Grand Avenue Project to be Unveiled
Architect Frank O. Gehry plans to erect a translucent, glass-curtained tower rising 47 stories above his landmark Walt Disney Concert Hall as the centerpiece of the Grand Avenue project, the Los Angeles Times reported. His schematic designs, which are to be unveiled at a news conference Monday, call for two L-shaped towers, the 47-story structure and a 24-story building, at opposite ends of the block east of the concert hall. The plans will detail the initial step in a $1.8-billion, three-phase project, which ultimately would include eight condo and office towers, shopping arcades, a 16-acre park and a boutique hotel. The Grand Avenue project is part of a major renaissance in downtown Los Angeles, which after decades of decline has become a destination for professionals, artists and others, who are moving into long-vacant former office buildings-turned-lofts and new condos.
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State job task force hit
A task force unveiled last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces accusations that it is failing in its mission to investigate wage violations in agriculture, janitorial services, garment factories, construction and other industries where unscrupulous employers are known to exploit immigrant workers, the Sacramento Bee reported. Since July, the multi-agency Economic and Employment Enforcement Coalition, known as the EEEC, has conducted 944 sweeps or investigations of seven types of businesses, including restaurants, racetracks and carwashes. The coalition has assessed more than $3 million in possible penalties because of businesses’ failure to provide workers’ compensation insurance or follow other rules. While records show an unexplained assessment of $4,536 in back wages owed farmworkers after 240 sweeps, not a single minimum-wage or overtime citation has been issued against an agricultural employer.
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Public’s lobbyists to deal with new department head
With new leadership coming to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, tensions are rising between neighborhood council insiders and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa over control of the city’s system of grass-roots democracy, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. The mayor has tried to reassure neighborhood councils that they will have a role in his administration, but some members fear that Villaraigosa may be working behind the scenes to diminish the growing power of organized neighborhood councils. And there is speculation that the mayor’s next appointee could be less of a neighborhood-councils advocate than Greg Nelson, longtime head of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, has been. Villaraigosa spokesman Darryl Ryan said the mayor wants a partnership with neighborhood councils, with the local panels acting as a bridge between residents and policy makers. However, the mayor is not planning to consult neighborhood councils in the selection of the new DONE chief, as he did about the choice of a new Planning Department director.
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Goldberg on board with Seacrest
Ryan Seacrest has recruited alternative veep Eliot Goldberg of the WB to run production and development for his Ryan Seacrest Prods. banner as senior VP, Variety reported. Goldberg, who oversaw hit reality skeins “Beauty and the Geek” and “The Starlet,” will be charged with mining programs for E! Entertainment TV, where RSP is based, and other networks. Hiring follows the $21 million talent deal Seacrest struck with E!, calling for the “American Idol” host to serve as lead anchor of “E! News” and providing him with a base for his RSP shingle at the cable net’s Los Angeles headquarters.
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