Los Angeles Times – When visitors to Wilmington’s historic red-brick Chamber of Commerce ask what’s new, three topics tend to dominate the ensuing conversation.

One is the recent groundbreaking for a long-awaited 30-acre buffer of parkland separating the working-class community from the frenzy of diesel-spewing activity in the nation’s busiest port.

Another is a plan to establish a “green technology center” in what remains an edgy hodgepodge of junkyards, flaming refinery towers, fouled flood-control channels and shipping containers stacked so high the sun sets early on many neighborhoods.

The third is how Alma Ortiz made history. She’s the first person to run a tea shop in the area overrun with doughnut stands and greasy spoons. [read more…]