Faux Train Wreck Downtown

I was out driving this afternoon and noticed that there's a ton of filming going on downtown, with the centerpiece being a train wreck scenario at the intersection of 6th and Harbor. So if you feel like soaking up the magic of Hollywood, go take a peek.

Massive Police Raid in Wilmington

Don't worry, the 400 police and agents aren't wasting our tax dollars shutting down Wilmington's taco trucks, it's a gang raid. The gang targeted is the 75 member Eastside Pain, who are centered around an area affectionately known as "Ghost Town." About 30 or so arrests were made.

Anyone know where Ghost Town is or anything about the Eastside Pain? I'm not familiar with either of them.

Daily Breeze coverage

LA Times coverage

“This is where trucks come to die”

The above quote is by Port of LA spokesperson Arely Baker, from the LA Weekly article A Heavy Load, which is featured on the cover of this week's issue. The eight page article focuses entirely on the drivers and their struggles as the Port tries to clean itself up, re-organize the way truckers are employed, and replace hundreds of aging trucks.

The article highlights the disparities between the non-union and the union workers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. While doing similar jobs one group has managed to build a secure workplace for itself and the workers of the other are barely getting by.

This quote is from Chicho, a truck driver, addressing his frustration at the class division between the organized workers of the ILWU and the non-organized t -

“The longshoremen have a lot of ideas, they have power,” Chicho says. “And whoever organizes the truckers — Teamsters, Wobbly, whatever — they choose the driver. If the longshoremen could take over the drivers, that would be powerful. Then they have all the power. But right now, the way things are, the longshoremen is afraid to share with the driver his economy.

“Who controls the drivers controls the pier, and who controls the pier controls the container. And who controls the container,” Chicho concludes, “controls the economy in this country.”

Local 63 Ready to Strike - Impasse?

Well, given the feelings and statements in the "Breeze is Sinking" post, and given the completely vague coverage that's been done nearly everywhere about this story, I'm not going to place bets on anything related to the Local 63 Marine Clerks contract negotiations, but the Breeze has an update indicating that the Clerks are ready to strike.

From the article

“Talks are over. … We’ve gone as far as we could go and done everything we could do,” Fageaux said in comments to the radio station. “The next step is we’re going to get together with our group and determine when and where picket signs are going to go up.” - John Fageaux Jr., president of the Local 63 Office Clerical Unit of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union

UPDATE - Apparently they're talking again, according to the LA Times.

FURTHER UPDATE - Both the Times and the Breeze are reporting that an agreement has been reached that will prevent a strike. Local 63 Members will vote on the deal next week. The new contract features a 7% raise over three years and a $3.4 million trust fund for employees health care and pension plans.

Container Ship Casualties

Saw this on Boing Boing today. A whole website devoted to images of container ships in trouble, for those of us who love, work with or just are interested in these behemoth instruments of international commerce.

The gutting of the Breeze continues...

Word around the cooler is that the transition from the Copley Press to Dean Singleton's Los Angeles Newspaper Group has not been good. Morale is very, very low. People are leaving in droves. The paper considered the paper of record for the South Bay is adrift.

Does anyone care? It doesn't look like it. It appears that The Breeze is destined to die a slow and tragic death at the hands of a beast called media consolidation. Its writers, an undeniably talented bunch, are now competing for resources with the Daily News, and do not appear to be a priority for LANG.

