CityWatchLA - LACityWorks! Taking Care of Business

CityWatch, Feb 25, 2011
Vol 9 Issue 16

SOLUTIONS 

If the City of LA is serious about taking care of LA’s business community, stimulating the local economy, creating more jobs, and attracting new business, then City Hall will get busy leveraging federal Small Business Jobs Act funding to create a one-stop “LACityWorks” shop that supports LA business.

The model for this concept can be found at FilmLA, a non-profit with a simple mission, to facilitate filming in the Los Angeles area. With a simple phone call or an even simpler online interaction, large studios and student films alike can navigate the many jurisdictions of LA County, they can pull permits, they can quickly navigate the rules and regulations, and they can rely on FilmLA to create common ground solutions when problems arise. FilmLA was created by Mayor Riordan in an effort to halt runaway film production and to support LA’s position as the entertainment production capital of the world.

There was a bit of a learning curve for everybody, at City Hall and on location, but ultimately the evidence is there that a non-profit can leverage funding that can support business, both large and small, and it can take place quickly.

LA’s business community is represented by a vast array of organizations, all jockeying for position in an environment that repeatedly generates lose-lose solutions that continue to create obstacles.

At yesterday’s Transportation Committee, Councilman Tom LaBonge’s Food Truck motion was on the agenda and the audience was filled with speakers from neighborhood councils, Business Improvement Districts, Chambers of Commerce, Homeowners Associations, trade organizations and the general public. All that was missing was LaBonge, the author of the motion. The motion was continued to a later date and the public in attendance enjoyed 60 seconds each of Kabuki Theatre public comment.

This is no way to run a Great City!

If LACityWorks were to use the FilmLA model for supporting local business, they’d have a Board of Directors filled with representatives from the chambers, from the trade organizations, from the community, from local and regional government, and from the streets of LA where the business takes place.

LACityWorks would offer businesses, both large and small, support in navigating the Byzantine process that is even bigger than the City of LA. Food Truck operators, for example, must navigate several municipalities and their unique permitting rules, abide by LA County health codes, drive and park according to California Vehicle Code, and find time to comply with federal and state tax codes.

FilmLA offers local and visiting film production companies one-stop shop assistance in navigating the many jurisdictions and authorities in LA County.

By contrast, LA’s City Hall offers local businesses “that’s out of our jurisdiction!” responses to requests for assistance that involve the State, the County, the LAUSD, the Metro, the Army Corps of Engineers, Flood Control, Caltrans, the Sheriff’s Department, or anyone else who has a piece of our streets.

If this seems extreme, consider that Venice Blvd. belongs to the State; Universal City is on County land; the LAUSD is the largest developer in the City of LA; the Metro is the second largest developer in the City of LA; and the City of LA’s inability to navigate its own halls leave the people of LA adrift in a jurisdictional quagmire that chokes business, both small and large.

FilmLA also provides operational guidance for production companies and the people who actually do the work. There is a code, a set of rules that provide the simple “do no harm!” approach to film production that is the foundation of a win-win solution.

With success and popularity comes an opportunity to mitigate the resulting tensions and competition for resources and FilmLA mediates, provides monitors, and brings together stakeholders in the creation of long-term solutions.

City Hall, by contrast, orders reports, fumbles meetings, measures outrage and postpones contentious items, demonstrating an inability to commit to long-term sustainable solutions.

FilmLA offers their clients support in navigating the many regulatory bodies and in pulling the necessary permits and processing the paperwork. Whether working with animals, minors, pyrotechnics, traffic or any of a limitless number of conditions, the need for permitting and oversight can be overwhelming. Yet it works because FilmLA offers the support.

By contrast, the City of LA is preparing to send penalty letters to people who worked last year and were paid as independent contractors. Pity the poor employee who showed up to work and collected a 1099 form but failed to register with the City of LA as a business. The threat of a significant fine that only applies to the few is a demonstration of the inherent systemic hostility that LA business and employees encounter in Los Angeles.

FilmLA also collected data that was used to support and encourage the film industry, data that can be used to fine tune programming and drive efficiencies and strengthen the industry.

