Full Plate at the Port
Over the past few weeks I have been gathering information on the Harbor Commission and multiple other issues facing San Pedro. I have posted numerous posts here, here, here, here, here, and here. All of this was in an effort to write a detailed post. Problem is, I just read exactly what I wanted to write in the Daily Breeze article out today by David Zahniser:Copley News Service
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When former Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn was forced out of office last month, he didn't exactly leave things at the Port of Los Angeles in a tidy political package for his replacement.
Neighborhood groups were lobbying the harbor department over the scale of development along the waterfront promenade. Port officials were trying to find a way to accommodate a huge projected increase in cargo traffic -- while keeping the harbor safe from terrorists.
Environmentalists pressed the port to work more aggressively to implement Hahn's air-pollution reduction plan, which had in turn come under fire from industry leaders.
In short, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa finds himself facing an array of port initiatives whose future is unclear. Each will require political support -- and large sums of money -- if it is to be successful.
"The quality of our air is at stake, the safety of our port is at stake, this opportunity to make our waterfront a tourist destination is at stake," said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, the former mayor's sister. "The direction, really, of the Port of Los Angeles and all these issues is at stake."
Villaraigosa has yet to announce his candidates for the five-member Board of Harbor Commissioners, which oversees policy at the nation's busiest harbor. Whoever is named, the panel is scheduled to pick a permanent executive to run the harbor department in September.
Nevertheless, Villaraigosa -- who also is in the process of naming his top policy advisers -- already is changing the way the Mayor's Office oversees the port.
Hahn placed port policy in the hands of a single deputy. Villaraigosa, on the other hand, is assigning separate elements to three deputy mayors.
Villaraigosa assigned his top economic adviser, Deputy Mayor Robert "Bud" Ovrom, to oversee the harbor department. But he also plans to appoint a deputy mayor for the environment -- one who will make harbor air pollution a portion of his or her portfolio.
Meanwhile, Villaraigosa's transit adviser, Deputy Mayor Jaime de la Vega, will work with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Alameda Corridor to improve the movement of goods through the region.
"The harbor is inherently a very big and very complex entity that affects a lot of things -- transportation, the economy, the environment," said Ovrom, who previously headed the city's Community Redevelopment Agency. "All of us will work very, very closely together so that each of these areas gets its share of attention."
Villaraigosa took office just as his predecessor received a list of 68 recommendations from the port's No Net Increase task force, a panel that looked at ways of reducing air pollution, such as cleaner-burning-engine standards for locomotives and ships.
Some Harbor Area environmentalists already are making it clear they want Villaraigosa, who won office with the backing of the California League of Conservation Voters, to take rapid action on reducing pollution at the harbor, which is the largest single source of diesel emissions in Southern California.
"He's on notice. He's committed himself. There is no honeymoon," said Noel Park, a San Pedro resident who sued the port over the environmental impacts of a container terminal approved in 2001.
Villaraigosa will face an equally strong message from representatives of heavy industry, particularly shipping lines, railroads and trucking companies.
Some have been arguing for months that they were given too few opportunities to speak out on the port's clean-air issues.
"There are many stakeholders in the port, and the people and the companies that are going to be asked to do these measures really were not at the table," said Sharon Rubalcava, an attorney who represents Pacific Energy Partners, which is planning a fuel terminal at Pier 400.
Industry representatives critical of the clean-air plan have made their presence known in other ways. Rubalcava's law firm bought a $25,000 table at Villaraigosa's charity inaugural gala, while three other port companies -- two railroads and a shipping line -- each bought a $10,000 table.
Ovrom would not divulge what changes Villaraigosa has in store, but acknowledged that the 68 proposed pollution-reduction measures are a complex endeavor.
"I have a sense that it's a long list and that it's an expensive list, so I know there are no easy answers," Ovrom said. "But the mayor's emphasis is to grow the port and do it in an environmentally and community-friendly way."
Equally complicated are the questions surrounding the waterfront promenade, a project that is expected to cost the port $540 million over the next 30 years and transform the San Pedro side of the Main Channel into an area with new parks, walkways and retail businesses.
Port officials are trying to determine how to generate enough revenue to pay for the waterfront project, whose commercial development components could range in size from 990,000 to 2.8 million square feet. One possibility is that the harbor department could try to resurrect a bill allowing the harbor to become a redevelopment agency -- a concept shot down by state lawmakers earlier this year.
Stacey Jones, the port's director of engineering development, said Ovrom's experience in attracting development and revitalizing neighborhoods will help the port navigate the financial issues surrounding the promenade. For his part, Ovrom -- a former city manager for Burbank -- said he understands the tensions over the scale of development and the demand that the promenade have a higher "rate of return" at the port.
"You want it to be small enough that it's at people-level, but you need to be big enough to be economically viable," he said. "Every redevelopment project in the state has to reach that balance. It just comes with the territory."
