What’s the Deal, Governor?
Let’s say you and I make a deal. If you agree to move into my not-so-great neighborhood and be a good citizen, I’ll give you something in return. For example, I’ll pay all your utility bills for 15 years.
Now, let’s say you decide to take a chance and you move your family. Over time, you and the other folks who took me up on my deal work to improve your new neighborhood, to make something of it.
But a few years later, I show up and say, “Ummm, you know, this arrangement is costing me money. Deal’s off.”
Now you could say, “Wait right there. You’re backstabbing me. We made a deal, and a deal should be a deal.”
You could – you should – argue that you’re the one who took a chance and moved your family. You and the others who accepted the deal are the ones who worked to improve my iffy neighborhood. The least you should get is your free utilities for the rest of the 15-year term. That was the deal, after all.
Time to Chase Community Redevelopment Agencies Out of Town
Los Angeles city officials are wailing that civilization as we know it may be imperiled if Gov. Jerry Brown has his way and kills community redevelopment agencies.
Maybe I’m just a postredevelopment Pollyanna, but I think our way of life would survive just fine. In fact, we’d be better off without them.
Why? Because CRAs are one of those well-intentioned initiatives that sounded great and started off well enough decades ago and have some accomplishments they can point to, such as the Hollywood & Highland Center. But over the years, they have devolved into corrupt little political fiefdoms that muck up the works and don’t do much good.
Sure, CRAs may encourage project construction in some supposedly blighted areas, but those developments mostly are just shifted over from another area. At least, that’s what the nonpartisan state Legislative Analyst’s Office reported a few weeks ago. It went on to say: “There is no reliable evidence that redevelopment projects attract businesses to the state or increase overall economic development in California.”
Water Rising Higher at Ports
The news from the waterfront last week was reassuring. The Port of Los Angeles said it handled 16 percent more cargo containers last year than in the previous year. And next door, the Port of Long Beach reported it handled 24 percent more – its biggest increase ever.
But what’s not so reassuring is this: The ports’ future still remains a bit tenuous.
That’s because the reconstruction of the Panama Canal continues. When the bigger and better passageway opens in 2014, it can begin handling huge container ships that haul all those consumer goods, automobiles and other stuff from China and the rest of Asia.
Now, those cargo ships are more or less forced to come here, which is why the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have become America’s No. 1 and No. 2 ports, respectively. But in about three years, those ships will be free to sail to the Gulf and East coasts – and ports in those areas are beefing up now to lure those ships.
“We have a bull’s-eye on our back,” Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, told the Business Journal last week.
Why WeHo Businesses Should Howl
Do you dream of having your own little business? Being your own boss? Well, here’s a message for you: Don’t do any of that dreaming in West Hollywood.
Why? Because the West Hollywood City Council may crush your little business. And be proud of itself for doing so.
That’s the message from that city’s decision to ban puppy and kitten sales there. The town council is all puffed up and proud of itself for taking a principled stand against some distant puppy mills. But apparently it’s deaf to the whimpers of its own pet stores, which are being euthanized by the city.
As you can see in an article in the current issue of the Los Angeles Business Journal, pet shops in West Hollywood are hurting now that the city’s ban on puppy and kitten sales has gone into effect. One shop apparently is open only sporadically.
Long Beach Gets a D
The port complex may be L.A.’s greatest economic asset. Not only do thousands of warehouses and trucking firms depend on it, but so do L.A.’s many apparel companies, toy wholesalers and furniture companies, to pick a few.
Unfortunately, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has chosen to politicize the Port of Los Angeles, weighing it down with his plan to promote union workers to such a degree that the port may have trouble keeping up with competition it will face in 2014. That’s when the widened Panama Canal will open and big container ships that are now forced to come here will be free to go to East Coast or Gulf Coast ports.
Oh, well, I thought, at least the Port of Long Beach next door is well managed, highly regarded by shippers and relatively free of political meddling.
Alas, no more.
L.A. Homes In on Businesses
The unemployment rate in the city of Los Angeles is 13.7 percent. If you’re jobless in a job-scarce era, there is a classic way to escape your predicament: start your own business. Even if you sell ice cream from a cart or take in sewing, you can make it in America.
But maybe not if you’re in Los Angeles. That was the message from a study released last week from the Institute for Justice. It laid bare a city that discourages small-business startups and chokes its entrepreneurs in red tape so absurd you’d think the rules and regulations were written by Samuel Beckett.
For example, a video that accompanies the report said if you want to start a simple shop that sells used books, “You’ll need a permit from the police to operate. You’ll have to be fingerprinted. Anyone who sells you books may need to be fingerprinted, too. For every book you buy, you’ll have to stamp it with an individualized number that corresponds to the bill of sale that identifies the book and who it came from. Police get to inspect those bills of sale and – hold on – you’ll also have to hold books for at least 30 days before you sell them. Just in case the police have any questions.”
Best of Intentions, Worst Results
It keeps popping up. Take the article on Page 1 of the Oct. 24 issue of the Los Angeles Business Journal. It’s about how the Clean Truck Program at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach perversely led to the reintroduction of some of the oldest and dirtiest trucks. Oh, sure, the cadre of unclean trucks is small, but isn’t it interesting that a massively planned and very expensive program to replace old trucks with clean-burning new ones also unexpectedly created a loophole that more or less encourages use of the oldest and dirtiest ones?
L.A.’s Pension for Payouts
In case you haven’t noticed, cities and other governments across California are in competition to see which ones can bankrupt themselves first by heaping ungodly cash on ex-bureaucrats. And it’s a pretty exciting race.
Now, pension payouts never used to be a big whoop when it came to budget expenses of governments. No more. Your creative government-elected officials have sure seen to that.
In LA: Hailing a Business Victory
Something rare happened last week. Business interests squared off against labor interests in City Hall, and business won.
I know you think it’s a joke and you’re waiting for a punch line. But it’s true. It really happened last Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles. The City Council’s transportation committee voted 5-0 in favor of a measure backed by taxicab companies. In so doing, the committee essentially snubbed the usual coalition of labor unions, environmentalists and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, all of whom argued against the companies.
L.A. Localizes Bad Policy
Some
city of Los Angeles
officials recently proposed an ordinance that would give preference to local
companies when the city buys some good or service. It’s a
well-intentioned, feel-good measure that’s a bad idea.
The
ordinance would give local businesses an 8 percent advantage when they bid for
city work. So in a low-bid contract scenario, a local firm’s bid of $1
million for a city contract would be considered a bid of $920,000. And in a
request-for-proposal scenario, in which bidders are assigned points, a local
business that got 100 points would be considered to have 108 points. Obviously,
that would give local companies a leg up when they’re bidding against
nonlocal companies.
"For
too long, the city of Los Angeles has awarded contracts to private companies
without considering if any of those funds will filter back into the local
economy," City Council member Bernard Parks was quoted as saying in a
city press release.