As a San Pedro resident, this is a subject near and dear to the heart. POC, as it is, has GOT to go! I'm dating myself surely, but when I was in high school, POC was THE place to go for prom night, in the South Bay! My husband (new to the area) and I had been remiss in getting down there, since we moved back to the area. Hungering for a local seafood market, we wandered in there one afternoon and were stunned to find what a dump it had become!

From the outside, it looks like it's several restaurants. When you get inside, it's clear that, instead, it's one "fast-fish" stall after another..each virtually identical in fare offered (all sub-standard) and price (exorbitant, to say the least). What a let-down! We went from stall to stall..and finally wound up leaving, with no food purchased. As an example, all these stalls (as in a horse-barn) offer as "salmon", the phony Atlantic, farm-raised variety which is DYED orange (from a sickly yellow-grey color to "fake" its looking like real salmon), loaded with antibiotics to kill off bacteria and parasites that result from these fish swimming in circles in dirty, feces-infested ponds. Stall to stall, without exception, that was the story! Yukkhh!

San Pedro needs to get its act together. Having spent much of my youth growing up in Redondo Beach, I'd recommend to all that they take a look at King Harbor, to see what POC should look like! Many REAL restaurants along the piers and marinas..diversity! A fantastic, REAL fish market (Quality Seafood), which offers not just FRESH, but LIVE crustaceans of all kinds..which you can select and have cooked to order), a fantastic array of legitimately FRESH fish, at reasonable prices..and the opportunity to order fresh clams, crab and a pitcher of beer, etc..to enjoy "al fresco" at one of their picnic tables overlooking the marina!  They rent out the mallets and give you a pile of newspaper and you get to go to town, for a most reasonable fare! The quality is unsurpassed! Why can't we have something like this here?

Seriously..POC is a dismal failure. I work for one of the venues that inhabits the waterfront..and..I am sorry..but the folks there now are the pitts! They need to go..or greatly upgrade what they're offering. San Pedro..it's time to be honest. I don't care if your best friend runs one of these stands..they're killing the city. Go..or get better..immediately! I surely don't want to see the area get "gentrified" in some amorphous, boring, redundant manner, with nothing but Red Lobster-type places (God-forbid) but we can surely do something far more creative and productive than we're seeing happen now!

JR Oto