How can L.A. prosper? We counted 25 ways.

As the new year begins, there's renewed excitement in Los Angeles.

Part of it relates to a pick-up in the economy, of course, but there's more to it than that. A spirit of cooperation - of looking to get things done - is taking hold in our city.

But how do you bring economic growth

Over the past two months, the Business Journal has been putting those questions to business leaders, government officials and policy analysts. Their responses are the basis for what follows - the 25 ways to make Los Angeles grow.

Admittedly, it's a subjective compilation. There undoubtedly are other legitimate growth ideas, but the 25 selected represent social, political and economic issues that are on the minds of many Angelenos.

- Mark Lacter, editor

1 Work on L.A. image

If you've never been to a city, chances are that your knowledge of it will be limited to what you read about it in the newspapers or see on the nightly news.

Consider the big stories coming out of Los Angeles in the 1990s:

* Rodney King is beaten by L.A. police officers, leading to rioting in the streets a year later when a jury acquits his attackers;

* A devastating earthquake kills scores and becomes the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history;

* Fires rage through the Malibu hills, followed by a winter of flooding and mud-slides.

* Cutbacks in aerospace and defense force thousands to flee the county to find work, depressing housing prices and the local economy.

L.A., clearly, is suffering from an image problem - and sooner or later, that results in lost growth opportunities.

"Running a region is like running a business - if you want to increase sales (i.e. attract new business and retain existing ones), you need to market and advertise," writes Lloyd Greif, president and CEO of downtown L.A.-based investment bank Greif & Co., in his submission to the Business Journal.

The New Los Angeles Marketing Partnership, a joint venture of the public and private sectors, was formed to do just that. But though NewLAMP recently began running innovative ads in national business publications promoting L.A., its budget is limited.

Business leaders have a variety of other solutions.

Michael Levine of Beverly Hills-based Levine Communications Office Inc. suggests forming a blue-ribbon panel of communications executives to brainstorm ways to reshape L.A.'s image.

Eli Broad, chairman and CEO of Century City-based SunAmerica Inc., thinks the city should develop a "culture pass" that allows holders to visit all of the city's major museums for a set fee.

Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Economic Development Corp. of L.A. County, thinks L.A. should hold a "design week" where organizations that design apparel, autos, furniture and toys could stage shows, while colleges could present student exhibits.

For all the innovative ideas, there are obstacles.

For one thing, many other regions of the country are also aggressively promoting themselves. Also, changing perceptions doesn't happen overnight; advertising experts will tell you that it can take years and millions of dollars - to undue a tarnished image.

And some contend that the problem is not so much marketing, but a negative influence by the L.A. media.

"Of course, the media have a critical role in pointing out the negatives, but in Los Angeles pessimism, gloominess and negativity are all too often equated with realism and intelligence," writes Joel Kotkin, an economist with the Pepperdine Institute for Public Policy.

Whatever the causes, L.A.'s image is in terrible shape and could use a facelift - fast.

- Dan Turner

2 Act on charter reform

The Los Angeles city charter is 71 years old, contains more than 700 pages, and has been subjected to some 400 amendments over the years.

So it's little wonder that political and business leaders are calling the charter outdated and sometimes even duplicitous.

And nobody is calling out for charter reform louder than Mayor Richard Riordan.

He has spent $400,000 of his own money to help pay for getting a charter reform measure on the April 8 ballot. That measure, which late last month successfully qualified for the ballot, would create an elected government-reform panel to draft charter revisions.

The actual reforms have not been determined. But the mayor and others supporting the drive have complained that the city's strong-council, weak-mayor system hinders efforts to make government more efficient.

Riordan believes the reform would help streamline government, allowing the mayor to push through legislation and purge City Hall of programs that don't work.

For commerce, it means a quicker response from the mayor's office on business-related issues, especially taxes. That process now goes through political wrangling on the City Council chamber floor.

"The mayor of a large, complex city must be able to implement strategies that expand the local economy, improve the social welfare of residents and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of local government," writes Eli Broad, chairman and CEO of SunAmerica Inc.

"Los Angeles' local government has evolved into a bureaucracy whose size and complexity often undermines its ability to act quickly and decisively in the face of economic competition, and to serve its diverse constituency of more than 9 million people effectively," he added.

But, Riordan's proposals might be thwarted by the City Council, several members of which have publicly described the measure as a political power grab by the mayor.

Though all council members agree the charter needs an overhaul of some sort, there remains vast differences of opinion on how to accomplish that.

Riordan and his supporters see the answer in an elected 15-member commission that would have the power to submit specific proposals directly to the voters. Each commissioner would be elected by voters from his or her council district.

But some Council members feel the charter reform should be engineered by a 21-member, council-appointed commission.

If voters approve the Riordan-backed initiative and elect a charter reform commission, there could be two reform boards doing the same job. And nobody seems quite sure which board would have the final say.

The council originally filed a lawsuit asserting that the Riordan-backed ballot measure is illegal because it calls for district-by-district elections, rather than a citywide at-large election. Riordan won that challenge, but faces an appeal by Councilman Nate Holden and others opposed to the measure.

Barring a successful appeal, the first step in any reforms would be placed in the hands of voters in April.

- Joe Bel Bruno

3 Get more cops on the streets

In the political aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, Richard Riordan kicked off his 1993 bid for mayor with one unifying campaign promise: Increase the number of cops on the street to 10,000.

The pledge was designed to do more than simply win support from voters upset by the previous year's riots. It was also meant to reassure L.A. business owners, many of whom threatened to move their operations out of town due to safety concerns.

As his first four-year term nears an end, Riordan appears to have come close to his promise.

The Los Angeles Police Department now boasts a record 9,000 officers who take to the streets each week. And Riordan pledges to add the other 1,000 before his term ends this spring.

Crime in the city of L.A. was down in 1996. Patrol officer recruitment was strong, new crime-fighting equipment was purchased, a new academy was opened, and community-based policing drew high marks.

And the department has seen significant funding increases each year of Riordan's term. This year's LAPD budget is $1.1 billion, which is 3.9 percent higher than the previous year.

