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.)

CityWatchLA - LA Politics - “There’s No Place Like Home!”

CityWatch, Pub: Aug 18, 2009
Vol 7 Issue 66

When it comes to political office, “Locals Only!” is still the equalizing hurdle that all candidates must jump and “home address” is still the most significant element on that political resume.

It makes sense. After all, how can one purport to represent people in a district or city without actually residing locally, tripping over the same busted sidewalks, crossing the same congested streets, sending kids to the same schools, suffering the same miserable cable service, experiencing the same impact of development, shopping at the same stores, seeing the same people and engaging in the same conversations.

Of course, our leadership is rarely at home. They typically spend long hours at City Hall or traveling to Sacramento or to Washington or on junkets around the world.

Villaraigosa could balance the City’s Budget just by cashing in his frequent flyer miles. LaBonge’s endorsement deal with the Sister City program regularly takes him on trips around the world. Zine and Weiss recently traveled to the Mid-East to study security while Smith traveled to Canada, Japan, Israel, France, Germany and Spain to study rubbish. Hahn spent some time on the East Coast serving as the spokesmodel for LA’s ports while Garcetti’s luggage picked up tags from all over the country as he worked to “bring it home.”

But I digress. The fact is, the leadership of LA is very busy... leading! That often means that they are gone, out of town, elsewhere, very busy “making it happen” and that’s when the residency issue fades. The fact of the matter is, they all live at the Ritz or the Four Seasons or the W.

If the local communities that make up LA are to be represented by people who live, work, shop, drive, socialize, engage, connect, assimilate and relate to the neighborhood, it’s probably more important to require all Council District staff to be local residents.

Current Council District operating styles vary from district to district but they essentially follow the basic paradigm. A Council District Chief of Staff and a team (pod, herd, mob, clowder, flock...) of Deputies “run” constituent services for the district, essentially serving as ombudsmen and ombudswomen for the District.

Constituents call the Planning Deputy to report missing Community Plans and they call the Transportation Deputy to report missing crosswalks and missing bike lanes. They call the “Sorry, we’re in the middle of a budget crisis and there’s nothing we can do!” Deputy if they need an excuse for why something’s wrong in the neighborhood and they see the same chirpy Deputies bounce into Community Meetings to give announcements on the brilliant work being done by the Councilmember on behalf of the community.

Imagine if they actually lived in the Council District!

1) An unnamed City Council President was taken to task for some issues in the area around his field office. In a meeting, he responded to the criticism, but not by defending himself. In fact he didn’t even perceive the criticism as an attack on his performance. Instead, he spoke in defense of the Deputy responsible for the area and spoke of her hard work and commitment. From where he sat, the buck was not his, it stopped with the Deputy. Saddest of all, the measure of success was intention, not result.

Ultimately, if the Deputies for the Councilmembers are to truly serve the community and to truly represent the Councilmembers, it is imperative that they hear the noise at night, that they see the broken streetlights after dark, that they experience the traffic on the weekend, that they know where to shop and how to get to the park and how hard it is for the kids to walk or ride to school. Most of all, their enthusiasm for improving the quality of life in the community needs to be personal, not simply a desire to serve the Councilmember and then to jump into a car to drive to another district and perhaps another city.

2) Hiring local would reduce traffic. The Local Deputy could walk, ride a bike, take mass transit. This would result in a massive reduction in transpo expenses that the public is responsible for covering. Objections such as “Mass Transit doesn’t work!” or “This really isn’t a safe place to walk or ride!” can now be put on the table and addressed with the enthusiasm that only locals can provide.

3) Hiring local would improve the local economy. The Local Deputy could experience the frustration of shopping locally, supporting the local businesses, conducting quotidian business, all in an environment where the basic function of the streets is to serve as a traffic sewer, not a robust artery that draws life to the community. Planning discussions would take on a completely different tone if the proposed development were at the end of the Planning Deputy’s street.

