A brief reading of the report published on January 9 by the Los Angeles Chief Legislative Analyst bemoans the long-simmer troubles and decades of unmet opportunities on the Los Angeles Waterfront in two communities - San Pedro and Wilmington.
The report blames state law that prohibits housing on the waterfront. It notes that the waterfronts in San Francisco, San Diego and even Long Beach are blessed with density urban growth while San Pedro's largely suburban community would not provide enough of a base to support development in the harbor.
Why does that matter? The same state law also says that the dedicated land uses "must serve statewide, as opposed to purely local, public purposes". These are just the latest in delays and frustrations for local residents - including REALTORS - living and working in both communities.
In San Pedro, the dilapidated Ports o' Call is barely clinging to life with small-scale tourist shops and footpaths which, remarkably, face the parking lot rather the extraordinary theater of the giant container ships offloading their cargo.
Meanwhile in Wilmington, Avalon Blvd. ends at Banning's Landing Community Center, but before it gets there is passes though a neglected business corridor and swaths of empty dirt lots owned by the port that serve no apparent purpose. A proposed railroad and block wall is rumored to possibly slice across Avalon Blvd., effectively cutting of Wilmington from the port (and, ironically, Banning's Landing Community Center) and killing the struggling commercial corridor.
Perhaps it is these two cases taken together that have fed frustrations and doubts of the two communities, San Pedro and Wilmington, that anything will be done. The Port has promised $400 million over 10 years to "continue and promotes private commercial investment in and around the Port’s
LA Waterfront."
REALTORS in San Pedro looked at that analysis and found that it amounts to $50 million over five years to make required improvements to the infrastructure around Ports o' Call - an amount that barely scratches the surface of all that needs to be done.
What are the reasons why San Pedro and Wilmington have not fully benefited from the spectacular commerce taking place at the largest port on the West Coast? The answers are as myriad and diverse as the communities themselves. Both areas have a rich history with established immigrant families and traditions.
Residents and REALTORS also remind listeners that they - we - have a legal right in California to access our beaches and waterfronts. It is not hard to look at the waterfronts in either area and question whether that right is being granted to the communities as much as it is to the commercial entities.
Next: Public hearings in January 2015 are the latest opportunities for residents and REALTORS to speak their voice.
