East Wilmington Business Owner Sues City Over Area’s Blight, Crime

Dave Stoll has owned his marine equipment business in East Wilmington for nearly 20 years. Before that, Stoll’s father and grandfather were in the same business--one that has been around the industrial east end of Wilmington since the 1930s.

But now, Stoll says, he wants to leave the community. And he is suing the city of Los Angeles to do it.

In a lawsuit that accuses the city and the Harbor Department of gross neglect of gritty East Wilmington, Stoll is seeking condemnation of his property, $6 million in damages and a court order requiring the city and the port to clean up an area so blighted that in recent years it has been known as the “Third World” of the harbor.

“I feel the Port of Los Angeles . . . is responsible for destroying my business, for destroying other businesses in this area,” said Stoll, owner of Stoll’s Marine Center on East Anaheim Street and co-founder of the Far East Wilmington Improvement Assn., formed to draw attention to the area’s blight, crime and industrial pollution.

“There is just no future here,” he said.

A city attorney who represents the port denied Stoll’s allegations and said the Harbor Department has no intention of condemning the business to accommodate Stoll.

The lawsuit, filed last week, alleges the city and port have not only ignored the area for years but have done so intentionally, hoping to drive down property values so the Harbor Department can buy land at bargain prices.

“There is no running water here. No streets. No sewers. No curbs. No rules,” said Stoll, whose bleak description of the area has been voiced by other Wilmington business owners and residents in the past several years.

Stoll’s lawsuit alleges that his business and others have been devastated by blighted properties and environmental hazards ranging from unregulated wrecking yards to illegal dumping of toxic waste on city-owned properties. In addition, the suit alleges, the city and port have done nothing to regulate a local chemical company that keeps six mountainous stacks of hazardous sulfur powder, which blows throughout the area in high winds.

“If the city permitted conditions like that to exist in an alley in West Los Angeles or the San Fernando Valley, there would be riots in City Hall,” said Stoll’s attorney, Douglas Ring, a land-use lawyer and city library commissioner.

Senior Assistant City Atty. Winston Tyler on Thursday denied Stoll’s allegations that the city and port have neglected East Wilmington.

“We think we are doing everything we can to be a good citizen and maintain or improve the quality of the area,” said Tyler, the port’s general counsel.

Tyler also dismissed the lawsuit’s contention that the port has purposely allowed the area’s deterioration so it can purchase more property at reduced values. “If anything, if you look at property values . . . and prices, they have accelerated with the cost of inflation, if not more,” Tyler said.

City and port officials insist they have done everything possible to clean up the area, including beefing up police patrols and fencing off properties purchased by the Harbor Department.

“We clear each lot. We fence the lot. We put up no trespassing signs. We have port wardens patrol the area in addition to the (Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Division) police,” Tyler said.

The attorney said other East Wilmington business owners apparently are considering suing the port in the coming weeks to force it to acquire their properties through so-called inverse condemnation--a proceeding that offers some tax advantages to those who cannot otherwise sell their properties.

The port is prepared to challenge any such suits, Tyler said.

In the meantime, Stoll said he will press forward with his lawsuit to force the city to do more to clean up East Wilmington and purchase his property.

“I had no intention of moving,” Stoll said. “Yet, I see all this happening around me and I feel I have no choice.”