‘Fair Share’ Pledged for Wilmington

When Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa visited the Los Angeles seaport this week to introduce the members of his new Harbor Commission, he pointedly noted that port officials have been refurbishing the harbor community of San Pedro.

“But I noticed, when I saw that development, that Wilmington didn’t have quite its fair share,” the mayor said, drawing spirited applause from some in the audience on San Pedro’s newly renovated Los Angeles Cruise Ship Promenade.

In laying out his vision for the port, Villaraigosa has clearly signaled that the port’s focus on San Pedro at the expense of Wilmington would come to an end.

“You will see a commitment to fair share,” he said, “because fair share is so important.”

Wilmington is home to roughly one-third of the Port of Los Angeles, but it has long been a poor cousin to San Pedro, which is home to the former mayor, three of the ousted harbor commissioners and many port managers.

Under former Mayor James K. Hahn’s administration, San Pedro, on the port’s western flank, received most of the port’s community funds. Indeed, part of the high-profile $800-million San Pedro waterfront development may include moving two shipping facilities from that waterfront to Wilmington, making room in San Pedro for parks and trees.

That prospect is rankling residents in Wilmington, where a smaller waterfront park plan is lagging far behind.

“The port is making Wilmington a dumping ground,” said Ken Melendez, who is overseeing the Wilmington plan for the port’s community advisory panel.

Responding to the criticism, port spokesman Arley M. Baker said: “These projects take years to get off the ground, and we’re committed to working with our new mayor and the Wilmington community to keep the Wilmington waterfront projects moving forward.” The new mayor’s avid interest in the neighborhood on the port’s northern side was forcefully expressed to port officials, as a top aide tells it, when he toured the harbor last Saturday on the port-owned yacht, the Angelina.

As the boat sat off picturesque Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, Villaraigosa suddenly said, “Wait a minute, we haven’t been to Wilmington. Where is Wilmington?” recalled Robert “Bud” Ovrom, who will oversee the port as deputy mayor for community and economic development.

“Get over there to Wilmington,” the mayor said, according to Ovrom. So the boat turned around and headed to the port’s north shore, where the mayor talked to children and gave autographs.

Although San Pedro has suffered from pollution and industrial blight, the port’s effects are felt more harshly in Wilmington, where trucks rumble through residential streets and empty cargo containers are stacked five and six high.

Wilmington hugs the port’s northern shore, a working-class community where residents live alongside oil refineries, terminals and massive diesel-burning container ships that dock with their engines running. Because of the port, it has so little remaining open coastline that the most of the “waterfront” project to be developed by the port is several blocks inland.

San Pedro wraps around the southeast corner of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, an eclectic mix of wood-frame bungalows, apartment buildings and hillside homes, some with panoramic views of the ocean. Its waterfront remains dingy, but the downtown is seeing a modest rebirth with new shops and restaurants.

Wilmington’s residents are slightly poorer than those in San Pedro. The median household income for the Wilmington area was $39,869 in 2000, compared with $42,379 for the San Pedro area.

Both neighborhoods are ethnically mixed, but Wilmington is 82% Latino and 8% white, while San Pedro is 43% white and 42% Latino with much smaller populations of black and Asian residents.

Residents of both neighborhoods warred unsuccessfully with the port for years in hopes of easing traffic congestion and slashing diesel air pollution from ships, trucks and trains.

In response, Hahn promised soon after his 2001 election that he would strive to make the port a better neighbor for San Pedro and Wilmington.

His centerpiece initiative became the planned eight-mile, 418-acre From Bridge to Breakwater project, an array of parkland, shops, restaurants, hotels, condos and cruise ship facilities between the Vincent Thomas Bridge and the breakwater at Cabrillo Beach. The entire project, however, is in San Pedro.

Budget figures tell the story.

The port planned to spend $28 million this year to restore the San Pedro waterfront, compared with $3 million for the shoreline in Wilmington.

“We’re going to have to look at that,” Ovrom said.

The port has colorful reports and brochures on its $800-million San Pedro waterfront plan. But a smaller Wilmington plan is so far behind that the port cannot yet provide budget estimates.

The port is now reviewing proposals from consultants for a Wilmington waterfront plan and related developments, and a plan could be ready for an environmental review in late 2006 or early 2007, Baker said. The San Pedro waterfront plan is in place, with the environmental review beginning this summer.

How much the port has spent to date in Wilmington is difficult to determine. The Wilmington waterfront plan would be constructed in a long, narrow stretch of land, some purchased by the port for container operations and some owned by the city’s Department of Water and Power, residents said.

Wilmington residents said they fought to establish a foothold for that project with a small area called Triangle Park, where Hahn held a groundbreaking last fall.

But the project stalled with the discovery that the soil had been contaminated with cleaning solvents and hydrocarbons. Although residents have heard that cleanup could take up to 10 years, Baker said the cleanup and the park would be completed by next summer at a total cost of $2.5 million to $3 million.

Wilmington activists welcomed the port’s interest in Wilmington during the Hahn years, but some grew frustrated that San Pedro has received so much attention.

“Wilmington has not been on the fast track for waterfront redevelopment, like San Pedro,” said activist Jesse Marquez.

Baker, told that some residents are angry, said, “This is the kind of tactic that community members will use.”

He softened his comments when asked about them a short time later: “I think the planning process can be aggravating, especially when you see projects moving forward in other areas.”

The anger mounted last year when residents learned that three shipping facilities were to be moved from the San Pedro waterfront to Wilmington to make way for Bridge to Breakwater.

“They would never consider moving anything from Wilmington to San Pedro. It’s one-way traffic,” Marquez said.

Two cargo facilities operated by Pasha in San Pedro are to be consolidated at Berths 174-181 in Wilmington, and Crescent Warehouse may be moved to eastern Wilmington, port spokesman Baker confirmed last week. He added Thursday that one Pasha facility has moved already.

One of San Pedro’s most vocal activists, Noel Park, said he applauds Villaraigosa’s interest in Wilmington

“I think he’s right on the money,” said Park, who encouraged Villaraigosa to invest equally in both communities or even slightly more in Wilmington.