The 1995-96 budget saw a 5.9 percent increase; and Riordan came into office with a 1994-95 budget that upped spending by 7.4 percent from former Mayor Tom Bradley's final year in office.

The progress looks good on paper. But, those who monitor the police department say the city still has a ways to go.

The political fallout from the 1992 riots between former L.A. Police Chief Darryl Gates and the mayor-appointed Police Commission continues, even with a different mayor and Police Chief Willie Williams at the helm.

Furthermore, budget constraints could limit police department expansion unless the city can identify new sources of revenue or savings from other departments.

Despite the new-equipment purchases of recent years, equipment shortages still force officers to hand off radios and other items at shift changes.

Business leaders say the city has gotten safer, but that it remains haunted by concerns that have persisted since the riots.

The police buildup must produce more than merely a larger head count. As the debate over how fast to expand the LAPD continues at City Hall, the more-relevant issue might be the total cost - including hiring, training, equipping and providing locker rooms, desks and squad cars for more cops.

Discovering potential sources of funding is the focus of an ad hoc committee jointly created by Riordan and Council President John Ferraro. The committee was created after the council slowed down the LAPD expansion from the mayor's proposed 710 new officers annually to 450.

In the short-term, City Hall has been getting creative about financing expansion. Funding from Proposition M financed the purchase of about 7,000 new police car two-way radios. A bond measure paid for renovating some existing police stations and building new ones.

In the final analysis, City Hall's biggest challenge will be balancing an ambitious expansion of officers while still keeping them armed with essential equipment to do the job right.

If this isn't accomplished - especially with Riordan up for another term - business owners might continue thinking about relocation.

- Joe Bel Bruno

4 Develop plans to expand LAX

Anyone who has traveled recently realizes it's crunch time at Los Angeles International Airport. The question is what to do about it.

LAX is the world's third-busiest airport - and it's only going to get busier.

According to forecasts by the L.A. Department of Airports, the volume of passenger traffic through LAX is expected to almost double over the next two decades, while air cargo is expected to jump a whopping 140 percent.

LAX facilities are already operating at or near capacity. And at projected growth rates, LAX will require at least another 29 passenger gates and 82 additional acres of cargo-handling area by the year 2000.

The consequences of failing to expand the overburdened LAX will be more than just parking nightmares and long waits at gates.

The Department of Airports estimates that LAX accounts for $43 billion in economic activity and supports nearly 400,000 jobs in the five-county Southern California area. If the airport can be expanded to meet the projected demand of the year 2015, an additional 370,000 regional jobs could be created, as well as $37 billion in new economic activity.

The Department of Airports recently unveiled a long-awaited master plan, which is designed to guide growth at LAX over the next 20 years. The plan actually puts forth four different conceptual design options for what the LAX of the future might look like. Each of those options includes at least one additional runway and new cargo facilities.

Now, the Department of Airports is in the midst of guiding that plan through the tortuous public approval process - which isn't going to be easy.

The proposed expansion already is facing stiff opposition from airport-adjacent neighborhood groups concerned about increased street traffic and noise, and from environmentalists opposed to new development.

Such opposition could make the expansion a tough sell in the City Council. Any expansion would need to be approved by the council, as well as by the mayor of Los Angeles and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Meanwhile, the airlines have expressed concern about the expansion's estimated $8 billion-to-$12 billion price tag. They would be called upon to pay for most of that tab through airport lease payments and landing fees.

Overcoming such opposition is crucial to the expansion's success. According to trade experts, if LAX is not expanded, it risks losing precious market share to international airports in Seattle, San Francisco and Denver - all of which have launched aggressive bids for lucrative Pacific Rim business.

- Larry Kanter

5 Create a more flexible tax structure

It's companies like Breath Asure Inc. that business leaders are referring to when they talk about the need to lower taxes.

Breath Asure, one of the five fastest growing private companies in the San Fernando Valley, left the City of Los Angeles three years after forming and relocated to Calabasas to lower its business taxes.

"When I asked myself, how can we improve our bottom line, and still remain viable, and still remain a part of the local economy, this was the biggest savings for us," said Lauren Raissen, the company's president and chief financial officer.

When a company like Breath Asure leaves L.A. to relocate in a neighboring city, it means not only lower tax revenues for the city, but also a loss of jobs, which has led some business leaders to call for a lowering of business taxes, surcharges, license fees and user fees in the city.

"Los Angeles needs to take a careful look at, and perhaps revise, its business tax structure so as to encourage businesses to remain in the city," said Ross K. Goldberg, senior vice president of communications and marketing for CareAmerica Health Plans.

"Absent of that, there is the very real concern that some currently established businesses - and in turn jobs and income may be driven out of Los Angeles and instead move towards those cities, adjacent or otherwise, which offer superior tax incentives," he said.

Goldberg said that CareAmerica and other health care organizations in Warner Center could easily make the move to Calabasas, Agoura Hills or Westlake Village in order to avoid the expensive - and what some perceive as unfair - business tax structure in L.A.

One example is L.A.'s electricity tax, which at 12.5 percent is the highest of any Southern California city. Even in San Bernardino and Covina, also among the most expensive cities for utility taxes, the electricity tax does not reach above 8.5 percent.

But identifying the problem of high taxes is easier than finding a solution in a city facing a budget deficit.

The Los Angeles City Council is now looking at revising the business tax structure to make it more equitable among different industries in L.A. Some health maintenance organizations and insurance companies, for example, say they get treated unfairly.

But while such changes may improve the fairness of the tax structure, it probably won't do much to actually lower taxes overall.

And if the city of L.A. is serious about lowering its taxes to businesses in order to keep them in the city, it will have to look at streamlining its own operation, said Larry Kosmont of Kosmont & Associates Inc., a Sherman Oaks-based consulting firm.

"One way or the other, the city has to find a way to stop being the most expensive city," he said. "Otherwise, they will never be able to support themselves because businesses, in some cases, are likely to move elsewhere."

- Daniel Taub

6 Promote 'Made in L.A. 'products and services

With one of the nation's largest industrial bases, the Los Angeles region as a whole prospers when local factories increase production.

