(From left) Fire Chief Mike DuRee, Port of Long Beach’s Executive Director Chris Lytle and former West Division Commander Robert Luman sat at a table and answered questions from community members at a grassroots-organized forum. Photos by Sarah Bennett.

Tensions ran high at the Queen’s Wharf Restaurant last Thursday night as it filled with more than a hundred community members who hoped to convince the Port of Long Beach to reconsider its plan to shut down the businesses at Berth 55, one of the last publicly accessible commercial areas inside the Port.

Westside community members have been voicing concerns over the implications of closing institutions like Berth 55 Fish Market and Seafood Deli and Long Beach Sportfishing since the Port handed down a 180-day notice to vacate in April. But Port officials say that the property is needed for public safety—it’s the only place available to put Fire Station 20, which needs to be relocated as part of the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement project.

“The port has a history of creating jobs and creating opportunities,” the Port’s Executive Director Chris Lytle told the concerned crowd at the grassroots-organized community forum. “And so we certainly don’t like the idea of displacing or moving business. If there was any other choice for us, I would rather leave the businesses right here and put this security complex in a better location. But right now this is the best location for the fire station and security complex.”

Lytle sat alongside Long Beach Fire Department Chief Mike DuRee and Long Beach Police Department’s former West Division Commander Robert Luman at a table in the front of the room and fielded questions about its updated plan for the site, which includes not only Fire Station 20, but an entire security complex that will host LBPD and port security assets as well.

DuRee explained that the site is crucially situated to provide access for both waterside and landside responses. It will also allow room for growth since the Department will soon be replacing its 87-foot long fire boats with much larger, 110-foot long vessels.

“This location servs two purposes,” DuRee said. “In an era of ever shrinking budgets, it’s very important for me as your fire chief to be as strategic as I can with placement of apparatus and develop scenarios where we can be creative. The reason this location is so suitable is because it serves all of our needs.”

But many in the audience—who overwhelmingly expressed that the community does not want to lose the beloved establishments at Berth 55—were unsure that placing a fire boat at the end of a long channel would be in the best interest of public safety. Local boat captains said that it can take up to eight minutes to reach the main channel from Berth 55’s location and that the narrow route is often blocked with tugboats and barges from nearby terminals for up to a half-hour at a time.

“The fire department deserves the best location from which to operate, not the best available,” said Mike Redlew, owner of Long Beach Sports Fishing. “They are the ones that will deal with the aftermath of a non-ideal location resulting in a non-ideal response time. Berth 55 and Long Beach Sports Fishing have been here for so long for the exact same reason the fire department should not be here—it’s out of the way, it’s secure and it, too, provides a much-needed service in the community.”

The officials present eventually conceded that the site is probably not an ideal place to put a fire boat, but it is the best place for a larger public safety campus, which will include a fire boat.

Still, one major question loomed for the community supporters (many of who wore pins that said “Keep 55 Alive”)—why can’t the fire station and the small businesses at Berth 55 co-exist?

“I don’t understand why there can’t be both,” said Dan Hernandez, a sports fisherman who says he has introduced thousands of children from his youth foundation to fishing thanks to the commercial boats based at Berth 55. “I understand you have to move, but we’re not talking about bringing in destroyers and battleships and all that. There’s plenty of room for [LBFD’s boats] and for what’s already here.”

Port Executive Director Chris Lytle addresses the crowd.

According to Redlew, in May, the Port released plans for the property that indicated that the parking lot would remain available. But after several proposed cohabitation ideas were submitted by Berth 55, the Port released a new plan that used 100 percent of the property and included a corrosion control center not previously mentioned.

“The key word in a fire and PD security complex is ‘security,’” Lytle said. “So when you have a situation where you have public access adjacent to a fire station or police station, there’s always a concern as to who those people really are on site. We have to look at the consistency of use for the site and what is appropriate with these assets.”

Lytle also explained that the Port has known since 2008—when it placed the site on a month-to-month lease—that the property would not be used for commercial purposes in the future and in the end, it comes down to what is the best use of space for the future of the Port.

Forum organizers hoped that the evening would generate enough positive dialogue to get the Port to either extend the October move-out deadline or alter their plans and allow the businesses to stay. But as the night drew to a close, the officials present expressed appreciation for the opportunity to answer questions, but gave little indication of budging on their vision.

“What’s wrong with what’s going on here is what’s wrong with the United States,” Paul Collins, an architect on the Westside, said during his turn on the mic. “The government is making all these decisions and they’re not listening to what the people want.”

—Second photo: Larry Maehara, owner of Berth 55 Fish Market and Seafood Deli addresses the officials holding a stack of what he said is more than 3000 signatures of people who do not want the businesses to move.