While the promenade will be accompanied by a large price tag, an even more expensive problem is the port's need to dramatically improve its infrastructure to handle growing cargo demand, Jones said.
The port has identified $25 billion worth of needed improvements, from an expansion of the Long Beach (710) Freeway to the construction of the Alameda Corridor East, a rail corridor through the San Gabriel Valley. Harbor officials have also complained that too little federal money has been earmarked for anti-terror initiatives at the nation's seaports.
Councilwoman Hahn, who represents the Harbor Area, voiced hope that Villaraigosa will follow through on his campaign pledge to obtain more funds for transportation and public safety.
But she also praised Villaraigosa for selecting a deputy mayor who is already acquainted with the waterfront promenade and other development issues.
"He understands the Wilmington-San Pedro factor in the equation at the Port of Los Angeles," she said. "I feel like my challenge is always having to educate people, and he already gets that."
Posted by Anonymous @ 7/18/2005 01:12:00 AM
76 Comments:
Interesting that Dominick Rubalcava's wife is representing Pacific Energy Partners.
Mayor Frank, looks like you are leading LA Observed around on a leash again, they posted this story two hours after you did.
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/003796.html
And Dominic's wife, Sharon also represents Browning Ferris Industries.
The way this works is just typical of the challenge that community people all over the City face, whether it's issues with the Port, LAX, DWP, or whatever other City agency you care to name.
Pacific Energy Partners wants to open a new terminal in the Port. It doesn't want to spend the money to clean up the toxic air pollution from its ships. What does it do?
It hires Dominick Rubaclava's wife, at however many hundred dollars an hour her law firm bills, and a small army of lobbyists and PR consultants, and buys a $25,000 table at the famous gala.
Arrayed aginst this lobbying and financial power are us - the ragged assed citizens who get to breath their toxic pollution. We bill $0.00 per hour, and steal time away from our jobs, businesses and families to try do defend our community. No wonder we get run over more often than not.
I personally supported Antonio Villaraigosa for Mayor, as the Mayor Sam and Antoino 2005 blogs will document. I contributed more money to his campaign than I have to all other political campaigns put together in my life. I had a big Villaraigosa sign on the front of my house for months, when it was extremely unpopular in San Pedro. So, if I sound confrontational on these issues, that's the context.
We are going to see progress on these issues, or we are going to end up in the same place with MAV that we did with Jim Hahn. We will raise our game in every possible way to try to make something happen. We don't have a choice.
As to the $25 billion in infrastructure improvements that the Port has "identified", I have posted here in the past on the issues of the Port and its "externalized costs". If they need $25 billion to support their business model, let them add it into their pricing structure. Think user fees, container fees, or highway tolls. As a taxpayer who is already breathing their toxic pollution, commuting on the gridlocked freeways, and gazing upon their industrial blight every day, I do not propose to pay for it.
SHUT UP NOEL! Everyone knows that you and your big loud mouthed pals would prefer that the port move out and leave you a nice little beach resort, but you all moved there KNOWING IT WAS A PORT. If you don't like it, MOVE... PLEASE. Those of us who live there like it as a port. If it wasn't a port, we would be paying higher taxes. So quit trying to get your crappy issues pushed through by our bafoon pandering councilwoman Hahn and take your little band of theives and move out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We could all use a break from your mouths.
As to the concerns of Ms. Rubaclava about the "stakeholders" who were "not at the table", the "No Net Increase (NNI) Task Force", which came up with the list of control measures, met for 9 months in a exhaustive series of public meetings. If the "stakeholders" had concerns, they had unlimited opportunities to bring them forward.
Pacific Energy Partners somehow had a "seat at the table", and they don't even have any operations at the Port yet. Gee, I wonder how that happened?
Furthermore, none of the the "stakeholders" she refers to has ever hesitated to hire from the same pool of lawyers, lobyists, and PR consultants Pacific Energy is using when it suited their purpose.
This is all just another stall tactic. The longer we wait to clean up the air, the more money they save. If a few more people have to get sick and/or die, tough.
The railroads also had their lawyers at the NNI meetings. They constantly complained about the "process". Meanwhile, they were in a closet in Sacramento negotiating a "Memorandum Of Understanding" about the toxic emissions from their rail yard operations, with no public notice or involvement of any kind. Trying to have it both ways doesn't bother them.
As to 10:09, deal with it pal. You haven't seen anything yet.
If it upsets you that much, you'd better stop reading the blog.
I love these gutsy people who post these snotty comments call themselves "anonymous".
Don't fret, we all know that Noel just likes the sound of his own voice. He hasn't done a reality check to know that the rest of us can't stand his whiney, irritating voice. Someone give him some pie to shut him up.
I think Frank Shaw deserves some kind of blog award for his port coverage. Excellent!