More than 630,000 Angelenos work on production lines, and many more in collateral activities, such as trucking, warehousing, administration and advertising.

That's a huge portion of the nearly 4 million employed in the county.

With more than 9 million residents, and more than 212,000 businesses by official count, Los Angeles County is one of the largest metropolitan markets anywhere.

A "buy local" campaign could make sense as a regional economy builder - especially as L.A.'s industrial base is so large that a broad selection of goods is manufactured here.

One hurdle in any regional buying campaign is that products, generally speaking, are not identified by their city of manufacture.

At the downtown Los Angeles-based California Fashion Association, a move is afoot to label or otherwise identify clothes as "Made in California."

As the bulk of the state apparel industry is in or near downtown Los Angeles, the label is nearly tantamount to "Made in L.A."

"We are on a tear to promote the 'Made in California' branding. We are promoting the use of hang tags on garments that say, 'Made in California,'" said Lisa Metchek, executive director of the CFA.

The second avenue to promote local manufacturing is underway at the Small Manufacturers Association of California, based in Sacramento and Glendale, and chaired by David Goodreau.

One of Goodreau's goals is to position SMAC members before large corporate buyers, such as Atlantic Richfield Co. and Walt Disney Co., as potential subcontractors and vendors.

"We recently held a meeting, attended by Gov. (Pete) Wilson, major aerospace manufacturers, Bob Paulson (chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Aerospace Industries Association) and 500 California manufacturers. I exhorted members to avail themselves of the aerospace representatives," said Goodreau.

Through networking, the Internet (SMAC has a Web site) and literature, Goodreau hopes to get big buyers in town to buy local.

But large buyers have no sentiment to buy locally unless the price is competitive, noted Goodreau.

Other organizations, such as hotels that are re-furbishing their quarters, or grocers seeking canned goods, could also source regionally, said Goodreau.

- Benjamin Martk Cole

7 Harness entertainment and technology

Three major metropolitan areas around the country, including L.A. County, are battling to become the national hub of the multimedia industry.

So far, Los Angeles appears to be losing.

As of July 1995, the five-county Southern California region had 4,222 multimedia companies - defined as firms making products that integrate telecommunications, computers and/or entertainment elements.

Those firms together employed 159,571 people, according to a study by the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting technological growth. By now, those numbers are believed to be considerably higher.

Despite the rapid emergence of an industry that barely existed here only four years ago, many observers say L.A. is lagging behind both New York and the Silicon Valley. The reasons are many, but the finger of blame is pointed most often at local government.

Probably the most frequently cited barrier toward L.A.'s growth as a multimedia capital is the lack of high-capacity, fiber-optic telephone lines. Such lines are critical to companies doing business in the Internet arena - and even to many producers of CD-ROM software, who are increasingly making products that are Internet-connectable.

The City of Los Angeles lacks the telecommunications infrastructure of the Silicon Valley. And telephone companies have been slow to upgrade, both because of the prohibitive costs and a complex and troublesome city and county approval process for laying fiber-optic cable.

"It is worse than anything I have ever seen in my life, and I say that as someone who has gone through permit processes in major cities throughout the U.S. and Europe," said Jon P. Goodman, executive director of the EC2 multimedia incubator project at USC.

Solutions, according to Goodman, start with streamlining the approval process at L.A. city and county governments. She also suggests that utilities form an industry consortium to hash out the best ways to wire L.A.'s major business areas with fiber optics.

To date, phone companies have been reluctant to upgrade L.A.'s telecommunications infrastructure, apparently because it isn't yet clear whether L.A.'s emerging multimedia companies will be successful enough to cover the cost of such an upgrade.

Another obstacle to L.A. attaining multimedia pre-eminence is the region's lack of a workforce trained in computer technologies. That might be overcome with more multimedia programs at local colleges and junior colleges.

Potentially, Los Angeles could create thriving new-media centers similar to the so-called Multimedia Gulch in San Francisco's South of Market area - a once-decaying district given new life by a growing industry.

- Dan Turner

8 Resolve the subway issue

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is spending $4.3 billion for a 17.4-mile subway linking downtown with North Hollywood that would serve an estimated 107,000 riders daily by the turn of the century.

With more than 1 million people riding the buses each day - and with the subway dogged by continued construction problems - some L.A. transit officials are wondering if they should rethink the city's transit strategy.

"The MTA is finally realizing that a subway is too expensive, and simply wrong on a number of levels," said James Moore, a professor of urban planning at the University of Southern California, who co-authored a report on the MTA issued by the Reason Foundation.

"Why spend huge amounts of money on a subway when there are cheaper alternatives that better suit transit needs for the county?" he asked.

Mayor Richard Riordan and other MTA officials are also questioning the amount of resources committed to heavy rail. With L.A.'s notorious sprawl, some believe the MTA might get more bang for the buck by concentrating on cheaper systems such as light rail and buses.

Dedicated busways, for example, would give motorists an incentive for leaving their cars by allowing them to bypass congested traffic lanes.

And they can be built for a fraction of the cost of subways, which now run an estimated $300 million a mile.

But for any change in strategy to happen, many believe the first step is a reorganization of the 15-member MTA board.

All eyes will be on the agency during the next few months as it attempts to find a new leader to replace Chief Executive Officer Joseph Drew, who resigned last December out of frustration with the board.

In the short-term, the MTA can improve dramatically if it finds a strong leader with the authority to act on tough decisions. Some say a "transit czar" is the only way to put the board in its place, develop a long-term plan, and put the battered agency in a better light.

Much is riding on the outcome. Federal transportation officials remain skeptical of the MTA, and have put the agency on notice that federal funds for subway construction could be seized - retroactively - if the MTA does not complete construction to North Hollywood, East Los Angeles, Mid-City, and a light-rail line to Pasadena.

One thing is certain: The MTA must develop a sound plan for completing the subway lines now under construction, and must then develop a longer term plan for mass transit that can help the hundreds of thousands who won't be able to ride the subway.

- Joe Bel Bruno

9 Do something about traffic

If there's one thing Angelenos can agree on, it's that traffic is terrible.

