospitality Coalition, or IHC, released a survey showing that a majority of hospitality business owners and operators support mandatory vaccinations or a negative COVID-19 test for all customers dining inside and for all employees. The survey also showed that more than 71% of those responding to the survey are concerned about enforcing a vaccination mandate. When asked about the biggest issues facing restaurants and bars today, almost three-quarters responded that it was hiring and retaining employees, with less than 10% concerned with enforcing mask mandates. “The survey results from our members throughout Los Angeles show that a majority agree with mandatory vaccinations or negative COVID tests for employees and customers looking to dine inside, similar to the proposals being debated by the County of Los Angeles and numerous cities,” stated Adam Englander, Executive Director of the IHC. “However, a large majority are concerned that enforcement will fall on restaurant operators, many of whom are not fully staffed and do not want to be in the situation of policing customers’ activities. Any ordinance should focus on emphasizing awareness over heavy-
handed enforcement forced to be performed by small businesses.” IHC pointed out that Los Angeles does not have any central digital or physical vaccination proof standard, with no common way to determine if proof of vaccination is real. “The IHC is encouraged by programs such as the collaboration announced between OpenTable and CLEAR, which would create a checkpoint before reservations are made at many restaurants,” the group said in a released statement. The IHC expects other similar systems to be in place before restaurants can be expected to enforce these mandates. Englander noted, of greater concern to many IHC members is the inability to hire and retain employees, which has resulted in many restaurants cutting hours or days of operation. According to a recent Black Box Intelligence survey (a company that produces human capital analytics) — despite increased wages — more than two-thirds of current and former restaurant workers said disrespect from customers is a factor in the current labor shortage. Englander added, forcing employees to act as vaccination police will only compound these issues as many will take their anger out on them instead of those creating these policies.
‘Ocean’ Exhibition Call for Entries The Long Beach Creative Group or LBCG has announced an open call for Ocean, an exhibition of paintings, drawings, sculpture and mixed media that explores relationships with the ocean, whether imaginatively, nautically, scientifically (environmental, biological, ecological), or for entertainment. LBCG seeks artists residing in Long Beach, Signal Hill, Lakewood, or San Pedro, as well as individuals who attend, or have graduated from, Cal State University Long Beach or Long Beach
City College. Work must be for sale, reasonably priced, produced within the last five years, and gallery-ready. There is an entry fee of $16, and artists may submit up to three pieces. Work for the exhibition will be selected by a panel of guest jurors. The deadline to submit work is Sept. 24, and the exhibit will run from Nov. 7 to Dec. 5, 2021. To submit work, go to: www.artist. callforentry.org/festivals_unique
The California Garibaldi
The Pacific Ocean along the western United States coast is cold. The result of the frigid near-Arctic currents flowing south from Alaska unlike the warmer gulf stream waters off the eastern seaboard. Colder oceans tend to produce more drab colored marine life so not make themselves a target for predators, except Mother-Nature did not get the message when it came to these particular red-orange colored sea creatures whose females of the species are known to eat their own eggs. The Garibaldi damselfish has been historically known as the “Catalina Goldfish” where they were first popularized by tourists visiting Santa Catalina Island during the turn of the twentieth century. It is a 14-inch scally curiosity slightly larger than two U.S dollar bills laid side-to-side whose namesake according to popular belief was in homage to the scarlet dressed followers of nineteenth century Italian politician and general, Giuseppe Garibaldi. Photo by Arturo Garcia-Ayala
Details: www.LongBeachCreativeGroup.com
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222-R1 W. 6th St., San Pedro • (310) 547-0655 Visit www.BuonosPizza.com for more coupon values
September 2 - 15, 2021
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[Rossi, from p. 13]
Leo Rossi
September 2 - 15, 2021
Labor Day Edition
bands. But it fell apart in 2016, Rossi noted, because of corporate greed. He didn’t want to elaborate. He spent a couple years trying to figure out why that happened, then COVID-19 happened and Rossi witnessed what that did to the cruise industry. “I realized that I had an angel on my shoulder because it saved me not only financially but it saved me mentally, physically,” he said “During all that I kept writing all the Knights of Rock project.” The basis, he explained, was that all the guys from the crews that he toured with for these big bands would get together and share their stories and try to help people. In 2018, Rossi gathered the original 1975-1976 road crew for Fleetwood Mac for a surprise reunion and filmed it. He wanted to make a documentary. So, he also invited Larry Heimgartner, director of the theater department at Harbor College to watch this Knights of Rock roundtable discussion, in order to have the director help him write a script. Heimgartner happened to be working on a project called Our World, writing one act episodes based on subjects like AIDS, poverty, drug addiction, depression and women’s empowerment. He wrote more than 30 episodes including one with San Pedro guitarist Chuck Alvarez. He also approached Rossi about doing one. Originally uninterested, Rossi thought it was “grandiose” and didn’t want to brag. But Heimgartner said it wasn’t about that. He told Rossi that he had a tremendous story, coming out of San Pedro, raising his children, losing a son and then his 20K Watts charity.