It's very sad to see the brainless rantings of these "anonymous" bloggers aimed at defaming someone whose credibilty has been so meritorious in achieving recognition of a serious pollution problem. There is a particular person who I believe is resposible for many of these reckless comments whose intitials are CBC. Basically, a woman without much education or intelligence, and certainly no grace, who is a "wanna be" with some kind of misguided political ambitions. Park's reputation precedes him and is exemplary in both his civic and intellectual accomplishments. Envy and ignorance abound in those who throw insults at someone of his caliber and integrity.
Great thanks to the recognition of the problems facing San Pedro and Wilmington to Mayor Sam. The "industry" folks will continue to fight any real efforts to rid ourselves of the pollution problem since it will cost "industry" profits initially. Then, over time.....the victims themselves....the injured and health damaged taxpayer...will pay the increase in cost of business...to make sure that "industry" makes their profit. Ironic, eh?
Ah, another "brain surgeon" heard from! Thank you Gunter for speaking up so we all know who some of Noel's assholes are! You people are the problem in San Pedro! GET OUT!!!! We would be so much better off and so would San Pedro!
p.s. Wrong guess. I know you, but you don't know me. Guess again bitch!
My point well made, thanks! Just delivered it home for me!
Thanks to you anonymous bloggers, I really appreciate the motivation.
I first moved to San Pedro in 1965. There were no containers, no Pier 300, no Pier 400, no traffic jams on the 710, et al, from container trucks that didn't exist, and no one knew that diesel fumes cause cancer, stroke, heart attack, asthma, emphysema, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, low birth weight, permanent decreased lung development in children, and all of the other dozens of health impacts documented in the medical literature.
The Port has undergone massive expansion over the ensuing 40 years with no effective mitigation of any of these environmental impacts. When the community finally found the resources to challenge one of the Port's false Environmental Impact Reports in court, the China Shipping case, the Second District Court of Appeal, along with the Attorney General of California, repudiated that EIR.
The Port's Community Advisory Committee has advised the Harbor Commission that a massive backlog of unmitigated environmental impacts exists. James K. Hahn promised to mitigate these impacts, but he did not.
All we have ever asked for is that these impacts be mitigated, that future impacts be mitigated as well, and that the health of the community be protected.
A nice little beach front community would be great, but no one, including me, believes that such a thing will ever happen. The record will show that no one has ever advocated such a thing. That is just cheap hyperbole.
We have just asked that the Port protect and maintain the quality of life in our communities, as common decency and the California Environmental Quality Act would appear to require.
BLAH, BLAH BLAH, BLAH... That's all we ever hear from the Noelistas and Gunterettes. If the port is so bad, MOVE!!!!!!!!!!!! We're tired of giving you a platform to spew your nonsense. We should have the port pass an initiative to clean the air from your blithering lunacy! That would be an improvment!
See, that's the whole point. I am not about to let anyone, least of all a public agency of my own city, or these brilliant bloggers, force me from my home.
What a shame that, if you try to stand up and force a public agency to be accountable for its antisocial actions, you have to be attacked in this childish way by people who obviously feel that their little rice bowls are somehow threatened.
What's the Port going to do for you guys? Is it worth the risk to your children and your neighbors? Well, forget the neighbors, they obviously don't count.
Also, I would just like to respond to 10:09's, charming reference to Councilwoman Hahn.
If Councilwoman Hahn is pandering to anyone, it is certainly not to the likes of the "Noelistas" and the "Gunterettes". Quite the contrary in our opinion.
So please do not reflect any guilt by association onto poor Councilwoman Hahn because her name is mentioned along with the dreaded Park and Gunter in a rant from "anonymous".
Thank you for proving my point. Your rise to Hahn's defense will make it crystal clear who you are aligned with and what your intentions and Janice's are.
Thanks Noel.
Noel, is Janice "doing" you too?
Janice is "doing" Noel AND Gunter!
Dear courageous Anon,
One of the concessions that the community got from the China shipping lawsuit settlement was PCAC and the ability to have studies done to help us get the facts and hopefully do something positive about the challenges we face. I consider our community's struggle with pollution to be a life and death issue! I actually love the people here and treat them like family. I encourage everyone to attend the PCAC meetings and get the facts. The last one brought a presentation by Dr. Froines of UCLA from So. Cal. Particle Center. Other contributors to the information were USC,UCI,UCR, and CARB. The research he presented in his lecture gave us alarming news that the fine particles in the Port's emissions aren't just in our lungs but in our bloodstream and brains. It is also able to destroy the mitochondria of our cells! This is such awful news to people here in the Harbor area since we know those of us closest to the source are affected the most.
Anon might someday regret fighting against those whose only agenda is to clean this place up. Like I said, you're all family to me and all extended families have some black sheep, chronic drunks or flaming idiots. Perhaps the ultrafine particles of pollution in your brain are to blame? Please get better.
Now we've heard from the black sheep, the chronic drunk and now you, the flaming idiot.
