A Power Shift to the Port Side

It’s been a bountiful election season in the port communities of San Pedro and Wilmington, where residents have long complained that decisions affecting their lives are made 26 miles to the north in Los Angeles City Hall.

Mayor-elect James K. Hahn lives in a modest home in San Pedro, as does his sister, Janice, newly elected to the City Council for the area’s 15th District.

There’s more. The mayor-elect’s chief of staff, Timothy McOsker, also lives in San Pedro. And the new mayor is expected to appoint new harbor commissioners, at least three of whom will be selected from the southern seaside portion of his sister’s district, which stretches north to Watts.

Skeptics and activists involved in the current port-area secession movement are taking a wait-and-see attitude, after years of feeling bullied by polluting port expansion projects and ignored by City Hall. But many others in the communities are buzzing with a more upbeat vision: Hahn and Hahn ordering up a new era of better city services and more local involvement in the world’s third-largest port.

“Things couldn’t be better; this election has put us on the map,” chirped Jim Cross, president of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce. “We have power and influence we’ve never had before.”

Janice Hahn promised that the port-area communities will “get so much attention they won’t know what to do with it all.”

“Think about it: The mayor of Los Angeles lives in San Pedro and drives over its potholes, walks down its cracked sidewalks and under its untrimmed trees,” she added. “We won’t have to scream and yell about these issues anymore. The right thing to do will be evident to downtown decision-makers.”

Nonetheless, the Hahns have their work cut for them in the ethnically diverse working-class communities, which include 4% of the city’s population. And it remains to be seen whether they will be able to cool down the movement to secede from Los Angeles and create an independent harbor-area city. And the new mayor can’t be seen as playing favorites with one district at the expense of the rest of the sprawling city. Many harbor-area residents will be watching closely to see whether James Hahn chooses to continue living in San Pedro or move to the mayor’s Getty Mansion in Hancock Park.

In a statement released this week, the mayor-elect said: “Our family has not yet made a decision about whether to move, but we know that we are very fortunate to live in a San Pedro neighborhood.”

Anger and resentment run highest in neighborhoods that have perennially criticized the city Harbor Department for planning new cargo terminals without regard for local concerns about open space, air pollution and road damage from truck traffic.

Last week,local environmentalists and residents filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against construction of a massive port project to accommodate China Shipping Co. The lawsuit says new environmental reviews are needed to study diesel exhaust as a cancer-causing pollutant from the project, which was unanimously approved by the City Council in May.

Many people in the port communities have expressed disappointment in their elected officials over the years.

Sipping a fruit drink in a local cafe, neighborhood activist Doug Epperhart, who campaigned for Janice Hahn, was blunt: “There will be no honeymoon for Hahn and Hahn. If it’s business as usual, there will be hell to pay. If Jim Hahn does not change relations with the port, we will picket on his front lawn. If that doesn’t work, we’ll push for secession.”

Because of its geography, San Pedro, one of the oldest communities in the state, has always enjoyed a sense of isolation. With just two roads leading in and out of town and hills blocking it off from the Los Angeles Basin, residents stress their separateness. “It’s why I live here,” Epperhart said.

For Noel Park, president of the San Pedro and Peninsula Homeowners Assn., which represents an estimated 40,000 people, “Mayor Hahn’s credibility for the foreseeable future will be determined by who he appoints to the Harbor Commission.”

“We are in a battle for survival,” he said. “If the port continues to stonewall the community, we will have no choice but to direct our energies toward escaping from Los Angeles.”

In April, a study by the Local Agency Formation Commission said an independent harbor-area city would have a hard time economically. But a secession group has challenged those findings and said a municipality of 179,000 residents of San Pedro and Wilmington would be viable and provide better services.

Harbor Commission President John C. Wentworth, who last week submitted a letter of resignation, insisted that efforts to improve the port’s relationship with San Pedro and Wilmington are well underway.

But even he acknowledged that “there’s plenty of fault on both sides.”

He criticized San Pedro community leaders for what he called a general “lack of political sophistication” and for overall contentiousness. He added, however, “It is also true that the port has a history of being unresponsive, doing things without regard for the community, and being generally insulting.”

Given the ongoing tensions, he asked, “Are the Hahns a political windfall? They will be if they and the port can develop programs that the community can rally around.”

That remains to be seen. Sticking points include proposals to develop a parcel off 22nd Street and rebuild Ports o’ Call, a once-popular cluster of waterfront shops and restaurants that has fallen on hard times. A port proposal to demolish San Pedro’s Knoll Hill to make way for container storage has sparked a series of acrimonious community forums.

Then there are the hundreds of tanker rail cars parked each night just west of Ports o’ Call, containing an array of flammable and hazardous solvents.

“The concern here is over a growing wall of lights, trucks, cranes, containers, cargo ships--and all the hazardous pollutants that come with them--in an area that not all that long ago was a very beautiful place,” said local activist Janet Schaaf-Gunter.

As residents of San Pedro, the Hahns have experienced the problems firsthand.

In campaign advertisements tailored for the San Pedro area, James Hahn trumpeted rhetorical questions: “Shouldn’t the next mayor . . . be someone who lives in the harbor area? Wouldn’t you rather vote for a local person who knows what we want and need?”

He promised to support such projects as the revitalization of Ports o’ Call and plans for a greenbelt around Knoll Hill.

In a statement to The Times, Hahn reiterated that he is “looking forward to working with the City Council, including the councilwoman from the 15th District, to identify the issues and projects that are most important to local residents.”

“Secession is the result of residents not getting what they believe is their fair share of city services,” he said. “I want to keep this city together, and I am going to work hard to make sure that every neighborhood gets its fair share.”

Gertrude and Bill Schwab of the Wilmington North Neighborhood Assn. are optimistic about having local siblings perched atop the city’s political hierarchy, and want to give him a chance to do just that.

“Jim and Janice are going to come out swinging for our communities,” Bill Schwab said. “But, yes, they will have to work hard to overcome the secession movement.”

“I think they’re terrific for us,” added his wife. “We’ve been nothing but a whipping post, and dumping grounds, for the city for too long.”