4) Hiring local would result in an interesting element to public safety accountability. No longer would those crime reports be statistical and would community discussions be academic. Local Deputies would bring public safety to a personal level, where it belongs!

5) Hiring local would give grass roots politics a new level of access if local representatives were more than simply “walking commercials” for the Councilmember but were also active stakeholders in the community. There are already great examples of Neighborhood Council boardmembers who are active in City Council offices and visa versa. This would then become the norm, not the exception.

If this began to feel as if the Deputy was serving two masters, it would allow us to confront the real issue. Sometimes a Councilmember is not moving in the direction of the community and when this happens, it needs to be addressed quickly by the public.

6) Hiring local gives the city an intimate and immediate evaluation of the housing situation. When those who work for LA can’t afford to live in LA, there’s something dramatically wrong.

7) Hiring local has a positive impact on the major issues that come up in any campaign, in any community meeting and in any day in the neighborhood. Having local Deputies that live in the community will have a positive impact on Transportation, Public Safety, Housing, Education, and the Economy.

Ultimately, the very objections Councilmembers are likely to offer in rejecting a “hire local” mandate are also indictments of their performance.

Based on results, often harsh but always fair, a Councilmember who offers up excuses for not hiring local is also offering up a list of their failures

“Requiring a Deputy to live in the district is impossible because of the cost of housing.”

We know all about it, we live here.

“Requiring a Deputy to live local and to give up the vehicle allowance and reimbursement is impractical. They need to get around efficiently and effectively.”

We know all about it, we travel these same streets.

“Requiring a Deputy to live local means they wouldn’t be able to ‘clock-out’ and go home after a hard day at work. They’d always be visible and accessible!”

We know all about it but our problems are 24 hr and our support is 9 to 5. We’re visible and we’re accessible and we never go on the clock, we just work to improve our communities. We want Deputies who are visible and accessible!

“Requiring a Deputy to live local would deprive them of their freedom to make their own choices.”

We know all about good choices and that’s why we chose to live where we live, that’s why we work where we work, and that’s why we’re involved in making our community a better place for everybody.

If living in our community isn’t a “good choice” for the Deputy, perhaps that Deputy is not a good choice for the community.

More importantly, if a Councilmember can’t stand up and say with pride, “My District is such a great place that my Deputies all insist on living local, working local, shopping local, educating their children local and becoming a real part of the local community!” then that Councilmember has failed.

The City of LA needs City Council Candidates who will stand before the community and say with confidence that they intend to work with such effectiveness and success that their Deputies will all choose to live in the District that they serve.

Who will be the first City Councilmember to proudly lead a “locally organized, locally operated” Council District.

Who will be the first CD2 Councilmember Candidate to stand up and declare “live local, work local” as the foundation of their vision for leading their Council staff.

(Stephen Box writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at Stephen@ThirdEyeCreative.net) ◘

Villaraigosa's Plan for a Car-Free City Hall

In an effort to cut the budget deficit, LA’s Mayor San Antonio has announced plans to reduce the City motor pool and eliminate the “home garage” perk that a significant number of City Hall staffers currently enjoy.

Opponents to the plan argue that this would mean that staffers would have to rely on personal cars, many of them gas-guzzling SUVs, minivans and sedans.

Sadly, none of our City’s leadership looked at this situation and realized that this is an opportunity to get our City staff onto the streets, literally, on foot, on a bike or on mass transit.

How far have we NOT come in our march to becoming the “greenest and cleanest big city in America” if it’s simply not an option for our leadership to get out of the car and go for a walk!

This is a good time for the Mayor and the City Council to act aggressively, not only to cut costs, but to really lay down a city-wide commitment to supporting and promoting alternative transportation.

SoapBoxLA proposals:

Hire local – The City of Los Angeles could reduce congestion as well as its travel expenses simply by hiring local and encouraging city employees to walk, ride or use transit.

