Eastview Update

EVLL is meeting tonight to finalize the construction details to build the 3 fields. The Port of LA started grading the land last week and its starting to look good.
Once they had over the land to EVLL we should be ready to roll.
Go to eastviewll.com for more details.

What's up with Eastview

I just wanted to post a update on Eastview since friends and family have asked me to keep them informed.

As of today, 8/8/2007 the board at EVLL is still excited about moving forward with Knoll Hill. The Navy land is still under consideration as a senior league site with added room for batting cages and practice facilities. The overall dimensions of the offered site is still up in the air since nothing firm has been drawn up.

On a side note I wanted to let everyone know that the President(volunteer) of EVLL, Ron Galosic has been working non stop on the Eastview project. Whatever you read in the paper MUST not be taken as fact. If you have any questions and want the truth email/call me directly.

Also, i will try to keep www.eastviewll.com updated with information as I have it.

Thanks,

Mario Amalfitano

What I think about the waterfront

1. New pedestrian crossings and walkways, including a bridge from 13Th Street to provide access to Ports O’ Call and the promenade.
A bridge?? Is this a walking bridge or a auto bridge? If anyone has the answer please let me know. Do I think its a good idea... I think it sounds good, cant hurt.

2. Three new water cuts at the north end of the harbor, downtown and Seventh Street.
Sounds great as long as they are adding retail space and pier like walk ways. Shoreline village comes to mind.

3. New public open spaces will include promenades, plazas and landscaping.
Sounds good as long as the crazy people from the insane house don't take up camp.

4. New commercial development at Ports O’ Call.
Sounds great as long as its mixed use. Stores and restaurants. Some large restaurants would be great for the area...

5. A new cruise ship terminal at Berths 45-47 (Kaiser point) in the outer harbor to accommodate more and larger cruise ships
Sounds great as long as they are going to "plug" into local power utilities. I would hate to see 3-4 large ship spitting out black smoke into our clear blue skies.

6. Enhanced transportation, including an extension of the Red Car line to Cabrillo Beach, shuttles and parking lots and parking structures within the project area
Sounds great

7. Relocation of the SS Lane Victory to the north harbor water cut
I'm really not in support of relocation of the SS Lane Victory.

8. A display structure to house the Ralph J. Scott Historic Fire boat
Great

9. A Red Car museum and maintenance facility
San Francisco comes to mind.

10. Samson Way expansion and improvements
Cant hurt.

11. New bike paths
Sure. why not.

From the Daily Breeze today

San Pedro waterfront plan revision draws contempt

"You're asking us to accept doodads, instead of going after the grand vision of it all," a resident says of changes.
By Donna Littlejohn
STAFF WRITER

At last. It appears that the Port of Los Angeles has finally found consensus on its latest waterfront plan revision.

Nearly everyone hates it.



The new, scaled-down version unveiled at a public meeting this week drew scathing criticism, raising questions about the future of the 5-year-old dream of re-creating San Pedro's west channel with commercial and recreational uses.

"We're going backward, not forward -- and we're going backward at an accelerated pace," said San Pedro business owner Herb Zimmer.

"This (new) plan is in a lot of trouble," Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn said. "I think they should scrap it and resurrect the original plan that we've all worked on for the last five years."

Almost all of the 25 speakers derided the plan. Among the more colorful project descriptions hurled at Tuesday night's meeting: B.S., a "drive-by" waterfront, piecemeal planning, a subsidy for the cruise ship industry, urban planning without imagination, a cookie-cutter version of other ports, absurd, disjointed, superfluous.

In what seemed like an impossibility, objections to the new plan were so widespread that they drew together former adversaries in a rare show of unity. Low-density and high-density proponents at this week's public hearing all appeared united in their disdain for the new plan, though perhaps for different reasons.

"Some people have dreams, but it looks like someone had a nightmare here," longtime San Pedro resident Ray Patricio said of the plan.

"I'm angry," said John Papadakis, who spearheaded the idea of a waterfront promenade years ago. "I've never heard so much B.S. in my life. Do we all look that stupid?"

The latest plan came about after port officials decided there were too many competing alternatives resulting from the dozens of community meetings and workshops that had been held through the years. The idea was to scale back the proposal, building a framework or "skeleton" only to get the basic infrastructure in place for the possibility of more development later.

But this newest version -- an attempt by the port to find a neutral way forward -- seems without any support.

"You're asking us to accept doodads, instead of going after the grand vision of it all," Papadakis told a panel of port planners who conducted this week's public meeting as they prepared to write a draft environmental report.

"I've had it up to here," he said in remarks that brought "amens" and applause from the crowd of about 100 people. "They're robbing you of your future, they're robbing your children of their future."

Several speakers Tuesday night also ripped the port's plans to build a new cruise ship terminal in San Pedro's outer harbor, saying it would ruin the natural recreation and beauty of the bay and bring yet more pollution to the port town.

