AT LENGTH - Anyone who has spent time driving the neighborhoods of San Pedro knows the frustration of driving down some street and having one of your neighbors double-parked, blocking the lane just to drop-off or pick up somebody right in front of their house. Especially when there is a perfectly good parking space not 20 feet away.
It is annoying how oblivious they are. Yet it happens so often that it is just taken for granted as a part of the culture of doing things here. In other words, it's considered “normal,” even though inconsiderate and actually illegal. I've never seen anyone get a ticket for it.
People generally have the best excuses for being oblivious, like picking up their children or an aging grandmother and not wishing them to walk too far. But hey, why not park the car, get out, and help them the extra few yards?
I only mention this because this obliviousness is kind of symbolic for the way San Pedro and much of the greater Los Angeles area operates. We spend a great deal of time avoiding getting stuck behind people who are parked and not moving. The congenital rush-hour traffic jam on the 405 Freeway is a worst-case extension of how oblivious we are in pursuit of our own individual lives, making things chaotic for everyone else.
Mass transit is an option, but as most of us who have lived here for any length of time know, it's never been quite effective unless you are without a car and have to use it.
We vote for transit funding and bullet trains knowing this is logical, but the benefits are years if not decades in the making, especially here in the southern part of Los Angeles.
It would make all the sense in the world to connect LAX to the Port of LA by light rail to facilitate the half million cruise ship passengers a year and to get area residents to and from the airport without getting into their cars.
There's even an existing rail line that could be used, but there is no coordinated political will to pursue this solution, even though there is “a plan” residing in some office of the now defunct Community Redevelopment Agency-Los Angeles.
Like most things, they don't get fixed unless they’re broken. So we will wait until there is gridlock on the 405 24-7 and we say hello?
However, getting to the breaking point may come sooner than expected with the arrival of the USS Iowa to the Port of Los Angeles with the addition of the Crafted center and a bunch of summer events that the port has planned that will bring the throngs from everywhere who will attempt to “rediscover San Pedro”.
If any of the planned (or yet unplanned events) draw the kinds of crowds that past Tall Ships or Navy Days events have, the Harbor Freeway may end up looking like a parking lot south of the 405 on certain days.
Meanwhile the port and the USS Iowa, scheduled to arrive in mid-May 2012 and open by June 24, continue to discuss the litany of permits that they'll need pursuant to them actually getting a lease at the port. Everyone is scrambling to get ready for this grandest of events and expectations are running high. Will there be enough parking and can there be signage to it directing tourists to the down town area?
How are the various groups coordinating their marketing efforts and are all the players in this loose confederacy of tourism and commerce actually sharing information? Or will some of them simply park their car in the street to pickup grandma?
I'm not sure that anyone is actually prepared for this summer to be wildly successful, even with all of the assurances being made. The merchants of Sixth Street seem to be especially unprepared. They have been promised so many times in the past that one thing or the other is going to be “huge!” And it turned out to be for naught.
There are a lot of things coming into place that just might, and I repeat…“might” change the face of San Pedro, its waterfront and the rough edged reputation that the rest of Los Angeles relegates to Pedro.
How the “spin” about this town will be manipulated by all of the cyber jockeys, bloggers, PR pros, and media boosters is anyone’s guess. But one thing is certain, we will have a very big ship parked by the side of the main channel for the foreseeable future and somebody is going to take notice!
Luckily, it won't be double parked waiting to pick someone up with its lights flashing!
(James Preston Allen is the Publisher of Random Lengths News and an occasional contributor to CityWatch. More of Allen and other views and news at randomlengthsnews.com where this column was first posted) –cw
Tags: James Preston Allen, At Length, San Pedro, USS Iowa, Los Angeles
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 33
Pub: Apr 24, 2012