The Brief

On a recent and very foggy morning, I met the small team of Ghost Diving USA at the 22nd Street landing in San Pedro.

They’re the local chapter of a global mission to clean up ghost nets — abandoned, lost or discarded fishing nets floating through the ocean. The nets often kill marine life that gets caught up in them.

Over five days, the team of volunteer scuba divers pulled up more than 2,000 pounds of fishing net tangled up on a shipwreck just a few miles off the coast of San Pedro.

“ What it was we pulled up are the drag nets that commercial fishermen use, so there were all these weighted balls and things that are attached to it, which added so much weight to the actual net itself as well," said Angie Biggs, a volunteer whose role was to keep everything running smoothly on the ship during this particular mission.

About 1,500 pounds of net that used to be caught on the UB-88 submarine wreck.

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Courtesy Ghost Diving USA

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The wreck is a huge World War I German submarine called the UB-88. The u-boat was paraded from the East Coast to the west as part of a victory tour after the war. Its final stop was in San Pedro Bay, where it was purposely sunk in 1921.

Since then, it’s collected thousands of pounds of fishing nets that have drifted across the sandy ocean floor.

"This could keep us busy for quite some time,” Biggs said.

Ghost nets hurt marine life

Inside the cabin of the dive boat, Jim Babor, president of Ghost Diving USA, shows me a mini 3D-printed model of the submarine. Babor is a musician for the LA Philharmonic for work, but is also a scuba diving enthusiast trained in technical diving.

“It is completely unrelated to being a classical musician, but I think that's one of the reasons I love it,” Babor said of diving.

On the model, there’s a plume over the torpedo tube — what was the biggest tangle of ghost net caught on the u-boat.

“All of this above the torpedo tube is gone,” Babor said.

A 3D-printed model of the UB-88. The "plume" on the right above and below the torpedo tube is the bulk of where the ghost net has been caught.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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Jim Babor, left, of Ghost Diving USA on a recent mission to clean ghost net off the UB-88. Fellow diver Symeon Manias sits across from him.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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On this December day, three days into this round of cleanup, they will begin to cut pieces of net under the torpedo tube and attach inflatable bags to it, so it’s ready to bring up the next day. The goal is to protect marine life, while also preserving a piece of history.

“The problem with the net is, it creates this thing that we call the circle of death,” Babor said.

That’s when a small fish gets caught, then a bigger fish gets caught trying to eat that smaller fish, and so on, all the way up the food chain. So far on this wreck they’ve found entangled crabs and fish — some they’ve saved, most have been dead.

On other Southern California wrecks they’ve worked on, Babor said they’ve found harbor seals, dolphins and even cormorants, a type of seabird, caught in the net.

Divers prep before a recent dive to clear ghost net off the UB-88 wreck off the coast of San Pedro.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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“It's immense. It's daunting,” Babor said of the problem of ocean pollution. As old as fishing itself, the problem has become a massive one to address.

Experts estimate ghost fishing gear makes up at least 10% of all the trash in the ocean. And these nets are often made out of plastic materials such as nylon, so they’re a major source of microplastic pollution too.

A fish takes refuge in a part of the UB-88 wreck, which has become something of its own underwater habitat.

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Courtesy Ghost Diving USA

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Diving for ghost nets

It takes about an hour to reach where we’ll anchor above the shipwreck. When we arrive, the divers suit up. It’s 190 feet down to the wreck.

Five divers will go down in timed intervals to prep more of the net to be recovered the next day. They’re all certified technical divers and volunteers and they have a variety of backgrounds — a scuba instructor, a marine biologist, tech security, an engineer, plus Babor, the musician.

Divers David Watson, right, and Tianyi Lu, left, preparing to get in the water.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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For us on the boat, it’s time to wait. We spot a sea lion leaping out of the water a couple dozen yards away — a reminder of why the divers are doing this work.

About two hours later, all the divers are back on board. Babor lugs himself and his 130 pounds of gear on deck.

“They photographed the lingcod that was down there caught in the net,” he said, unzipping his dry suit. A lingcod is a large fish native to these waters.