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The Music
“This is about changing the world through youth,” he said. “There’s a reason it’s called classic rock. Classic rock is not just music history, it’s history itself. The bands [of that era] were impactful through their lyrics and their communication skills. … The bands [of that era] were impactful through their lyrics and their communication skills. They were the Internet before the Internet. If those rock stars said don’t vote for a politician, [they wouldn’t] get elected. We found our voice and we had power. No matter what people say about the band, there was always a crew and a group of people behind these bands that were really influencing them and Leo Rossi,left, and John McVie, bassist for Fleetwood Mac, in con- driving the ship.” versation during the Rumours tour, 1974. Photo courtesy of Leo Rossi tells why the music Rossi was classic and why it became so After more persuading, including a script impactful. He pointed to Fleetwood Mac, saying reading by an actor conveniently resembling Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks wrote music Rossi, Rossi was sold. For six months they about their personal lives. Not only did they worked. In 2017, Alvarez and Rossi presented write about it, they had the same songs written their talks at a Port of Los Angeles High School about them. writing class. Later in life — when the old crews gathered, “It was so funny, when it ended nobody recalling their past — they realized, Rossi said, applauded,” Rossi said. “I thought it didn’t work. that these artists were empowering women to But I found out they were just so enamored stand up for their rights. by what the story was about. When the Q&A “Stevie Nicks would write a song about happened, we got a phone call from one of the Lindsay Buckingham or he would write a song teachers who said the kids asked if I could come about her,” Rossi said. “Landslide is a piece into the classroom and meet one-on-one.” that will be played forever. It’s a song about her Rossi said he was amazed at the students’ saying no to him. Don’t Stop is about Christine brilliance. He realized then how much he could telling John McVie, stop, we’re divorced, don’t offer by helping just one of them make it to the think about yesterday. “Yesterday’s gone.” next level.
