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NBC News
3 days ago
- General
- NBC News
A Japanese village that helped develop California's fishing industry could become container storage
From the turn of the 20th century to the early 1940s, a human-made island in San Pedro Bay held a flourishing Japanese American fishing village that helped develop Southern California's mighty seafood industry. On Terminal Island, more than 3,000 first- and second-generation immigrant fishermen from Japan, the issei and nisei, pioneered innovative techniques, like 6-foot bamboo poles and live bait, to catch albacore tuna and sardines. Their wives cleaned and packaged their bounties in the canneries. Then, during World War II, the entire community was uprooted and the village razed. The only remnants of the enclave are a pair of vacant buildings on Tuna Street, now dwarfed by colorful stacks of shipping containers and large green cranes that cover the island. The buildings are now under threat of demolition to make room for more containers, leading surviving Terminal Islanders and their descendants — now well past retirement age — to come together to try to save the last tangible connection to a largely forgotten legacy. 'These buildings are an integral part of American history that should never be forgotten,' said Paul Boyea, a board member of the Terminal Islanders Association, a group of about 200 former residents and their kin. In the past few months, advocates have made significant progress in saving the structures. In February, Councilmember Tim McOsker introduced a motion to designate the buildings as historic-cultural monuments, a status that would provide additional safeguards against demolition. In June, L.A.'s Cultural Heritage Commission will review the motion and decide whether to advance it for a vote before the City Council. This month, the National Trust for Historic Preservation put the buildings on its annual list of the 11 most endangered historic sites in America. Former Terminal Islanders recall scenes of families praying at a Shinto shrine and Buddhist temple, shopping at grocery stores, and watching movies and attending dances at Fisherman's Hall. Children practiced judo and played baseball. Boyea, 69, was born after the war and never lived on Terminal Island. But he said he's always felt a strong connection to the place where his mother was born, in 1919. His grandfather was a fishing fleet captain and president of the Japanese fishermen's association. The two buildings on Tuna Street, the commercial corridor of the Japanese village, housed the grocery A. Nakamura Co. and the dry goods store Nanka Shoten, both established more than a century ago. Efforts to preserve the buildings began two decades ago but gained momentum last May, when the Port of L.A., which owns a majority of the island, recommended demolishing them to create more storage space. Phillip Sanfield, the port's communications director, said that the department is working with Terminal Island advocates to hash out plans for the buildings and that no decision has yet been made. Terry Hara, president of the Terminal Islanders Association, described Tuna Street as the 'Broadway' of the Japanese fishing community. Hara's grandfather worked as a superintendent at a cannery, while his father and two uncles all became commercial fishermen. Terminal Island residents observed Japanese traditions, he said, holding mochi pounding celebrations on New Year's and dancing in kimonos at Girls' Day festivals. 'It was one big happy family,' said Hara, 67. 'Nobody locked their doors and families provided for one another when the need arose.' Geraldine Knatz, a maritime expert and co-author of 'Terminal Island: Lost Communities on America's Edge,' said Japanese residents made up roughly two-thirds of Terminal Island's population in the 1930s. The island, known in the early 20th century as 'L.A.'s Playground,' was also home to sizable numbers of artists, writers and lumber workers. 'It was a big, diverse community,' Knatz said. That all changed on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor. The government quickly arrested hundreds of Japanese fishermen on suspicion that they were using fishing boats to spy for the Japanese military. They were sent to a federal prison; many didn't see their families for months. The following February, the remaining residents, mostly women and children, were given 48 hours to vacate the island. Around 800 Terminal Islanders were incarcerated in Manzanar concentration camp, and when they returned, almost the entire village had been bulldozed. With nowhere to live, many former residents resettled in Long Beach and the South Bay. 'The nisei didn't talk about incarceration because of the trauma,' Boyea said. In the 1970s, a group of survivors and descendants formed the Terminal Islanders Association to stay in touch through social events like annual picnics and New Year's celebrations. Later, members became involved in preservation and education efforts, partnering with the L..A Conservancy to set up a memorial in 2002 and now advocating for the restoration of the Tuna Street buildings. Preservationists and descendants of Terminal Island residents have suggested converting the buildings into a museum or an education center, or a general goods store for port workers on the island. 'These buildings could serve some kind of community function while still communicating their history in some way,' said Adam Scott Fine, chief executive of L.A. Conservancy. The number of surviving Terminal Island residents is dwindling. Less than two dozen are still alive, Hara said, including his mother, who is 100. As a descendent, he feels it's his obligation to honor the legacy they created. 'This is an American story, good or bad,' Hara said. 'We need to pass on the experience that took place to our children and grandchildren.'
