Tide is rising for community interest in bringing a real waterfront to the Port of Los Angeles

An online petition began circulating around San Pedro in early January asking the Mayor of Los Angeles and the local City Council office to do something about Ports o' Call and the LA Waterfront. "Help us", the petition urged residents:

As one of the largest ports in the world, we deserve a seaside waterfront development with a premier promenade that will allow for a better quality of life for residents and a world-class experience for those who visit.

And help they did. On January 14, the Daily Breeze reported that the petition had has "collected some 500 signatures in just a few days." And at the date of this writing, the petition boasts 1,054 signatures with a goal to reach 2,000. This online petition is the first of an effort to raise awareness by the newly-formed Los Angeles Waterfront Access & Redevelopment Coalition, or LAWARC.

The City Councilmember for the port and its communities, Joe Buscaino, is also showing that his patience has its limits. The Breeze has noted his frustration at the start-and-stop progress as the waterfront projects lurched forward only to face yet another delay, or a feasibility study, or a slow-going negotiation between a developer coalition known as the LA Waterfront Alliance and Port officials.

Meanwhile, at a Council Committee hearing on November 12 in San Pedro, the Port's Executive Director Gene Seroka told Councilmember Buscaino that his message was received "loud and clear" about the Council Office's commitment to the Waterfront and desire to move it along.

In the early evening of January 27, the Port will hold the second of two community meetings to get feedback on the proposed Public Access Investment Policy. Portions of this policy were found by local REALTORS to be insufficient in providing enough funding for Ports o' Call. In particular, Ports o' Call needs infrastructure improvements - such as streets and sidewalks.

In 2009, when the waterfront environmental impact report was approved, it was estimated that $220 million would be needed for full completion of Ports O’ Call infrastructure. 

“At this rate, the infrastructure will take 25 years to complete,” said Fred DiBernardo, a San Pedro real estate broker for more than 38 years and a lifetime resident of the port town. “This will kill any interest of any major developer.” (Daily Breeze)

The community meeting is taking place on January 27, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.,at the Warner Grand Theater, 478 West 6th Street in San Pedro. Port staff will present an overview of the proposed policy, followed by an opportunity for the public to provide comments and/or ask questions. REALTORS are urged to attend and make their voices heard.

This article is the second of two parts on the LA Waterfront, San Pedro and Wilmington. There is much more to come, as this story has been years in the making.

Port of Los Angeles struggles to fix not one but two waterfronts - at the same time - but is it working?

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.