If what you said in your last statement is true, you may be irreparably damaged and every minute you spend breathing in these noxious posions is like one more nail in your coffin. Right? I know you're a lying bastard because if you believe any of that you would have moved from here and not looked back unless of course you are such a crazy cretinous soul that you would stay here killing yourself and your children just to punish ther port. Which is it? Liar or cretin?
You people know so much. Has it occurred to you that I'm on the PCAC and that I know that your little band doesn't even make up a majority of the PCAC?
If people try to raise legitimate public policy issues, and the best you can come up with is to write "SHUT UP", tell them to leave town, call them "a_____e" and "b___h", and cast lying, disgusting aspersions on their morals, you are totally irrelevant.
All we can do is to keep presenting the public policy issues in the hope that someone, somewhere, in our city government will be able to stop chanting the mantra of "the engine of the economy" long enough to actually look seriously at these public policy issues, and what they truly mean for San Pedro, Wilmington, and the entire city.
Alas, I have to leave for the day, but tune in tomorrow and I will try to continue with some more of this commentary that you find so irritating.
Nice try Asshole, but if you people were telling the truth earlier and this stuff is killing you and your friends explain to me how you can stay there knowing it's killing you and your family and doing irreparable damage. I noticed you didn't address that issue. Now, which is it? Liar or Cretin?
To Anon 12:50 -- It is obvious from your comment "WE'RE tired of giving you a platform to spew your nonsense" that you are either a port staffer or port commissioner. You must be refferring to the PCAC "platform." After all, this platform here is provided by Mayor Sam.
Anyway, you reek of anger, and you look even more unprofessional here at the blog than you do at 5th and Palos Verdes.
Time will tell if MAV has the guts not to kowtow to these lobbyists. I can only hope he does a better job on these issues than the former mayor, the Ray Guy of port pollution..
The last I checked, the Harbor Department was still a City Department of the City of Los Angeles - public agencies answerable to the public. As Mr. Zahnhiser pointed out, representatives of the shipping industry have no trouble buying access to decision makers. The Port Community Advisory Committee (PCAC) was formed by former Mayor Hahn to provide average citizens with a forum where they could discuss Harbor Department policies and projects. Not satisfied with their pay-to-play access however, these industry reps, unfortunately, pressed Mayor Hahn's appointees to allow them to also become members of PCAC, where their mission is to drown out and negate the participation of local citizens. This doesn't further the civic discourse on the City's "Harbor" policies, but rather distorts the process and makes constructive engagement much more difficult (as evidenced by the above comments).
I would hope MAV would remove the industry reps from the PCAC and return the PCAC to it's "community forum" status, as soon as possible.
July 18, 4:36 PM actually makes a good point. San Pedro and Wilmington are actually very dangerous places to live now, and doomed to get much worse if the Port continues to expand under its current operational concepts. Totally rational people might truly choose to run away.
On the other hand, I was raised to stand and fight when my family and my community are threatened. And, how can we walk away from our homes, our jobs and our businesses without a fight?
The science of this issue is extensive, and well documented. Mayor Frank posted the entire "No Net Increase" report some days ago. The last chapter is Dr. Miller's full report, complete with all of the references to the medical and research journals. The USC and UCLA schools of medicine are so concerned about this issue that they have a joint full time research project in place with several full time Ph.D and MD researchers. Dr. Froines of UCLA presented at the last PCAC meeting, if our friend had bothered to pay attention.
The threat is real, and all of the bluster and curse words in the world won't make it go away. Would our friend care to call USC and UCLA researchers and the New England Journal of Medicine cretins or liars? Someone would certainly appear to be so.
I really hope that someone from MAV's staff is monitoring this blog. While the Port and its tenants don't come out front with the abusive language and innuendo we have seen here, the message is the same.
Endure our impacts and health insults or shut up and get out of town you !@#$%^&*! Is this how we govern our great city which lays claim to being the world class capital of the Pacific Rim?
It looks like you are both Liar AND Cretin. Sacrifice your children's health and yours in order to make a point? You have a choice, but your children have no voice other than yours and you choose to MAKE THEM TAKE THE RISK! Liars AND Cretins! Shame on you all!
Oh yeah Parks, we trust your strong moral motivation. You, who operates a business in Bellflower that pumps noxious paint fumes into the atmoshpere as well as exhaust from automobiles that are from the pre-smog device era, are to be applauded for your concern for your fellow citizens. What's up? The people of Bellflower are not of your patrician class and therefore are unworthy of your protection? I must say I am awed by your strong moral sense in that you kill your children and loved ones with these diesel particulates because you must save the rest of humanity. I'm amazed in this day and age there are still people that listen to your BS. By the way, all that looking down your nose because of some of my frank language, I noticed your using expletives and more vulgar references in your latest comments. I'm sure that it's different because of your clear moral superiority. Eat diesel and die.
I knew John Gibson. And you sir, are no John Gibson. You are but an uninformed and bitter loser.