The ghost net attached to the UB-88 shipwreck. The orange balloon-like bag next to the diver is an inflatable bag that helps lift the nets to the surface.

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Tianyi Lu

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Ghost Diving USA

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But with so much net gone now, the wreck itself looks pretty epic.

“The wreck is beautiful — with all the net that came up yesterday, you can really see the wreck now,” said David Watson, a local scuba diving instructor and volunteer with Ghost Diving USA.

An inflatable orange bag attached to ghost net on the UB-88 wreck on December 16, 2024.

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Courtesy Ghost Diving USA

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What’s next

It’s time to head back — the crew has to keep a tight ship and they’re behind schedule. By the time we return, the fog has burned off, the sun is out and the water is blue and shimmering.

The net the team has pulled up so far has already been dropped off with their recycling partner, Aquafil. The company will clean and grind up the nets so it can be turned into something else — bracelets, swimwear, and even power tools and the interiors of luxury cars. An artist will use some of the net from this mission to create an exhibition raising awareness about the problem of ghost nets.

Captain Jim Simmerman at the wheel of his boat, one of two that assists Ghost Diving USA with its dives.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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There’s still a lot more work to be done, Babor said. They’ve been working to clean this wreck for a year-and-a-half now and it’ll likely be a few years more. They’re working to partner with commercial fishers to expand their ghost net removal work — something that’s been in the works since the early 2000s through a program at UC Davis.

“ I feel like I'm giving something back to the environment that I love so much,” Babor said. “When you see the devastation that the nets do down there, killing fish and birds and seals and dolphins….You get the nets out, it's an immediate effect. That's the reason I do it.”

On Friday, Southern California Edison filed lawsuits against Los Angeles County and several other agencies over their alleged roles in the Eaton Fire.

Two lawsuits were filed.

In one suit, the utility company alleges Southern California Gas delayed shutting off gas in the burn area for several days after the fire, making the blaze worse.

“SoCalGas’ design and actions caused gas leaks, gas fires, reignition of fires, gas explosions and secondary ignitions during the critical early stages of the Eaton Fire,” according to the suit.

The claim goes on to say this contributed to the spread of the fire and made firefighting and evacuation efforts more difficult.

In the second suit, the utility company alleges the Eaton Fire was made worse by the local government response, “including due to the failures of LASD, LACoFD, OEM and GENASYS in issuing timely evacuation alerts and notifications,” the claim reads.

The same filing says L.A. County was to blame for vegetation and overgrown brush in the Eaton Canyon area that fueled the blaze.

It also named the city of Pasadena and its utility system, Pasadena Water and Power, the city of Sierra Madre, Kinneloa Irrigation District, Rubio Cañon Land & Water Association, Las Flores Water Company and Lincoln Avenue Water Company as parties responsible for water systems running dry in Altadena as the fire broke out.

Edison says hydrants running dry compounded the extent of the disaster.

Those claims will be heard in the L.A. County Superior Court, which is also handling L.A. County’s lawsuit against SoCal Edison.

Edison itself is the subject of hundreds of lawsuits from survivors of the Eaton Fire, which could cost the company billions of dollars in settlements.

Edison has said its equipment likely sparked the Eaton Fire and filed these suits, in part, because it believes these various entities should share some of the blame for the disaster, which resulted in the destruction of thousands of buildings and the deaths of 19 people.

A compensation program Edison established for fire survivors who forgo suing the company has made settlement offers to more than 80 of those who applied.

A new organization is taking over production of the MLK Day Parade, almost 40 years after the first parade was held in South L.A. to commemorate the civil rights leader.

Bakewell Media, publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper (a partner of The LA Local), was granted the permit in September to organize the parade for the first time by the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners. Formerly called the Kingdom Day Parade, the parade has been rebranded as the Los Angeles Official Martin Luther King Day Parade. The parade was previously produced and organized by Adrian Dove and the L.A. chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality California (CORE-CA).

With less than a week before the parade kicks off, LA Local reporter LaMonica Peters sat down with Danny Bakewell Jr., president and executive editor of the LA Sentinel, to discuss the details and what attendees should expect.

