When Bonnie Lowenthal took the gavel in August 2019 as president of the Long Beach harbor commission, the port the panel oversees appeared on the verge of a banner year.
The biggest question was whether the Trump administration could find a way to complete a trade agreement with China, the Port of Long Beach’s biggest trading partner. Otherwise, cargo container numbers were climbing and the biggest construction project in decades — the Gerald Desmond Replacement Bridge — was on schedule to be completed in early summer 2020. A brand new headquarters building had just opened downtown.
A year later and everything has changed. The coronavirus pandemic shutdown factories in China during the first part of the year, and then the virus made its way to America — causing mass shutdowns of businesses and sending the economy into a recession. Both have it cargo volumes hard. The country’s relationship with China, which accounts for more than half of the port’s business, remains tenuous. The coronavirus also slowed, though it did not stop, the final construction push for the new bridge.
Despite blow after blow, the port, as officials constantly remind the public, remains stable, though new harbor commission President Frank Colonna — who will take over for Lowenthal on Monday, Aug. 10, now that her one-year leadership term is up — will also face likely challenges in the second half of 2020, including questions about how strong the holiday retail market will be if the pandemic doesn’t wane.
For Lowenthal, though, the past seven months have posed a case study of leadership during challenging times.
“The past year has presented economic and social challenges of historic proportion,” said Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach. “President Lowenthal has done a good job in balancing the port’s business and social responsibilities.”
Through the fall of 2019, everything remained relatively positive. Lowenthal, in the middle of a five-year term, led a trade mission to China in October, and came back with a 20-year extension on a lease with COSCO, the Chinese-owned shipping firm that’s the single biggest customer at the Port of Long Beach.
And President Donald Trump signed a Phase One trade agreement with the country in January.
But relations between the Trump Administration and China started to sour shortly after that agreement was signed — putting the port administration in a delicate position.
“Part of what we do is to maintain connections,” Lowenthal said. “We continue to advocate for lower tariffs and freer trade.
“Our port is responsible for 2.6 million jobs nationally,” she added. “We have a lot of partners who are impacted by what happens with trade.”
Lowenthal, for her part, is intimately familiar with navigating politically sticky situations. She has long been one of Long Beach’s powerful political forces, beginning her public service career in 1994, when she was elected to the Board of Education for the Long Beach Unified School District. She went on to become the First District City Council representative, then was elected to the state Assembly in 2008, where she served for six years. In Sacramento, Lowenthal chaired the Assembly Committee on Transportation.
“I’m very familiar with the process,” Lowenthal said of state and national legislation impacting the port. “I can be a bit more persuasive at times, because I know the ropes.
“The key has always been that you must have mutual respect,” she added, “even when you disagree.”
While the uncertainty of trade relations made the port’s immediate operations less stable, the real blow hit in March, with the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. It brought business to a screeching halt and forced a complete revision of workplace protocols.
“I don’t think you can make up for the pandemic,” Lowenthal said. “But I couldn’t be more proud of our staff.”
The port quickly went to a work-from-home model for 80% of its 550 employees, including engineers working on the new bridge,” Lowenthal said. Some staff, including longshore workers, had to remain on the property, of course.
“I was amazed at the alacrity of our staff,” Lowenthal said. “They just pivoted, and I never heard one complaint.”
Despite the onset of the pandemic, major construction projects continued, albeit more slowly. The replacement for the Gerald Desmond Bridge saw its opening pushed back to later this year. Lowenthal, though she won’t be president, will surely be a central part of the ceremonies, whenever it happens.
“I’ve been involved with that bridge since I was on the City Council,” she said. “When I was in the (state) legislature, I helped get money for it, and I authored the bill that named the bike path for Mark Bixby.” (Bixby was a member of one of Long Beach’s most famous families and a cycling advocate. He died in 2011 in a plane crash.)
Lowenthal said that the Harbor Department budget has been hurt by the coronavirus, just as the city’s budget has been hit. Construction will continue, though; the next big project, she said, is creating an on-dock rail yard at Pier B.
“It’s so easy to get caught up in dealing with the challenges that you forget the good things,” Lowenthal said.
The port, for example, still has a top bond rating, she said. Its partnership with Long Beach City College for the maritime academy is “stronger than ever,” she added, as is the program at Cabrillo High School. The port, Lowenthal said, has allocated more than $800,000 to support the community, nonprofits, the arts.
She also talked about the port’s ongoing work to address the national conversation over systemic racism.
“We are working on our values statement, with a renewed commitment to equity,” she said, “to take a closer look at it all through our operations.”
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Lowenthal leads harbor commission, Port of Long Beach through unprecedented year - Long Beach Press Telegram
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