Several hundred Pro-Palestinian demonstrators were on the streets at the Port of Oakland on Sunday protesting the arrival and working of the container ship Zim Shenzhen, operated by the Israeli-based Zim Shipping Line. The protestors were angry over the May 31 Israeli raid on a flotilla of six vessels carrying relief supplies to Gaza. The Israelis have blockaded the port to stop weapons and ammo from reaching enemy forces.
The California State Senate Republican Caucus has issued a briefing report that questions whether the state has the will to compete for container traffic at the Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach, and Port of Oakland. The six-page report notes that international trade may be the state's best bet for digging its way out of the current recession, but warns that without decisive action, the goods movement industry and the jobs that go with it could be driven "to other states where job creation is a priority." The report says that efforts by the ports to be more competitive are struggling against a political attitude that takes the ports for granted and imposes costs of shippers that they face in no other venue.
Economist Jack Kyser, Southern California's most enthusiastic economic advocate, is retiring after almost 30 years as the in-house expert on the regional outlook. Kyser, the founding economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., will relinquish his full-time position at the end of the month, but remain with the LAEDC as a consultant. LAEDC's Kyser Center for Economic Research will continue under the leadership of chief economist Dr. Nancy Sidhu. Kyser isn't exactly falling off the radar on June 30. He will be at the Los Angeles downtown Marriot at 7 a.m., July 21 for his final official LAEDC Midyear Economic Forecast Presentation.
The Port of Long Beach has scheduled a July 19 public hearing on the CalTrans plan to replace the Schuyler Heim Bridge, one of three spans linking Terminal Island to the mainland. The port has prepared an Application Summary Report on the proposed project and will accept written comments until 4:30 p.m. on July 7. The hearing will be held at the Port Administration building at 1 p.m.
Former Port of Seattle chief Mic Dinsmore has talked with Puget Sound Business Journal reporter Steve Wilhelm about his fall from grace as the highest paid port director in the nation and what he has been doing lately. "During the past three years, Dinsmore came under the scrutiny of federal prosecutors and lost his new job, his third wife and his reputation," Wilhelm writes. "The result was an agonizing inner journey that included months in hospitals for treatment of depression. His swagger snuffed, the once-globetrotting deal-maker is only now re-entering the business world by helping a daughter launch a fitness company."
The Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to release its report today (6/21) on whether the federal government is interested in looking further into a restructuring of the federal breakwater that protects the Long Beach harbor and beachfront homes, but which also blocks waves and restricts the circulation of water. The next step would be a feasibility study that would cost the city about $4 million - a tidy sum for the cash-strapped municipality - and not include any guarantee that an actual reconfiguration would happen. The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association and the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce have both expressed concern about the consequences of removing or reconfiguring the breakwater.
Los Angeles Harbor Commissioners have hired Acebo and Associates to provide lobbying services to the port. The Long Beach-based firm is headed by Kevin Acebo, a former deputy mayor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He stepped down from that post in 2008.
-- The Cunningham Report
