“The key is, when are they going to stop growing to the detriment of the community”?  asked Roger Holman, President, Coolidge Triangle Homeowners Association.  Mr. Holman was urging the Port

of Long Beach and the City Council to determine how much cargo would be too much for the communities surrounding the LA/Long Beach port complex to bear.  He probably had just read the GCN Special Report describing the size of this nation’s largest port area, and the third largest in the world based on volume.  The Port of Los Angeles alone has more than 45 miles of shoreline, and with three major highways criss-crossing the two ports, along with several bridges and ramps, the combined ports cover more than 10,000 acres.  How big is 10,000 acres?

 

• 10,000 acres is almost 16 square miles.
• 10,000 acres is about the size of San Miguel Island.
• 10,000 acres is larger than Anacapa Island.
• 10,000 acres is larger than Santa Barbara Island.

 

Some 44% of all imported goods enter the United States through these harbors, the GCN  report stated, but do 44% of U.S. consumers live within a radius of, say, 500 miles of these ports?  Hardly.  Why, then, should those in authority be obsessed with the idea of attracting more cargo volume?  More than three years ago Mr. John Vickerman, in a study conducted by the widely-respected TransSystems Corp., revealed that the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will require over 5,000 new acres for container operations by the year 2010, and by 2020 an additional 9,400 acres will be required.  In other words, the present rate of growth will require that the ports be expanded to twice their present sizes.  Forgetaboutit.  Not only is the required acreage for future (supposed) port development nonexistent, but the imposition of the PierPass program indicates that container handling operations even now are being stymied by cramped quarters.

 

Why add to the concerns of local residents by encouraging illogical and costly growth?  Isn’t it bad enough that unmanageable volumes of cargo have resulted in newly-mandated nighttime operations — operations that were designed and implemented with no regard  for neighborhood concerns?  Mr. Holman outlined these concerns in a letter to the Long Beach Harbor Commission, the Los Angeles and Long Beach City Councils and to PierPass.  Homeowners maintain that the imposed off-peak schedule will bring noise and air pollution to their communities around the clock, rather than just during the day.  The complaint, similar to the complaints of others who oppose the plan —  like truckers and small importers and exporters —  criticizes PierPass officials for failing to collect input from many of those who will be adversely affected by nighttime operations.

 

But wait ‘till next year.  When the homeowners association called on the ports and terminal operators to undertake an environmental review of the program, PierPass officials said that the extended hours program is merely a change in operations, not an increase in capacity.  Not an increase in capacity?  Isn’t the ongoing increase in capacity the cause of this intrusiveness?  Didn’t port officials project that the number of truck trips would double in the next few years?  [Wait ‘till next month, even.]