How is it that the Mayor’s first rep to Hollywood lived in Palmdale and commuted to Hollywood in order to represent the Mayor. Are there no people living in Hollywood qualified to work for the Mayor? (No word yet on the new rep)

Hollywood is on the Red Line. If the Mayor sends out the signal, his reps can jump on the Metro and be at City Hall faster than those traveling by single occupant vehicle. (SOV)

Take it all the way through the departments! A City Council motion to requiring the General Managers of City Departments to live in the city has been floating for years with no success. Not even GM’s are required to live in the city?

At one point, LADOT had a GM who commuted from home in San Jose to work in Los Angeles.

How great would it be if City Staff actually walked the same streets, used the same bus stops, shopped at the same stores and could actually relate to the issues of our unique communities from the inside, not just from workshops and discussions and hearings.

Hiring locally will also force us to confront the housing shortage. Staffers currently explain that their choice to live in other communities is based on a lack of affordable housing. We need to be talking about this and the answer is not to have City staff live in surrounding communities, it’s to grab the bull by the horns, confront the housing issue and get busy dealing with the shortage.

Once we’ve got staff out of the SOV’s and living in the neighborhoods they serve the next step will be:

Accessibility - Hold all meetings at locations that are accessible for peds, cyclists and transit users. This simple step will go a long way in reducing congestion in our neighborhoods. It will also go a long way in enlightening our City Staff on the issues faced by those who live in the neighborhood. Staff will truly experience first hand the lack of amenities for those who walk, pedal and ride transit.

For example, the Griffith Park Master Plan Working Group holds its meeting at the Ranger Station in Griffith Park. There is no evening bus service, it’s a long walk with minimal amenities for peds and it’s dark, way dark.

This commitment to meeting locations with full access should be complemented by full promotion on all meeting announcements of pedestrian access, bike parking locations and transit routes that service the locations. Current meeting information typically promotes parking directions as if parking is a birthright! Stop giving away “free parking” as if it’s free!

Once we’ve got the community out of the SOV-only paradigm, the next step will be:

Car Pool – Get the “City Family” to car pool with the other Agencies that hold meetings in our communities. In fact, hold the meetings together and perhaps even start to work together!

Our communities currently host meetings held by the LAUSD, the CRA, the Metro, SCAG, Caltrans, LAPlanning, LADOT, DWP, RAP, CERT, our NCs, our City Council, our City Council Committees, and it goes on and on. We’re getting met to death.

It is impossible to attend all the meetings of all the departments and agencies that have a piece of the neighborhood. It requires full time focus just to monitor, forget about participating and advocating and attempting to affect the process and the outcome.

If these departments and agencies held meetings in the communities together, perhaps they would get to know each other and perhaps they would start to work together.

For example, the LAUSD is coming to the neighborhood but they are unaware of the NC structure in the neighborhood, they are unaware of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. The community organizers were even unaware of the City’s early notification system!

Why is it up to the community to point out conflict and disconnect between departments and agencies?

Why is it up to the community to chase from one department to the next when the “Community Family” has a mandate to work together, represent the people and improve the quality of life in our community?

Three weeks ago the LACounty Transportation Funding Collaborative held an all day session entitled “It’s Time to Move LA!”

Two weeks ago SCAG held hearings on its Regional Transportation Plan.

Last week the LA City Council held an all-day session to present its Strategic Transportation Plan.

The Metro is currently holding Westside Extension Transit Corridor hearings.

The LA Planning Department and LADOT will be holding Bicycle Master Plan Workshops in the next few weeks.

All these meetings on transportation and traffic congestion relief and solutions (complete with free parking!) will wear out even the most committed of community activists.

Is this the intention?

If not, let’s consolidate, work together, bring the whole “Community Family” together and get back to the business of improving the quality of life in our community!

Ultimately, the Mayor’s simple proposal to get rid of some of the City’s motor pool has in it the ability to create significant connectivity in our city.

By hiring local city staff, by holding meetings that are accessible to all modes of travel and by getting the “Community Family” to carpool, literally as well as figuratively, we will have gone a long way to better representing our communities and improving the quality of life for all.