As West Paseo del Mar and its beautiful views quietly slip away into the Pacific Ocean, taking with it sidewalks, a baseball field, million dollar real estate and potentially more, another long-term problem keeps bubbling to the surface in yet another area of San Pedro. Literally.

KTLA News 1:11 p.m. PDT, October 8, 2011

SAN PEDRO, Calif.(KTLA) -- "Officials closed a popular thoroughfare for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians Friday, saying the road is slowly moving and is at risk of a major landslide.The Los Angeles Department of Transportation installed concrete barriers Friday on Paseo Del Mar between Weymouth and Western avenues. All motor and pedestrian traffic is suspended on the street until further notice.

The White Point Nature Preserve and White Point Beach are still open to the public.

Officials say the ground beneath the street is shifting, leading to cracks and fissures in the asphalt. Experts fear a major landslide might be in Paseo Del Mar's future if drastic measures aren't taken. No homes or buildings are threatened by the landslide officials say could happen.

In the meantime, some pedestrians are ignoring officials' urging to stay out of the area.

San Pedro residents George and Glen Ljubenkov walk the stretch almost every day and they don't plan to stop now that the concrete barriers are in place.

"I'm guilty," George said Saturday. "I'll walk down here and continue to come down as long as they don't arrest me."

Many residents feel the same way. But city crews, who have worked for weeks to re-route drains and utility lines, believe the road is dangerous and it's only a matter of time until it gives way.

The current threat of landslides isn't the first time Paseo Del Mar has been in danger of sliding into the ocean. A chunk of earth fell away from a cliff along the 1800 block of West Paseo Del Mar, which is less than a mile away from the area currently closed."

At the opposite end of town in North San Pedro, the 700 block of Capitol Drive in front of the Target store is actually bubbling up water in the middle of the street. While water seepage isn't new to this one block stretch of Capitol, it seems to be much worse since the days when San Pedro's Eastview Little League had ball fields on what is now Target's parking lot. While the gutters were always wet back in the Eastview days there never seemed to be a problem with the roadway. Rumor is that an underground river runs just beneath the surface carrying run off water from way up top of the Palos Verdes Peninsula to the low ground at the LA Harbor.

With all the ground pounding and pile driving disturbance made during the construction of the Target store and its parking lot, it looks like mother nature may have been disturbed. Water now constantly percolates through the pavement in the middle of the street and the only Capitol Drive entrance to the Target parking lot looks something like a World War I mine field replete with trenches and bomb craters after a big battle. Deep pot holes, some as big as shallow fox holes are constantly full of water and make shopping at Target a real battle as cars slowly navigate through the potential sinkhole and up onto the driveway entrance. They're going to have to post a sign pretty soon that restricts the entrance to four-wheel drive high clearance vehicles only. It'll probably be ok though since most of the Target shoppers seem to drive SUVs anyway.

I'm sure someone at Target is on the phone pleading with the City of Los Angeles every day to get out there and fix the problem. But, in the City's defense, the roadway has been repaired at least three times since Target opened in October 2008. Hard as they may try, they are going to have to come up with a better solution if they want to beat old mother nature.

While it may be a bit expensive for Target to reconfigure their parking lot, I have a suggestion. How about closing the Capitol Drive entrance to the lot and using the two existing entrances on North Gaffey Street. With the Capitol Drive entrance closed and the roadway damage paved over again we could go back to the Olde Eastview Days with the elimination of the heavy traffic that seems to upset the fragile Capitol roadway surface.

Ah, hot dogs, slurpees and double cheeseburgers, if we could only go back to those good Olde Eastview Little League days.

The Author lives in North San Pedro and has traveled the 700 block of Capitol Drive at least twice a day on average for the last 33 years.