Will LA's Next Election Be About the Same Ideas?
LA Needs a Leader Who Will Lead From the Front
This year, Angelenos will have the opportunity to elect a new mayor, along with a city attorney, city controller and several City Council members. The importance of this election cannot be overstated.
It is generally well known that City Hall shapes tax, regulatory and land-use policies and provides oversight and appointment powers over numerous commissions, departments, agencies and the civil workforce. Thanks to billion dollar investments, Angelenos should now know that the City owns massive economic assets that are responsible for a large portion of the region’s workforce and overall economic horsepower: LAX, the Port of Los Angeles, the Convention Center and the Department of Water and Power.
What many voters may not know is how the economic development platforms of today’s candidates compare to what has been said and done in the past.
To help put things into perspective, I am sharing a summary below that I put together from the 2013 Mayoral campaign, highlighting what Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel promised voters to grow LA’s economy and create jobs.
If you would like to go back even further, look to Tom Bradley’s election almost 50 years ago. You can read a piece I wrote in 2017 about how Mayor Bradley shaped the future of Los Angeles in ways that still reverberate today.
What is important to remember is that all of these initiatives, some more successful then others, and some still in progress, have not even come close to solving all the social ills impacting LA today, from poverty and homelessness to crime and political corruption.
The real question of this election is not who will recycle the ideas of the past, but bring forth ideas that develop LA as a leader in the 21st century, not just based on its ability to center a trillion dollar metropolitan economy, but one that brings all Angelenos along for the ride.
That is what will truly reverberate 50 years from now.
Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future
Mayor Garcetti found some success with a few, and some work is still in progress.
Eric Garcetti
“On day one as mayor, I will...bring jobs to Los Angeles by focusing on a more business-friendly city, investing in the jobs of the future, and accelerating infrastructure projects to rebuild our crumbling city.”
Wendy Greuel
“I am committed to implementing common-sense solutions for Los Angeles with a focus on job creation, smart fiscal management, building a world-class transportation system, and rebuilding an educational system.”
Business & Jobs Growth
ERIC GARCETTI – "As Mayor I will focus on jobs in emerging industries such as advanced manufacturing, digital technology, and clean energy jobs."
Already called for a $2 Billion Investment in Clean Energy, Clean Water and Energy Efficiency to create 20,000 new jobs in solar installation, energy efficiency, and water improvement projects in our city.
Build an Advanced Manufacturing Hub in L.A. by launching an initiative for advanced manufacturing in additive manufacturing, nanotechnology, and molecular manufacturing, and focus on our core manufacturing in aero- space, fashion, and durable goods so that we can bring more middle-class jobs to L.A.
Make L.A. a great Technology Center for Digital Information companies...and foster and accelerate a culture of innovation and support for these companies to ensure that these companies stay in L.A.
Protect and grow L.A.’s biggest industries by sourcing city goods from local manufacturers and retailers, collaborating with neighboring cities to draw more tourism and trade, and fighting hard to preserve and expand CA’s state filming incentives and city-specific incentives to ensure L.A. remains the world’s production capital.
Expand and accelerate overseas investment in L.A. by creating a dedicated EB5 office in my administration. n Create L.A. offices in the capitals of the city’s major trading partners.
WENDY GREUEL – "L.A. is a diverse city of entrepreneurs, with world-class innovations and boundless creativity. Our city is an international trade hub, one of the world’s top tourist destinations, a manufacturing powerhouse, and a growing center for new technology."
Expand the tech industry through strategic investments in LA’s tech hubs and incubators (Silicon Beach, Clean tech Corridor, Expo Line, East L.A. biomed cluster, new advanced manufacturing centers in the Valley and the maritime transportation hub in the Harbor Area. Also partner with local universities and community colleges to bring talent and new technologies to market.
Extend the business tax holiday for local tech companies, improve high-speed fiber-optic broadband, and create a public-private fund to test, develop, and commercialize new technologies and leverage private capital.
Support local energy solutions like the solar feed-in tariff and energy efficiency programs that create jobs now while encouraging new environmentally-friendly technologies that can grow the clean tech industry for the long term.
Create a tourism strategy focused on attracting higher value tourists like international tourists who spend 70% more than domestic tourists or growing our cultural tourism by better marketing our City’s cultural assets, as those traveling for cultural experiences tend to spend 50% more.
Grow our convention business by not only modernizing the convention center and bringing Citywide conventions to the region, but also creating policies that incentivize more hotel development.