Brilliant and original come back. Good job!
Way to dodge the questions, you mean! Like previous anons have said, you guys actually could care less about the issue. It's all about control of the message. Brilliant comeback, my ass!
Well, well, well. the friends of the Port get a little shriller every day. If you can't stand the message, attack the messenger, right?
I don't need to defend my business, which is licensed and regulated by more public agencies than these bloggers can possibly imagine, to anyone.
However, now that I think about it, there are some interesting parallels to the Port.
We actually work on Corvettes of every year through 2006. the overwhelming majority of these are from the modern smog era, and are subject to California emissions regulations for cars, the most stringent in the world.
A small specialty of ours is maintaining and repairing the actual emissions systems, usually in preparation for the bi-annual smog check. We have thousands of dollars in sohisticated test equipment to help us in this work.
None of the thousands of pieces of diesel powered equipment at the Port, trucks, yard equipment, railroad locomotives, harbor craft, or ships, are required to pass any such checks. They are essentially uncontrolled by comparison to the sophisticated systems on cars.
Think about this. bloggers, next time you have to take time off work to go down and pay $50 plus for a smog check - these guys have a free pass, and nobody knows what is really coming out of the tailpipe once they leave the factory.
By the way, gasoline powered cars do not emit diesel particulate, which is the real issue here.
As to our paint operations, we have two paint spray booths. They are licensed, regulated, and inspected by the South Coast Air quality Management District. We are strictly regulated as to how much paint we can use each day. We are required to keep extensive records of every gallon of paint used. The AQMD controls what kind of paint is used. They now require essentially water based systems, so that the emisions are essentially nil.
Our painters have adapted to these new systems with great difficulty, but we have not complained, as we feel that it is a cost of doing business in the air basin.
The Port is subject to no such controls. As all of its equipment is classified as "mobil", it is outside the control of the AQMD.
This unfortunate distinction between "stationary" and "mobil" sources leads to such things as the fact that diesel railroad locomotives in the air basin, classified as mobil sources, cause more air pollution than all of the power plants and oil refineries, classified as stationary sources, combined.
Mom and pop small businesses pay large permit fees and are tightly regulated,while the Port and its tenants skate free. Spare me the ignorant comments about my business.
I don't need to defend my work history to anyone either, but here's a little clarification to the comments of the friends of the Port.
I spent 25 years in the construction industry in southern California from 1965 to 1990. I did work on infrastructure projects for almost every public agenct in the area, including both ports. My last port project was some time before I left the industry, somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago
I then severed all connections with the industry and went into my present business. From 1990 to the present, I have absolutely no connection with, or interest in, that industry.
When I worked there the ports were a fraction of their present size. No one knew that diesel exhaust causes cancer and so many other health insults or, if they did, they sure didn't tell me.
I would like to think that I have learned something in the past 15 to 20 years. It appears that others are determined never to learn.
I ask the Port for nothing except that it protect my health and the health of my family and neighbors, and that it mitigate its environmental impacts as California law and common decency demand.
That is more tan any of these friends of the Port can say.
As to my little efforts on land use issues in San Pedro, I believe that they speak for themselves, for anyone who cares to really check.
A wise man once said that "The Port is a culture of obfuscation". "John Gibson" fits right in.
Actually, "John", the proposed technologies for cleaning up Port air pollution were developed by others, not me, or any other member of the community.
If you would bother to read the "No Net Increase" report which Mayor Frank previously posted, you would see that all of the control measures were developed by a Technical Advisory Committee made up of Port staff, its consultants, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and whatever industry representatives care to show up.
Most of the measures are very simple, many being simply substituting cleaner fuels in existing equipment.
These things could begin to be implemented tomorrow. The issue is very simply money. The Port and its tenants are not going to spend the money until someone (MAV?) forces them. In the meantime, the public's health will suffer the consequences.
Noel,
I think the former councilman said nothing about defending the port, just about your duplicity. If you want to justify compromises in your own life, but expect none in your march against the port, that's YOUR BUSINESS....
If your concern is primarily diesel emissions which you recognize as only recently being identified, why do you continue to punish the port for their past and not feel responsible for your involvement in it? Did you not work in that noxious environment and/or feel the effects when you cashed your paycheck?
You've gone to thousands of meetings in the local area, why haven't you felt the need to explain your complicity, whether intended or not? Do your minions know of this and, if so, how do they justify tearing down anyone, including community residents, who do support port businesses not because of their position but merely because of their economic involvement?
For years you and especially Ms. Gunter have waged war on residents who disagree with your conclusions, using most commonly personal attacks.
Now, after years of dominating meeti ngs and press clippings and being "at the table" of every important discussion regarding the port what is your conclusion?....."We need more studies....hire more consultants.....isn't there a trip coming up?.....pass the pasta (munch,munch,munch)....THE PORT IS HORRIBLE!.....Who can I piss off this week, I haven't been in the paper for days, guess I'll just rewrite the last column....see you at tomorrow night's meeting!
