More is Better, but is it in this Case?

Lebron James hinted at a recent post-game press conference that maybe it was time to shave some of his and starters Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love's playing time.

James is averaging 39.1 minutes per game, according to an ESPN article from their website. His 39.1 minutes ranks him only behind Oklahoma City's Reggie Jackson,(40.1) and Chicago's Jimmy Butler,(40.3.) Both Jackson and Butler are much younger players with significantly less mileage on their legs than James does. They are also both in situations where their respective teams are battling injuries to key players, that have forced them to stay on the floor longer than their coaches would like to see.

The Cavaliers' situation is different than of those two teams aforementioned battling injuries. Their roster have barely come together, and first-year coach David Blatt knows that he needs to give the new players time to mesh well together. Blatt is also taking advantage of it being so early in the season, and once their roster has showed that they're gelling well he will have plenty of time to rest his players up for the postseason.

"For me, I don't want to do that all year," James told ESPN.com reporter Dave McMenamin."Obviously right now it's difficult because we're trying to find a groove, we're trying to find a rhythm and we're trying to implement something that you don't want to shortcut it, but at the same time you're tying to be smart at it.

"So, I don't mind giving a few of my minutes up, just to help the team, to help my minutes go down. I think it would be for the best."

James seems to be a little conflicted in wanting to give up some time, first being, he said we need to stay on the floor because of the need to coalesce, but he also stated that he wouldn't mind giving up some time.

He doesn't need to please anybody, especially the media or fans. James should just do what is best for the team and himself, whether that is playing a lot of minutes in an effort to get better together, or deduct minutes, and rest up for the remainder of the season.Or they can do both, which James seems comfortable with, taking a subjective approach to things rather than a black and white perspective.

"For me, its however the game is going because I've kind of played the whole third quarter sometimes and it's been a long stretch," James said to McMenamin. "So that allows me to get the first couple of minutes (of the fourth quarter) off.

"And like a few games ago I asked to come out early in the third. I got tired, then I can come back and start the fourth. So it all depends. But seeing how the first half goes and watching my minutes throughout that course and being able to gauge it from there helps."

According to NBA.com Kevin Love played at least 39 minutes 11 times last year. In those 11 games, he averaged; 29.2 ppg., and 11.7 rpg. Irving played in 19 games last year in where he exceeded the 38-minute mark. His performance garnered him 27.8 ppg. and James played a whopping 26 times in which his minutes exceeded 38. In those games he averaged; 30.6 ppg. and 7 rpg.

These players have all proved they can contribute significantly in big minutes,but it's up to coach Blatt and the rest of the players to communicate to each other how they feel and to be honest.

They'll figure things out. Just like the Lakers will. They're professionals, give them time to do what they do. Rome wasn't built in a day, you know.

Small Neighborhood Council Meeting Looking to do Big Things

The Northwestern San Pedro Neighborhood  Council Issues Committee is hosting a meeting Nov. 10 at Peck Park to discuss Mayor Eric Garcetti’s minimum wage proposal.
The committee hosted a similar meeting Oct. 22, where meeting focussed on the proposal, voter turnout in Los Angeles, various street repairs and alterations, truck's routes to the freeway from the Rancho LPG facility and the agendas for the two subsequent meetings.
Committee members are hoping for representatives from the mayor's office and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce  be present with open ears. The people most affected by the proposal are employees collecting minimum wage and the small business owners who will be paying it.
Another issue that was discussed was the low voter turnout here in Los Angeles. The city is thinking about aligning city elections with state and federal elections for convenience. The city is also proposing that the Los Angeles Unified School District host its elections simultaneously. The council also discussed the issue at an Oct. 29 meeting at the San Pedro City Hall building. 
Traffic 
One man in attendance commended the city's effort in filling potholes on north Gaffey Street. But, the bike lanes definitely hit the wrong way with a lot in the community.
Community members were displeased with the city not keeping the community aware and involved road diet and bike lane installations.  They were largely resigned to the fact that the bike lanes aren't going anywhere. They aid that more could have been done to ease traffic congestion. The council will try and take the issue to the Department of Transportation, which is responsible for implementing the lanes.
         In relation to slowing traffic down, the city is thinking about putting speed bumps throughout the city. Those who were in attendance seemed to have contrasting views, but one thing everybody agreed on is that traffic will slow down throughout the city. Emergency responders will have a tougher time maneuvering through traffic and these bumps have negative impacts on a vehicle's gas mileage because of how slow it will travel and how often the vehicle's brakes are used.
People in support of the speed bumps though, say that slowing traffic down is exactly the goal trying to be achieved in order to reduce accidents. Moreover, the question of, “How will everything involved in the bumps implementation be paid for?” remains. This subject will also be talked about more thoroughly at the Nov. 10 meeting.
Rancho  LPG 
The Rancho LPG  facility tanks and the transportation of liquefied natural gas to and from the facility was the last item on the agenda. Those in attendance expressed that they would like the trucks to use  the Anaheim or Pacific Coast Highway entrances instead of the Channel Street onramp, arguing that Channel Street was too narrow for truck traffic.
For more details vist http://nwsanpedro.org