"The outer harbor should be protected and not be laid waste to port sprawl," said Kathleen Woodfield of San Pedro. "Nothing in this project is for the community."

"This seems to be a plan to expand the cruise ship industry," said Richard Pavlick, president of the Crescent Area Residents Association. "The port was going to give the waterfront back to the public and I'm still waiting for that. ... Where's the grand plan?

"Give us something other than an expanded cruise ship plan. I hate to say it, but what's looking good to me is Alternative 2 -- doing no project, no action."

The new cruise terminal would include shore-side electricity to cut down on ship pollution. But critics say the ships will still pollute coming in to the area and that the business will generate more traffic.

In addition to expansion of the port's cruise ship facilities, the revised plan overall focuses on providing more public waterfront access, allowing some additional commercial development in the port, mostly around Ports O' Call, and extending the Red Car to Cabrillo Beach.

Three new water cuts also are planned -- in the north harbor area, near downtown San Pedro and on Seventh Street, which will include a town plaza.

Construction, which wouldn't begin until sometime in 2008, would take five to seven years.

Several speakers complained that the Westways liquid bulk terminal, which port officials have been trying to move for years, remains on the Main Channel under a long-term lease.

Under the current waterfront plan, a 20-year lease also will be renewed with the Jankovich & Sons fuel supply, which prompted other complaints. Port officials say the station is used to service recreational boats and is being examined as a possible facility to dispense cleaner fuels.

"Particularly unsettling is their failure to prioritize the removal of the heavy industrial uses on the west side of the Main Channel," Hahn said in an interview Wednesday. "Key to the Bridge to Breakwater plan was removing those uses and to see the promenade behind those tanks is just an insult. That was never what we intended."

Many residents Tuesday night said reducing port pollution trumps all other issues and must be considered before something like a new cruise ship terminal is built.

"It's physically sickening to breathe our air," said Amy Thornberry of San Pedro, a former competitive swimmer who said she was diagnosed this year with asthma.

Cruise ship passengers, she said, amount to "a few hapless tourists who are trapped and have no idea of the noxious spot they've wound up in. They look lost."

Others complained about the possible loss of parking near the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, parking structures that appear geared for port business rather than community uses, weak linkages between the waterfront and downtown San Pedro and the narrowing of Harbor Boulevard.

June Burlingame Smith, who heads up a port advisory panel overseeing the waterfront planning, complained that the current plan did not go through the panel's regular community review channels first.

"The current plan is a 'drive-by' plan," she said. "Drive by the waterfront; drive by downtown San Pedro; drive by the museums, monuments, restaurants and shops, to get to a cruise ship where dreams of happiness will be found in faraway foreign playgrounds. ...

"San Pedro is an artistic, historic community," Smith continued. "... (B)ut this drive-by plan leaves us high and dry on our own shores, creeping along choking arteries, hoping some cruise passengers will drive in and not by, leaving us all trying to find a parking space. ..."

Zimmer, the San Pedro business owner, complained after the meeting that the latest waterfront plan will not produce enough jobs.

"The waterfront has to produce jobs and this produces nothing," he said. "I don't see much value to this at all. ... I think 70 to 80 percent of the community pretty much is agreed that we want the waterfront to produce some jobs. It's supposed to be nice, it's supposed to draw tourists.

"The community has just had it up to their eyeballs with meetings and meetings and meetings all these years and we're going nowhere."

Ralph Appy, the port's director of environmental management, said after the three-hour public hearing that work will continue on preparing a draft environmental report that takes into account all of the comments. The public comment period remains open until Feb. 28.

The draft EIR should be released in late fall, followed by a 45-day public comment period.

Port officials said approval of a final document is anticipated to come around spring of 2008.

Hahn, however, wants the port to go back to what she called the "medium density" plan drawn up before.

"This is our one opportunity to build a world-class promenade," she said. "We're not going to get another shot at it."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

u25A0New pedestrian crossings and walkways, including a bridge from 13th Street to provide access to Ports O’ Call and the promenade

u25A0Three new water cuts at the north end of the harbor, downtown and Seventh Street

u25A0New public open spaces will include promenades, plazas and landscaping

u25A0New commercial development at Ports O’ Call

u25A0A new cruise ship terminal at Berths 45-47 (Kaiser point) in the outer harbor to accommodate more and larger cruise ships

u25A0Enhanced transportation, including an extension of the Red Car line to Cabrillo Beach, shuttles and parking lots and parking structures within the project area

u25A0Relocation of the SS Lane Victory to the north harbor water cut

u25A0A display structure to house the Ralph J. Scott Historic Fireboat

u25A0A Red Car museum and maintenance facility

u25A0Samson Way expansion and improvements

u25A0New bike paths


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

donna.littlejohn@dailybreeze.com

San Pedro Chamber of Commerce

The mission of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce is to promote, support and advocate the interests of the business community, by actively working to develop a vital and sustainable local economy that also enhances the social and environmental resources of the community.
It's our vision to make San Pedro a better place to live, work and visit.