Here's a list of things that have taken place since the transfer:

- The entire janitorial staff was laid off.
- All of the pressmen, who were union, were laid off too.
- Some ad people whose jobs overlapped with other existing Singleton ad folks were laid off also.
- Any extra costs have been removed, they ask the staff not to mail copies of stories to sources because of the postage costs. All of the plastic forks, spoons, knives, napkins, and condiments (salt, pepper) are no longer provided in the eating room.
- The soda vending machine was unplugged and a sign was placed on it that said it will not sell cold drinks anymore.
- One of the photographers who developed a medical condition that prevented her from lifting heavy things, e.g., a camera was axed.
- A good amount of people are leaving, one without even giving notice.
- The introduction of a section known as LA.com was widely panned by readers, receiving 53 comments, nearly all of them negative, on the Breeze's website. [link]

The sad part is the people leaving were some of the most talented people at the Breeze and the people they're replacing them with are for the most part fresh from college with little experience. One by one, the great newspapers are losing their identities to large corporate conglomerates. Who will offer solid investigative journalism and challenge powerful interests in the South Bay?

"It's a generally sorry state of affairs with most of the people I've talked to looking to get out of the paper. Though Copley wasn't the greatest publisher in the world, they at least paid and treated their people well." -- a Breeze alum

Can the Ports Clean the Air Without Choking the Economy?

That's the title of the Zocalo lecture taking place at Banning's Landing tomorrow night. Zocalo is a KPCC radio program, billed as "A Cultural Forum for the New LA." Should be of interest to some of us.

Here's their spiel

“Can the Ports Clean the Air Without Choking the Economy?”
Moderated by Rick Wartzman, Director of The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach—which together make up the nation's busiest harbor complex and one of the key engines of the Southern California economy—are poised for an 18-Wheel Revolution. In April, they unveiled a plan to slash diesel pollution from the 16,000 trucks that haul goods to nearby rail yards and warehouses by 80%. And that's only the beginning. The plan—which still needs final approval--also seeks to upgrade conditions for truck drivers, who some say work in virtual "sweatshops on wheels." But is the plan practical? Will it undermine the ports competitiveness' and drive trade elsewhere? Is it just a backdoor way for the Teamsters union to organize drivers? Key players from both sides of this battle along the waterfront--S. David Freeman, president of the L.A. board of Harbor Commissioners, Patricia Castellanos, co-director of the Clean and Safe Ports Campaign, transportation policy consultant Nancy Pfeffer, and Ken Devine, president of Globe Con Freight Systems--visit Zócalo to hash it out.

RSVP here to reserve a seat.

Help Fix Gaffey Street! (Update)

First, the good news:

It appears someone is listening. Some of the worst parts of Gaffey near the entrance to the 110 freeway were recently patched. I saw two sections of road that were recently resurfaced.

Second, the bad news:
It's completely inadequate. The remaining section of the street from 1st to 25th is still a disaster. Potholes, crevices and cracks are everywhere. Perhaps an outside donor could be approached to fund the project...you know, one whose development is going to add thousands of new cars to San Pedro? He recently offered $1 million to the city. That's a paltry sum, given his potential profit. At a minimum, he should be made to pay for the complete resurfacing of Gaffey Street. If he knows what's good for him, he'll do it.

more info:
[link]

What's up with the clerks?

So there was maybe going to be a walkout last night, but there wasn't, and both the Times and the Breeze have somewhat vague articles on the subject. All the sort-of-news that's fit to print, here at Life on the Edge!

Given the national significance of anything that stops work at the Port, it's almost shocking how little public coverage or real knowledge there is about the current negotiations.

Crazy Car Chase

Anyone hear anything about a weird high speed chase over at Berth 87 yesterday? I was over at Enterprise, picking up a rental van and I saw two black and white's chasing what looked like a white Honda civic around in circles and figure eights out on the dock. After they finally cornered the car, they tackled the hell out of the driver. I wasn't sure if they were goofing off or if it was a real incident, because I've seen the police having a lot of "slow day on the job" fun on the dock, racing their faux-Segways around and such.

Anyways, anybody hear anything about it?

Possible Strike at the Port?

I'm out of town right now, but I just caught this item in the Daily Breeze. Anybody have the on the ground scoop on the state of negotiations? I hadn't heard mention of the clerks contract before I left town, and none of my ILWU buddies mentioned it, so it comes to me as a bit of a surprise.