You saw these changes ... bands were coming up with remedies for social injustice. People would read the lyrics and hold the album cover and whatever was happening [personally], they relat[ed] to it. That would empower them to make the change that they were listening to.” Rossi isn’t trying to save the world but said if he can touch that one person that can, then he’s done his part. In one instance after a presentation on a cruise ship, the following day a woman approached Rossi and told him that his performance really got to her — that it actually made her “really angry,” Rossi said. She told him, I’m in that horrible club like you — meaning that she had lost a child. She said, “Your son didn’t want to die, your son had a will to live.” She divulged that her son took his own life in an overdose. When Rossi told her that she “can’t go there,” the woman said that’s not the point. She explained, Rossi gave her insight that she never thought she’d find — a new mission in life. As Rossi recounted, the woman said, “I need to go out and make sure no mother ever feels the way I did after my son passed. I need to help mothers with addicted children.” “It’s been really rewarding to see the impact of what I’m doing and to see people make changes in their own lives …” Rossi said. “We were just normal guys that fell into an extraordinary situation and made the best of it.” He closed his talk with a mantra of sorts: When you chase your dreams you learn dedication ... you learn persistence ... you learn passion ... you learn purpose. When you chase your dreams you leave the world better than you found it. Details: www.20kwatts.org
Labor Day Edition
September 2 - 15, 2021
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September 2 - 15, 2021
Labor Day Edition
[Election , from p. 1]
Election
was fueled by economic concerns — a budget crisis fueled by the dot-com bubble bursting and the Enron-manipulated electricity crisis and the California budget crisis that followed the dotcom bubble burst. This recall effort was framed largely in terms of xenophobic lies, even though it’s the pandemic that’s kept it alive. The first specific charge in the recall petition was the false claim that “Laws he endorsed favor foreign nationals, in our country illegally, over that of our own citizens.” Some California laws remove barriers against undocumented immigrants, but none give them more favored status. Next, it falsely claimed causality: “People in this state suffer the highest taxes in the nation, the highest homelessness rates, and the lowest quality of life as a result,” none of which is true. For example, California’s top 1% do pay the highest taxes overall, but no one else does, and the bottom 80% all pay lower taxes than the national average. There’s no hard-and-fast measure of quality of life, but U.S. News and World Report ranks California 19th in the nation — above average, higher than any of its neighbors, far from dead last, and well above red states like Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi and Arkansas. The next charge, “He has imposed sanctuary state status and fails to enforce immigration laws,” simply means that Newsom, along with California as a whole, has not cooperated with Trump’s vicious anti-immigrant agenda. The only other specific charge about what Newsom has already done was, “He unilaterally over-ruled the will of the people regarding the death penalty,” meaning his institution of a moratorium. But recent polls show Californians now support abolishing it altogether. In short, anti-immigrant sentiment was the driving force motivating the recall effort, based entirely on lies.
Grievance, conspiracism and the great replacement
RANDOMLetters [Letters, from p. 9]
I would sure like to learn more about the slime-ball
Congressional hearings that include perjury trials for all those officials who knowingly lied in official Congressional testimony, including closed door session of the Armed Forces Committee
A special Congressional committee to investigate fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement for the war in Afghanistan A Congressional tribunal allowing Afghanistan veterans to testify about their experience. Repeal of the AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists) -- which includes any subsequent AUMF to have a sunset clause. Recognition of Moral Injury as a legitimate diagnosis
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Ports Conflict At Least, Or Collusion With Gas Drilling Industry
tactics of the fracked- and drilled-gas industry. I think there is a Polluters Alliance of the ports and frackers. Take a look at how POLB already, and POLA coming up, have put in TEU fee waivers for LNG trucks. It should be no surprise AT ALL that POLA and POLB are backing the fracked-gas industry in waiving fees for LNG trucks. The ports are backing another industry that profits from externalizing its air pollution problem onto the public health. They are on the same side arguing that CEQA should be curbed, that regulations should be less rigorous and enforcement winked at or to be avoided. Essentially, it is collusion or a conflict of interest as they enable and welcome another polluting industry to fight CARB, AQMD, and add to the bought Democrats in state government who side with the polluters and not the public. Peter Warren San Pedro
