San Pedro Central

The monthly First Thursday artwalk is Feb. 4 in downtown San Pedro. Highlights include:

• An exhibit at the Croatian Cultural Center, 510 W. 7th St., by a 12-year-old photographer.

• The unveiling of a labor mural by Slobodan Dimitrov at La Salle Lofts, 200 block of West Seventh Street, at 4:30 p.m.

• A free guided tour of select galleries, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Off the Vine Wines, 491 W. Sixth St. Participants are invited to join in a $5 wine tasting before the hour-long tour.

Under a grant from the LA Community Redevelopment Agency, fINdings Art Center is now coordinating First Thursday. For more information, call Annette Ciketic at (310) 489-1362.

Today’s Daily Breeze reports at length on the San Pedro High School reform meeting Thursday, attended by an estimated 1,300 people.

The February issue of San Pedro Today has a cover story on The Corner Store, plus commentaries by eight community leaders.

On the heels of the movement to bring the USS Iowa to San Pedro comes the idea to do likewise for the newly decommissioned nuclear submarine USS Los Angeles.

LA school board member Dick Vladovic penned a letter to the editor sharply critical of the cell phone towers near Taper Avenue Elementary School.

This news was kept on the down-low until it was too late: Canetti’s Seafood Grotto has closed.

On a related note, the Los Angeles Times published a Papadakis retrospective as the restaurant serves its final dinner on Jan. 31.

By Doug Epperhart

The city’s chief administrative officer has issued a report recommending that neighborhood councils not be funded for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Instead of the $45,000 allocated to each council in 2009, they’d get zero. And any money left over from this fiscal year would also be taken.

What would that mean for San Pedro?

• No more money for beautification along North Gaffey.
• No more money for trees in Central San Pedro.

• No more money for programs and projects at Point Fermin, 15th Street, Taper Avenue, San Pedro High, and other schools.

• No more money for Shakespeare by the Sea, Little Fish Theatre, Warner Grand movies, Music by the Sea, or any other community events and groups.

• No more Coastal Currents or Northwest Advocate newsletters.

But, it also means those of us who have given years of volunteer time to neighborhood councils will not just fade from the scene or go away. We will still be here, fighting for our families and our neighbors and our community.

It’s true the city of Los Angeles is on the verge of bankruptcy. Revenues continue to decline faster than the city can cut its expenses. This is why the mayor proposes selling off parking meters and structures to a private operator, something many of us neighborhood council activists oppose. One likened the short-term gain to selling off grandma’s good silver to buy a bottle of scotch.

If you want to get a handle on what will happen at City Hall next week, go to www.budgetla.org, a website created by L.A.’s neighborhood councils.

Meanwhile, call Councilwoman Janice Hahn, (310) 732-4515, and Mayor Villaraigosa’s Harbor Area representative, Ricardo Hong, (310) 732-4632, and let them know how you feel about this attempt to kill neighborhood councils. Or email councilwoman.hahn@lacity.org and Ricardo.hong@lacity.org.

By the way, the report doesn’t recommend touching the councilmembers’ $179,000 salaries or their office budgets or slush funds. You might want to offer an opinion about that, too.
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Doug Epperhart is a San Pedro business owner, community leader and member of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck outlined his priorities before an audience of civic leaders at a San Pedro luncheon Thursday.

Beck identified Constitutional policing – that is, following the law to enforce the law – plus crime reduction and terrorism prevention as some of his goals for the department. He also expressed deep concern for the wellbeing of officers, a number of whom are facing a “perfect storm” of reduced overtime pay and difficulties paying their mortgages and keeping their homes.

Beck said he comes to San Pedro at least once a week to visit his parents, George and Elma, longtime San Pedro residents.

Sponsored by the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce, the luncheon recognized nine volunteer organizations supporting the LAPD Harbor Division. The Harbor Area Boosters Assn., Harbor Area Cadets, Harbor LITES, the Harbor Area Community Police Advisory Board, the Teen Community Police Advisory Board, the Harbor Area Volunteer Corps, the Harbor Area Reserve Corps, the Weed and Seed Project, and the Harbor Area Crisis Response Team received certificates of appreciation for their service.