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Marks Grand Opening of Peck Park Skatepark

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Marks Grand Opening of Peck Park Skatepark

    Skaters, elected officials and community members celebrated the opening of San Pedro’s new skatepark with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 15.
Skaters have already been enjoying the Peck Park skatepark since its completion, squeezing through or climbing over the surrounding fence. This pushed the city to open the skatepark earlier than they had initially planned.
    The $850,000 skatepark, was built to take the place of the Channel Street skatepark, which was closed ahead of pending expansion of the 110 Freeway overhead. Peck Park’s is the 24th skatepark to open in Los Angeles, with five more under construction. Channel Street skatepark founder and instrumental player in making the Peck Park skatepark happen, Andy Harris, was able to puff out his chest with an extra sense of pride at the ceremony.
    “Parks like this don’t get built in every city,” Harris said. “And, this park here is top notch, world class. You’ve got yourself a tourist attraction here.”
    The new skatepark looked like a very large swimming pool without water. Within it, there was a smaller about 7-feet deep bowl. Some skated the new bowl while others just relaxed and enjoyed the scene.
     “To see the excitement, the energy, to see kids young and old enjoying their new skatepark is incredible,” Councilman Joe Buscaino said.
    Buscaino thanked San Pedro for supporting the building of the skatepark, despite some of the negative stigma connected to skaters.
“Skateboarding has had a lot of ups and downs in its popularity and how it’s viewed by our culture,” Buscaino said. “Skaters have often been vilified and called anarchists… Well... today, in San Pedro, we welcome the skateboard community.
“Whether you call skateboarding a sport, or your art, or you don’t call it anything at all, we’re here today because there’s enough people that said yes to skateboarding in San Pedro.”
Buscaino pleaded with skaters to help take care of the park and to report others that would vandalize it with graffiti. In addition, Harris and his team pledged to keep the skate park free of graffiti using the paint supplies provided by the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks.   

Chiropractor Honored for Aiding SPHS Wrestling Team

Chiropractor Honored for Aiding SPHS Wrestling Team

On April 11, the San Pedro High School wrestling team honored Alan Naim for his gift of $3,000, exercise equipment, and his pledge to become an annual donor to the team. Naim’s generosity will allow the team to build on their recent successes.
Treated like the stepchild of high school sports, San Pedro High School’s wrestling team didn't have a mat with their own school’s logo on it, let alone the sufficient exercise equipment.
Naim gave the team a $3,000 installment of $16,000 for a new wrestling mat. Until recently, the team was using an old 45- by 45-foot mat donated to them by Cerritos College.
Third-year coach Roman Hernandez said that the team was on the verge of not being able to compete because they couldn’t even afford tournament entries. The students who wrestled, ages 14 and 15, had to go out and raise money in order to have a wrestling team.
“Mainly, I’ve been putting it on our kids to go out and hit the streets and fundraise money,” Hernandez said. “I don’t think a kid should have to do that.”
    The wrestling team has seen its fortunes turn for the better since Hernandez became the team’s coach, despite the lack of funding and attention.
“We always have tough kids,” Hernandez said. “There’s 23 schools in the city and in our first year we took 12th and that just had to do with the San Pedro toughness. And, the next year we took 9th and in this past year we took 6th and we’re looking to make a move again.”
Naim learned of the wrestling team's woes from Richard Alvarez, a client of his chiropractic clinic. Alvarez is the parent of one of the members of the wrestling team.
During one visit, Naim mentioned to Alvarez that he had three exercise machines he no longer needed.
With a background in Israeli wrestling and his working with athletes on a regular basis, Naim was empathetic toward the situation.
“I see a lot of athletes,” Naim said. “I care for their well being. Whether it’s through equipment I’ve donated or through money I’ve donated.”
Naims’s plans on supporting the team for as long as his practice allows. With this new found support, the San Pedro High’s wrestling will make it to the top of their division.