Let me ask you this, do you still profess to represent the majority of San Pedro homeowners, residents, gadflies, or just your personal opinion or organization? Do you think that a community forum that does not include anyone CURRENTLY making money off of port businesses is a place where true conclusions on public opinion can be made? Or is it that you just don't care what the community thinks unless they agree with you. You believe in democracy right?
Your minions have already stated in this blog that business people don't count. Huddle up before you answer.
Nice "loser" comment too, previous anon. Don't you agree, Noel?
If you can't stand the message, attack the messenger.
Thank you John Gibson. Well said. It's hard to believe that even on a blog, Noel Park is still filling the air. His arrogance and self-sacrificing demeanor are disgusting. I'm sick of seeing and hearing him at every meeting in town. Please, Noel give us a break. You are NOT the savior of San Pedro.
Thanks Noel,
I just wanted to check on your ethics again. Let me get this straight, you like it when people who support you can berate others with deragotory language. People who don't support YOU, are naturally subject to "appropriate behavior" standards. You must have read that in some free speech pamphlet, right?
How tall is that soapbox, I mean, pillar of righteousness, you continually stand on? When is it O.K. to start calling you an a____e again?......Inquiring minds want to know.
By the way, ever notice the way you talk about Corvettes sounds a lot like the way Keller talked about the Port? I guess thats what they mean by "common sense". Don't they have dealerships for the newer cleaner burning models? What's the gas mileage on those babies? I suspect that a specialist like you would dealing a lot in older models? I know there must be a lot of those classic car owners lining up to modify those engines so they can go slower and be worth less. Good Luck!
Hey Noel, you Asshole! You remember me? The Anonymous that started this with you? Since we first exchanged comments we've now learned you're the hypocritical bottom feeder that actually was responsible for bringing the diesel emissions to this area. As for your comments about corvettes, you are a joke. You're trying to tell me how environmentally proper you are when you specialize in providing 2 seater, 400 horsepower, 10 mile to a gallon toys to rich boys that use up more fuel and pollute the atmosphere with hydrocarbons- and in the older models lead ethel which, if you had an ounce of intelligence would kmow, does 10 times the damage to a human organism that diesel particulates do. As for punishing the messenger, you're tryng to do that very thing to Mr. Gibson but, as usual, the message he delivers is extremely important and you have confirmed his information being the stupid lying cretin that you have always been. Why don't you finally admit what the real issues are with you? Did the steamship companies quit paying you for some service you rendered when YOU enabled them to come here? Are you affiliated with Fleischman-Hilliard, the consultant you and the Hahn's brought in to come up with the cockamamie pollution abatement program that ONLY the port of LA has considered without laughing? As for MAV listening to you, Hahn did everything you asked him to do and you had a "AV for Mayor" sign on your lawn and you admit to donating to MAV even though Hahn went for all of your bullshit. So we can add to Liar and Cretin: Whore! Suck diesel and die!
How about Noel's sidekick Gunter? Did you know that she is a "Slum Lord"? Of course Gunter would like to see the port gone, she doesn't have to work for a living as a longshoreman or hope that employees of the port come into her local establishment. She would make far more money if they could get rid of the port and turn this into a beach resort so that her current holdings would increase in value. Rumor has it she wants to sell them at a profit and move to San Diego and live off of the largess.
A "slum lord" is someone who is convicted of crimes relating to property which has been cited as deficient and out of code. As a previous tenant of Warren Gunter's I can state firmly that the Gunter's have never been charged with this......and in fact rehabed the building that I was located for over a hundred thousand dollars, and so where do these indivuals get their information, the Enquirer or perhaps someone else who has a personal ax to grind. I don't understand where you guys are finding the time to write all this crap about people. Wouldn't time be better spent doing something about the problems in a town that most of us love? This bantering and battering is useless and destructive. More time should be spent in finding productive ways to vent.
anonymous attacks on blog sites are like competing in the special olympics --- you may win, but you're still a retard.
Gunter, you should change your writing style if you are going to answer a post. As for you Park, when you no longer have excuses for your hypocrisy you start to answer anonymously. Brilliant you two!
To Anon 11:57 - GOOD ONE! You have these guys pegged. They probably do not feel as righteous as they used to with all of this REAL information coming to light. But just like the cockroaches, turn on the light of truth (the whole truth) and they scatter.
Noel defends his corvette shop as being non-polluting and claims he’s an environmental activist. I suppose these pictures of you, Noel, racing your pre-smog control corvettes in 2003 are forgeries and it’s not really you polluting the atmosphere with these cars? How about you’re a hypocrite and a liar?
www.jdcorvette.com/racing.htm
Before it’s over are we going to find out that Noel was the captain of the Exxon Valdez when it spilled all that diesel in Alaska?