And as the economy continues its recovery and more people join the workforce, the problem is expected to get worse.

The Southern California Association of Governments estimates that traffic congestion cost the five-county Southern California region $15.6 billion in 1994, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

The estimate is based on a variety of factors, including health effects from pollution, excess fuel consumption (cars stuck in traffic waste fuel and create more smog) and lost productivity.

The SCAG report found that Southern Californians waste more than 1.7 million hours in traffic a day. And the association projects that the costs of that congestion could soar to as much as $35 billion by 2020.

Those harrowing numbers haven't escaped the attention of the folks responsible for the county's roads and freeways, who insist that help is on the way.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has been quietly implementing a state-of-the-art computer system to manage L.A.'s street traffic. About half of the city's 4,200 traffic signals are currently connected to a central traffic management center, which monitors street conditions second-by-second and adjusts traffic signals accordingly.

The system has reduced street traffic by 12 percent and intersection delays by about 30 percent, said Tom Conner, the department's assistant general manager. It also has reduced toxic emissions and fuel consumption.

Meanwhile, the city is collaborating with Caltrans on a number of freeway management projects - the most visible of which is the recently opened Santa Monica Freeway "smart corridor."

Overhead signs alert motorists to accidents and other tie-ups ahead and electronic signs installed on streets paralleling the corridor direct drivers onto alternate routes.

A more advanced version of the system is scheduled to be launched this year along the San Diego (405) Freeway through Irvine. It will use new, computerized equipment and software that actually can "learn" from experience and make suggestions for handling different types of traffic situations.

Creative use of these new technologies can go a long way toward easing L.A.'s traffic burdens, transportation experts say.

But serious obstacles remain.

The planned Metro Rail subway will be of little help to most commuters, since it will serve such a small area. So the Metropolitan Transportation Authority must come up with ways to use express buses and bus lanes that provide more commuters with an alternative to driving their cars - namely, riding in a bus that would be able to whiz past cars stuck in traffic.

In the end, regional solutions are needed, notes Patrick Michell, principal transportation planner for SCAG. A commuter from distant Palmdale is as affected by congestion in downtown L.A. as someone driving in from Pasadena.

Similarly, the city of L.A. cannot address its traffic problems without working with smaller cities such as Burbank or West Hollywood.

"We need to work together," Michell said.

- Larry Kanter

10 Get an NFL team back to Los Angeles

Question: What do Green Bay, Wisc., Jacksonville, Fla. and even Buffalo, have that L.A. doesn't?

Answer: NFL football teams.

L.A. may be the movie capital of the world and America's front-row seat on the Pacific Rim, but as long as it remains without pro football, how can it flaunt its assets to the rest of the country? How can a city swagger when it has to stay home on Sundays?

"In America, the perception is that a city's prominence is tied to pro sports," said Danny Villanueva, chairman of Century City-based Bastion Capital Corp. and former Rams kicker who is lobbying the NFL for a chance to own a team here.

"For reasons even beyond economics, L.A. needs to have a team," Villanueva said.

Few would disagree. But the problem is finding a place to play.

With the departure of the Rams (first to Anaheim, then St. Louis) and the Raiders (back to Oakland), it became clear that L.A. needed a brand new stadium - one with all the modern bells and whistles - to keep an NFL team happy.

The NFL said as much itself when it told city officials in 1995 to forget about the Coliseum and start looking for a location for a new stadium.

Several proposals quickly emerged. Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley proposed building a football venue in the Dodger Stadium parking lot. Hollywood Park owner R.D. Hubbard offered to build a facility in Inglewood. And a group led by Transamerica Corp. came up with a plan for a stadium in the South Park area near the Convention Center.

But last summer L.A. City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas convinced the city's elected leadership to put those alternatives aside while the city pursues a last-ditch effort to convert the aging Memorial Coliseum into a modern-day stadium.

"Bringing in an NFL team would revitalize a significant portion of the city and there is no place that would cause (the arrival of a team) to be more significant than bringing the team to the Coliseum," argues Ridley-Thomas, who describes the Coliseum as "an historic venue that would serve the city of L.A. in a unique fashion."

While Ridley-Thomas has earned high marks for putting his considerable energies into bringing pro football back to Los Angeles, NFL officials have continued to voice skepticism about whether the Coliseum is a viable arena - and if there are any public-interest minded investors willing to finance a complete reconstruction of the facility.

Much hinges on the upcoming NFL meetings in March, when the city-county-state Coliseum Commission is expected to present in greater detail how it plans to get a team to play here and to pay for the reconstruction.

Can the Coliseum Commission lure a franchise and then rebuild the facility with minimal public investment?

It's a tall order, and if the commission falls short, there will be renewed calls for the mayor and City Council to give the green light to others with the resources and know-how to get a team back in town.

- Lisa Steen Proctor

11 Learn from LEARN

Education reform is foremost on the minds of L.A. business leaders these days.

Without a well-educated workforce, they say, L.A.-area businesses cannot hire the workers they need to compete, grow and prosper in the global economy of the 21st century.

And yet California schools are among the worst in the nation, with one out of five students not finishing high school and only one in six high school graduates going on to earn a four-year college degree.

Responsibility for improving education lies both within the local schools and within the business community.

In recent years, reforming the system has centered on giving teachers and local administrators more say in running the schools.

"We need to give control back to local schools. There has to be accountability," said Wally Fassler, a regional vice president at Chevron Products Co. in downtown L.A.

A number of L.A. schools have started becoming more autonomous in the last three years through the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now, better known as LEARN.

Nearly half of the L.A. Unified School District's 650 schools have joined the LEARN program since it was adopted in 1993, and a study last June indicated that the program is producing positive results in the form of higher test scores.

Under LEARN, parents, teachers and administrators share responsibility for setting a school's agenda and budget. The system allows for parents, teachers and school officials to determine whether funds should be set aside for art classes, for example, or if language and other classes should be tailored for the specific needs of a school.

The idea is that as schools become more autonomous, local school districts can devote their energies to the bigger picture by establishing standards that allow districts to measure the performance of individual schools.