Residents Show the Power of Community

Wits, resources and perseverance is what it took for neighbors to reclaim Leland Park from its reputation as a haven for homeless, drug abuse and all around decay. Long-time residents recall the park being lively, with families enjoying family outings and little league teams using the green space for softball games before city budget cuts began to take its toll.

When budget cuts forced the Recreation and Parks department to stop sending maintenance workers to keep the park cleaned and well kept, the grass died throughout and the park equipment was covered in graffiti. The park resembled a dumping ground and eventually, locals who had long called the park home stopped coming.

So fed up with the park’s deterioration, Debbie Rouser, who lives in front of the park, launched a one-woman, letter-writing campaign to force Councilman Joe Buscaino’s office and the Recreation and Parks department to clean up and begin maintaining the park.

“It got to a point where it was so bad,” Rouser said. “There was no other way.”

Rouser’s barrage of letters and phone calls resulted in few results. One day, a friend told her about a Leland Park Facebook page created by another local resident to raise awareness about the park’s state of disrepair and hopefully spark community action on the issue. In a word, Rouser found “allies.”

“It was like a spontaneous eruption,” Rouser said. “Certain people just started volunteering to do different things.”

Afterward, things began moving swiftly. Neighbors organized the Leland Park Advisory Board and began documenting the park’s problem areas with pictures and notes and emailed them to every city department with jurisdiction.

The tenacity of the organized residents caught the attention of Michael Shull-- the Superintendent for the Recreation and Park’s Planning and Development Division--and led him to partner with the park advisory board to transform Leland Park into a fully functioning park.

“The City of [Los Angeles] should never try to do things alone,” Shull said. “Everything should be born out of what the community needs.”

Since combining forces, Shull and the advisory board have created plan that includes installing an  irrigation system, building pathways that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, replace the dead grass with new landscaping, and redo the ball fields.

Outdoor exercise equipment will also be installed, adding to the variety of activities at the park. Recs and Parks are also planning to install new security lights and cameras and additional parking spaces on Capitol Drive.

Shull and the advisory board are also discussing ways to increased security at the park, which includes installing lights, cameras and putting up a fence around the park with two entrance gates.  

Rouser is pleased with the attention law enforcement is paying to the park, a significant change from the days when even complaints of drug transactions was acted upon slowly.

“[It’s] Night and day compared to what it used to be,” Rouser said. “I think a lot of it is because the public has stood up and said we’re not going to stand for this anymore. “People would come at 11 o’clock at night and open their car doors and they’d have the huge, loud, supersonic stereo systems,” Rouser said.

“I would call the LAPD and I would get that fax sound… and you would never get through. And when you did it was like, really, I guess we’ll send somebody. And they wouldn’t come. Then they’d call at five in the morning... and ask me if they still needed [for us] to come.”

Rouser said that at the neighborhood council meeting residents attended to raise the issue of the park’s status, Captain of the Harbor Division, Nancy Lauer, swore to begin patrolling the area and respond in a timely manner.

“[Captain] Lauer stood up and said we got your back,” Rouser said. “And we saw that. I’d see undercovers out here. I saw a lot of black and whites.[Police Patrol Cars]”

Eastview Little League baseball teams have inquired about using the baseball field for practice after the completion of the redevelopment. The Dodgers have promised to provide the field a new scoreboard.

Shull acknowledge the importance of community involvement in addressing quality of life issues.

“Every park thats successful in this city has a community group around it that’s conserved and keeps a watchful eye,” Shull said. “It just takes organization; It takes people that care.”

The city is planning to begin construction within the following two months. If everything goes according to schedule, they are expected to be completed by the fall season.

Veterans Ride 600 Miles for Fallen Brothers

Fourteen veterans wounded in combat took the Never Quit Challenge, from Sept. 8 through 11. The challenge that included a 600 mile jet ski course from Morro Bay to San Diego.

