Los Angeles in Decline? City commission seems to think so

[Leo the Dog]

Originally Posted by caligrad

^^^ Exactly..... LOL. looking at previous posts from Mello, especially in regards to LA, He has a "everything is wrong with LA" attitude to him.. seeing that hes from San Diego, maybe its because San Diego tends to be overshadowed by LA since its so close in proximity to give it its own identity. I had some cousins from Texas visit recently who thought San Diego was part of L.A. County and not its own city LOL.

I'm waiting for one of the Moderators to close this thread up. It really doesn't make any sense and everything Happening in LA at the moment seems to be going against the original post so why keep this one on ??? A similar post about Houston was shutdown after 2 weeks........... And this thread has started to jump all over the place and became off topic.... so......yeah...

You can't deny that Texas is booming while LA is relatively stagnant given it's size and overall global influence/magnitude. The climate alone should make LA an absolute dominator over Texas, yet look what's (slowly) happening.

I love LA and want it to succeed and be a leader, but it is the whacked out policies that are driving business out of the region.

Nobody in SD feels overshadowed by LA btw. There's enough distance to realize that they're two totally separate metros.

[caligrad]

^^^ A friend of mine lives in SD. grew up there. He and others beg differ... and again going off topic which is the reason why this thread should be locked. whos talking about Texas in a thread completely about LA? takes a whole state to go against one city? AS I SAID, this thread is all over the place, LA is not as bad off as the article would have people think. The article was created by a couple of bitter old betties and "less fortunate" people of the city who feel the rest of the city is surpassing their district. In the article it states that a "citizen" panel" was created to see the issues of LA. Of course the citizens came out of one of the poorest and oldest districts of the county so of course they are doom and gloom. instead of people jumping on the opportunity to throw in their 2 cents, maybe they should take the time to read the reason why this thread was created in their first place and see how ridiculous the article sounds. Everything the article claims is happening, the total opposite is actually happening. So again. This thread should have been locked a long time ago.

And yes I agree their are some weird/awkward policies in the City of LA BUT the STATE Government has a whole lot more to do with the reason why LAs climate to do business in is kinda hard, is it changing ? yeah, takes a minute but yeah. I laugh when people think states should give out multi million dollar hand outs to companies like Toyota who already make billions and are the number one auto maker in the world, give me a break. Toyota asked California/LA to give them a couple of million, why should we have to when the make billions years over year? So as I said ! This thread should have been locked and shut down a long time ago.

[Altauria]

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog

The climate alone should make LA an absolute dominator over Texas, yet look what's (slowly) happening.

Jobs and cost of living is probably a huge factor. The salary that allows you to live like J.R. Ewing in Texas won't even get you a 2-Bed and a Pomeranian on the West Side.

[mello]

Caligrad my post about the X Games was in jest, I guess you didn't see my sarcasm. Regarding my posts when I am critical of LA I also include all of Southern California. I am not a homeristic booster for San Diego claiming it to be anything special. I have always said that if I could snap my fingers and swap the built environments of LA/SD with Sydney/Melbourne I would do so in a heartbeat but still keep the mountainous terrain (only thing Aussie cities are lacking).

I enjoy where I live but we need to face the facts and see that it really is not the land of opportunity for the masses that it once was and a tons of young people who are not in Tech/Biotech/or highly skilled medical fields find it very hard to get by here. I can't speak for Texas cities and how easy it is to just move there and get a decent job and live with some expendable income so I won't compare it to LA or SD in this thread.

And my question about downtown LA being inland and hot was valid especially after we experienced three heat waves in April thru early May (yes I know it was still very hot at the coast for the final heat wave). Some people prefer to not live 14 miles inland and would prefer the coastal weather/views.

[Just-In-Cali]

The only reason Texas is competitive is because it allows business to remove health benefits from their employees, have no regulations at all, and give businesses tax breaks at the expense of the citizens. Plus its just a stank place to live. Unless you are White, Christian, Conservative, Decidedly ignorant, and value sameness, its a NOT great place to live. many businesses say that if they got a slightly easier start up process (which Garcetti is working on) they would love to be here.
As for San Diego, its cute in some areas, but my saying that all my friends down there hate is simply "San Diego is LA's largest suburb."
The only thing my relatives from Europe ever ask me about regarding SD is the Zoo and Sea World. That's it. Its pretty, and has some nice areas (i'm there a lot). But cant be even considered in the same breath as Los Angeles or even San Francisco.

