As I gaze past the remnants of two Molotov cocktails (vintage 1965 and 1992) on my desk, through the heavy steel security-clad window to the ripe bloated dog in the gutter across the street, I read your whimsical article about how but another group is now going to launch a new economic development partnership in South L.A. (“Partnership Aims for South L.A. Growth,” March 27).
Mr. Clyde Oden, president of Watts Health Systems, and Mr. Joe Aro of the South Bay Economic Development Partnership will share the role of Don Quixote, while Mr. Thomas Tseng of the Community Development Technologies Center will play the role of Sancho Panza.
The article listed several problems to overcome. The distressed image of the area, ignorance about the opportunities available, lack of class-A industrial space, difficulty obtaining loans, investment safety, and a mismatch between the skills taught in the public school system and the skills that industry is looking for.
As a principal of a small manufacturing concern located in the heart (or is that the lower bowel) of the area you described, I have some insight into the problems associated with the area. After 45 years, we have been burglarized more than 40 times, though not once was anyone prosecuted. Burnt to the ground once, again no one prosecuted. There have been four major arsons fire investigators showed up three weeks late. Two riots, I had to lend ammo to two National Guardsmen and give them directions because they were lost. And six shootouts. Do they teach this in business school?
The distressed image of this area is well deserved; it is truly a rotten place. It has been more accurately described by gangsta rappers than the L.A. Business Journal, L.A. Times or Huell Howser. The opportunities available, while somewhat more than Calcutta or Uganda, are still no match for the local competition: Vernon, Cerritos, Santa Fe Springs or Ontario, to name a few.
Why would anyone in their right mind squander a significant amount of their hard-earned money to put up a class-A industrial building in this area, only to see it covered in graffiti, lay vacant for years because no one will lease it, or burned to the ground? Should a major bank be required to arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic while Don Quixote steers?
Mr. Oden was quoted as saying, “We need to show people it is safe to invest in South L.A., not in terms of law and order but from a hard and cold business point of view.” Well then, this Saturday night put your whole family in the car, drive down to this future industrial paradise and go for a stroll. You will soon find that there is no law and order, and the only thing that is cold and hard will be you or a family member at dawn.
A word of advice to a business person contemplating investing in this area: flee. Flee and don’t look back. This is a dilemma to which no solution is possible.
GEORGE HIBARD JR.
Spiral Paper Tube & Core Co. Inc.
South L.A.
Chandlers Sensed Coming Danger
The sale of Times Mirror Co. to Chicago-headquartered Tribune Co. speaks volumes about the dangerous trend in the business climate in Los Angeles specifically and Southern California in general. It is a well-known fact that larger organizations, particularly Fortune and Forbes 500 companies, offer better salaries and benefits than smaller firms.
Of the 89 organizations here with 3,000 or more employees, many are government agencies and fast-food chains that pay a lot less than big companies. This is one reason why the economy took so long to turn around here in the last decade; years after the Fed was regularly raising interest rates to cool a hot national economy, we were still in the doldrums of high unemployment, a continuing exodus of white-collar jobs and flat housing prices.
If I were a Fortune 500 company executive and had a choice of where to locate, would I choose a place with unfriendly government agencies at every level? With high taxes? A sky-high crime rate? A public school system among the worst in the nation (my source of future employees)? A police department with significant problems that never seem to be resolved? A transportation system that doesn’t rate when compared to other cities? Candidly, L.A. is the last place I would go.
Our greatest opportunity in Southern California is our potential. The sad thing is that the potential will never be realized as long as we don’t start addressing the issues that can make this place desirable for Fortune 500 companies. Perhaps the Chandlers sold out now because they don’t see things getting any better only worse.
They took the money and ran who can really blame them?
KENNETH W. KELLER
Valencia
