Local history, some scary stories and redeemable merchant deals \u2014 it\u2019s all coming to San Pedro this month as the harbor area gears up for the first of the fall holidays.<\/p>\n
A \u201cHop On \u2013 Hop Off Ghost Trolley Self Guided Tour,\u201d via the town\u2019s downtown trollies, will run from late September to late October, and is being set in motion by Pure Flow Partners, a small business in San Pedro that\u2019s coordinating with the downtown Property Owners Business Improvement District.<\/p>\n
Ryan Blaney, president and CEO of the PBID<\/a>, said he\u2019d been thinking about a trolley-based tour ever since he took the position four years ago. The San Pedro Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, had been throwing around ideas for a concierge service that would serve the growing number of cruise ship passengers coming through town who might have some free time.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018Let\u2019s do it,\u2019\u201d Blaney said of the ideas when they began percolating.<\/p>\n Evee Burgard and Peggy Kaelin, founders of Pure Flow Partners,<\/a> which is dedicated to helping small business districts with branding and other activities, have taken the lead in putting together a mobile presentation that highlights some of the traditional scary tales in the port town. Some of these tales were highlighted in the book \u201cHaunted San Pedro\u201d by Brian Clune<\/a> that came out a decade ago. But also included in the recorded narrations is information about the town\u2019s history and the importance of the different sites.<\/p>\n And for good measure \u2014 as a way to highlight and garner business for the town\u2019s small shops and restaurants \u2014 the tickets come with redeemable discount offers by those merchants agreeing to help sponsor and promote the tours.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a way, Burgard said, to \u201cturn visitors into customers for San Pedro\u2019s small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n Set to launch Sept. 26, the full tour will have eight stops, covering notable locations in town. Stops will include the Warner Grand Theatre, the Battleship Iowa, the S.S. Lane Victory, Warehouse One and the former Harbor View House.<\/p>\n You can sign up with a QR code on mobile phones, which directs people to the nearest GPS stop to begin the tour. Histories about the buildings \u2014 as well as the scary lore that has traditionally been associated with each place \u2014 are entirely self-guided, allowing passengers time to disembark and take a closer look at each location (there will be time to board the Battleship Iowa, for example), or even pick up a snack, with reminders about what time they need to get back onto the trolley to continue to the next location.<\/p>\n Tickets are $28 for all eight stops (three hours) and also includes the most merchant discounts and deals; $27 will take the passenger on a six-stop tour (two hours) with stories and deals; and $26 (the one-hour express version) will include four stops, chosen by the ticket-holder.<\/p>\n This first fall-Halloween seasonal roll out is being considered a pilot program, Burgard said, with potential follow-up versions to include distributing audio headphones or other technology to use as part of the tour. This year\u2019s tours, all accessible for signups using a QR code that will be displayed throughout the downtown shopping district, require participants to use their own phones and earphones.<\/p>\n The complete tour will take two to three hours to complete.<\/p>\n There are 16 sponsors downtown that have already signed up, Burgard said.<\/p>\n The concept, she said, came with something Los Angeles Councilmember Tim McOsker posted about San Pedro\u2019s new waterfront development, West Harbor.<\/p>\n \u201cHe stated that the success of West Harbor isn\u2019t just how many people get off the freeway and go (to the waterfront),\u201d Burgard said in a phone interview, \u201cbut by how many people (then) migrate\u201d into the downtown and other areas to check out the stores and restaurants.<\/p>\n \u201cWe strongly believe the whole is greater than the individual parts in creating a destination,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd that is our mission; that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Pure Flow Partners did extensive research when putting together the program, Burgard said, looking for the history of each location and building along with any paranormal activities cited or observed at those sites.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are \u2018folklore,\u2019\u201d she said of the scary stories, \u201csome are documented and some are not.\u201d<\/p>\n While many of the tales are in the scary spirit of the holiday, she added, and some are humorous as well.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gets people in the mood, it\u2019s fun and it\u2019s safe,\u201d she said of the Halloween trolley tours.<\/p>\n It also helps to boost awareness of the town\u2019s public trolley system, she added, saying that when she first moved to town from Redondo Beach, she \u201cdidn\u2019t know where anything was.\u201d<\/p>\n Also being eyed for future tours, she said, are those focusing on San Pedro\u2019s many movie and television film locations, along with a possible holiday lighted lantern tour, a \u201cPok\u00e9mon\u201d game tour or an Easter egg hunt.<\/p>\n The Halloween and history ride, Burgard said, could be \u201cjust the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local history, some scary stories and redeemable merchant deals \u2014 it\u2019s all coming to San Pedro this month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[32309,7,585,3172,131,133,132,47,137,100,17822,1439],"class_list":["post-453773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-beach-cities","tag-california","tag-halloween","tag-harbor-area","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-news","tag-redondo-beach","tag-san-pedro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453773","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=453773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}