The military IMMEDIATELY release all three hundred names of those quoted in the Afghanistan Papers
crats and Independents to overcome the disinformation campaign that may soon land a Larry Elder in the Governor’s Mansion. Today’s history lesson is the Gray Davis recall that brought us the Terminator when a perfectly good governor-in-waiting was available in the person of then Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamonte. History does repeat itself when hubris rules! This time around, less than 20% of the voting electorate could beat a sitting Governor’s 49.999% of that electorate. Then what? We hold our collective breaths hoping nothing critical happens until November 2022? Bill Roberson, San Pedro
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This brings us to the fourth difference: the difference in the GOP’s underlying culture and ideology — a change centered on grievance as the primary motivation and conspiracism as a way of making sense of the world, with a blank check for any politician who’ll identify and attack the right people in revenge, and knee-jerk discounting of any counter-evidence or expertise. The focus on grievance and reliance on conspiracism means that reality is far less important than ever before. If evidence is lacking, the conspirators are hiding it. If evidence is contradictory, it’s a “false flag.” If grievance-spouting leaders are attacked for spreading false information, that
become tightly fused, der was the formative mentor for Stephen Miller, along with its Chris- the architect of Trump’s immigration policy, the tian nationalism, which central policy expression of the “Great Replace“draws its roots from ment” worldview during Trump’s four years in ‘Old Testament’ paral- office. Even though, as Guerror noted in another lels between America column, “Newsom has been one of the most proand Israel, who was Latino governors in California history,” while commanded to main- “Elder wants to reverse sanctuary laws, healthtain cultural and blood care for undocumented people and even birthpurity, often through right citizenship” (the last of which is embedded war, conquest, and sep- in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, aratism,” according to far outside of Elder’s reach). And even though the 2018 paper, “Make he’s made a career of denying reality on a whole America Christian host of topics — from climate change to systemAgain: Christian Na- ic racism and sexism, to basic matters of public tionalism and Voting health, such as the deadly impacts of secondfor Donald Trump in hand smoke. Oh no, Elder will tell you. He’s a “common the 2016 Presidential sense” kind of guy, with “common sense” soluElection.” Gubernatorial recall candidate Larry Elder posing with former President Donald In short, the “Great tions — such as a zero-dollar minimum wage. Trump in a photo posted on his Twitter account. File photo “Why two people who are adults can’t deterReplacement” may be only proves how much the conspirators fear what a despicable lie about the nature of the world, mine what the price of labor ought to be, is bebut it’s an apt description of itself — a great re- yond me,” Elder told the editorial boards of Calithey are saying. The most sweeping conspiracy has several placement of the conservative ideas preceding it, fornia’s McClatchy-owned newspapers. “And different versions, the most relevant for Califor- ideas that ultimately failed to deliver what they why a third party feels it is his or her business to nia being “the Great Replacement,” which “is had promised. But what the “Great Replace- interfere with that is also beyond me.” Common sense, indeed… for Charles Dickvery simple,” its originator, French conspiracy ment” promises instead is nothing short of genotheorist Renaud Camus has said. “You have one cidal war. If what’s being threatened is the very ens’ 19th century London, where workers regupeople, and in the space of a generation you have existence of your people (however conceived), larly died of starvation. But for 21st century a different people,” thus equating immigration there’s no limit to the violence that’s justified. California? It’s the exact opposite of common not just to invasion, but to genocide, and re- That’s why multiple terrorist mass-murderers sense. It’s a separate reality, a conspiracists’ quiring genocidal violence in response. Camus have cited it or alternative expressions of it, otherworld where no contradictory facts are alargued that this was because elites were weak- sometimes woven into lengthy manifestos. It’s lowed. Certainly not 83 years of common history willed, but others see them as actively malevo- why we’re seeing rising levels of violence at po- since the federal minimum wage first went into lent — a direct descendant of the Nazi myth of litical demonstrations, and open threats against effect. On Sept. 14, whether they realize it or not, Jews plotting the destruction of Christendom. officeholders