This much is clear about the Port of Los Angeles' new, $14-million, black granite fountain with Las Vegas-style synchronized lights, water jets and music near the San Pedro waterfront: People either love it or wish it were someplace else.
Even before its coming-out party Friday, critics were taking potshots at the massive, sail-shaped welcoming monument built by the same company that created the fountain at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.
Spanning nearly an acre, the fountain pumps 400,000 gallons of recycled water into illuminated, 100-foot-high streams that dance to recordings of international hits, including Luciano Pavarotti's rendition of "O Sole Mio" and Jose Alfredo Jimenez's classic "El Rey."
"It's a real traffic stopper," enthused Arley Baker, a port spokesman.
And that, critics say, is part of the problem.
The fountain was built near the bustling confluence of Harbor Boulevard's bus and big-rig lanes, the Harbor Freeway's on- and offramps, and the main entrance to the cruise ship terminals under the Vincent Thomas Bridge.
Recent test-firings of the fountain have caused automobile and truck drivers to illegally slow down, even pull over and stop for a better look at the splashy performer that is designed to enhance a promenade that links the cruise ship terminals, downtown San Pedro and the ailing 20-acre Ports O' Call Village tourist attraction about a quarter of a mile south.
"It's a traffic hazard," said San Pedro resident Peter Warren. "It was just dumb to build an attraction like it in a place where 18-wheelers and buses roar past."
June Smith, president of the San Pedro Neighborhood Council, agreed and suggested that the fountain, officially called the Gateway Plaza Water Features, was strategically situated to enhance the cruise ship industry in a place where each call generates almost $1 million in revenues for the Southern California economy.
"This fountain is only heralding the port's push for bigger cruise ship business," Smith said. "It has very little to do with San Pedro. If it was what the community wanted, it would have been built near Harbor Boulevard and 5th Street as a welcome to San Pedro's struggling Old Town."
Not everyone feels that way.
Andrew Silber, owner of San Pedro's The Whale and Ale Restaurant, said the fountain "enhances the aesthetics of the waterfront right where it is."
