Throwing Water on Fire Fallout
The blazes around Los Angeles hadn’t even been fully extinguished last week before the call went out for more regulations. No surprise there. Regulations are about the only things that spread faster than wildfires around here.
After about 500 mobile homes were destroyed in Sylmar, you knew what was coming. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors didn’t disappoint us. On Tuesday, they directed fire officials to prepare recommendations to change building codes for mobile homes.
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky reportedly said he’s in favor of the state requiring that mobile homes be built with more fire-retardant materials and that mobile homes not be situated closely together.
OK, let’s step back and think for a moment. Why do people buy mobile homes? It’s the low price, right?
Right Tools for Escaping Poverty
At most awards dinners, you learn some interesting ideas and hear some success stories, and it all makes a nice, mild impression. But last week I attended an awards dinner in downtown Los Angeles that made me slap my forehead.
The dinner gave awards to non-profit organizations that distinguish themselves through innovation. The winner was KickStart International, which has devised a business model that’s ingeniously simple and wonderfully effective. If more non-profits, and even businesses, followed its lead, I dare say poverty throughout the world could be dramatically and permanently reduced.
KickStart operates in Kenya and other areas of impoverished sub-Saharan Africa. It comes up with sturdy hand-powered tools designed to immediately transform destitute people into money-making entrepreneurs.
Boosting State of Production
It may seem crazy for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to propose giving tax breaks to film and television productions at the same time there is a state budget crisis, but this is exactly the time to make such a move.
The governor last Thursday announced he wants to extend roughly $100 million a year to producers as an incentive for them to make movies and TV shows in the state. That is a great deal of money, sure, but it is far less than California would lose if more production leaves.
As noted previously in this column and other places, about 40 states and several other countries offer some tax benefit or other incentives to producers who film there. California is not one of them. And some of those giveaways are embarrassingly generous – too generous for producers to pass up.
In fact, many of the producers haven’t. A few years ago, most film production was done in California. Now, most isn’t.
Not So Easy Being Green
Thank goodness California is pushing the green agenda. The state will benefit economically because all kinds of business and jobs will be created to cater to the new demand for cleaner power.
How many times have you heard that statement? Probably more than you heard how the Dodgers pitching was going to carry them into the World Series.
There’s one itty bitty problem, though: Thanks to the green agenda, it’s quite possible the state will be a net loser economically.
The fact is, jobs and businesses likely will be created as a result of California’s still-new law called AB 32. That’s the one that mandates greenhouse gas emissions be chopped back about 30 percent by 2020 and more thereafter. But it’s also likely that a good number of jobs will be destroyed or will migrate out of the state, too. Whether the former will offset the latter is an open question. In other words, is it really more likely we’ll lose or win?
Playing by Mob Rules
When this country’s top bankers went into a secret meeting last week, they may have believed that they were to meet Henry Paulson and hear an update on the unfolding financial crisis. Instead, the Henry Paulson they met was no longer just Treasury secretary but the new Don of the financial universe, and he was going to make them a deal they couldn’t refuse.
Yes, Don Paulson told them, the government had a deal for them. The government was going to buy a big stake in their banks and be their new partner, whether they liked it or not. Now, of course, the bankers had two choices: They could take the deal, or they could take the deal.
Actually, I made up the part about what Paulson said to them. We don’t know what he said. Apparently not so much as a transcript was made.
Bailout Brings Dumping Danger
Wanna buy a property cheap? I mean, for $40,000 you could buy a property that was worth $100,000 only a year ago, and may be worth that again soon. Maybe you could buy it for $30,000 if you bargain hard. Hold out, and perhaps that price would drop to a low, low $25,000.
That’s the kind of deal you could get from the Resolution Trust Corp. in the early ’90s. You remember the RTC? It was created in the midst of the savings and loan implosion. The RTC is often credited with clearing out the smelly air, but it is also blamed as engineering one of the greatest wealth transfers in history. It essentially took properties that had been foisted onto taxpayers and dumped them, sometimes for pennies on the dollar, to those shrewd enough to recognize a bargain.
Start Making Sense on Housing
If you’re really itching to hear someone say “duh,” just tell them with a straight face that houses are too expensive in Los Angeles.
Lots of companies put housing affordability near the top of their concerns about doing business here. Sure, middle-class workers can find acceptable family homes that are kind of affordable, but those houses may be so far inland they face commute times that could be measured by a calendar.
Everybody knows it’s a problem. The big question: What to do?
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last week announced a huge plan – as in $5 billion – to create more affordable housing in the city.
Now, I’m not going to quibble about the particulars of how the plan will work. Let’s leave that for another time. And I’m certainly not going to question his desire or motive. The impulse to do something to help this dire situation is understandable, commendable even.
The part I don’t understand is this: Isn’t this the same city government that’s actively tried to make homes more expensive?
Reining In Regulation Rush
As the markets melted down in the last couple of weeks, the voices started low but quickly grew into a loud chorus with an old tune: These problems are the fault of deregulation.
At least the tenor of much of the press coverage and many of the yakking heads recently was that our financial systems wouldn’t have sunk into this mire if only the government had been more involved.
Well, those of us who have a teensy bit more faith in the markets and who tend to be more skeptical of government’s abilities have a well-worn refrain of our own: Oh, puh-leeze.
To be sure, there’s plenty of blame to go around. Probably some wild parts of the financial system could be reined in by reasonable regulations. But to reflexively blame it all on deregulation and lack of government oversight is empty-minded, tiresome and simply wrong. The fact is the overseers in the government played a big part in the embarrassing undressing of America’s financial system.
Texas Takes Shine Off Golden State
Got a cowboy hat? Me neither. But it sure looks like more business folks are putting one on and moving to Texas.
That state last week made a big deal about how its economy has taken off in recent years. And it contrasted itself with California.
Actually, it makes sense to compare the two states, since they are the biggest economically and are something of rivals. But the comparison isn’t pretty. While Texans apparently are spending time keeping up with their booming economy, we seem to be blowing time keeping up with the Kardashians.
The Texas study, done by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, compared the two states for the last 10 years. On average, it said, Texas’ real economy grew 4.3 percent a year since 1997; California’s grew 3.7 percent. But Texas has been picking up speed in recent years.
What’s more, real personal income growth was much higher in Texas. Ditto for job growth.
Businesses Star in Hollywood Revival
The fact that 91 percent of Hollywood property owners last week voted to renew and expand the business improvement district in their neighborhood is a testament to how far Hollywood has bounced back and how effective the improvement district has been.
A decade or more ago, Hollywood was populated by miscreants, the homeless and shocked tourists who covered their childrens’ eyes. And while Hollywood Boulevard can be edgy still, its transformation is remarkable. Streets are clean and walkable. Armed guards patrol the area. Lots of construction is going on.
A big part of the transformation is due to the improvement district there called the Hollywood Entertainment District. The district pays for armed guards, tree plantings, extra trash pickup and the like. In the new vote by property owners, the district also will start collecting an extra assessment to clean up alleys in Hollywood in an effort to make them pedestrian friendly and even usable for retail or outdoor dining.