Meanwhile, Fassler and other L.A.-area executives surveyed by the Business Journal say business needs to become more involved in the local educational system if L.A. is to remain competitive and growing.

"Business in general has to work with the education bureaucracy to let them know what our expectations are," he said.

In particular, small businesses - the backbone of L.A.'s new economy - could become more involved in the process so that students are made aware of the skills they need to be successful in the entrepreneurial sector.

- Douglas Young

12 Encourage vocational training

One of the biggest challenges for educators and businesses in years to come will be forging a work force that can adequately serve the county's new and evolving industries.

Gone are many of the aerospace engineers and corporate bankers of yesteryear; in their place are graphic designers, computer programmers and customs brokers who reflect L.A.'s growth industries - entertainment, high-tech and foreign trade.

Vocational schools and colleges can play a role in preparing today's work force for such jobs, though the private sector also has its work cut out for it.

There is a growing consensus that only involvement by both public and private sectors can prepare students for available jobs.

One recent project is being developed by the L.A. Community College District.

Last fall, the district inherited the assets of RLA, the community development organization formed in the aftermath of the L.A. riots in 1992. The college district will use RLA's economic and demographic data bases, with information on retail and manufacturing businesses in low-income neighborhoods, to help students learn what kinds of jobs are available in their communities and obtain appropriate training.

Within the private sector, meanwhile, the business community is being asked to become more involved in training students for jobs in the changing economy.

"It's up to the private sector to come together in a community environment and create institutions that work together for the benefit of everybody. That's what happened with RLA," said Morley Winograd, treasurer of the Institute for a New California, a think-tank dedicated to formulating public policy for the information age.

Several business leaders emphasized that companies need to get out into L.A. County's high schools and secondary schools to let students know what kinds of jobs are available and what kinds of training they require.

A wide range of possibilities exist for public-private partnerships, from mentoring programs where business people go into schools to talk about their employment needs, to programs where students go and work at real-life companies.

"Each company has a responsibility to provide their own training and employment opportunities within their sphere of influence, whether it be within their own company or within their specific industry," said Barbara Rodstein, chief executive of L.A.-based Harden Industries, which manufactures decorative brass bathroom fixtures and accessories.

- Douglas Young

13 Cut down on bureaucratic red tape

When it comes to L.A.'s regulatory climate, business leaders generally acknowledge that things are not as bad as they used to be.

After all, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has become more business friendly (to the chagrin of some environmental groups), and the city and county have streamlined the steps needed for location shooting of movies and TV shows.

But even with these and other improvements, the City of Los Angeles is still considered one of the worst places to do business in California.

"After interviewing literally hundreds of industrial and service-oriented businesses in our region, both large and small, we have found that the most oft-cited impediments to economic growth in this city are the myriad of government regulations and red tape imposed by those on Spring Street," said David W. Fleming, chairman of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley.

It takes longer to get permits approved, projects green-lighted and environmental impact reports authorized than in any other city in L.A. County.

"Just about every city processes quicker than Los Angeles," said Larry Kosmont of Kosmont & Associates Inc., a Sherman Oaks-based consulting firm. "A lot of it has to do with the size of the city and the number of businesses you have to deal with."

Kosmont said that approval of environmental impact reports takes six to 12 months in most cities, but up to three years in Los Angeles. Zoning changes for large projects take three to five months in most cities, but between five and 12 months in L.A., Kosmont said.

Ironically, further business expansion could make these delays even longer, with the city unable to handle additional permits and other approvals.

Kosmont did note that L.A.'s Business Team, operated out of Mayor Richard Riordan's office, has made a number of improvements, and in some large projects, has cut the processing time in half.

Even so, there is much regulatory reform left to do in order to keep businesses from either fleeing to a neighboring city or avoiding coming to Los Angeles in the first place.

Some business leaders, including Fleming, say that nothing short of citizen reform of the city charter will bring about necessary improvements. Others say that changes are coming slowly, but surely through the mayor's Business Team and other streamlining efforts.

One obvious solution: More one-stop permit-processing locations in L.A. Such operations in the San Fernando Valley - where businesses have long complained about the inconvenience of going downtown - are proving popular.

Even those locations could also be improved, since only about half of a business' permitting process can be done there. "With the other hall you still have to go from department to department to get it done," Kosmont said.

In the new year, the mayor and City Council will undoubtedly be pressed to better identify lengthy or even unnecessary regulatory hurdles - and act quickly to eliminate them, before the city loses any more businesses.

- Daniel Taub

14 Provide health care for the uninsured

Los Angeles County has some bragging rights when it comes to health care. It is home to some of the nation's largest managed care groups, to the largest private hospital west of the Mississippi, to the state's largest non-profit health care foundation and to not one but two well-regarded medical schools.

Despite those strengths, L.A. County faces a health care nightmare - caring for the nation's largest pool of uninsured residents.

That pool is comprised of nearly 3 million unemployed, working poor and illegal immigrants who, when ill, tend to either forego treatment or rely on costly emergency room services.

And the situation is deteriorating.

Gov. Pete Wilson has spearheaded health care budget cuts for illegal immigrants that some health care experts say could cause a public health crisis, ranging from more communicable disease outbreaks to an increase in births of developmentally damaged infants.

"The lack of access to health care affects everybody," warned Peter Lee, a director at the Center for Health Care Rights. Tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases and the costs of caring for Down's Syndrome children spread throughout a community, regardless of where those conditions originate.

Even less dramatic illnesses take a toll. Legal-but-uninsured workers who get influenza and miss a week or more of work take a toll on their employer's productivity. If they stay sick and lose their jobs, they become an added burden on the public health system safety net.

Short of implementing universal health insurance within county borders, any solution to L.A.'s dilemma must involve shifting substantial resources from treatment to prevention.

To that end, the county could take a cue from the managed care industry.

"We need to turn around our thinking so that the role of health care is to keep people well, healthy, active, and a functioning part of society, as opposed to solely caring for them when they're ill," said Ross Goldberg, senior vice president for marketing at CareAmerica Health Plans, a Woodland Hills-based managed care plan.

"The focus of managed care has always been on cost savings. But, in fact, cost savings are only the result of the larger good of keeping people healthy," he said.