[fflint]

Terrible post.

No intelligent and rational person considers San Diego to be a suburb of Los Angeles, nor would his mind be populated with a bunch of straw-man Texans.

Folks, this thread won't survive such childish, ignorant homerism. Let's try and keep things legit.

Originally Posted by Just-In-Cali

The only reason Texas is competitive is because it allows business to remove health benefits from their employees, have no regulations at all, and give businesses tax breaks at the expense of the citizens. Plus its just a stank place to live. Unless you are White, Christian, Conservative, Decidedly ignorant, and value sameness, its a NOT great place to live. many businesses say that if they got a slightly easier start up process (which Garcetti is working on) they would love to be here.
As for San Diego, its cute in some areas, but my saying that all my friends down there hate is simply "San Diego is LA's largest suburb."
The only thing my relatives from Europe ever ask me about regarding SD is the Zoo and Sea World. That's it. Its pretty, and has some nice areas (i'm there a lot). But cant be even considered in the same breath as Los Angeles or even San Francisco.

[ue]

Well duh, Los Angeles has like 13x the population of San Diego. Not exactly a fair comparison there...

[Just-In-Cali]

Originally Posted by fflint

Terrible post.

No intelligent and rational person considers San Diego to be a suburb of Los Angeles, nor would his mind be populated with a bunch of straw-man Texans.

Folks, this thread won't survive such childish, ignorant homerism. Let's try and keep things legit.

Angriest person on the thread. Hope you release that and become open to thoughts other than yours.

[atlantaguy]

Originally Posted by Just-In-Cali

Angriest person on the thread. Hope you release that and become open to thoughts other than yours.

If you are actually serious, you have no clue of what you are talking about.

San Diego is its own dynamic stand-alone metro, in no way a satellite of L.A.

[edluva]

Originally Posted by fflint

Terrible post.

No intelligent and rational person considers San Diego to be a suburb of Los Angeles, nor would his mind be populated with a bunch of straw-man Texans.

Folks, this thread won't survive such childish, ignorant homerism. Let's try and keep things legit.

^exactly why the case can be made that LA is in decline. It's populated and run by emotional and ignorant people like JIC rather than intelligent and cosmopolitan people who make it a better place for simply living there.

In my three decades-plus of life in LA, I've witnessed an economic decline run in tandem with a decline in the share of educated and informed citizens. The replacement being people like JIC. LA homerists who view their hometown like an unintelligent and boorish Dodger fan views his team. Same end result - in the end, noone respects JIC. I'm not a fan of Texas, but LA is in no place to have a holier-than-thou attitude when its economy is stagnant and there is little space for an educated class to flourish

[Altauria]

Originally Posted by edluva

I'm not a fan of Texas, but LA is in no place to have a holier-than-thou attitude when its economy is stagnant and there is little space for an educated class to flourish

I've been curious about this for a long time. It's bothersome that while LA has no shortage of brilliance (JPL, CalTech, USC/UCLA), it seems to be without your usual Intellectual Class. New York has it, Chicago has it, Boston CERTAINLY has it. OR I'm just full of sh$t and don't notice it, because it's so damned auto-centric!
LA's almost overbearingly populistic, but ironically, without care for the masses that should go along with it. It's either nouveau riche or working class. I'm avoiding the blue collar terminology, as I believe there's a certain amount of virtuousness in that. LA seems to be a pejorative of both, most of the time.

And San Diego is definitely not a suburb of LA. You'd have an easier case calling Detroit a suburb of Chicago!

[RaymondChandlerLives]

Originally Posted by edluva

^exactly why the case can be made that LA is in decline. It's populated and run by emotional and ignorant people like JIC rather than intelligent and cosmopolitan people who make it a better place for simply living there.

In my three decades-plus of life in LA, I've witnessed an economic decline run in tandem with a decline in the share of educated and informed citizens. The replacement being people like JIC. LA homerists who view their hometown like an unintelligent and boorish Dodger fan views his team. Same end result - in the end, noone respects JIC. I'm not a fan of Texas, but LA is in no place to have a holier-than-thou attitude when its economy is stagnant and there is little space for an educated class to flourish

Los Angeles County has added over 75,000 nonfarm jobs in the last three months. Most states, even large ones like Florida, would be quite content with those types of numbers.

