More Traffic Officers, Substation Promised for Harbor Area

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation will open a substation in the harbor area this spring, to be staffed by up to 10 civilian officers who will enforce parking regulations and direct traffic, Mayor Tom Bradley announced Thursday.

In addition, Bradley announced, he and harbor-area Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores have appointed 11 citizens to a committee that will identify traffic “hot spots” in Wilmington, San Pedro, Harbor City and Harbor Gateway and suggest remedies to government officials.

The mayor made his statements at an outdoor press conference on busy John S. Gibson Boulevard, in front of the city Police Department’s harbor area headquarters. He said the substation and traffic committee are part of his overall plan for “achieving free-flowing traffic” in Los Angeles.

The city now has three parking enforcement officers assigned to the harbor area, but those officers work out of a substation about 10 miles north of the district.

Operating the new substation will cost about $700,000 a year, including the officers’ salaries. The mayor said he expected the Harbor Department to pay for part of the cost and said revenue generated by additional parking tickets will pay for the rest.

Location Not Decided

Bradley said he expected the new substation to open in March, although Bob Yates, the city parking administrator, said a date later in the spring is more likely. Yates said the city has not determined where the substation will be located.

The Harbor Area Traffic Mobility Action Committee will be composed of 11 citizens and eight government officials. It is one of six such committees the mayor has established in Los Angeles. Others are in Westwood, Century City, Hollywood, the San Fernando Valley and the Westchester-Los Angeles International Airport area.

Both the mayor and Flores said the committee is intended to benefit from the views of local residents, who know best where the traffic problems are. Flores said she did not want to minimize the importance of experts such as traffic engineers, but added: “I don’t think you really get a handle on what traffic is unless you’re sitting in it, waiting for it to move, and it’s not moving.”

The new committee will join a collection of other groups already studying traffic in the harbor area. The Port of Los Angeles, in response to complaints from Wilmington residents who say port-related traffic is destroying their residential neighborhoods, has put together a task force to come up with a traffic route for trucks that use the port.

In addition, Flores announced last week that she expects the city to hire a consultant to develop a port transportation plan, which will pinpoint areas where traffic improvements are needed. Those improvements, as well as the consultant’s fee, will be financed by private companies in the port area that will be assessed fees based on the amount of traffic they generate. The money will go into a trust fund.

Various Tasks

Flores said that the citizens committee appointed Thursday would handle short-term traffic problems, while the consultant will focus on the long-term and the Harbor Department task force will concentrate specifically on the port.

“I think people get tired of committees that don’t do anything,” Flores added. “But the people in the harbor area who have served on committees have always come up with good recommendations and suggestions. . . . I don’t know if it works in other areas, but I know task forces work down here, and that’s why the mayor and I use them so much.”

One of the committee members, Peter Mendoza, is president of the Wilmington Home Owners, a group which has complained loudly and often about traffic problems in the harbor area. Mendoza, who has chided officials in the past for setting up too many committees without taking any action, said Thursday he agreed with Flores.

Action Needed

“Study is the first phase of any action,” Mendoza said. He added, however, that “just to study without taking any action . . . would be a serious mistake.”

Other citizens on the committee are: Nate DiBiasi of the International Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s Union; Jackie Haas of the Wilmington and Harbor City chambers of commerce; Bud Hudson of the chambers’ joint transportation committee; Howard Mann of Andrex Development Co.; Noah Modisett, president of the San Pedro & Peninsula Homeowners’ Coalition; Ralph Chadwick of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce; Joann Valle, president of the Harbor City Coordinating Council; Rick Gaydos, chairman of Flores’ port transportation committee; Charles Stevenson of Wilmington, and George Becker of Harbor City.

The committee’s government representatives are: Jerry Grimaldi of the city Community Redevelopment Agency; Capt. Thomas Elfmont of the Los Angeles Police Department; Sam Botwin, city planning commissioner; Ed Rowe, acting general manager of the city Department of Transportation; Steve Lantz of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission; Dominic Comparsi, representing U. S. Rep. Glenn M. Anderson (D-Harbor City); Tommy Chung of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, and Ron Kennedy, director of operations for the Port of Los Angeles.