To celebrate the Grand Prix of Long Beach’s golden anniversary, we will present readers with 50 fun facts. Here are Nos. 26-30.

Originally Published: April 9, 2025 at 6:00 AM PDT

Modern Japanese restaurant brings barbecue and sushi to LBX Long Beach Exchange

Originally Published: March 24, 2025 at 9:48 AM PDT

Cargo numbers continued to push higher at the Port of Los Angeles in February — but it came with some caution that the pace could slow by midyear.

“At some point, we will see a softening of the numbers,” Executive Director Gene Seroka said in his monthly virtual news conference on Wednesday, March 19, adding that it is possible to see a 10% decline in volume in the second half of 2025.

While it is still early in the year, consumer confidence and spending are expected to see a potential downturn, a point made in Seroka’s discussion with this month’s guest, Nela Richardson, chief economist a Automatic Data Processing Research, which analyzes the labor market and employee performance.

“There are a lot of things happening at the same time,” Richardson said, highlighting Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting about interest rates that were kept unchanged. “There are a lot of moving parts here and all of them are going to have specific and collective impacts.”

February cargo numbers — with 801,398 units flowing through the port — was the “second busiest February on record” and 2.5% more than the same month in 2024, Seroka said.

But, he said, shippers and retailers front-loading cargo continued to influence those high numbers as they try to get cargo sent before tariffs set in.

“For 17 of the last 19 months,” Seroka said, “the Port of Los Angeles has experienced year-over-year cargo growth, all without ship delays or back-ups on our docks.”

Retailers and manufacturers “have been importing their products through Los Angeles earlier than usual as a hedge against tariffs,” Seroka said. “Given the substantial inventory already here, and the uncertainty of tariffs, it’s possible we could see a 10% volume decline in the second half of the year.”

There was little else being discussed at the recent TPM Conference for the shipping industry in Long Beach, Seroka said.

“The overall mood of the 4,200 attending” was concentrated on concerns…

Seafood lovers and Lent observers are in for some treats at San Pedro Fish Market.

The San Pedro Fish Market, located at 706 S Harbor Blvd., and its Long Beach and Wilmington locations are hosting Fish Fridays. Visitors can enjoy featured and specialty menu items and participate in the restaurant’s Instagram page contests to enter to win prizes every Friday until the promotion ends on Easter Sunday, April 20.

Michael Ungaro, CEO and owner of San Pedro Fish Market, said he and his family grew up Catholic and attended the Mary Star of the Sea Church in San Pedro and other Catholic schools. He said Lent has always been a big part of his community. In Christian tradition, seafood is eaten during Lent (for those who observe), usually on Fridays, to commemorate Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday. Fish is considered a cold-blooded animal, so seafood is allowed as a substitute for the cuts of meat produced by warm-blooded animals such as beef and chicken.

“Our customer base is primarily Catholic, so typically, on Fridays, this time of the year, our customers come looking for seafood,” Ungaro said in a phone interview. “Over the years, we’ve tried accommodating that with some specials so the food is not so boring. If you’re observing Lent, and that’s part of your tradition, we want to make sure that we have something a little different, not just fried fish.”

The first special offered on Friday, March 7, was a salmon sandwich with a side of fries. Other items and instructions for how to win free food will be revealed every Friday. While the sandwich is a personal dish, the restaurant offers others that emphasize sharing.

“We’ve found that celebrating food and family is one of our niches for which people visit us,” Ungaro said. “We’ve noticed over the years, especially on Sunday, which has been our busiest day right when mass is finished. We have a religious Catholic and Christian customer base that comes together as a family, celebrates in church and…

LONG BEACH — The Warren girls soccer team scored two goals in the second half to pull off a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Thousand Oaks in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 final at Veterans Stadium on Saturday.

It is the first CIF-SS title for Warren in girls soccer.

Junior Allison Bravo scored the game-winner off a cross by senior Alexis Delgado (Cal State Dominguez Hills commit), which put the Bears up 2-1 with 12 minutes to go.

“It felt really good to put that game-winner in,” Bravo said. “I felt a lot of different emotions at the time and I’m just happy that I got to experience this with my teammates, with my sisters.”

Warren senior Mayilen Salazar (Azusa Pacific commit) tied the game at 1 early in the second half.

“Honestly, I’m not the type of person to score or shoot,” Salazar said, “but I knew that I had to do something for my team so I just didn’t think about it. It was a lot of emotion, a lot of adrenaline.”

The Bears ratcheted up their attack by switching from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-5-2 formation, which allowed them to overload the Lancers on the wings.

“It took a lot of sweat, heart and tears,” Warren coach Lily Dussan said. “I’m a (2006) Warren alumni. I played there. This is my 14th year coaching, 11th running the program and we’ve put in a lot of work with these seniors these past four years.”

The Bears improved to 18-3-3 overall.

“We’re making history and we left a legacy here at Warren this year,” said Dussan, whose team made it to the Division 3 semifinals last season.

Thousand Oaks (12-8-3) was led by sophomore Maddie Linville, who who put the Lancers up 1-0 early in the first half.

However, after that moment, the Lancers’ offense went cold.

“It just wasn’t our day today,” Thousand Oaks coach Clay Cameron said. “They were really organized. That’s a really good team we played, they moved the ball well and they were really structured with their shape and disciplined.”

The Lancers had a quality scoring…

Fires and other disasters pose challenges in moving animals ranging from grizzly bears to sharks.

Originally Published: February 27, 2025 at 5:30 AM PST

San Pedro’s latest mid-rise, Vivo on Harbor, is finished and already attracting attention and visitors via the ground floor Colossus Bakery that sits on the same footprint as the town’s former Grinder restaurant.

While several mid-rise mixed-use residential units have gone up over the past few years, Vivo, which broke ground in December 2022, appears to have bragging rights when it comes to water views.

Positioned at 511 S. Harbor Blvd. — across the street from the Battleship Iowa — full or partial water views for most of its 137 apartments will likely be guaranteed, developers said. Along with the battleship museum, the landscape across the street is taken up with the fireboat station, the town square, the Los Angeles Maritime Museum and, just south of that, what is the expansive West Harbor waterfront development and promenade.

Colossus is already packing customers in, developers said. It opened on Friday, Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day — and is open seven days a week. It is the third location for the San Pedro bakery that offers a full food menu, including pastries and fresh-baked loaves of bread in small batches; it also boasts a full brunch, lunch, and dinner menu, including sourdough pizzas and natural wines.

With the port’s growing cruise business, developers said, tourists visiting the Iowa, where L.A. Fleet Week draws thousands on Memorial Day weekend, and the new West Harbor waterfront — set to have soft openings this year, with a grand opening in early 2026 — the cafe is expected to do well.

The new eight-story Vivo at Harbor mid-rise features a 1,500 square-foot ground-floor space and podium parking garage below the units that were a project from the Trammell Crow Company subsidiary High Street Residential. KFA Architecture designed Vivo.

“We love being part of San Pedro,” said Alex Valente, President for the Los Angeles office of High Street Residential.

The $70 million, eight-story development began construction and finished in…