City Council on the Road : In Rare Sojourn, Lawmakers Hold Meeting in San Pedro

In a city that stretches 45 miles from its harbor to the foothills and that consumes an area larger than Boston, Denver, Detroit and Philadelphia combined, the biggest challenge facing some Los Angeles residents isn’t fighting City Hall. It is getting there.

For years, Angelenos living in outposts from Wilmington to Sylmar have grumped and groaned about their government in exile--that towering bureaucracy trapped worlds away in the muddle of one-way streets, no-parking zones and panhandlers known as downtown.

On Wednesday, for only the second time in its history, the Los Angeles City Council ventured from City Hall to hold a special meeting--this time in San Pedro, one of any number of Los Angeles communities where many folks would just as soon govern themselves. In its only other sojourn from Spring Street, the council met five years ago at a high school in Canoga Park.

The meeting at the Port of Los Angeles headquarters in San Pedro was meant to serve as a civics lesson of sorts, letting harbor-area residents see their legislators in action without having544501536Freeway. Harbor-area Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores said she hopes it was the first of many forays into outlying communities. Council President John Ferraro said he would like to see such field trips three or four times a year.

But not all the reviews were so lavish. Midtown Councilman Nate Holden, who considers himself an outsider on the council, said the exercise was a waste of time.

“They didn’t accomplish anything here,” Holden said after the meeting. “It was all ceremonial--all about apple pie and motherhood.”

By most accounts, the two-hour road show was pretty dull. Four of the council’s 15 members didn’t even make the trip, and those who did sat passively--and cramped--around three cafeteria tables adorned with white table cloths. The 75 or so onlookers missed the fireworks and personality clashes that often breathe life into the minutiae of city government.

The business of the day was for the most part routine: alley closings, zoning changes and a sewer easement. The city clerk’s office was careful to stack the agenda with harbor-area issues and to reschedule matters of importance to residents in other parts of the city. A hearing on a controversial nightclub in Reseda--nearly 40 miles from San Pedro--was held Tuesday instead of Wednesday because of the special meeting. The agenda, however, seemed to be of little importance to people in the audience, several of whom said they came simply to see the faces of people they read about in the newspaper. One man said he wasn’t disappointed because he wasn’t expecting much. Another, who occasionally listens to audio broadcasts of meetings on a local cable station, said the meetings look much like they sound.

Bess Akerson, the 84-year-old matriarch of San Pedro, said the substance of the meeting was less important to local residents than its symbolism.

“It is a startling, marvelous and glorious thing that they are even here,” Akerson said. “I don’t think that the average Angeleno even knows that we are part of the city of Los Angeles.”

The most pressing issue on the agenda was a ban proposed by Flores on skateboarding and bike riding in downtown San Pedro. San Fernando Valley Councilman Joel Wachs complained that the prohibition might discourage people from using their bicycles instead of cars, and Holden and others joined in. But in the end, when the council unanimously approved the proposal, the audience learned a fundamental principle of council politics: Local council members do pretty much as they please in their districts.

Talk of Secession

To some San Pedrans, the City Council is still regarded as the plunderer from the north--the greedy politicians who stripped the community of its cityhood 79 years ago to gain control of the prosperous harbor. Talk of secession in San Pedro is not uncommon.

The first San Pedran to address the council--Marylyn Ginsburg, president of the local Chamber of Commerce--made certain that local history was not lost on the members. Ginsburg presented them544696692anniversary of San Pedro’s incorporation as an independent city, an occasion the community has been proudly celebrating all year.

“We hope it won’t take another 100 years to get you to come back down here,” Ginsburg said.

Sam Botwin, a former member of the Los Angeles Planning Commission and a longtime San Pedro resident, also used the council’s visit as an excuse to elaborate on the quirks of local politics and to explain why he wants the council to return several times a year.

Confused Residents

“We are part of the city of Los Angeles,” he said. “No one in San Pedro believes that.” He said that most people in the area think the community’s honorary mayor is the real one and that Flores is a city council of one.

The council did its best to please its hosts, honoring one of San Pedro’s most celebrated residents--Rep. Glenn Anderson, an architect of the port’s expansion. In turn, Flores and port officials tried to make their guests feel welcome, hosting a buffet luncheon after the meeting at the Cabrillo Marina for about 50 city officials. Fresh salmon, veal, pasta, vegetables and an assortment of wines were donated by the port and several San Pedro businesses.

Flores did not know how much the lunch cost, and city officials said they were also uncertain how much it cost to take the council on the road for a day.