promoting mask and vaccine re- Californians will vote on whether to enter that delusional otherworld, where Larry Elder feels Either way, the story goes, they are to blame for quirements. None of this has anything to do with Larry so at home. We will vote on whether to replace allowing a people to be destroyed. Camus was French, writing for a European audience fearful Elder, he will tell you. Even though, as Jean our reality with his. of Muslim immigration from Northern Africa Guerrero reported in her LA Times column, Eland the Middle East, but the same logic works perfectly in America, with a much broader range of threatening immigrants — from Latin AmeriVETERANS FOR PEACE ca, the Middle East, China, you name it. In April, the Anti-Defamation League called DEMANDS TO THE U.S. ON for Fox News host Tucker Carlson to be fired following his on-air promotion of “the Great ReAFGHANISTAN placement.” Fox, of course, refused. Carlson has doubled down repeatedly since, most recently attacking the welcoming of Afghan refugees as an We must see a shift towards a future that holds the military and our governevil elite Trojan Horse: “Let’s try to save our loyal ment officials accountable. We must reduce the military budget and reallocate Afghan interpreters,” we tell them. “Perfect,” they those funds towards social programs that prioritize meeting people's needs [evil elites] think. “We’ll open the borders and and to support the masses of refugees that seek safety for their families. change the demographic balance of the country.” We continue to stand by these demands: The “Great Replacement” integrates different rightwing factions more tightly than ever before. Accept all Afghan refugees and provide humanitarian If “invading hordes of immigrants’’ are the enemy, aid & resettlement aid. and falling white birth rates are key to the problem, then the right’s xenophobia and misogyny
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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: 09/02/21, 09/16/21,
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Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2021185542 The following person is doing business as: (1) Long Beach Jestski, 852 West 9th Street, San Pedro, CA 90731, Los Angeles County. Registered owners: John Marshall Grimes II, 852 West 9th Street, San Pedro, CA 90731. This Business is conducted by an Individual. The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) S/. John Marshall Grimes II, owner This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 08/20/21. Notice--In
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COLLAGE, a Place for Art & Culture located in San Pedro has a job opportunity for a part time Assistant Manager. The ideal candidate must have an enjoyment of and interest in the arts and a connection to the local community to help promote COLLAGE programs and grow its presence through online and social media platforms.
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JOB OPPS
1 Skids laterally 10 Indifferent individual 15 1968 album whose first single was “Think”/”You Send Me” 16 Decoy customer 17 Comic commentator on both the U.S. and Australian versions of “Holey Moley” 18 “O Pioneers!” author Cather 19 Anna Mill/Luke Jones 2018 graphic novel about robotic cities 21 Room 204, at the Roman Holiday Inn? 22 Lying beneath 23 Gp. that supports summer reading 24 ___ kama (imitation crab used in California rolls) 25 One-liner, e.g. 26 Drive out on the prairie? 28 San Francisco Bay structure 29 “Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth” author Rick 31 “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” stuff 32 “Right?” 33 Culatello or Black Forest, e.g. 36 Sponge cake seen on “The Great British Bake-Off” (and named for an Italian city) 37 Streaming service that sounds like a Haitian religion 38 Microsoft hybrid product an-
nounced in 2001 41 30-miles-per-hour runners 42 Regional butter substitute (I swear nobody calls it this on the West Coast) 43 “___ Poetica” (Horace work) 44 Lesson at the end 46 Imperfection 47 Leaders of the bunch? 50 Paleontologist’s big find 52 Fake (like with lip-synching or air guitar) 53 Flee, in a way 54 Embarrassed acknowledgement 55 Small, but cute 56 PBS series of programs for athome education
DOWN
1 ___-CoV-2 (virus that causes COVID-19) 2 “Confederacy” of Native American peoples 3 Explained as false 4 Web-based stock follower, maybe 5 Hobbits’ home, with “The” 6 Red Stripe is one 7 “Splendor in the Grass” Oscar winner William 8 With “The,” Dallas indie-pop group that often has up to 27 members 9 Tiny candy brand with the slogan “Be Both” 10 London-to-Madrid dir. 11 Get set
12 Early carrier tank on the tracks 13 “Fighting” NCAA team 14 His Final Jeopardy response was “Who are three people who’ve never been in my kitchen?” 20 Shaw who sang “Puppet on a String” for the U.K. at Eurovision 1967 25 Research ctr. that co-manufactured the Curiosity Rover 27 2021 role for Mayim 29 Go off on 30 Rubbing alcohol variety 32 Small, but cute 33 Focus of much genetic research 34 Flatterer 35 Letters before nus 36 Well-rounded positive makeovers 37 Supervillain who’s queen of the Skrull Empire, in the Marvel Universe 38 Heath bar ingredient 39 Alternative form of a gene 40 Long jump gold medalist Bob 44 Skill demonstrated on the U.K.’s “Countdown” (that isn’t seen much on U.S. game shows) 45 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” reporter April 48 Reporter’s assignment 49 Scattered, as seed 51 WWE wrestler Mysterio