The LA economy is hardly stagnant at this point.

[599GTO]

Originally Posted by Altauria

I've been curious about this for a long time. It's bothersome that while LA has no shortage of brilliance (JPL, CalTech, USC/UCLA), it seems to be without your usual Intellectual Class. New York has it, Chicago has it, Boston CERTAINLY has it. OR I'm just full of sh$t and don't notice it, because it's so damned auto-centric!
LA's almost overbearingly populistic, but ironically, without care for the masses that should go along with it. It's either nouveau riche or working class. I'm avoiding the blue collar terminology, as I believe there's a certain amount of virtuousness in that. LA seems to be a pejorative of both, most of the time.

And San Diego is definitely not a suburb of LA. You'd have an easier case calling Detroit a suburb of Chicago!

You might find this article interesting.

http://pando.com/2013/07/04/inside-l...ent-conundrum/


Top Schools, Top 3 Alumni Concentrations

Harvard
1 Boston
2 New York
3 San Francisco

Yale
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Boston

Princeton
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Washington DC

Brown
1 New York
2 Boston
3 Providence

Columbia
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Washington DC

Stanford
1 San Francisco
2 New York
3 Los Angeles

Penn
1 Philadelphia
2 New York
3 Washington DC

Dartmouth
1 Boston
2 New York
3 Washington DC

Cornell
1 New York
2 Ithaca
3 San Francisco

[atlantaguy]

Originally Posted by 599GTO

You might find this article interesting.

http://pando.com/2013/07/04/inside-l...ent-conundrum/


Top Schools, Top 3 Alumni Concentrations

Harvard
1 Boston
2 New York
3 San Francisco

Yale
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Boston

Princeton
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Washington DC

Brown
1 New York
2 Boston
3 Providence

Columbia
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Washington DC

Stanford
1 San Francisco
2 New York
3 Los Angeles

Penn
1 Philadelphia
2 New York
3 Washington DC

Dartmouth
1 Boston
2 New York
3 Washington DC

Cornell
1 New York
2 Ithaca
3 San Francisco

And yet another reason to prefer L.A. over New York. Much less chance of having to interact with self-important, pompous asses.

[599GTO]

One reason I fly over a certain city when traveling between places that matter.

[fflint]

Originally Posted by 599GTO

You might find this article interesting.

http://pando.com/2013/07/04/inside-l...ent-conundrum/

Top Schools, Top 3 Alumni Concentrations

Well, okay, you're getting at prestige here. All but one of the prestigious schools you decided to post here are on the East Coast, and that does indeed get at a problem your source notes--that while LA is doing better at retaining its local elite college alumni, it is not pulling in elite alumni from other American regions the way some believe it probably should.

That said, there is no denying the role regionalism plays when it comes to good schools and where students and alumni want to move--which schools are more prestigious in any given locale, and where alumni choose to relocate. This regionalism is especially acute when we're talking about a metro some 2,700 miles from the nearest Ivy League campus. Outside the top handful of national universities--your Harvards and Stanfords--the best local school is likely more prestigious than the lower rung of Ivies in any given metro. And outside the top handful of cities--your New Yorks and San Franciscos--elite college grads are unlikely to pick up and move 3,000 miles to start their careers when they can do so relatively close-by. This explains why Los Angeles ranks among the top 3 in alumni concentrations for Stanford, Berkeley, and Caltech. Meanwhile, one can also infer LA has the top concentration of alumni from UCLA, USC, and the Claremont Colleges.

I will agree with the sentiment that in LA, students and alumni from good universities are living on an exceedingly small island surrounded by a very off-putting ocean of indifference. One of my professors at UCLA insisted we all return occasionally after graduation in order to "plug in and recharge" before heading back out into what she considered a desert. Smug and elitist? Yes, but it's also kind of true. The Southland is unplugged from and indifferent at best to its own academic powerhouses in a way I've never experienced living in other cities. Changing that could go a long way to attracting students from other parts of the country.

