Barrier Rift

The Berlin Wall came tumbling down when the Cold War ended 11 years ago. Now some neighborhood leaders from the harbor area complain that the Port of Los Angeles wants to resurrect it in Wilmington.

The harbor is planning to construct a 20-foot-high, three-quarter-mile-long concrete wall that will separate the fast-growing port from an impoverished section of Wilmington.

Officials of the Los Angeles city Harbor Department say that the barrier, one or two feet thick, will protect nearby neighborhoods from noise, truck traffic and eyesores caused by new cargo operations and the realignment of a major transportation artery.

But many neighbors say that they do not want it. Every vandal with a paint can, they say, will flock to the wall to fill the vast expanse with graffiti. At least eight streets will be blocked, they add, and Wilmington will be increasingly cut off from the very harbor that has defined that Los Angeles neighborhood.

Instead of a wall, residents and neighborhood leaders would like a landscaped earthen berm with trees, walkways and stairs to the top so people can view the waterfront. It is the least the port can do, they say, for a community that has been hit hard by the worst side effects of port expansion.

The proposed site is about 35 feet from a gritty, low-income neighborhood that is already hemmed in by oil refineries, the Harbor Freeway and busy cargo terminals. Forty-foot shipping containers are everywhere, and the air is thick with the scent of diesel exhaust from the constant truck traffic that rumbles through the community.

“I’ll be able to open up my front door, and say, ‘Hello, wall,’ ” said Lucy Mejia, a leader of a Wilmington neighborhood organization who lives on Bayview Street, near the site. “If the port wants to be a good neighbor, they should plant trees and leave the streets open.”

Both sides say that the long-standing disagreement is shaping up to be a test of the port’s new policy of improving relations with San Pedro and Wilmington, which have endured increasing air pollution, industrial blight and truck traffic from the harbor’s growth in cargo operations.

Two weeks ago, port officials, taking their cue from Mayor Richard Riordan, launched an initiative to improve communications with waterfront communities and give them more say in planning. The wall is one of seven projects targeted for the new approach.

“We want to hear what people think,” said Larry Keller, the port’s executive director. “This is going to be a permanent fixture in their neighborhoods. If people help, I think we can have a good project.”

The wall is part of a $40-million proposal to add terminal space and relocate a mile of railroad track and Harry Bridges Boulevard, a four-lane road that is heavily used by trucks. They will be moved about a block north, almost to C Street. The wall will extend from Figueroa Street to just past Neptune Street while the realignment will continue two blocks farther to Fries Avenue.

Plans call for Bridges to be widened to at least six lanes. Once the road and tracks are moved, the port will add 25 acres for shipping containers at the TraPac cargo terminal.

As conceived, the wall will run in a straight line along the south side of C Street and be complemented on the neighborhood side by a jogging path, a bikeway, shrubs and trees. Although the design and costs have not been finalized, the barrier might be built of textured concrete blocks.

Port officials say that the wall is necessary to reduce noise from Harry Bridges Boulevard and to prevent trucks from cutting through the residential neighborhood on the north side of C Street, something the community has wanted for years. It also will mask an unsightly view of shipping containers stored at the expanded TraPac facility.

The port is acquiring the last two parcels of private property for the project. Officials say they hope to buy the land this year, but a schedule for the entire project has not been set yet.

Many citizens and community groups have opposed the wall since the mid-1990s when it was approved by the Harbor Commission. The controversy then simmered for several years. Recent progress on the plan and the port’s new outreach effort have prompted opponents to renew their efforts, including meetings with Riordan and other city officials.

“The port’s idea is not acceptable,” said Skip Baldwin, a co-founder with Mejia of the Wilmington Citizens Committee, a homeowners group. “A park-style project would be better or some kind of environmental buffer. We don’t need the Berlin Wall.”

That committee has begun circulating a petition that calls for parkland on a large part of the property set aside for the barrier.

Opponents of the wall say that a park would be better for the neighborhood, which has become increasingly impoverished. The area is filled with rundown houses and apartments. Near the site of the wall are Dana Strand and Harbor Vista, two city housing projects where about 600 poor families live in plain stucco buildings.

The wall, critics say, is just another symbol of the port’s insensitivity to Wilmington and potentially more fuel for the secession effort now under way in the harbor area.

Among other things, opponents doubt that the barrier will significantly reduce dust, noise and air pollution in the nearby neighborhood because Harry Bridges Boulevard will be moved to within 40 feet of the nearest homes.

They also say that eight streets will be blocked on one end, cutting access to the area, and gang members will loiter along the wall, aggravating the already high crime rate in the neighborhood.

“It’s just a fresh piece of concrete for the graffiti artists,” said Gertrude Schwab, a former harbor commissioner who heads the North Wilmington Neighborhood Assn. “The port isn’t doing anything for the community by building this thing. It’s just a slap in the face.”

Schwab, who served on the commission in 1994, opposed the wall during her tenure.

Port officials dispute some of the criticism, saying that sound attenuation walls are effective and that this one is significantly higher than many freeway walls. And they say major streets near the project, such as Fries and Figueroa, will not be blocked by the wall.

Gang members might not frequent the area, they add, because their avenues of escape from police will be limited. If there is graffiti, harbor officials promise to quickly remove it.

Keller, the port director, noted that when the Harbor Department first queried the community about the wall in the mid-1990s, many people wanted a barrier to reduce potential problems from the realignment project.

“The real genesis was the community itself. They asked for the wall as a way to shield them from noise and trucks,” Keller said. “It was the people on the north side of C Street and the people at Dana Strand.”

While there may have been some support for the wall back then, there also were indications of substantial opposition, including a petition signed by 300 people and public meetings at which the majority appeared to oppose the proposal.

Neighborhood Meetings Planned

“I have never, never, never supported the wall,” said Daisy Molina, a community outreach worker and former president of the Dana Strand residents association. “Where are our elected officials? Why aren’t they helping us?”

Dana Strand managers say the turnover rate of residents is so high in the area that if there were any supporters of the wall they probably have moved away. They called for a new round of public opinion surveys and meetings to assess where the community stands.

The port is doing just that. John C. Wentworth, president of the Harbor Commission, said that public meetings will be held and that initial surveys of the neighborhood show “a real ambivalence” to the barrier.

“Now, we are getting the impression that the wall is not supported as much as we had thought,” Wentworth said. “We will be going out to community members to see what they want. We will try to work something out that meets our requirements and theirs.”

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Walled Off

The Port of Los Angeles wants to build a three-quarter-mile-long wall to separate the harbor from Wilmington. The controversial wall would be 20 feet high and a foot or two wide as shown in the rendering below.