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
To stave off layoffs, L.A. council members seek to cut police officer hiring
Faced with a projected $1-billion shortfall, a key committee of the Los Angeles City Council moved forward Thursday with a plan to reduce the number of police officers and cancel Mayor Karen Bass' plan for creating a homelessness unit within the fire department. The council's five-member budget committee voiced initial support for a slowdown in hiring that would leave the Los Angeles Police Department with about 8,400 officers by June 30, 2026, down from more than 8,700 this year and about 10,000 in 2020. The move, if approved by the full City Council later this month, would be part of a much larger effort to restore positions targeted for elimination in the mayor's $14-billion proposed budget. The slowdown in police hiring would leave the LAPD with its lowest level of sworn staffing since 1995. But it would help save the jobs of 133 specialized civilian employees whose work includes processing DNA rape kits, analyzing fingerprints and taking photos of crime scenes. Councilmember Tim McOsker, who sits on the budget committee, called the decision difficult, painful and regrettable — but also necessary to preserve the investigative work done by the civilian staffers. If the city can protect those 133 specialists, reducing the number of officers may be a "pill that is worth swallowing," said Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, another budget committee member. "These are people that do all this incredibly important work for public safety, but they're not sworn officers," Blumenfield said. The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents more than 8,700 officers, quickly voiced alarm about a reduction in sworn staffing. The union accused City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, whose office helps prepare the budget, of seeking to "defund the LAPD to a point where it will literally endanger officers and our residents." "It's hard to take the City seriously when they are sitting on a nearly $15-billion investment portfolio that could reasonably be used to alleviate the current budget crisis," the union's board said in a statement. "City leaders need to sharpen their pencils and stop trying to gut staffing at the LAPD." Clara Karger, a Bass spokesperson, said the mayor will continue engaging with the budget committee as it finalizes its spending proposals. "The Mayor continues to support the increases in LAPD hiring and the LAFD budget," Karger said in a statement, "and looks forward to seeing the final recommendations of the Committee as it advances to the full Council." Bass' proposed budget, released last month, calls for laying off about 1,600 civilian workers, including more than 400 at the LAPD. The job cuts would affect an array of agencies, including those responsible for trash removal, transportation programs and street light maintenance. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who heads the budget committee, warned at the beginning of Thursday's daylong meeting that she and her colleagues won't be able to save every job. "The reality is there is not a way to restore every position proposed for layoff. There just isn't," she said. "Our job today is to make the very difficult trade-offs we believe are most critical — trade-offs that reflect this council's values, strengthen the delivery of core services and set the city on a path toward fiscal solvency." The proposals taken up by the committee are by no means a done deal. Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso, the council's top policy advisor, will come back to the committee next week with a full menu of strategies for cutting costs while preserving as many services as possible. From there, the committee will send its recommendations to the full council, which must approve the budget by the end of May. The city is facing its most significant budget crisis in about 15 years, caused largely by rising personnel costs, soaring legal payouts and a slowdown in the local economy. While the committee has been searching for ways to shield basic services from cuts, city negotiators have been trying to secure concessions, such as postponing scheduled pay raises, from the unions that represent public workers. The salary increases are expected to add about $250 million to this year's budget, and so far, no deals have been struck. On Thursday, two of the largest cost-saving measures taken up by the committee were related to public safety. The committee proposed slashing the number of LAPD recruits planned for the coming fiscal year to 240 from 480. Because the department is expected to lose 530 officers through resignations and retirements, that would result in an overall decrease in sworn staffing. The committee also took steps to kill Bass' proposal for adding 67 positions to the fire department to address issues stemming from the homelessness crisis. She had called for the hiring of 50 new firefighters and the creation of new street medicine teams — a rare example of investment during an otherwise gloomy