What remains of an erstwhile canning plant that had significant historic roots in San Pedro’s once-thriving tuna fishing industry will be demolished following a recent 3-1 Los Angeles harbor commission vote.
The Port of Los Angeles, which has been weighing the issue of what to do with the remote property since 2016, has conducted several studies, trying unsuccessfully to find a new operator that could continue a canning business there.
But the port ultimately concluded it is better suited for demolition to make way for a needed chassis depot and maintenance facility, since container shipping, not commercial fishing, is now the predominant money-maker in the port.
The vacant Star-Kist facility is also in serious disrepair, port officials said, and would cost about $37 million just to refurbish.
But the harbor commission decision last week to OK demolition, which had been protested, came with a Port of Los Angeles pledge to pursue other to memorialize the history of the plant, which hasn’t been used in decades.
Recalling the historic black-and-white images of hundreds of female cannery employees, in hair nets and white uniforms, who worked there through the years, Commissioner Diane Middleton described the plant as once the “largest canning facility in the world.”
“We absolutely want to preserve that history and we want to honor the cannery workers,” she said during the Thursday, Feb. 9, meeting. “What is the best way to do that?”
Middleton said she’s been working on one plan that could serve that purpose.
Two groups in town — the Harry Bridges Institute and the Southern California Pensioners for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union — are in discussions with Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, Middleton said, to create a harbor labor museum in downtown San Pedro.
“There is going to be an opportunity for a tremendous memorial to the cannery workers,” Middleton said in her remarks.
The plan, she said, is for the museum…
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