To that end, downsizing L.A. County public hospitals and a corresponding beefing up of community clinics are underway. Drawing local grammar and high schools further into the process is also key to providing immunizations, childhood disease screening and health education.

"Schools can play a huge role in being a site to provide entrance into the health care system," Lee said.

And the county could encourage the uninsured adults to seek free preventive health care, such as immunizations and disease screenings, at local community clinics.

An October study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that, because the uninsured often feel they should pay for their care but can't afford to, they seek no treatment at all. That ultimately puts an even greater strain on the overall health care system.

"We need to take a more common sense approach to how we take care of people and realize that the traditional monolithic hospital is not always the answer," CareAmerica's Goldberg said.

- Ben Sullivan

15 Generate a more unified business voice

A vast array of organizations exists to represent virtually every imaginable segment of the Los Angeles business community.

There's the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, the Central City Association, the Greater Los Angeles African-American Chamber, the Westside Council of Chambers, the Asian Business Association - the list goes on.

But no unified voice exists to represent the common concerns of L.A.'s business community - nor to pool its scarce resources or develop its collective ideas. Some say that the lack of a coordinated business-development effort hinders regional growth.

"The combination of that many different groups creates the problem of competing for limited resources and competing for limited time from prominent business leaders," said Ray Remy, outgoing president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

Remy and others praise the ability of smaller business groups and chambers to deal with localized issues (some problems only involve four of five city blocks). But local leaders stress that these somewhat-effective, smaller groups lack the clout and resources that only a large organization can provide.

The issue of a unified voice is especially relevant in 1997, given that L.A.'s business community must address such critical issues as welfare reform, subway construction and the Living Wage proposal.

Several prominent local business leaders agree that L.A.'s scattered business community needs to be better organized - even if it means having many fewer business groups.

But those same leaders are also quick to point out that such a unifying effort would be hard to accomplish because it's destined to favor one organization or the other. Besides, certain geographic areas or business interests would ultimately feel slighted in any large, umbrella organization.

One example is the San Fernando Valley's recurring drive to separate itself from the rest of Los Angeles. Such an effort, however, is likely to draw opposition from other groups in other parts of Los Angeles, making a unified front difficult to establish.

- Daniel Taub

16 Create incentives for hiring the underemployed

Los Angeles County's economic recovery could be dealt a body blow by federal welfare reforms.

The county is expected to lose about $5 billion of welfare aid over the next six years. Without new jobs - and the resultant consumer spending to replace that loss - L.A.'s economy could be facing a new, inadvertent threat.

The reform requires California to wean welfare recipients off assistance and into paying jobs. By the year 2002, half the state's welfare recipients must be off the dole - or California will face sanctions from the federal government.

But, finding good paying jobs will be a daunting task for Los Angeles County's estimated 255,000 welfare recipients.

And today's growth industries - entertainment, international trade, computers, business services and tourism - aren't a good match for unskilled labor.

Economists and advocates for the poor agree on one thing: a solution to the welfare problem must include ways in which commerce can participate.

"We need to find incentives for businesses to hire the underemployed," said J. Melvin Muse, partner with the L.A.-based advertising agency of Muse Cordero Chen Inc.

"That might be done through tax incentives to the businesses that do hire someone off welfare. But, clearly companies are going to need a reason to hire someone that they might have previously considered a risk," he said.

How do you get businesses with an eye on expansion to hire someone off welfare? Job training in some form - whether it's funded on a private or public basis - appears to be the answer.

Two-thirds of the adult recipients of Aid to Families With Dependent Children can't pass a basic literacy test, and half do not have a high school diploma, according to a recent UC Berkeley study.

Under the new law, California was granted the ability to design its own welfare program using federal block grant money. The program has yet to be unveiled by the Wilson Administration.

Some state officials - such as Controller Kathleen Connell - believe that the state should commit more money for job training programs.

A taskforce on welfare reform that was formed by Connell recommended that local businesses team up with the state to form job training programs. The idea is that students would be hired by companies participating in the programs.

The down-side, according to the 25-member taskforce, is that the process won't happen overnight. It will take time to train welfare recipients - and in the meantime, government must find additional solutions.

What could help more immediately are steps to make it attractive to hire someone off welfare.

As part of the welfare reform bill, the federal government is offering companies a 50 percent tax credit for the first $10,000 of salary of someone hired off welfare. Meanwhile, state legislative analysts are considering a similar incentive.

Some believe the city and county must also weigh in by reducing the cost of business taxes for those with a program to hire people off welfare.

- Joe Bel Bruno

17 Attract more foreign investors and investments

All over the world, investors are eyeing the United States as the best bet for the next decade.

And when foreign money is invested here, it creates jobs, shores up property values and provides a mainline boost to the economy.

So how can Los Angeles ensure that it grabs its fair share of the foreign investment bounty?

For all its reported problems, L.A. still carries clout in most foreign circles. What may be lacking is that too many foreigners think of movies and airplanes when they think of Los Angeles, said Dick Israel, of the Beverly Hills-based Dick Israel & Partners investment banking shop.

"This is more than a company town," said Israel. "There is a tremendous food industry here, a wide variety of manufacturing and service companies. We need to let foreign investors know they can buy into other industries besides entertainment or aerospace by locating in Los Angeles."

One solution might be for L.A.-area officials and chambers to approach a large contingent of the foreign press in Los Angeles - and point out the many varieties of local enterprise.

Too, offshore investors need to be reminded that Los Angeles is an excellent entry point to the entire United States, said Israel.

Another way to increase foreign investment might be for more local companies to imitate the model of Hawthorne-based Solec International Inc., a rooftop solar water heater manufacturer.

Several years ago, Japanese investors bought an equity stake in Solec, and the company now exports the majority of its product to Japan.

For the most part, land, labor and general manufacturing costs are lower in Los Angeles than in Japan. Also, it is often cheaper to ship goods from Los Angeles to Tokyo - thanks to efficient ports and containerized cargo - than it is to ship goods inside Japan itself.

"I think there are other businesses that could do this. There are many (Japanese investors) here," said Aki Toyoshima, vice president at Solec.