Ooooooooooooooooo, someone hit a nerve or two, eh? How do you guys like the shoe on the other foot?
Bless you all! Someone finally found a way to shut the big mouths of Noel and Gunter. BRAVO!!!!!!
Back to the issue of the Port of Los Angeles. I have often wondered why Ralf Appy, head of the Environmental Department, didn't get fired for his incompetence. His Environmental Impact Report for the China Shipping project was so bad that it landed the Port and the City of Los Angeles in court. This EIR was so pathetic that the City had to sign a 50 Million dollar settlement agreement with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Actually, I think the cost of this stupidity is up to $80 million now, because China Shipping sued the Port too.
Perhaps Appy was just following orders from above when he spent two decades pumping out EIR's that did not follow CEQA law. Maybe he can tell us how he manages to keep his job with such a huge blemish on his record.
Inquiring minds want to know.
Oh, and if you think Parks and Gunter are the only ones out here, you're not only incompetent, you're naive too.
Noelsters,
If you guys are so upset about "retard" anonymous posters why don't you bring it up with one of your heroes, "Mayor Sam"!
I know it must be difficult to actually have to defend yourselves for once, instead of your usual tactic, a full-front personal offensive on anyone who doesn't tow the Parks-Gunter Party line, but get used to it!
Noel, should MAV ignore the 72% of us "losers", as you like to say, and support you and your buddies because you ponied up so much cash? Is that how the Port should be operated? Or should he ask us "losers" who make up the majority of town what we propose. How do you think he should play it?
Gunter, can Noel borrow any more cash? He may need it to get his point across clearer to our new Mayor. It's the path you guys chose.
How's that for staying on topic! I'd call you losers and retards but I'll respect YOUR domain.
Well, I guess the three stooges from the Port of Los Angeles made their good-bye posts at 3:00 pm. and didn't stick around to reply to my 4:30 post. There's our tax money at work. We're paying them to come in at 9:00 a.m. and leave at 3:00 p.m. Then they do nothing all day except blog their hate and ignorance. And go to lunch. We probably paid for their lunch too.
I hope MAV takes a good look at the port staff. We need some changes. The incompetence is killing us! Out with the old, in with the new. Please!!!
Regarding what noel park said...
If you can't stand the message, attack the messenger.
Isn’t that what you have been doing for years? Now that you are have to catch some s*** instead of throwing it, you start whinning and tearing up like you did in the last Board of Harbor Commissioners meeting. Love watching you on T.V.
I saw that Harbor Commission Meeting on tv too and thought Parks held his own pretty well. Nick Tonsich and Judge Lui were like two stuttering fools trying to trip him up. They really came off looking like a couple of buffoons.
Can't wait till MAV announces his new harbor commissioners. This last set was a disappointment. Nick Tonsich was shockingly unprofessional and inappropriate, and Lui kept picking at his fingernails.
What's under those fingernails? Maybe he gardens in his spare time.
With Jim and Nick gone and the other three soon to follow I look forward to the new commission. I would expect the new board to be less likely to bend over for some elements in San Pedro. With Dick having a big say in the new commission, I expect a more business oriented outlook. The pendulum swings and with Dick and Jimmy it was severely out of wack with one a corporate raider and the other the little man who was not there. The new Mayor will be more engaged and take a much more balanced approached. Hopefully they will pay more attention to Wilmington instead of letting a few loudmouths in San Pedro set the agenda. Given the post above where Noel supported the Mayor, Gibson was right, read the election results and one see that Noel is all blow and no go.
Janice is lucky that Fer can’t count. I found many of the people in San Pedro and Wilmington were disappointed they did not have a choice in the election for the 15th. But now that big brother is gone and Janice being able to alienate many of her council colleagues, who can forget the “crappy speech” comment on the council floor, one has to wonder if she will retain her seat on CENR. All in all her ability to deliver for the 15th is severely crippled. Remember Rudy and his last four years. The council sat him in the corner and ignored him. The only way he got anything was by becoming the mayor’s man servant.
I've already sat in a council meeting since big bro was gone, and Janice was absolutely not ignored. I think she is going to be stronger now that she doesn't have to worry about incriminating big bro or stepping on his toes.
Don't you mean that her big bro will not be there to clean up the mess she makes with her CRAPPY speeches and attitude?
Did someone say that they watched the Commission and that Noel held his own? If he did he it must have been with a tweezer. Although, I'm sure we can assume he is the only one that would try to hold it. I think he's tweezing it on a continual basis now.
I was pretty harsh eith you Noel because I just don't like lying hypocritcal cretins. But I even have sympathy sometimes for your ilk. It is in that spirit that Im' going to do you a minor service. Please to the California State Controller website at http://scoweb.sco.ca.gov/UCP/PropertyDetails.aspx?propertyRecID=1485899
and check uclaimed properties. One of the companies you hold in your portfolio, Tosco Refinery in Wilmington, owes you money. I'm sure the problem is that you own so many different environmentally sensitive refinery and chemical stocks that this one just slipped your mind. You don't have to thank me, but as usual: Eat diesel and die!