This Jan. 12 interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Why did you decide to produce the MLK Day Parade this year?

Bakewell: It all started because Adrian Dove, who was the previous promoter, had announced that he was retiring. When he announced he was retiring, LAPD, city council offices and other people said, “Hey, we still want to do the MLK Day parade. Would you guys be interested? You have the infrastructure to put it together.” And we said yes.

What’s different about this year’s production?

We’re going to start the parade with a singer performing “Lift Every Voice.” We’re going to play the message from Bernice King at the start of the show. Obviously, we have Cedric the Entertainer as our grand marshal to add the entertainment value, but the community has always been and will continue to be a major part of this parade.

Is ABC 7 covering the parade this year? 

It’s still going to be televised by ABC. We’re working diligently on how the show is going to be, but ABC has been a great partner.

What was the preparation for this parade?

Thanks to our corporate sponsors, we have a number of bands. The truth is, particularly in LAUSD at this time, and other school districts, they don’t have the funding to just get a bus and get here. I can’t say enough about Airbnb to Bank of America, all of our corporate sponsors, who are supporting all of the youth organizations.

Were there any unexpected challenges while preparing for this parade? 

This [The LA Sentinel office on Crenshaw Blvd.] is usually our command center during The Taste of Soul. It dawned on me last week that we’re going to be a mile away [from the parade route]. So, we made the decision to bring in a trailer to be our office at the corner of King and Crenshaw boulevards.

Any special guests this year besides the grand marshal?

I’m working on a surprise guest to be the singer for the national anthem. No matter what, we will give tribute to the Black national anthem “Lift Every Voice” as loud as we can next Monday.

What’s the long-term vision for this parade, if Bakewell Media continues to produce it?

We see the MLK Day Parade, and we want the world to see and expect to see this parade, the same way they see the Macy’s Parade, the Hollywood Parade or the Rose Parade. BET has come in this year as a partner. So there’s an opportunity to possibly do a national broadcast on BET. Not that we would lose our local television, but we see this as a major parade in this community and in the national African American community, celebrating the great work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So, we are very excited.

Bits of conversation drift out of Aladdin Used Books as people lined up at the register with stacks of books.

The bustle of activity is bittersweet as the Koreatown bookstore will close its doors at the end of January after 13 years in the neighborhood.

Jina Lee, store manager, said declining sales at the Koreatown branch led to the decision to close the store. In recent years, staffing at the 5,000-square-foot store on the third floor of Madang Mall dropped from six to two, Lee said.

“This was a happy place for everyone,” she said, “but we were struggling.”

On a recent January afternoon, the shop looked lively as customers took advantage of the clearance sale on Korean and English books, CDs, DVDs and other media.

Koreatown resident Jin Lee wishes he visited the bookstore more often.

“It would have been great if it had been this crowded all the time,” Lee said. “But nowadays, people don’t read paper books and prefer devices, so it’s hard for all bookstores.”

Some customers traveled from as far as Orange County and the Inland Empire to visit one last time.

Minjung Kim, who moved from Koreatown to Fullerton five years ago, still made trips to the bookstore after she moved away.

“It’s the only place that sells this many new and used Korean books,” she said.

Each visit to the bookstore was important to David Artiga of Pomona, because it gave him a chance to connect with friends over literature.

“I feel like this is really negative for the community,” he said. “The importance of having a well-versed society, keeping in touch with literature and art is so important. And now this place is just going to be gone.”

South Korea-based Aladdin Used Books opened its first U.S. brick-and-mortar store in Los Angeles in 2013. The store carries around 50,000 new and used books, with a majority in Korean.

Customers will still be able to order books through Aladdin’s website after the store closes.

Ken Derick, a Koreatown resident, walked around the store aisles with a stack of books.

“It’s like we’re kind of moving towards a new technology, like everything’s virtual and online,” he said.

Longtime customer Anthony Kim said he’s enjoyed looking for gems in the English-language shelves.

