Is San Pedro’s downtown welcome sign finally going up this year? It looks like it

A long-planned illuminated, overhead welcome sign for San Pedro’s downtown looks like it may finally go up by the end of summer, local officials say.

But it’s been a long road to its final destination.

The effort, a dream for many years but formally launched during the pandemic in 2021 — and back then believed to be a relatively quick project to accomplish — has gone through numerous changes, long delays and the required back-and-forth permit cycles of Los Angeles bureaucracy.

The monument-design structure originally called for double pillar anchors or girders on each side of the sign, which would span across Sixth Street near Harbor Boulevard. That was changed to just one support beam by 2025 — but now, it’s back to a full overhead sign between two poles.

The hope is that it will guide visitors into the historic downtown’s restaurant-and-shops district from Harbor Boulevard leading into the town’s new waterfront.

A switch to using solar energy rather than drawing from the Department of Water and Power’s electrical grid — which supporters said would have required an even longer process just to get through the DWP — helped to shave about a year off the process.

The sign was most recently slated to be up in time for L.A. Fleet Week — in 2025.

When it finally goes up this summer, according to the current plan, both sides of the black-and-white art deco-design banner will read: “Est. 1888 – Downtown San Pedro – Arts – Dining – Entertainment.” The sign, which will be near the new Miramare Piazza that opened in January, will illuminate blue LED lights at night.

Initially, supporters of the sign hoped to put it closer to the corner of Sixth Street and Harbor Boulevard, but impediments — including a storm drain, trees and traffic signals — forced the positioning farther up the street to meet technical requirements.

Ryan Blaney, CEO and director of the Downtown Business Improvement District, or PBID, which has sponsored and is paying for the sign, arrived in that post in 2023 after the effort had already been ongoing for some time.

“New things kept coming up,” he said.

Numerous permits — each costing $3,000 to $5,000, Blaney said — and long waits between required design approvals, traffic assessments and engineering checks stretched out the process.

The procedure “was exhausting,” Blaney added, but he commended Aksel Palacios, the port and capital projects director for Los Angeles Councilmember Tim McOsker, for providing the assistance needed to keep the project moving along.

The total cost so far appears to still be in the $300,000 range.

“We are finally there,” Blaney said on Tuesday, Feb. 3. “We’re hoping to have a groundbreaking sometime just before summer and the sign in the ground by the end of summer.”

The gateway sign is similar to the classic lighted signs seen in other cities, with design elements resembling the Angel’s Gate Lighthouse, Blaney said.

The sign will be installed about 200 feet west of the Harbor Boulevard corner, Blaney said, and is intended to serve as a town connector, bringing cruise ship and other foot traffic heading toward the West Harbor waterfront development — set to open this summer — into the downtown area as well.