By contrast, the City of LA is still unclear on how to support local businesses in simply offering their goods and services to city, state, and local governments. Forget about the larger local economy.

FilmLA has experienced a rough road over the last decade and the work is not done. But we are now in a position to benefit from that journey and put the lessons learned to work supporting LA’s business community.

The City of LA’s local economy has a huge need that is unmet by the local chambers, the local trade organizations, the local business districts, the local leadership and the community organizations. More specifically, LA is experiencing a crisis of Leadership, inside City Hall and on the streets where the business takes place.

Now is the time for the people of LA to come together and to create a city that works.

(Stephen Box is a grassroots advocate and writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at: Stephen@thirdeyecreative.net. Disclosure: Box is also a candidate for 4th District Councilman.)

CityWatchLA - Times of Crisis: Think Small

CityWatch, Feb 15, 2011
Vol 9 Issue 13

LA NEEDS TO SUPPORT SMALL BIZ

As the Active ImageCity of LA wallows in the midst of a staggering budget shortfall, it appears that one of the simplest strategies for jumpstarting LA’s local economy would be to retool the current “bigger is better” approach to business development in favor of a model that supports small businesses.

According to the latest jobs report, only 36,000 new jobs were added to the national economy in the month of January. At the same time, figures from Intuit Payroll’s monthly Small Business Employment Index show that payroll clients with fewer than 20 employees added 70,000 new jobs during the same month. The City of LA invests valuable time and resources courting large corporations but the results fail to justify the effort. Meanwhile, small businesses are demonstrating an agility and adaptability that allows them to leverage small investments into huge payoffs in jobs created, services provided, and overall economic impact.

Nationwide, small businesses have added more than 1 million jobs since October 2009 but in Los Angeles, where fully two-thirds of the local economy is made up of small businesses, entrepreneurs capable of bidding on local contracts clearly communicate the need for municipal assistance to jump start the process. During Mayor Villaraigosa’s January Neighborhood Council “check-ins,” residents commented on the need for a City services clearinghouse for small businesses.

Los Angeles is in position to capitalize on the Obama Administration’s new “Small Business Jobs Act” as an opportunity to bolster job growth in the small business sector. But to compete for federal small business grants LA will need to develop an effective framework to aid Small Business Development Centers that can implement federal funds quickly and efficiently.

Los Angeles is in position to partner with the local small business network in the delivery of core services, ensuring that project deliveries stay on track and that the city remains in compliance with federal guidelines. But fully 60% of the small businesses in position to deliver services and product indicate that they don’t have access to the capital necessary to bid on the contracts.

Small businesses are hiring at a faster rate than city government and big corporations and LA must support the economic drivers by looking for the small businesses within each industry and look for opportunities to bolster their position.

Supporting LA’s small businesses will yield results in these four ways:

• It will improve upon LA’s implementation shortfalls of the federal stimulus funds and Measure R revenues;
• It will optimize LA’s ability to qualify for federal small business grants;
• It will provide local community organizations an opportunity to qualify for grants and partner with local businesses to provide the services that are no longer offered by the city;
• It will increase the number of new hires within the small business sector, putting Angelenos to work and strengthening our economy.

LA’s small businesses drive our economy and it’s time that the City of LA treat them like giants, made up of the most innovative and creative people in the world, folks who need our help almost as much as we need theirs.

(Stephen Box is a grassroots advocate and writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at: Stephen@thirdeyecreative.net. Disclosure: Box is also a candidate for 4th District Councilman.)

LA’s CRA turns gold into straw - a view from the street

CityWatch, Feb 1, 2011
Vol 9 Issue 9

When Governor Brown met with Mayor Villaraigosa to debate the future of LA’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the meeting took place in the well-appointed digs of the State Capitol, surrounded by a formidable security force.
When the people in my neighborhood gathered to discuss LA’s CRA, the meeting took place on a busted sidewalk, outside the now empty five-story Gershwin Hotel, across the street from an empty lot surrounded by chain link fencing and graffiti. Security was a courtesy provided by the Department of DIY.

