Ports

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are bringing in a surprising new commodity: jobs. The first post-recession surge in employment at the nation's busiest seaport complex began this month and appears to be gathering momentum. There has been as much as a threefold increase in the number of longshoremen finding work on the docks in the first three weeks of February compared with the same period last year, a review of daily employment dispatches shows. Through the first three weeks there was an average of 2,679 longshore jobs a day during the usual three work shifts at the two ports, according to the summaries.

Consider two projects that could have profound impacts on Los Angeles: Both would create thousands of jobs. One would increase traffic a bit; the other would significantly decrease it. One would be "carbon neutral," meaning it would not help the global environment but wouldn't hurt it either; the other would powerfully reduce emissions. Both could create some inconveniences to their immediate neighbors while delivering tax revenue, jobs and services to the city at large. One is the proposed downtown football stadium, and it has sailed through government approvals despite its potential for increasing traffic and inconveniencing people who live or work downtown.

When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

"We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit. " Those were the opening words of the Port Huron Statement, which I helped draft 50 years ago this summer as the founding document of Students for a Democratic Society. The statement, written in the idealistic early days of the New Left, laid out a vision for a nation in which racial equality would be finally achieved, disarmament embraced and true participatory democracy would become the norm.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are so busy that they move more cargo than the next five largest U.S. ports combined. They're so efficient that they process more international trade in one month than most North American harbors handle in an entire year. Now the friendly rivals are leading the way into unexpected waters: attracting, testing and funding cutting-edge technology to reduce emissions and fuel consumption at the ports. Even as their revenues declined and their budgets shrank in the worst global recession in more than 60 years, the twin ports have become accidental venture capitalists of sorts in the world of green technology.

The nation's busiest seaport complex had its best January since the recession, moving more cargo containers in that month than all but eight other U.S. ports usually move in an entire year. The trade numbers from San Pedro Harbor also showed the increasing importance of exports at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which rank first and second in the U.S. for container cargo. As recently as five years ago, imports outnumbered exports by more than 3 to 1. But in January, the gap had shrunk to a little more than 2 to 1. There hasn't been a sharp decrease in the U.S. trade deficit, but Los Angeles and Long Beach have done well in luring more customers who ship goods overseas, according to economist Paul Bingham.

Imports at the nation's trade gateways -- including the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach -- appear to have ended their long decline and are poised for a strong recovery, according to preliminary data released Monday. Cargo volume at ports on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts were higher in December than a year earlier, the first such gain in 28 months, according to the National Retail Federation and consulting firm Hackett Associates. Final results for the two local ports won't be available until next week, but economists who track volume at the nation's busiest ports each month called the new report the strongest sign yet that the bottom-dwelling days are over.

Just two years ago, Jack McLaren and Eddie Ortiz were part-time dockworkers riding a tsunami of international trade that allowed them to work as many as five days a week at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. On Tuesday, the two friends were rearranging marine supplies at a Wilmington equipment store for considerably less money, noting that they each had gotten barely more than a week's worth of dock work so far this year. "It's just so slow that you can't depend on it anymore," said McLaren, who lives in San Pedro and has worked in Wilmington for most of his life.

It would appear that a passenger is a captive to the cruise line for the tours offered in the various Alaskan ports. The ship line or tour concessionaire on board do not make a realistic attempt to secure reasonable land or air tours for passengers. The cost in some instances is prohibitive. In most of the Alaskan ports, such as Homer, Valdez, Sitka and Ketchikan, almost all of the tours can be done alone or on foot. The towns are so small that a bus tour seems ridiculous. The good informational guide published by Cunard/NAC and a good pair of shoes are more than sufficient.

Ricky Ponce spends his days moving controls that look like toy joysticks, but his job is one of the most dangerous games around: lifting multi-ton cargo containers and lowering them onto trucks as gently as setting grocery bags on a kitchen counter. Ponce works in a tiny, trolley-mounted cabin, hanging about 140 feet off the ground, running one of the Port of Long Beach's new breed of supersized ship-to-shore cranes. Called super post-Panamax cranes, after the huge ships they are designed to unload, the machines soar 15 stories above the wharves and can reach to the far side of the bulging vessels, which are nearly twice as wide as the Panama Canal.

