Region faces pressing issues

Lawmakers and business leaders sound off on what needs to be done for L.A. economy to bounce back

As the pandemic took a severe toll on small businesses and pushed homelessness to new highs, business leaders and elected officials gathered Thursday for a luncheon hosted by Valley Industry & Commerce Association to discuss the region’s most pressing issues and what needs to be done for the economy to bounce back.

It was the first VICA in-person event since 2019, hosting many officials, including Mayor Eric Garcetti; Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger; Los Angeles City Council members Bob Blumenfield, John Lee, Monica Rodriguez and Paul Koretz; San Fernando Councilwoman Cindy Montanez; LAUSD Board Vice President Nick Melvoin; City Controller Ron Galperin; and Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer.

The event was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Daily News, Lyft and Wescom.

Feuer, who recently entered the 2022 mayor’s race, said one of the city’s most profound challenges is homelessness and that the next mayor needs to “bring bold experienced leadership” to City Hall.

If elected, he said, he would “declare a state of emergency which gives the mayor additional powers and galvanizes the public.”

His plan, he added, was to achieve “tangible decreases in street homelessness year over year with an arching goal of eliminating it in five years.”

Feuer said the city needs to “accelerate dramatically” the approval process for building affordable and homeless housing. But there also “needs to be an end date because our public spaces need to be safe and accessible for everyone,” he said.

Galperin, who is competing for the Los Angeles County supervisor seat currently held by Shelia Kuehl, said there’re some steps the city could take to invest in businesses, create jobs and help revive the economy.

He said one of the ways the city can support local companies is to contract

and purchase goods from them.

The city’s major spending categories include software ($41.3 million), automobiles ($24.9 million), construction machinery and equipment ($22.4 million), asphalt ($18.9 million), helicopters and related equipment ($16.8 million), according to the controller’s recent report.

In recent years, he said, the city bought only 18% of its commodities from Los Angeles businesses, and less than a third were acquired from businesses in the county — spending that translates in half a billion dollars.

Just recently, the city signed a $22 million contract with a provider in Carlsbad to deliver asphalt.

“We paid 1.4 million in sales tax, and who benefited from that?” he said. “Well, God bless them, the city of Carlsbad. But what about the city of Los Angeles?”

One way the city can help small businesses, he added, was to make sure it made purchases from femaleand LGBTQ-owned businesses, which “represent the full diversity of Los Angeles.”

Carolyn Hull, a general manager of the Economic and Workforce Development Department for the city of Los Angeles, said the program is expected to deploy over 50 million dollars to small businesses, micro-entrepreneurs, street vendors and child care providers.

The city is looking for

ways, she said, to support businesses and residents in underserved communities.

One of the program’s priorities is to provide technical support for small businesses.

“You can give businesses money,” she said, “but really what many of our mom and pop shops need is technical support.”

Another program, known as the city’s legacy business program, she said, focuses on supporting restaurants that have been around for decades and now feel the pressure of the rising rent.

“We want to make sure that places that we consider to be the heart and soul of Los Angeles remain the heart and soul of Los Angeles,” she said.