Encourage Innovation and Entrepreneurship by supporting and highlighting L.A.’s key industries, including our signature creative economy, helping L.A. become the global capital of innovation and creativity.
Ensure that as much money as possible is being spent local to help local businesses, especially small and medi- um-sized business. (The City procures nearly $2 billion in services and goods a year.)
Economic Development
ERIC GARCETTI – "As Mayor I will keep finding innovative ways to make it easier for people to do business in L.A. and I want a customer service driven City Hall where calls are returned within 24 hours and service requests can be tracked like a package."
Eliminate the City’s business tax within five years. A phased-in approach of eliminating the City’s gross receipts tax, with triggers that only cuts taxes when revenue milestones are hit.
All general managers will reapply for their jobs and I will evaluate them on how they solve problems, provide efficient customer service to residents, and make their work open and transparent for the public to review.
Continue to lead the initiative to reduce the amount of places that a business needs to go to get approvals for a new project and have pioneered electronic plan check, which will save us tens of thousands of dollars in paper and provide a portal where businesses and the public can track development projects in their neighborhoods.
Replicate the transformation of Hollywood citywide, with a "great streets initiative" that would use zoning and planning features such as streetscapes and pedestrian-friendly villages to create inviting neighborhoods.
Continue to streamline permitting, such as setting up a website where, with three clicks, a business owner would find every permit needed to open a new operation.
Consider other incentives that create jobs and encourage companies to move to certain areas of the city. (The investment in the Red Line in Hollywood helped bring that neighborhood back and the Expo Line, the Gold Line, and the Crenshaw Line all hold the same potential of using infrastructure investment to bring jobs to parts of our city that need them.)
WENDY GREUEL – "I will convene a “Jobs Cabinet” to make sure that every relevant city department is working in a coordinated manner with the business community to help create sustainable jobs."
Eliminate the City’s business tax within five years. A phased-in approach of eliminating the City’s gross receipts tax, with triggers that only cuts taxes when revenue milestones are hit.
Use technological innovations to make City Hall more approachable, cut red tape and streamline burdensome regulatory processes.
Streamline processes and departments by taking a hard look at duplicative and wasteful processes. Where practical, I will knock down silos and consolidate departments to cut down this waste and inefficiency.
Demand consistency - one inspector says one thing, and then another comes later and says something complete- ly different, causing costly delays and modifications.
Hold departments accountable for measurable performance goals and timetables for completion with a focus on customer services.
Look at new options to incentivize new development – from examining our land-use and zoning policies to creating targeted areas throughout the City like Silicon Beach or the Clean tech Corridor to attract and foster new businesses.
Maximize the use of city assets including repositioning certain assets that have economic development value. I will also work to have proprietary departments of the City leverage their real estate assets similarly. (The City owns 8,000 properties.)
Transportation & Infrastructure
ERIC GARCETTI – "I believe in good, neighborhood-focused development. What makes sense in one part of the city doesn’t necessarily fit in another part of LA. It makes sense to keep larger buildings away from single-family home neighborhoods. It makes sense to put jobs near transit and housing near transit. And it makes sense to use incentives to encourage people who live near transit to actually use it and to make it free."
Where we have well-developed transportation lines, it is appropriate to encourage mixed-use developments where we can put housing above stores and save people a car trip to get their groceries, or where folks can take a car trip off the streets by walking to a rail line or busway to get to work, reducing traffic and congestion for everyone in the city.
We should build light rail and busways where we can, and subways where they are necessary. That said, we can never lose sight that a successful transit system needs to look at neighborhood buses that get people to the main lines, parking for cars near transit stops, and strong pedestrian corridors and bikeways along our transit lines.
I will accelerate street paving and transit projects funded under Measure R.
Our first focus at LAX needs to be improving the passenger experience, ensuring plane safety, reducing neighbor- hood traffic, and expanding public transit options from the airport and cutting the pollution. Specifically, we need to extend the Green Line and the future Crenshaw line into LAX.
We should be making our terminals a better experience for international and domestic passengers by making sure that they reflect the creativity and best that L.A. has to offer. We should highlight the content of what makes L.A. great—our food, our music, our art, our movies, and our neighborhoods.
I reject the false choice that assumes we cannot have both economic growth and a healthy environment. Since 2005, particulate emissions at the Port have been reduced by 68%. The key is reducing the trucks going back and forth to the Port with rail. On-dock rail, which would eliminate most local truck trips and would keep the air near the Port cleaner.