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[Suspension, from p. 5]
Suspension Policy geles Neighborhood Council Coalition, Epperhart said. Seven neighborhood councils have adopted it so far. In addition to asking that the proposed amendment be dropped, it asks that a group, mainly consisting of neighborhood council members, meet with BONC, DONE and the city attorney on a regular basis. “We have a censure removal policy from the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners that was intended to deal with the problem children of neighborhood councils,” Epperhart said. “That has failed. We had a grievance process set up as a BONC policy to deal with those same problem
children. That has failed. This policy is intended to be the magic wand that DONE gets to wave to make those problem children disappear, at least for three months.” Dean Pentcheff, vice president of Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council, spoke of DONE’s recent history at the Aug. 16 meeting of his council. “This is one of a series of increasingly intrusive resolutions that have come from the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment and Board of Neighborhood Commissioners over [the] number of years that I’ve been working with neighborhood councils,” Pentcheff said. “This one is a particularly good one, because its language is so extraordinarily egregious that it provides a very, very easy and straightforward target
for us to attack.” Coastal board member Noel Gould echoed Pentcheff’s frustrations. Gould argued that General Manager Beltrán could potentially use this amendment to remove anyone from the neighborhood councils that she does not like and replace them. “This is the slippery precipice, not slope, that this attempt by DONE and BONC to completely remove any decision-making from communities and keep it in the hands of the city,” Gould said. Lou Caravella, president of Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council, encouraged council members to go to the informational meetings that DONE will be hosting about the amendment and speak out against it. The first was on Aug. 30. “This is really also just a divide between
September 2 - 15, 2021
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Betty Yee for Treasurer 2026 • Leiderman and Associates • 16633 Ventura Blvd., Suite 1008, Encino, CA 91436
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neighborhood councils and DONE generally,” Caravella said. “We need them to be supporting neighborhood empowerment, not trying to arbitrarily throw out people.” Atziri Camarena, a representative of DONE, said that threats of violence were one of the issues discussed when NC meetings were all in person. Currently, all such meetings are on Zoom. However, Pentcheff cast doubt on how helpful the amendment would be in deterring violence. “The idea that the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment would take on the physical protection of neighborhood council members by the creation of an extrajudicial process to suppress board members is so patently ridiculous and useless that I don’t think it deserves even further mention,” Pentcheff said. “If someone is threatened, there are laws to deal with that, we don’t need the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to take that on.” Epperhart said DONE introduced the amendment with the intent to deal with bullying, or other unpleasant behavior that does not break the law. Matthew Quiocho, vice president of the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council, said that the code of conduct policy created by DONE takes away what’s special about neighborhood councils. “We are elected,” Quiocho said at the Aug. 17 meeting of his council. “It would pretty much treat us like employees of the city.” Quiocho said he attended the last meeting of BONC and saw no real discussion of the amendment. “Everybody on the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners seemed to be in lockstep on this,” Quiocho said. “I didn’t really hear any dissent. So, unless the neighborhood councils really speak out, it’s probably going to pass.” Epperhart pointed out that the city’s workplace equity policy has not yet been adopted. It is currently in draft form, the final version could potentially have different policies. Central board member Linda Alexander said the suspension policy could be misused by board members accusing each other of misconduct as retaliation based on suspensions. “I can see this as a circular firing squad in the worst of times,” Alexander said. “You’d think DONE had better things to do, but apparently they don’t.” Representatives from DONE and BONC did not respond in time to comment on this story.
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