{"id":327796,"date":"2026-05-22T13:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/327796\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T13:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:11:16","slug":"san-pedros-history-with-navy-visits-has-seen-some-ups-and-downs-san-gabriel-valley-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/327796\/","title":{"rendered":"San Pedro\u2019s history with Navy visits has seen some ups and downs \u2013 San Gabriel Valley Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LALA Fleet Week kicks off with a welcome party kickoff featuring music, dancing and and a chance to meet members of the military on Thursday, May 25, 2023, in downtown San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
\n\"Signs<\/p>\n

Signs for Fleet Week at San Pedro, CA. (Photo by Gil Castro-Petres, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Signs<\/p>\n

Signs for Fleet Week at San Pedro, CA. (Photo by Gil Castro-Petres, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Signs<\/p>\n

Signs for Fleet Week at San Pedro, CA. (Photo by Gil Castro-Petres, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The USS Essex arrives for Fleet Week in San Pedro\u2019s Outer Harbor on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Sailors<\/p>\n

Sailors man the rails as the USS Essex arrives in San Pedro for Fleet Week on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Sailors<\/p>\n

Sailors man the rails as the USS Essex arrives in San Pedro for Fleet Week on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Navy<\/p>\n

Navy Band Southwest will perform at LA Fleet Week and also is scheduled to appear at other Los Angeles venues in coming days. One of 11 official Navy Bands around the world Navy Band Southwest is one of the Navy\u2019s oldest musical ensembles. (Photo Courtesy of Navy Band Southwest)\n<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The USS Essex, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, passes Angel\u2019s Gate Lighthouse as it arrives for Fleet Week in San Pedro\u2019s Outer Harbor on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Colors are presented at a Memorial Day ceremony to close out L.A. Fleet Week on Monday, May 26, 2025, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Los Angeles Fire Department AW 139 helicopter crew performs a demonstration as it passes the Battleship Iowa\u2019s gun turrets during a flyover at L.A. Fleet Week on Sunday, May 25, 2025, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Throngs<\/p>\n

Throngs of visitors attend L.A. Fleet Week on Monday, May 26, 2025, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A marine helps Dominick Cunningham, 6, of Corona climb out of a tank at L.A. Fleet Week on Monday, May 26, 2025, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 12<\/p>\n

Signs for Fleet Week at San Pedro, CA. (Photo by Gil Castro-Petres, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

L.A. Fleet Week has landed.<\/p>\n

Sailors and Marines in their dress uniforms will flood into San Pedro\u2019s downtown and waterfront areas following the arrival of the USS Essex late Tuesday, May 19. Restaurants, shops and bars will see the annual surge in business during the 10th annual sea services celebration, which will be in full swing from Friday to Monday, May 22-25.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an event that in many ways has been intertwined with some big changes in the tucked-away seaside enclave that has long carried a reputation as an almost quaint, unlikely fishing village existing on the southern, isolated tip of the vast city of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s been changing.<\/p>\n

A rush of new development has started to revamp the area, home to the massive Port of Los Angeles, now the busiest cargo port in the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

Mid-rise residential\/commercial buildings have popped up along the waterfront and in other commercial areas over the past couple of decades. A new waterfront, West Harbor, is set to roll out with openings this summer, with a World Cup viewing party also set to take place there in late July. And beyond that, the 2028 Summer Olympics will bring sailing events off San Pedro\u2019s Outer Harbor.<\/p>\n

Former Los Angeles Councilmember Joe Buscaino, who represented the 15th District from January 2012 to December 2022, often drove developers to town in his own car to tout San Pedro\u2019s potential during his term of office. And it often worked, as the town, over the years, soon began to see movement.<\/p>\n

Alex Valente, principal at Trammell Crow, calls it a \u201cSan Pedro renaissance\u201d that\u2019s probably been 30 or 40 years in the making.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s part of the team that\u2019s built Vivo on Harbor,<\/a> 511 S. Harbor Blvd., and the planned 281-unit, eight-story Jules San Pedro<\/a>, 625 S. Beacon St., that\u2019s set to be finished in 2028 before the Olympics arrive that summer.<\/p>\n

San Pedro is \u201ca bit of a developer\u2019s paradise in terms of textbook economic development,\u201d Valente said.<\/p>\n

Evergreen attractions, such as the university-based AltaSea ocean research center and the Port of L.A., creates \u201ca presence that makes (developers) feel good about investing\u201d in the area, he said.<\/p>\n

The town, said Los Angeles Councilmember Tim McOsker, has changed considerably since his grandparents\u2019 day \u2014 and is still evolving.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen over the past 10 years is that San Pedro continues to grow and evolve, even as we hold on to so many institutions and traditions that make this place both unique and familiar,\u201d he said in a written statement. \u201cWe\u2019ve invested substantially in the waterfront, making it welcoming and accessible to locals and visitors alike. This is true throughout the year, but especially notable during Fleet Week, when we welcome tens of thousands to the Harbor Area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe growth and improvement of the Fleet Week experience over the past several years,\u201d McOsker said, \u201cshows how far we have come, and how far we can go, as a world-class visitors attraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

While no one would argue the town is problem-free \u2014 San Pedro has battled issues such as crime and homelessness for a number of years, and its long-ago Beacon Street images still linger \u2014 its reputation has also evolved.<\/p>\n

Before L.A. Fleet Week was born in 2016, the town was host to a smaller event known as Navy Days, a precursor to the current massive event.<\/p>\n

It was during Navy Days in 2011 when the Naval Criminal Investigative Service \u2014 the civilian federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating felony crime \u2014 issued \u201cthe map,\u201d cautioning visiting sailors to stay clear of San Pedro\u2019s \u201credlined\u201d zones. Those zones, according to a flyer with a map and other information on it, were reputed to be \u201chigh-drug and distribution\u201d areas and comprised much of the downtown shopping and restaurant district.<\/p>\n