Hello Gunter-Don't feel bad, I haven't forgotten about you. I think its hilarious you and your pal Parks have pinned yourselves to this cross of diesel particulates. Don't you drive a Mercedes diesel, a vehicle that spews these diesel particulates? I understand you threatened to pick up your proerties and move to San Diego...are you still here? Eat Mercedes diesel and die!
I wrote in Fer's name because I cannot tolerate any more of Janice Hahn's BS. I heard that Fer had quite a few people write his name in...how many write in's did he get?
Eat diesel and die?
I guess that pretty well sums up what is happening in our community. The Port's stooges make their money, or curry their favor in the hope of advancing their agendas, and everybody else can "Eat diesel and die".
I guess it's a compliment in a sort of twisted way. If Park, Gunter, et al, can irritate the system enough to provoke this level of response from its followers, we must be accomplishing something. Thanks guys!
Actually, after what happened to poor Cynthia Ruiz, this stuff is pretty mild. I guess we will have to wait a while before the blogosphere becomes a place for reasoned discussion of public policy issues.
Thanks for watching on TV. I've always wondered if there was anybody out there.
Check it out Mayors Sam and Frank - 67 comments. Who says the blog is dead after the election? Clearly, these are hot issues. How about some more posts on this stuff?
P.S. - I have never posted anything here without using my name, so guess again as to who "anonymous" might have been.
You know Noel, there's probably another 10 or 12 items I could list here that proves you're a hypocrite and these are factual items. You're probably keeping your head low hoping that I don't know what else you've been hiding. I also noticed you didn't justify your hobby (pre-smog controlled corvette racing), the money owed to you from Tosco refinery stock, your polluting corvette shop (to hell with the Bellflower residents cuz YOU don't live there and could care less about them), or your total disregard for Wilmington residents. What's the matter "O Defender of the Environment", is your true motive becoming transparent?
This year, according to its own report, the Port's operations will emit 1600 tons of diesel particulate and 42,000 tons of oxides of nitrogen.
This will result in 150 plus premature deaths and over $1 BILLION in related health care costs to society.
The Port has expanded for 35 plus years and has done essentially nothing to mitigate its environmental impacts on the local communities.
Those are the issues.
Didn't you HELP back in '65, working hard to build the Port up? How long did you work to help bring those diesel emitting ships down here? Isn't your "Hobby" and polluting corvette repair shop contributing to the numbers you quoted? Don't you have money coming to you from your Tosco stock? How much of the "blood money" you earned in those days have you given to all the "victims" you care so much about today? THOSE ARE THE ISSUES! Put your money where your big mouth is and YOU STOP CONTRIBUTING TO THE POLLUTION IN OUR COMMUNITIES! Or is this another case of "Do as I say, not as I do"? Practice what you preach Asshole!
I keep coming on this blog to see if anything informational about the port has been posted, and you lame idiots keep posting over and over again about one guy's corvette hobby.
Do you have any idea how stupid your posts look to the rest of the THINKING world.
If you are going to engage in diversion tactics, at least do it with some intelligence.
Hmmmmmmm. Looks like the port staffers stopped posting on this thread ever since Ralf Appy's name was brought up.
Unfortunately, Cathy Covit, their biggest lap dog, is busy at the helm.
AHA! The Noelistas and Gunterettes (and their clones) don't like to have the real truth coming out about their personal picadillos, eh? It's pretty hard to maintain their facade of "protectors of the environment" when they participate in polluting themseves. I know people who actually practice what they preach. They buy hybrid automobiles, partake in local tranportation to reduce the emissions from their own cars, do all of the things a True Environmentally Conscience person does WITHOUT pontificating. Looks like Parks and Gunter prefer you not see the real people behind the curtain. It's hard to believe anything they say. Yes, they are the loud mouths who figure the skweekie wheels gets the grease and Slim Jim and Janice have catered to these "wheels" to the detrimate of the majority of CD 15. It's time to stop this insanity!
Hear, hear! Let's start working on the big picture instead of these personal agendas. For too long we have had to suffer Noel's personal projects through his rantings like he's run out of his meds. He programs his little stooges, like Gunter, to echo his bullshit. I guess bullshit begets bullshit. There is more to CD 15 than just San Pedro.
Don't miss "Political Issues Cloud San Pedro Seaside Revival", page B-1 of today's Times.
Oh, the port staffers are back.
Stop playing around on the internet and get to work fixing the big fucking mess you made.
All of CD15 is affected by your incompetence. Don't kid yourselves.
Anon 10:11 - detrimate is not a word.
I would like to see everyone get back to work and that includes these so called "do gooders" who have FUBAR'd things for their own personal interests (that means you Noel).
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