LASA arrived at the Port of Los Angeles to consider land use, commerce, labor, environmental impact, and the fascinating shape of the city of LA. The scale of the operations of the port, as noted by Will, is difficult to fathom absent the experience of visiting. Lucy framed the port as a “trading hub of the country” while Daniel M. used the term “massive” – and noted that he found the information on “the systems that the harbor has in place to maximize the efficiency of every step in the process of moving goods” particularly fascinating.
Thanks to our expert guest, Geraldine Knatz who serves as Practice of Policy and Engineering at USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and USC Viterbi School of Engineering and formerly was the executive director of the Port of LA, we had the opportunity to visit a working terminal. Tammy Duncan and Tracy Burdine welcomed us to the Yusen Terminal (YTI) on Terminal Island. We watched a presentation on safety, their trucking appointment system, as well as a review of their significant customers and the scale of their operation. Then, we boarded YTI shuttles, clad in safety vests and hard hats, and drove around the property. We stopped to watch crane operators transfer containers off a vessel. Tammy and Tracy answered our questions about the trajectories of their careers, as well as about YTI and the port more generally.
Many of our students reflected on opportunities for careers. Mariah shared, “A lot of time when people ask us, ‘Oh, what do you want to do when you’re older.’ I never know how to answer this because I genuinely don’t know what I want to be. I’ve always grown up people telling me lawyer, doctor, or another typical career. This experience opened up my eyes to the types of careers people have. It was truly incredible to see how so many hands go into the process and the LA Port. There was such a variety of jobs there and each one holds a significant amount of responsibility.”
The experiences of the day caused many to consider issues of consumption and labor. Kim shared, “When I started to think more about how much the people who loaded off the containers got paid I started to think about all the people who are on the ships, the ones who deliver whatever amount of produce or meat and how much they are getting paid. I especially thought of the farm workers and if they are getting paid enough for the hard work they do and if that’s close to what the workers loading off the containers get paid.” And Mary Louisa added, “Going to the port made me think a lot about everything that I consume, and was a good reminder that everything comes from somewhere. While that may seem obvious, I rarely think about where the t-shirt that I’m wearing comes from, and all the way that it has traveled.” She wondered about labor in the port and the stories of those we passed on our tour – of their work, of their lives, and of strikes they may have participated in.
We then moved to AltaSea for lunch. Geraldine serves as the vice chairman of the board of trustees of this space dedicated to scientific collaboration aimed at using the ocean to address, per their website – altasea.org – “the planet’s most pressing challenges, such as climate change, energy supply and global food security – and prepare today’s generation of students for future jobs in science, technology, engineering, business and the ocean.” Helen commented, “I loved checking out the port especially AltaSea. . .It was nice to see an aspect of Los Angeles that I don’t often come into contact with in my every day life.” Geraldine shared with us her biographical story as well as historical accounts of Warehouse 1, the role of Henry Huntington in the port, as well as fishing and federal use of the space. We celebrated the coming release of her book, Angel’s Gateway: Los Angeles and its Port.
Finnegan summed up the day: “Whenever I learn something new, I see the world a little differently. In the case of the Los Angeles port, it changed the way I look at shipping, railroads, career paths, industry, and sustainability.” We will continue this exploration of industry and manufacturing in October with our visit to Glenair!