fiscal year. Critics contend there are less expensive ways to deploy street medicine teams than assigning the work to firefighters. Although such an expansion might have made sense in a normal budget year, it is difficult to support when city leaders are contending with sweeping reductions, Yaroslavsky said. "I'm personally not prepared to lay off existing city employees who provide core city services ... so that we can start new programs," she said. The committee also called for a reduction of up to $10 million to Bass' Inside Safe program, which moves homeless residents into hotels, motels and other types of interim housing. As part of those cuts, council members are planning to require that some homeless people take on a roommate when they move into city-funded motels or other types of interim housing. Yaroslavsky said she hoped the planned reduction to Inside Safe would save jobs in the planning, public works and police departments. Council members are also hoping to transfer workers targeted for layoffs into vacant positions at agencies that are separate from the general fund, which pays for basic city services. Those agencies include the harbor, airports and the Department of Water and Power. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
09-04-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
IOC adds mixed gender events to LA28 Olympics as it locks in competition plan
The United States was the only country to place both men's and women's artistic gymnastics teams on the Olympic podium in Paris. In L.A., the Americans will have the opportunity to join forces. The International Olympic Committee executive board approved the medal events program and athlete quota for the 2028 Olympic Games on Tuesday, adding new mixed gender team events in artistic gymnastics, track and field, golf, archery, table tennis and coastal rowing to create a record number of medal events. After a mixed gender 4x400-meter relay debuted during the 2020 Olympics, the athletics program in 2028 will include a 4x100-meter mixed gender relay. The format for the artistic gymnastics mixed team event will be finalized by the International Gymnastics Federation at a later date. Mixed gender events, which have been gaining traction in recent Olympic cycles, were cited as examples of the IOC's commitment to gender equality, placing women and men on the same playing field. For the first time in Olympic history, the Games will have more female athletes than men, led by an expanded women's soccer field. The Olympic soccer tournament will feature 16 countries on the women's side compared to 12 in the men's field. Of the 10,500 athletes approved for the core 31 sports, 5,333 will be women. Women will also have equal quota spots in water polo and boxing for the first time. The water polo field will include 12 teams for both men and women and boxing will have seven weight classes for each competition. Swimming will feature six more medal opportunities by adding men's and women's 50-meter events for backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly to the current 50-meter freestyle race. Climbing, which had four medal events in Paris, will have six in L.A. by splitting the previously combined disciplines of boulder and lead in addition to speed climbing. The 3x3 basketball field will expand from eight teams to 12 on both the men's and women's sides. LA28's updated venue plan was approved by the IOC executive board, but the organizing committee did not share the full plan publicly Tuesday as negotiations are still underway with several proposed host cities. Talks to host Olympic beach volleyball in Santa Monica broke down last week as the deadline for the IOC presentation approached. LA28 had earmarked the beach near the iconic Santa Monica Pier as one of its cornerstone venues for the Games since its first bid nearly a decade ago. Before bringing the venue plan to the IOC on Tuesday, LA28 got unanimous approval from the Los Angeles City Council to move several sports outside of the city, but the vote was not without questions. Council members asked the committee for further transparency regarding the private group's budget, and Councilmember Tim McOsker has pushed to move the sailing competition to San Pedro instead of in Long Beach, as LA28 has previously announced. Long Beach hosted the sailing competition in the 1984 Olympics and is set to host several other sports in 2028, including water polo, handball and triathlon. San Pedro, which falls within McOsker's district, has hosted Sail Grand Prix races in each of the past two years, welcoming international sailors to the Port of Los Angeles. Six politicians representing Temecula and Riverside county sent a letter Tuesday night to double down on their support for Galway Downs as the site for equestrian events. The letter urged IOC President Thomas Bach, LA28 Chairman Casey Wasserman and Los Angeles City Council president Marqueece Harris-Dawson to keep the equestrian events at the 242-acre facility in Temecula that was targeted as an alternative to LA28's initial plan building a new competition venue in the Sepulveda Basin.
