Shoestring

I am traveling at the moment, looking for work, and internet is hard to come by. It makes it hard to keep up a schedule of daily writing.

Where was I?

 As of 1900 the harbor at San Pedro was destined to be Los Angeles' only viable sea access. As I narrated earlier, the SP line abandoned their pier in Santa Monica and instead developed their excellent concession at the foot of the San Pedro bluffs, always with an eye on the competition across the bay. Now it is time to tell the story of the Terminal Railroad and the shoestrings.

Shoestrings in annexation lingo are tactical additions that add almost nothing to the city in manufacturing, area, or taxation, but instead allow access to more valuable properties. Many states, including California, only allow annexations of contiguous territory. A shoestring annexation is a solution that obeys the letter of the law while grotesquely violating the spirit.

The narrow strip attaching Central LA to the harbor is one of the best known examples of a shoestring. The corridor to Harbor City was attached to the city in 1906 as a prequel to consolidation with Wilmington and San Pedro. As anyone familiar with annexation processes is aware, there is a lot of planning and drumming of enthusiasm preceding votes on attachments. Talk of the LA shoestring predates its 1906 accomplishment by a decade. Similarly San Pedro was discussing eventual consolidation with Los Angeles even before the harbor improvement bill entered the Senate. Once improvements actually began San Pedro could afford to be complacent to a degree. After all, Los Angeles city officials wanted the harbor access and San Pedro ruled the harbor. Wilmington, the only other city directly facing the bay, was effectively blocked by salt flats into a secondary role in the harbor and with San Pedro shared the ambition to consolidate with Los Angeles. As of 1905 everything seemed on track for unification.
It was Long Beach and its alliance with the Terminal Railroad that proved the wild card. By promising the railroad valuable leases to the waterfront and with a legacy of preexisting tax benefits already in place with Long Beach, the city forged a strong link with the east bay rail interests. The bond only grew stronger when the Terminal was reincorporated as the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad in 1901. The new corporation had every intention of challenging the SP hegemony over Southern California and represented an incursion of the powerful Union Pacific into enemy territory through a proxy. A vast expansion of the Salt Lake's harbor facilities on Terminal Island was planned, but first the railroad needed to consolidate its control over Terminal Island.
In 1904 the Salt Lake attempted to evict the fisherman colony occupying the end of the breakwater, but within the boundaries of what the railroad considered as its property. The fishermen refused to relocate. Other disputes erupted between the newly aggressive management of the railroad and their tenants in Terminal over opening roads and alcohol sales. A third challenge arose when San Pedro decided it was time to make its ownership of the island formal.
When San Pedro announced in August of 1905 that the city planned to annex Terminal Island and would hold a vote the following October to finalize the attachment, the railroad and Long Beach quickly organized a preemptive election in September. Held under suspicious circumstances, the September referendum favored attachment to Long Beach by a margin of four votes and Long Beach immediately moved to obtain an injunction against the San Pedro vote.
This is the second shoestring. On the authority of that election Long Beach obtained a narrow addition following the Salt Lake right of way whose only purpose was to gain control over the harbor mouth. Between the new residents of Long Beach and the other city neighborhoods was a desolate and undeveloped stretch of salt marsh and sand extending several miles. Needless to say their was outrage and cries of foul play.