WENDY GREUEL – "Yes, transit-oriented development is essential for the future development of our City. However, I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all solution for the diverse communities of Los Angeles."
Transportation is one of the most sound, important, and worthwhile investments that a community can market. I will recognize the nexus between our transportation investments and job growth; investing in transit-oriented development to spur job creation.
Transit-oriented development along transit corridors will help spur economic activity along our public transportation lines, create jobs, and alleviate traffic and congestion throughout the city.
With 113 Metro stations set to open in the next 10 years, we have a chance to create mixed-use neighborhoods, encourage affordable housing and draw in businesses by planning around these transit hubs.
Make it easier for developers to build affordable housing around transit hubs. While market forces are making development near transit attractive, it’s driving land costs up, making it harder to do affordable housing at transit stops.
We need more public transportation and increased quality bus service and I will continue to work with Metro and our Federal and state government partners, along with the private sector to leverage local funds and expedite project delivery.
The key to the competitiveness of our port is increasing throughput. I will focus on ensuring that port improve- ment projects quickly get through the approval process and that the City works as a partner with the goods move- ment industry.
Focus on airport modernization and improving the customer experience, including better options for food and drink. We must also look at other improvements that increase the competitiveness of LAWA, including bringing light rail into LAX. Connecting the airport to transit, improved ground access, a consolidated rental car facility, and an automated people mover system are all improvements that will enhance the LAX experience.
We also need to modernize LAX terminals, remodeling the spaces so we’re moving travelers more efficiently and so the terminals reflect our world-class city.
Workforce Development & Education
ERIC GARCETTI – "In order to ensure that L.A.’s workforce is prepared for the high-tech global economy, we need to make sure our youth are taught both the languages of today and tomorrow by teaching foreign and computer program- ming languages."
Establish jobs centers in all of L.A.'s community colleges and expand one stop job training placement centers at our community colleges.
I will establish a public-private partnership with area research universities to create jobs, particularly in the area of green and advanced manufacturing jobs.
Support initiatives to train and retain more engineers from our local universities, by opening up City Hall as a gathering place for start-up entrepreneurs and by opening up city government as a place where technology pio- neers can test and demonstrate their products.
Train local residents to fill good jobs in the healthcare industry in Los Angeles. (We have shown the success of this approach in my district, where we pioneered a Healthcare Career Ladder.) We have now expanded this approach to other core industries including the entertainment industry, tourism, security, construction trades, banking, and international trade.
Develop a better web portal with easy access to all adult education, job training and community college courses, overseen directly by my new Chief Technology Officer.
WENDY GREUEL – "Focus on improving K-12 education, connecting people to jobs by partnering with local business, community colleges and high schools, and by investing in career technical education and apprenticeship programs."
Invest in career technical education and apprenticeship programs and work to connect the talented students who are graduating from our local colleges and universities with jobs in growing fields – through economic incubators and innovation hubs throughout the City.
Continue to support programs such as the City’s Summer Youth Work programs.
I will champion common sense reform ideas such as supporting effective teachers and considering longer school years.
Fiscal Solvency
ERIC GARCETTI – "Cuts and reductions should not be the only long-term strategy to balance our budget. Creat- ing jobs and making L.A. more business-friendly will grow our economy and provide the revenues to protect core city services—public safety, public works, and our parks and libraries."
We also need to make government more efficient, by updating our technological systems, thinking creatively about new revenues, and collecting the debts owed to the city.
When I authored the law eliminating the gross receipts tax for new car dealers, after our city lost more than 100 dealers to other cities over the past few decades, five new dealers planned to open or expand in the city, increasing total revenues due to sales tax and other economic activity.
We cannot afford to further cut city services. As Mayor, I will be looking to restore those core services: public safety, public works, and libraries and parks.
WENDY GREUEL – "To balance the city budget, we must focus on job creation and economic development, pension reform and efficiencies."
Blueprint for Performance Based Budgeting: identify the specific core functions and associated levels of service and funding accordingly. (Core services must be public safety, public works and economic development.)
We need an honest accounting of where we are today and where we want to be in five years. We also need to keep the city's Reserve Fund strong.
We must maintain the promises that have been made to current and former employees and we must work together to make structural change through the collective bargaining process that is required by law.
We should consider common sense reforms such as a ban on pension spiking, double dipping, capping the salary used to calculate benefits, and making sure anyone convicted of a job-related felony can't collect a city pension – ever.
I will also look for ways to increase the City’s revenue from the Transient Occupancy Tax.