The sting hasn\u2019t completely vanished.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Pedro has come a long way since that horrible \u2018warning\u2019 memo came out,\u201d said San Pedro\u2019s Omelette and Waffle Shop owner Mona Sutton, recalling that the material also included suggestions in Long Beach that sailors could visit. \u201cBut I\u2019ll never forget it. It took a long time to choke that down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The map included, she said, scenic areas such as Point Fermin and San Pedro\u2019s picturesque southern coastline, along with parts of Gaffey Street, the downtown and the waterfront.<\/p>\n

Buscaino, who was the area\u2019s LAPD senior lead officer from 2008 to 2010, said San Pedro had experienced an uptick in crime in and around the public housing development that is next to the downtown. NCIS, he said, will do crime mapping based on statistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time (in the years before the 2011 Navy Days), we saw a spike in violent crime in the Rancho San Pedro housing development,\u201d said Buscaino, now managing partner for Ballard Partners for government affairs. Rancho San Pedro is slated for a full redevelopment.<\/p>\n

But the map, he recalled, \u201cwas a gut-punch to us at a time when my predecessor, Janice Hahn, was uplifting the downtown San Pedro area and the chamber was doing all it could do to bring people there. But that\u2019s all in the rearview mirror today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much credit belongs to clearing the encampments on Beacon Street and building more housing at all income levels, Buscaino said \u2014 efforts he pursued during his term on the council.<\/p>\n

James Brown, owner of San Pedro Brewing Co. and Port Town Brewery, recalled vividly the huge stir,\u00a0 and sting, the map controversy caused.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all taken aback by that the \u2018red zone\u2019 and a number were insulted by it. It was pretty off-putting,\u201d he said, recalling that he added a \u201cRed Zone Ale\u201d to the Brewing Co.\u2019s large selection on the menu. The Red Zone Ale has long since been retired, he said.<\/p>\n

A July 2011 Daily Breeze article noted that the cautionary map was provided to crew members on the first ship to arrive for what was then Navy Week in the Port of Los Angeles. Word spread quickly throughout the tight-knit town and it fast became the topic of a much-wider discussion, turning up in stories on national blogs, out-of-town newspapers, television stations and, of course, on Facebook.<\/p>\n

The reaction among locals, Brown said, was: \u201cThis isn\u2019t who we are. But it helped us to put a better face forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now, with a longer view, he said, San Pedro seems to be triumphing over that early spate of bad publicity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen (Fleet Week) started, when it was just Navy Days, it was pretty tiny,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAs it morphed into Fleet Week, it brought so many people from out of town and it\u2019s been a big boon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to be sitting in the restaurant and see sailors there; it makes you proud to be American and proud for our community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The town, he added, survived the map controversy and San Pedro \u2014 now with a new waterfront development and a more polished image \u2014 \u201ckept growing, year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleet Week now brings tens of thousands of visitors to the waterfront for a popular rollout of Navy and Coast Guard ship tours, displays, demonstrations and nonstop entertainment next to the Battleship Iowa, 250 S. Harbor Blvd.<\/p>\n

Sailors flood the downtown area, where they are treated to special menu fare, and warm welcomes and discounts by restaurant and shop owners.<\/p>\n

San Pedro Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Elise Swanson was working for then-U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn,\u00a0 a San Pedro resident who formerly represented the area on the Los Angeles City Council, when the 2011 map incident occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for those of us who are into hospitality and the tourism industry, (the map) was a wake-up call,\u201d Swanson said, though she called it outdated. \u201cSome of the folks involved in producing it had no idea of what San Pedro had evolved into so that was unfortunate. But it\u2019s been a complete turnaround.\u201d<\/p>\n

That 2011 Daily Breeze article also noted that some \u201ctook the glass-is-half-full approach to it all, saying the incident and surrounding publicity could open up new opportunities as the town moved to better market itself as a tourist destination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s overall a positive thing,\u201d Scott Gray, then president of the Seventh Street Merchants Association, said at the time.<\/p>\n

But the map\u2019s contention that the downtown was unsafe was, for the most part, roundly disputed by those doing business in San Pedro at the time.<\/p>\n

A follow-up article on July 30, 2011, about the incident noted that Hahn invited then-U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus on a walking tour of the map\u2019s \u201credlined\u201d district to see how safe and attractive the area was.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important that he personally come and visit San Pedro to walk the redlined areas,\u201d Hahn said in a telephone interview at the time. \u201cI\u2019d spoken to an admiral today, telling him for years San Pedro has rolled out the red carpet\u201d for Navy events.<\/p>\n

The map, she also argued at the time, included incorrect and false data.<\/p>\n

Fifteen years later, much has changed since that incident.<\/p>\n

Sailors and guests will \u201cwalk the waterfront; they\u2019ll see that it\u2019s clean. And there\u2019s a lot going on here that people didn\u2019t imagine,\u201d said Los Angeles harbor Commissioner Lee Williams, speaking as an individual about L.A. Fleet Week. \u201cIt\u2019s not the same \u2018surly town\u2019\u201d it was accused of being.<\/p>\n

The town, Sutton added, is fast rebounding from those images.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fun thing is to see Fleet Week becoming now such a huge attraction, especially in the last three or four years,\u201d she said. \u201cThe event is amazing. The draw for it is unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LA Fleet Week kicks off with a welcome party kickoff featuring music, dancing and and a chance to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,23,131,133,132,47,137,100,1438,1439],"class_list":["post-327796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-local-news","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-news","tag-port-of-los-angeles","tag-san-pedro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}