After a 14-year dark spell, the remodeled Port Theater in Corona del Mar will reopen during this year's Newport Beach Film Festival with free screenings and seminars. The theater will officially welcome the public back on Saturday with the seminar series "Vision and Craft: The Art of Filmmaking," from 1 to 5 p.m. "Kingdom Come," a documentary by first-time director Daniel Gillies, will be screened at 5:30 p.m. The buzz surrounding the reopening of the East Coast Highway venue, which closed in 1998, could have been expected to increase ticket sales, but festival organizers said they decided to offer all of the programming for free throughout the festival, which opens Thursday and runs through May 3. "We thought that this was an important opportunity to give back to community and we are hopeful that in the future, patrons and sponsors will underwrite these opportunities," said Gregg Schwenk, the festival's chief executive.

A surge in cargo traffic at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has officials hoping that the U.S. economic recovery is gaining strength despite worrisome signs overseas. Combined, the neighboring ports handled more than 1.1 million cargo containers last month, an increase of 9.8% compared with March 2011. Much of the strength came from strong growth in imports, which were up a combined 12.8% for both ports compared with the same month last year. "Hopefully, it means that importers are starting to replenish their inventories" because they think that U.S. consumers will be in a buying mood, said Art Wong, spokesman for the Port of Long Beach.

Port of Long Beach officials and executives from the shipping company Orient Overseas Container Line formally signed off on the port's biggest ever lease agreement. The ceremony took place in Hong Kong on Tuesday, but port officials didn't announce it until Wednesday afternoon. The agreement commits OOCL to a $4.6-billion, 40-year lease of the port's new Middle Harbor container terminal, which is under construction. “I can't overstate the significance of this agreement,” said J. Christopher Lytle, executive director of the nation's second-busiest cargo container port.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach saw more of a decline in cargo traffic in February than other ports around the nation, perhaps proving there is one month out of the year in which there's little advantage in having China as a primary trading partner. That's because of the annual Chinese New Year celebration. Chinese factories traditionally close for the celebration for a week or more. This year, the factory slowdown hit trade traffic in February. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the busiest U.S. seaport complex, move 40% of the nation's Asian imports, and most of that comes from China.

The nation's busiest seaport complex had a down month for cargo statistics in February compared with a year earlier, but officials blamed it in part on an early Chinese New Year's celebration that idled factories in that nation. Combined, for example, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach moved a total of 445,835 cargo containers carrying imported goods last month. That was a decline of 12.5% from a year earlier. Chinese factories traditionally close for the celebration for a week of more, said Art Wong, a spokesman for the Long Beach port.

The name painted in the plate-glass window, "Bradley's," has a martini glass standing in for the "y. " The late-afternoon sun has turned the other windows into mirrors. Deep inside, in bar-appropriate shadow, patrons rest their drinks on 100-year-old mahogany and, as in many a neighborhood pub, consider hopes gone astray. Across the way are a marina without boats and parking garages without cars. There are few people outside on downtown sidewalks. PHOTOS: Hard times in Stockton This is what it looks like when a city is close to going under.

The resurgent tide of international trade lifted nearly all major U.S. seaports this year, but none is gaining freight and jobs like Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's busiest cargo complex. Challengers competed harder than ever this year for cargo traffic that still trails the 2006-08 boom preceding the great global recession. They were aided in their efforts by retailers that spread their goods through more ports for greater flexibility. But sometimes size really does matter, as well as the local ports' relative proximity to Asia, trade experts said.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach saw more of a decline in cargo traffic in February than other ports around the nation, perhaps proving there is one month out of the year in which there's little advantage in having China as a primary trading partner. That's because of the annual Chinese New Year celebration. Chinese factories traditionally close for the celebration for a week or more. This year, the factory slowdown hit trade traffic in February. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the busiest U.S. seaport complex, move 40% of the nation's Asian imports, and most of that comes from China.

Disney's newest cruise ship, the Fantasy, sailed into its home port of Port Canaveral, Fla., on Tuesday in preparation for its maiden voyage to the Eastern Caribbean on March 31. For fans hoping to be among the first on board, cabins are sold out for the initial seven-night sailing, but there is still space available on Fantasy for April cruises. The sister ship to the Disney Dream, which launched last year, features Dumbo the flying elephant on its stern. So how big is this ship?

If you go THE BEST WAY TO PORT ALBERNI, CANADA From LAX, Air Canada, Delta, WestJet, United and Alaska offer nonstop service to Vancouver, and Delta, United and Alaska offer offer connecting service (change of plane). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $291, including taxes and fees. For information on the McLean Mill, Alberni Pacific Railway, Alberni Valley Museum and Maritime Discovery Centre, go to http://www.alberniheritage.com . For information on the Frances Barkley , call (250)