[Quixote]

L.A. entertainment jobs grow 5.3% in April

By Richard Verrier
May 19, 2014

In a surprising plot twist, Hollywood's overall jobs picture continues to improve despite the long-term effects of production flight and studio cost cutting.

Employment in Los Angeles County's motion picture and sound recording sector grew to 126,400 jobs in April, up 6,400 jobs from the same month last year, a 5.3% increase, according to figures from that state Employment Development Department.

The category covers most, but not all, jobs in the local film, TV sector and music industries. Independent contractors, for example, are not counted in the tally.

The figures marked the fourth month this year that job growth in the L.A. County entertainment sector has increased from a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

The growth in entertainment jobs was noteworthy because the category outpaced all private sector (non-farm) job growth in L.A. County, which rose 2.2% last month.

The increase also came in a month when overall national employment in the entertainment sector declined, as it has done in the last year. Employment in the U.S. motion picture and sound recording category was 307,700 in April, down 50,300 jobs or 14% from a year earlier, when employment stood at 358,000 jobs, according to the LAEDC.

The nationwide decline probably reflects the fact that studios have been releasing fewer movies and filming more big-budget productions outside the country, notably in Britain and Canada. The upcoming "Star Wars" movie is filming in London, while Vancouver, Canada, hosted the current hit film "Godzilla."

Southern California also has been squeezed by the effects of runaway production and a spate of layoffs by major studios.

In March, Sony Pictures Entertainment began laying off more than 200 workers at its Culver City headquarters and at international offices. Disney Interactive, the struggling video game and digital media subsidiary of Walt Disney Co., also announced that it was cutting roughly 700 jobs worldwide.

Nonetheless, some of the job losses have been offset by increases in lower-wage reality-TV shows and new-media jobs as companies such as Yahoo and YouTube invest in entertainment. California's film incentive enacted in 2009 also has lured more lower-budget feature films to L.A. County.

"We're seeing other kinds of motion picture and sound recording taking place locally with Google, YouTube and other online activities that may be fueling the increase in production activity and the number of jobs," said Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist for LAEDC.

Poor weather in the Northeast also may have been a factor in spurring more local production this year, Kleinhenz said. An improved overall economy could also be factor, he added.

"The overall economy and particularly the consumer sector is more fully on the mend than it was this time last year," Kleinhenz said. "People have more money to spend on all sort of things, including entertainment activities."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...519-story.html

[ocman]

Originally Posted by 599GTO

You might find this article interesting.

http://pando.com/2013/07/04/inside-l...ent-conundrum/


Top Schools, Top 3 Alumni Concentrations

Harvard
1 Boston
2 New York
3 San Francisco

Yale
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Boston

Princeton
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Washington DC

Brown
1 New York
2 Boston
3 Providence

Columbia
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Washington DC

Stanford
1 San Francisco
2 New York
3 Los Angeles

Penn
1 Philadelphia
2 New York
3 Washington DC

Dartmouth
1 Boston
2 New York
3 Washington DC

Cornell
1 New York
2 Ithaca
3 San Francisco

The author makes his point because he excludes a lot of prestigious universities. UCLA, Berkeley, Caltech?

[ocman]

Originally Posted by 599GTO

You might find this article interesting.

http://pando.com/2013/07/04/inside-l...ent-conundrum/


Top Schools, Top 3 Alumni Concentrations

Harvard
1 Boston
2 New York
3 San Francisco

Yale
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Boston

Princeton
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Washington DC

Brown
1 New York
2 Boston
3 Providence

Columbia
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Washington DC

Stanford
1 San Francisco
2 New York
3 Los Angeles

Penn
1 Philadelphia
2 New York
3 Washington DC

Dartmouth
1 Boston
2 New York
3 Washington DC

Cornell
1 New York
2 Ithaca
3 San Francisco

The author makes his point because he excludes a lot of prestigious universities. UCLA, Berkeley, Caltech?

[ocman]

Originally Posted by Just-In-Cali

The only thing my relatives from Europe ever ask me about regarding SD is the Zoo and Sea World. That's it. Its pretty, and has some nice areas (i'm there a lot). But cant be even considered in the same breath as Los Angeles or even San Francisco.

Not culturally, but it it has a successful economy independent of LA. San Diego has a strong biotech industry that LA could only dream of having.