Internal systemic reforms would also help entice more foreigners to set up shop in Los Angeles.

"Something to limit the litigation would be very beneficial, and completely reforming the state's workers' compensation system would help too," said Russ Belinsky, an investment banker with Chanin & Co. in West Los Angeles. "Those are the fears I see most."

In short, it means letting the world know of the tremendous variety of business activities taking place in Los Angeles, and limiting the risks of doing business here.

- Benjamin Mark Cole

18 Encourage more BIDs

Big city governments often have too many responsibilities and too few resources to effectively support local business districts. That reality prompted the California Legislature in 1994 to pass a new Business Improvement District law.

Under the statute, property and businesses owners are able to assess themselves an annual tax for the purpose of improving their local district.

Funds generated by a BID are typically used to pay for added security, maintenance, promotional activities and landscaping within the assessment district.

Since passage of the BID law two years ago, a handful of new BIDs have been formed in the City of Los Angeles and another 20-plus are in the process of being formed. Efforts to establish those still-developing districts got started last year, when the city approved $1 million in seed money for BID formation.

BIDs are an effective tool because they empower local businesses to address the specific needs of their individual areas, according to Larry Kosmont, president of Kosmont & Associates Inc., a Sherman Oaks consulting firm.

"BIDs allow the private sector to take charge of their future," added Kosmont, who has been hired by several groups to work on their BID-formation efforts.

Establishing a BID is hardly a quick and easy process; one of the biggest challenges is creating an organization that can bring business and property owners together to work for the betterment of the area.

Without an effective organization, discord can quickly grow among BID members, leading to a district's eventual disintegration, as happened with the Miracle on Broadway BID in downtown L.A.

Another challenge is patience.

It can be at least two years from the time business and property owners vote to form a BID until the time the city officially registers the district and BID managers receive their first operating budget.

And once the funds begin to flow, it can take another year or two before improvement efforts begin to show tangible results.

The City of L.A. is working on several ways to expedite the BID process, some of which could become effective this year. City officials are also looking for additional funds for BID seed money, since the initial money has been used up.

Such moves would make BIDs even more attractive to L.A. business and property owners, ultimately freeing the city government from responsibilities it no longer has the resources to adequately address.

- Douglas Young

19 Create incentives for volunteerism

Volunteerism isn't normally seen as a key to economic growth. But it can have a subtle effect on a community's vigor and effectiveness.

Rolling up one's sleeves is more than a feel-good exercise. It can be a way of providing tangible benefits.

For example, more than just a few people benefit from getting the homeless off the streets and into productive lives - it boosts productivity and helps decrease urban blight. Volunteering at disadvantaged schools is an investment in the future.

"Somehow, good things happen to people who help other people. I don't know why that is, it just seems to work out that way," said John Argue, with downtown L.A. law firm Argue, Pearson, Harbison & Myers.

The actual amount of volunteerism in L.A. can't be quantified, but based on interviews with local charities, it appears to be on the rise.

Many businesses in Los Angeles have come up with innovative and effective ways of boosting volunteerism among employees. One of the most common is to donate money to those causes that their employees support.

Perhaps even more effective is when all company employees are sent out to do work for a given charity on company time.

Art Pina, volunteer manager at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, said companies like AT&T, Rhino Records and Kaiser Permanente began sending their employees en masse to sort food for the Foodbank on volunteer days starting in 1995.

"What happens is, these employees will see what we do here, and then they'll start coming in on their own time," Pina said.

Another idea is for managers to lead by example, engaging in charitable activities themselves and encouraging employees to do the same.

Standing in the way of increased volunteerism is inconvenience - whether it's driving to another part of town or becoming tied up with business or family.

Then there's the sheer scope of the problems that volunteers often run up against: Poverty, racial tensions, a decaying educational system - they sometimes seem impossible to attack.

The local charities point out that ultimately, the decision on whether to volunteer must be made by the individual, no matter how many incentives businesses and government provide.

And to prod the individual to action, only one simple realization is required: That one person can, in fact, make a difference.

- Dan Turner

20 Stop bickering about the Alameda Corridor

Long Beach City Councilman Jeff Kellogg recently proposed a bold fundraising idea: Sell bumper stickers that say "Honk If You've Sued the Alameda Corridor."

Kellogg's proposal was in jest. But behind his jest lies a large kernel of truth. The Alameda Corridor - a proposed 20-mile, below-grade rail corridor designed to speed cargo from the ports of L.A. and Long Beach to the railyards and distribution centers near downtown L.A. - has been a magnet for lawsuits. And that litigation has slowed the project's progress to a crawl.

Many local political and business leaders consider the $1.8 billion project crucial to the economic health of the region.

The explosion in Pacific Rim trade volume through L.A. has brought with it an avalanche of transportation problems, including bottlenecks at the ports and often nightmarish traffic jams in the small, industrial cities along the corridor's route.

The Alameda Corridor is designed to solve those problems - and cement Southern California's position as the country's international trade mecca. But the project's construction has been stymied by a number of lawsuits filed by the cities of Vernon, Compton, Lynwood, Huntington Park and South Gate, which want more control over the project's purse strings.

All financial decisions over the corridor are being made by the two ports, which are unlikely to surrender that control voluntarily. But other options remain to resolve some of the conflicts.

"Create an Alameda Corridor 'enterprise zone,'" suggests Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Economic Development Corp. of L.A. County. Such a zone, he said, would provide large, high-quality sites for manufacturing and warehousing, generating new jobs and tax revenues for the cities along the corridor's route.

Lawrence L. Hummer, a partner at the law firm of Freeman, Freeman & Smiley LLP, has a similar proposal.

"Industrial development should be linked to the corridor," Hummer said. "There is a lot of land that is inadequately utilized along the route. The rail line might be used as a link to connect these industrial properties to the ports and the rest of the country."

In the meantime, Angelenos may actually see some substantial progress on the corridor in 1997. A long-standing lawsuit recently was resolved in the ports' favor, and the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, the agency responsible for building the project, is planning to begin construction in earnest this year.