The Governor’s plan to phase out approximately 400 redevelopment agencies throughout the state and to return the revenue stream to local authorities for use in the community has prompted LA’s CRA to scramble in an effort to squirrel away $930 million of public money.

LA’s CRA contends that they have done good work resulting in a catalytic economic and social impact on the community. That may be true in the sense that building a development for $600 million and then selling it for $200 million has a catalytic impact on the CRA’s political cronies.

LA’s CRA argues that the redevelopment projects create jobs and stimulate the economy. That my be true in the sense that bulldozer operators have been busy razing buildings that have fallen victim to the CRA’s “induced-blight” scheme but not for the business owners and employees who have lost jobs through eminent domain.

Jean Ros, founding executive director of the California Budget Project challenges the CRA’s claims saying "The research shows that redevelopment doesn't give us the bang for the buck we need in these economic times."

The Public Policy Institute's study "Subsidizing Redevelopment in California" compared 114 different redevelopment project areas statewide to similar areas without redevelopment. It concluded that redevelopment agencies were not responsible for any net economic growth and that they were being financed at the expense of local schools and public services.

As for local data on the systemic effectiveness of LA’s CRA, Jim Dantana, Deputy to CRA’s CEO Chris Essel, acknowledged that there is no real data to support either side of the argument.

Last week, California State Controller John Chiang launched an audit of 18 redevelopment agencies around the state to get to the bottom of the debate over whether they're "engines of local economic and job growth or are simply scams providing windfalls to political cronies."

While many argue that we simply don’t have the evidence, it’s not quite true. As LA’s City Controller Wendy Greuel warily dips her toe in the audit waters, the simple fact is, she’s late to the game. The audits have been performed, 11 years ago by then-City Controller Rick Tuttle and 5 years ago by then-City Controller Laura Chick.

Meanwhile, on the streets of Hollywood, locals are left with the anecdotal evidence that the CRA’s presence can have a chilling impact on the community, one that results in businesses closing, residents leaving, buildings falling into disrepair, public nuisance abatements and...bulldozers.

The suspicion that the presence of the CRA not only induces blight but actually discourages the investment and participation of long term small business operators was most recently confirmed when Glendale hotel owner Ray Patel refused to sell his property to developer Rick Caruso, only to find himself facing an eminent domain action that will allow the American to expand using his land.

Matt Middlebrook, former Deputy Mayor in LA to then-Mayor Hahn and current frontman for developer Rick Caruso, defended the aggression and explained that Patel had no right to resist the seizure, after all, “Patel (hotel owner) knew a decade ago that he was buying a business inside a redevelopment zone. By that time, the city had already used eminent domain to push out small Glendale property owners and make way for other private owners.”

That’s the skewed logic at the core of LA’s “pennies on the dollar” scheme, one where the CRA spends the public’s dollars on projects that wouldn’t pass muster in the private sector, then sells them to insiders for pennies.

LA’s CRA built the Hollywood & Highland Center for $600 million and then sold it to the CIM Group for $200 million. The City of LA then ponied up an additional $30 million to remodel the Kodak Theatre for the CIM in a move that Curbed LA referred to as “Send in the Clowns!”
Meanwhile, as Hollywood’s Gershwin Hotel continues to decay, the CIM Group stands in the wings with a bag of pennies, ready to feed at the public trough on the land and property that has been secured with our dollars, all while the local children stare through chain link fencing at a building that has more broken windows every day, at a neighborhood that continues to suffer. If only the CRA would get out of the way.

(Stephen Box is a grassroots advocate and writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at: Stephen@thirdeyecreative.net. Disclosure: Box is also a candidate for 4th District Councilman.)

CityWatchLA - Port of LA: A Lesson in Contradictions

CityWatch, Aug 6, 2010
Vol 8 Issue 62

To look at the Port of Los Angeles from deep inside is to gaze upon the character of the City of Los Angeles. I say this not because I've been reading Nietzsche, but because I just returned from a tour of the Port, one where I experienced profound contrasts in scale, behavior, and purpose. Theoretical discussions of shipping, transportation, the environment and the economy went from theoretical to tangible and all iActive Imaget took was a three hour boat tour.

