Southern California’s huge logistics industry faces a backlash over wages and pollution What cats like

Ahalf-century ago, Southern California’s financial, political and civic leaders made a fateful decision that the region’s economic future could be assured by expanding its nascent logistics industry, centered on the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Countless billions of public and private dollars went into expanding the ports’ cargo-handling capacity, improving transportation corridors and erecting thousands of warehouses in San Bernardino and Riverside counties to receive, store and distribute the torrent of goods from rapidly expanding Asian economies, particularly China.

The explosion of TDL (transportation-distribution-logistics) created hundreds of thousands of jobs, helping the region absorb an influx of immigrants from other countries during the 1980s and 1990s and weather collapse of its aerospace industry after the end of the Cold War.

Most of those TDL jobs, however, were of the relatively low-skill, low-pay variety, unlike the high-technology boom that was happening concurrently in the San Francisco Bay Area and generating a surge of high-income employment.

There are some indications that SoCal’s TDL sector may have peaked because it is connected to global trends that are evolving, including an erosion of free trade in favor of protectionism, changes in consumer tastes and transportation bottlenecks, such as attacks on Suez Canal-bound container ships in the Red Sea.

For the moment, however, the Inland Empire of San Bernardino and

Riverside counties has a billion square feet of warehouse space, more is being proposed and its roadways are packed with trucks. Not surprisingly, its concentration has sparked a backlash in recent years, or rather two backlashes.

One is the increasing complaints of low-salaried workers that their incomes are not keeping pace with relentless increases in living costs, particularly for housing, while the other is growing criticism of the industry’s environmental impacts, particularly emissions from thousands of diesel-powered trucks.

Both of those backlashes are encapsulated in a newly released study by UC Riverside’s Inland Empire Labor and Community Center and a coalition of labor union advocates.

The study determined that TDL is now the region’s second largest employment sector. Its jobs increased by nearly 90% between 2016 and 2021, but its average monthly wage of $4,372 is markedly below averages in the rest of Southern California and the state as a whole.

“The expansion of warehouses and consequent pollution of the IE (Inland Empire) is an environmental justice concern that is exacerbating existing social, economic, and health inequities in the region,” the report declares. “As of 2023, the IE has 1 billion square feet of warehouse space and is awaiting the approval of an additional 170 million square feet, which will increase the production of emissions in the region by 10%.”

The study appears to concentrate its criticism on Amazon, the colossus of logistics, citing its creation of an air freight hub at San Bernardino’s airport as an example of industry running roughshod. Ironically, the study was released just days before Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, was declared the world’s richest man with a $200 billion fortune, edging past electric car tycoon Elon Musk.

Among potential remedies, the study suggests tighter controls over warehouse expansion, adoption of non-polluting machinery, such as battery-powered trucks, and unionization of workers to offset TDL’s negative impacts.

That said, the study’s proposals would have to contend with the cutthroat competition of global logistics. SoCal’s logistics sector provides jobs for the region’s very large population of low-skill workers. Imposing substantial new costs to curb emissions and significantly increase wages could reduce shipping volume or spark more automation of transportation and warehouse operations to remain competitive.

Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He has written more than 9,000 columns about California and its politics and his column has appeared in many other California newspapers. He writes for CalMatters.org a nonprofit, non-partisan media venture explaining California policies and politics. ’ ve been reading about cats,” my husband, Peter, tells me. Peter has never had a cat be

fore.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Salt is not good for their kidneys. We have to give Felix unsalted fish.”

Felix is our adopted street cat here in Mexico. He is coming back to the U.S. with us in a fancy backpack carrier I found online. It has mesh on either side, with one big plexiglass bubble in the back, so Felix can watch his fellow passengers in comfort. He hasn’t flown yet, but our trips to and from the veterinarian were uneventful, so I think he will adapt to it rather well.

Felix is adapting to everything rather well, especially considering he is not the five-month-old kitten we thought he was, but fully two years old. I learned this at the vet when he got his first vaccination.

“I don’t know how old he is,” I told them, explaining that he was a rescued street cat.

The vet tech was nonchalant. She peeled back Felix’s lips and examined his teeth. “One or two years,” she declared.

“Really?”

“I think so.”

Then a second veterinarian’s assistant came in. “How old is he?” she asked.

I told her again that I didn’t know. (I figured it was good to get a second opinion.) Felix suffered the indignity of having his lips peeled back a second time in five minutes.

“At least two years old,” she said. “Two years?” I asked—for clarification. (I have misunderstood numbers in Spanish more often than I care to admit.)

“Yes,” the vet tech said with certainty. “He is at least two years old.” They recorded his date of birth as 2022, and Felix suddenly went from being a scrappy kitten to a remarkably playful and adaptable adult cat.

But he is very thin, and unlike a lot of rescued animals, he does not seem to be especially interested in food. The woman who fostered him said she had dry cat food available for him all the time, so that’s what we did as well.

But Felix was not eating much.

I bought an overpriced package of soft chicken cat food. It smelled awful. Felix tried it. He was unimpressed. The food hardened in his bowl, and he was still not putting on any weight.

“Maybe he’d like a scrambled egg,” Peter suggested. “Do cats like eggs?”

I’ve had several cats but, as far as I can remember, I had never made breakfast for any of them. Peter scrambled up an egg and gave Felix part of it. Felix loved the scrambled egg. Then Peter got reading up on what else cats like.

“They can have fish, but they should eat all the bones for better nutrition,” Peter informed me. I believed him. Peter brought home a can of mackerel. The mackerel was a huge hit. Peter kept reading.

“It says here that cats like peas. Maybe we could give him some garbanzo beans.”

At this point, Peter was miles ahead of me in his study of cat nutrition. We gave Felix three garbanzo beans. Felix ate them immediately and demanded more.

Now Peter is looking for canned fish—whole fish—complete with bones that we can give Felix for a bedtime snack. “I can get a case of saltfree canned sardines for a good price!” he announced. “Do you think Felix would like sardines?”

I looked at Felix lying contentedly in his furry bed. I don’t know nearly as much about cats as I thought I did. But I’m willing to bet Felix will like sardines very much indeed.

Till next time,

Carrie

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Carrie Classon’s memoir is called “Blue Yarn.” Learn more at CarrieClasson.com. Photos of Mexico and other things can be found at CarrieClassonAuthor on Facebook.