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Progressive Los Angeles Network

Economic Development Priorities for Los Angeles

Los Angeles’ economy grew rapidly over the past few years, with the City and region rising as hubs of trade, manufacturing, and finance. But LA also confronts widening economic divisions. More LA residents are working, but more and more are both working and poor. How can this be? LA hasn’t been creating enough high wage jobs, the kind of jobs that can support a family. With major development projects underway in the Alameda Corridor, North Hollywood, Universal City, LAX and elsewhere, the next Mayor and City Council will have an opportunity to shape a stronger and fairer economy. The City should ensure that public investments and subsidies yield quality jobs and boost the local economy. Then economic prosperity and economic justice will go hand in hand, and we’ll have a business climate that benefits us all.

1. Consolidate economic development functions. Making our economy stronger and fairer will require a coherent vision as to how the City can target public funds to promote economic development and better coordinate City economic development efforts. The City should consolidate all economic development functions, including the Community Redevelopment Agency, into one Economic Development Department organized around five key functions: Industrial Development, Commercial Development, Finance, Workforce Development, and Policy and Research. While this reorganization is underway, the City should take the following priority actions:

2. Gear job training towards quality jobs. Each year the City of Los Angeles spends upwards of $150 million dollars on job training, most of it federal money channeled through LA’s Workforce Investment Board (WIB). To better meet residents’ long term needs, the City should require businesses taking part in publicly-funded training programs to pay a training wage that leads to self sufficiency; improve services for job-seekers with limited English proficiency so that all residents can take advantage of public training programs; target workforce investment funds to placing residents in high wage industries with growth potential and career ladders; and appoint labor and community representatives to the WIB executive committee.

3. Ensure public investment yields quality jobs and community benefits. When a business or development project receives public funding, the business should be required to provide a wide range of benefits to its workers and the community. The City should ensure that the 24,000 jobs expected to be created by major, publicly subsidized development projects currently underway or in the pipeline in LA are quality jobs that provide living wages and health care, and hire from local communities. As a concrete step, the City should expand its living wage ordinance to require employers in projects subsidized by the CRA – including commercial tenants – to pay their workers a living wage. New, subsidized, large-scale developments should also provide such community benefits as child care and affordable housing units. The City should make its business subsidy programs more open and transparent so that residents can participate and identify community needs.

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