I've long participated in advocacy work that involves reviews of bridges such as the Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge, of environmental issues related to trucking on the 710, of development issues and the impact on surrounding communities and of the economic impact of LA's commitment to moving America's goods.

Those conversations inevitably include references to the Port of Los Angeles and its connection to the city, the region, and the nation.

But for all the expert testimony, mountains of technical documents and PowerPoint presentations, nothing communicates the nature and the size of the Port of Los Angeles like standing in the shadow of a Container Ship that stretches out of sight, or sailing under the Vincent Thomas Bridge and looking up at a procession of trucks moving like ants, or watching a never, ever ending train loaded with shipping containers move across the Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge.

My wife and I toured the Port with a team from Caltrans that included engineers responsible for everything from environmental review, design, bridges, highways, access, funding, and regional connectivity.

We've long worked with Caltrans and it was from within this wide variety of perspectives that the term "economies of scale" took on a new meaning. But most of all, we encountered some simple contrasts that was quite revealing about the Port as well as the City of Los Angeles.

1) From our vantage point aboard the Port of LA's Angelina II, we looked to one side and watched a huge ship unloading brand new automobiles imported from overseas. The cars were shiny, the ship was beautiful, the operation of unloading was seamless.

To the other side of the channel, mountains of shredded scrap metal, salvaged from discarded automobiles, was prodded and pushed by a couple of bulldozers, part of an operation that sorts and shreds waste material and ships it back overseas so that it can be recycled and repurposed and sold to us again, perhaps as the shiny vehicles on the other side of the channel.

The majority of the shipping containers that leave the Port of LA leave empty, but of those that hold a cargo, apparently the balance of trade consists of brand new product arriving and scrap material being returned. The contrast between what we get and what we give was daunting.

2) Container Ships are huge diesel burning power generators and even sitting motionless in the Port they need power.

To see a mega-sized extension cord hanging from a large ship is an interesting contrast in technologies and environmental commitments. Unfortunately, not all ships are enabled for Port Electric and it is an optional program, one that the Port funds in an effort to make it attractive.

The contrast between the Port's commitment to improving the Port's environmental impact and the Port's reluctance to raising the standards for the shipping partners leaves some innovations light on systemic implementation.

3) The Port has a surreal quality to it, incredible amounts of activity but at such a huge scale that it's hard to see the humans in all of the motion. They must be there, in little cabins on cranes or raising and lowering the bridge or operating the train, but they're hard to see.

So much takes places with such an emphasis on automation that from a distance, it appears that the ships are picked clean by machines. There is something awe-inspiring to watch something work so seamlessly.

Simple or complex, a well-designed system that works is a thing of beauty. Such is the Port of LA.

But once off the ships, the containers go two directions, on a train or through LA. The contrast between the high-tech unloading and the low-tech transport is what leaves much of LA feeling under siege. Freeways filled with trucks that move containers one at a time, around the clock, has an environmental and land use impact that can't be ignored.

4) An operation the size of the Port of LA must require a diplomatic corps of its own, such is the need to synchronize the many authorities, powers, agencies, and departments who have influence over everything from national security, the economy, the ocean, cross-country shipping and local neighborhood land use.

The relationships that must work in order for the Port of LA to move so smoothly is an invisible thing of beauty.

But by contrast, a simple proposal to implement a container fee to offset environmental impact expenses was stymied for fear of losing business to Oakland and Seattle.

The fact that LA is held back because of a lack of synchronicity with west coast partners in shipping is an obstacle that must be overcome.

To pretend to understand all of the complexities of the Port of Los Angeles after a simple boat tour is simplistic, but the value of framing the discussion from within the Port is priceless.

Perhaps all discussions and debates should start with a walk, a bike ride, or a boat tour. It's worth a try!

(Stephen Box is a grassroots advocate and writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at Stephen@thirdeyecreative.net. Disclosure: Box is also a candidate for 4th District Councilman.)