“My Korean ability is rather limited but I’ve always enjoyed browsing their English language sections,” he said. “And now that I have a niece and nephew, their children’s book section has always been a great place to pick up new books for them.”

Valerie Laguna perused the shop’s CD section, a bygone experience in the era of streaming.

“I really like their CD collection and their literature collection they have in English,” she said.

“I was so sad about it, I immediately texted my friend,” she said. “I’ve gotten so many of my favorite books and my favorite CDs from this place. I feel like losing a place like this is just so sad and makes a huge dent in the community and culture.”

Less than a mile away on Western Avenue, Happy Bookstore owner Jung Jae-seung said it has been difficult for bookstores for some time now. His Korean-language bookstore is also struggling in an era when so many people have abandoned print media.

“It’s really about how long printed books can survive,” Jung said. “From that point of view, it’s hard to be optimistic.”

South L.A. or South Central? More than 20 years ago, that question came with high emotions for some residents who were sick of the stereotypes they saw in media coverage of their neighborhoods.

So in 2003, the Los Angeles City Council renamed the collection of communities south of the 10 freeway in an attempt to cut ties with the connotations of poverty and crime that some believe came to represent South Central after the turbulence of the 1980s and ‘90s. Today, you see South L.A. on official documents, maps and even historical and cultural districts.

Even though city officials moved to wipe away the old name, some locals never stopped calling the area South Central — a name that for them represents history, resilience and Black and Latino culture.

“I think it will always be South Central for its residents and for the people that were born and raised here,” said Evelyn Alfaro-Macias, a social worker who was raised in Historic South Central and whose office is on Hoover Street. “It means home. It means culture. People should respect the name South Central.”

What and where is South LA, anyway?

By the early 2000s, television news and pop culture had given South Central a reputation for violence and chaos that some were eager to shake.

Helen Johnson, a resident of Vermont Square, helped lead the campaign to change the name.

“I think the media can make you or either break you,” 72-year-old Johnson told reporters in 2003 after the city council approved the name change, according to the L.A. Times. “This is what you’ve done to us. You’ve broke us.”

Supporters of the change included then-Councilmember Janice Hahn, who is now a county supervisor and said at the time that the South Central name had become “mostly derogatory.”

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who was working then as executive director of the nonprofit Community Coalition, said the area’s image problem wasn’t just about its name.

“If the media paid a little more attention to covering positive things in the community, that will also help,” Bass said, according to an L.A. Times report.

The LA Local has reached out Bass and Hahn’s offices, as well as L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson.

The exact borders of South Los Angeles, or the area formerly known as South Central, are fuzzy.

The South Central name originally only applied to the neighborhood around Central Avenue south of downtown Los Angeles, but it spread west as populations grew.

City planning documents today designate a strip of neighborhoods between Interstate 110 and Arlington Avenue as South Los Angeles and tag the Central Avenue neighborhood as Historic South Central. Others, including academics and the city tourism board, use a map of South Los Angeles that stretches to the border of Culver City.

This is what the community told us

Some businesses in the area adopted the South L.A. name, notably South LA Cafe, the coffee shop that has grown to five locations and become a local institution.

More recently, some groups have made a concerted effort to embrace South Central, like the South Central Run Club or South Central Clips, an Instagram-based group that sells skatewear-inspired “South Central” apparel. (Even South LA Cafe today sells some merch with the South Central name.)

Several locals told The LA Local the official designation never changed anything for them.

“It’s South Central for me. That’s where my roots are,” April Brown said. “When you go anywhere across the country, across the world and you say South Central, they know exactly what you’re talking about.”

To Emily Amador, the name change erases the history of South Central, including “the Black migration that occurred, redlining that created what we know today to be South Central and the demographics, which are here today, which is Black and brown and undocumented.”

Ulysses Alfaro, who was born and raised in the Historic South Central neighborhood, said he uses South L.A. with people from out of town but South Central with locals.

South L.A. is a geographic designator, he said, but he considers South Central to be an identity: “That’s where the grinders are, the hard-working people that work their butts off, their asses off. The ones that keep the city running.”