In the challenge’s second year, veterans who received purple hearts stopped in Santa Barbara, Long Beach and Catalina Island. The challenge concluded on the evening of Sept. 11  at the Stone Bistro’s Liberty Center, Point Loma for a 9/11 tribute.  

“It’s great, getting back together and having that camaraderie that you don’t get in the real world — the civilian world,” said 3rd Ranger Battalion Kyle Butcher, one of the veterans who was part of the challenge.

The prior year’s challenge took place between Key West, Fla. and New York City. Event organizer Shawn Alladio said the location change each year is what makes the competition unique.

The event supports the Marsoc Foundation, Station Foundation, and Phoenix Patriot Foundation. All three support veterans and the families of fallen soldiers.

It’s called the Never Quit Challenge for a reason: The waters are choppy and unpredictable, creating a greater challenge for wounded veterans. One rider was using prosthetic legs, but zero riders complained or quit.

“It’s kind of a hardship,” Alladio said. “The challenge is very difficult. It’s painful at times because it’s a lot of hours on the water. What we’ve experienced the last two days, it’s been very windy. And, so, the wind has affected the surface texture of the water and that’s really slowed down a lot of the projections of the timelines,”

“The Pacific Ocean doesn’t play any favorites,” Barry Baker said, who was one of the event’s organizers. “It delivered some smooth riding and then there were times where it was very challenging, knocking people off of jet skis and such. It was great. It was challenging.”

Baker is one of three riders who never served on active duty. He is an alumni with the K38 Rescue Program. Barry rode from Long Beach to Catalina and back, while the second of the three, Allatio, rode the whole 600 miles.

Butcher was shot three times while on duty in Iraq. He enjoys the brotherhood that he experiences with the riders who are fellow veterans, which he says is lacking in his day to day life.

“It’s a hardship,” Butcher said. “It wasn’t fun. Most people think riding jet skis is fun, but we’re riding jet skis 600 miles in some pretty rough water. Each one of those boats have a fallen brother on it. We look down at that when times get hard and tough, it’s like, you know it’s not about me, suck it up. That’s why its called the never quit challenge. There’s no quitting.”

Next year’s challenge will take place between Galveston, Texas and Miami.

Queen’s Cup Doesn’t Fail to Impress in Debut

Racers kept their heads down. Their eyes pointed straight ahead as they steered their wheels went for the gold at the All-American Queen’s Cup Soap Box Derby race.

The derby took place Aug. 23 and 24 at the parking lot adjacent to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. A ramp was placed at the beginning of the track. Racers were released from the top, gathering enough speed to push them to the finish line. The finish is 40, or 50 feet ahead of the ramp. Haystacks outlined the track to cushion a driver in the event of a crash and cones divided the two lanes.

Most of the races were neck-and-neck from start to finish. Some ended with about a second, or a second-and-a-half, between them. Some ended with finishes that made your heart skip a beat. That instance alone was enough to fill the gap that separated the racers. Most importantly, none of the races were one-sided, which called for an exciting event.

The races began at 11 a.m. There were four different races for each of the three different classes: stock; super stock; masters. The double elimination race had drivers race each other, mark the time difference, trade wheels and lanes and go at it again. The time difference was recorded after the second race and whoever had a better accumulated time would advance. The switch was made to ensure a fair game.

Eleven-year-old Michael Nuñez placed fourth and brought home a trophy in which happened to be his first ever race. He said his mom persuaded him to race by promising him a surprise if he did. The trophy he won saw to it that he ends the day with two surprises. He said his favorite part of the race was zooming down the ramp at the start. He definitely is going to race again in the future.

Regional Director Brian Graham, said he was looking for a race director who can find racers and permanent venues in Long Beach willing to host annual races. As for the Queen Mary being host to its first soap box derby, Graham wished that the track would've been longer, but said they did a great job in providing them the possibility to run a flawless event.

“As a host site the Queen Mary was perfect,” Graham said. “Everything we could want was provided, maybe some things we had maybe not thought about to. We are looking into a longer track and longer ramps for future events. With any program the first time out there are always some things to improve. However, with our intention for this race, we hit a home run.”

Contact Graham by emailing him at rallycomish@aol.com.