YOU COULD BE OUR NEXT HONORARY MAYOR!Yes, believe it or not, it’s already been nearly two years since Anthony Misetich was elected our Honorary Mayor. The race for the 2007-2009 Honorary Mayor of San Pedro will kick off on February 1st, with applications being accepted through February 28th. Fundraising events and campaigns for approved candidates will occur after the official kick-off ceremony in early-mid March, and continue until 5:00pm on the evening before the Chamber’s Annual Installation Luncheon.
The winning contestant is the one who raises the most funds for their sponsoring non-profit organization, plain and simple. The winner will serve for two years and will be provided opportunities to participate as one of the dignitaries at numerous community events, functions and meetings as a representative of the community and a representative of the Chamber.
For an application and a copy of the Honorary Mayor’s Race rules and guidelines, please contact the Chamber at (310) 832-7272, drop by the office, or click here to download the information.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS INFORMATION AVAILABLEThe Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) have developed "Open for Business: A Disaster Planning Toolkit for the Small Business Owner. The kit is designed to help you identify the hazards you may face, plan for and reduce the impact of disasters, keep your doos open after a disaster hits, and advise you on insurance, disaster supplies and the things you can do to make your business more disaster-resistant. Click here for this kit in Adobe Acrobat format.
FEMA and the American Red Cross have produced "Preparing for Disaster," a good general-information brochure, which can be obtained by clicking here.
Additional information can be found at http://www.fema.gov/http://www.redcross.org/and at http://www.ready.gov/

What's going on in San Pedro

NORTHWEST SAN PEDRO NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
Upcoming Events*

1/20 9:30 - 1:00 pm Citywide Alliance of Neighborhood Councils Forum,Faculty Center, Los Angeles City College (on Vermont Ave., 1 Block north of Melrose in East Hollywood) www.allncs.org

9:00 – 1:00 Strengthening Neighborhoods (DONE sponsored), Marvin Braude Center, Room 1B, 6262 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys, CA 91401

1/22 6:30 pm, NWSPNC Special Board and Community Meeting, Peck Park

1/23 6:00 – 8:30 pm, San Pedro Waterfront Scoping Meeting, Crowne Plaza, 601 S. Palos Verdes St.

6:00 pm Committee on Port Safety and Security (COPSS), The Port Plaza Room, Boys’ & Girls Club, 100 W. 5th Street.

1/24 6:00 pm NWSPNC Issues Committee, San Pedro City Hall, Room 452

1/27 9 – 3; Tree People, Greening Workshop, Wilmington, contact leremita@treepeople.org or 818-623-4878

1/30 Deadline for submitting comments on the Ponte Vista Draft Environmental Impact Review - see http://www.nwsanpedro.org/ for details

5:30 pm, NWSPNC Port Committee, San Pedro City Hall, Room 452

2/1 8:30 am, Board of Harbor Commissioners, Port of LA, 425 S. Palos Verdes, Board Room

2/2 6:00 pm , Bandini Canyon Trail Project Update, Bandini Elementary School Cafeteria, 425 N. Bandini St.

2/3 9:00 – 1:00 Strategic Planning (DONE sponsored), TBD

2/6 5:30 pm NWSPNC Fireworks Committee, Java City (Park Plaza)

6:30 pm NWSPNC Outreach Committee, Java City (Park Plaza)

6:30 pm Board of Neighborhood Council Commissioners (BONC), Los Angeles

2/7 4:30 pm, PCAC Air Quality Sub Committee, Port of LA, 425 S. Palos Verdes, Board Room

2/12 6:30 pm NWSPNC Board and Community Meeting, Peck Park

2/17 9:00 – 1:00, Public Trust, how to manage conflict & build consensus (DONE sponsored), Sunland/Tujunga Municipal, 7747 Foothill Blvd.Tujunga

2/21 6:30 NWSPNC Youth and Education, Coco’s

2/24 2:00 pm School Board Candidates Forum, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium Auditorium

2/28 Deadline for submitting comments on the San Pedro Waterfront NOP. Comments should be sent to c31acomments@portla.org and spencer.d.macneil@usace.army.mil

3/3 9:00 – 1:00, Marketing/Communications (DONE sponsored), TBD

4/24 Chamber/Neighborhood Council Mixer

* The above are community meetings of potential interest to Northwest San Pedro. Unless specifically stated they are not sponsored by the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council. All NWSPNC Committee Meeting Agendas and information about many of the other events contained herein can be at http://www.nwsanpedro.org/. Agendas are posted 72 hours in advance of meetings.