The corridor cities, however, have appealed that ruling - evidence that the corridor's troubles are not yet over.

- Larry Kanter

21 Provide minorities more access to capital

Minorities comprise 64 percent of L.A. County's population, compared with just 24 percent nationally.

But despite L.A.'s variety of peoples (more than 170 ethnic groups), access to capital for buying homes and starting or expanding businesses remains concentrated in the hands of white, middle- and upper-class Angelenos.

Less than 30 percent of such lending in L.A. goes to non-whites, according to Operation Hope, a non-profit organization which helps minority businesses gain access to funding.

Bankers' lending habits have not kept pace with the dramatic demographic shifts going on in Los Angeles, said Operation Hope CEO John Bryant.

"Access to capital remains our No. 1 priority," agreed Frank Moran, president of the Latin Business Association.

Lender guidelines created by banks as far back as the 1950s remain largely unchanged today, Bryant said, including outdated criteria in categories such as length of employment, education, family background and so-called "pride of ownership" in existing property.

Bankers must revamp their in-house loan-qualifying criteria, written originally for white, middle-class businesses, to better reflect the demographics of today's entrepreneur.

Ironically, property damage sustained in the Los Angeles riots in 1992 did much to draw attention to the need for more lending in inner-city neighborhoods. And some financial institutions have made impressive strides, notably American Savings Bank, which from the late 1980s to 1994 went from one of the worst in California to first in the percentage of total mortgage loan dollars going to minorities.

Still, bank executives acknowledge that there is room for improvement.

"It's time to recognize that the so-called 'troubled neighborhoods' of Los Angeles are in fact emerging markets, working-class communities of surprising economic strength," said Thomas Decker, executive vice president of Bank of America.

Check-cashing facilities prosper in South Central Los Angeles. The parent companies behind these - often banks and thrifts that do limited actual lending in the region - could use the check-cashing sites as gateways to more-mature financing options for customers, along the lines of Union Bank's 13-branch cash-and-save facilities in the region.

Also, more local, state and federal moneys could be deposited in minority-owned banks and in those institutions with the best community lending records, advocates say.

"There are three types of bad loans: those for too much, those for not enough, and those based on a hope and dream, not a plan," Bryant said. "So we have to broaden the concept of the problem to include access to human resources and (business) education as well."

- Ben Sullivan

22 Fix roads

In the 1920s, Los Angeles had 2,000 miles of road and resurfaced or reconstructed 50 to 60 miles of it every year.

In the 1980s, the length of L.A.'s streets grew to 6,500 miles - and incredibly, the number of miles resurfaced and reconstructed each year remained at only 50 to 60.

Given the decades of deferred maintenance, the Department of Public Works is now in a "catch-up" mode, according to Greg Scott, Assistant Director for the Department's Bureau of Street Maintenance.

in the last few years, the city has been able to resurface or reconstruct between 100 to 200 miles annually, still "way too low to make up for the lack of maintenance over the years," says Scott.

In fact, the backlog of needs for both capital improvements and maintenance exceeds $1 billion, said Stanley Sysak, the Department's Program Manager for City Street Capital Improvement.

"We simply don't have the funding to keep up with the deterioration of city streets," says Sysak.

Potholes and rough roads are more than an annoyance - they affect the productivity of L.A.'s work force and, in some cases, whether business owners decide to remain in the city.

Larry Kosmont, president of Kosmont & Associates, a development consulting firm in Sherman Oaks, believes that, along with a shortage of funds, one of the major obstacles to improving the city's streets is in its failure to create and implement a consistent master plan that identifies and prioritizes the improvements that need to be made.

Instead, argues Kosmont, the city is in a "reactive mode" when it comes to repairing its streets. This method of "fixing on a spot basis" is costlier and less effective, says Kosmont.

Scott said the Department of Public Works has been working with the mayor's office in preparing and updating a strategic plan to make up for much of the years of underfunding.

This plan, which rates every street block by block, is based on the premise that maintenance costs significantly less than reconstruction. Scott says that his department will continue to try to locate dollars to fund maintenance of the city's streets.

Further, the city is testing other programs to reduce the costs of maintaining the city's streets.

Among these is a 20-mile pilot program in which the city uses its own staff as a sort of general manager on resurfacing projects by obtaining from private firms unit prices for particular functions rather than bids for a entire project - saving money by using its own experts.

In the end the mayor and City Council will have to allocate more funds for street resurfacing if L.A. is going to compete with other cities. Anyone who has driven the wide, freshly tarred streets in places like Irvine and Valencia knows that L.A. can't pretend its streets are up to par.

- Lisa Steen Proctor

23 Resolve downtown sports arena issue

The South Park neighborhood of downtown L.A., so long a target area for city-sponsored urban renewal, remains in a state of inactivity.

That makes for a dire financial situation. Specifically, the Los Angeles Convention Center in South Park is losing millions of taxpayer dollars annually - due in part to the absence of a first-class convention hotel.

The entire downtown area, in fact, needs a potent economic shot in the arm. And some argue that should involve a new signature public place - something to rally around and put some proverbial "there" there.

The most promising avenue for achieving that is a $200-plus million sports arena that Los Angeles Kings co-owners Ed Roski Jr. and Philip Anschutz propose to develop next to the Convention Center.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Kings now play in a tired arena without the luxury boxes, club seats, and related retail, restaurant and entertainment elements considered essential in today's pro sports world.

As L.A. city negotiators and politicians negotiate a variety of issues related to arena construction, Inglewood officials continue trying to woo Roski and Anschutz to their city.

L.A. arena supporters in the public sector must walk a political tightrope to get a plan approved - namely cutting a deal that keeps the project in South Park without having the city subsidize a for-profit venture by ultra-wealthy entrepreneurs.

While the city would still be shelling out around $70 million mainly to purchase the land - the project's potential benefits would seem to outweigh many of those concerns.

An arena would likely spur development of a convention hotel - which could boost convention business and the entire local tourism industry.

It would also generate additional development in South Park: retail shops, restaurants, nightclubs and a themed entertainment complex.

All that could lead to more downtown nightlife and more interest in relocating there. The arena might even become a symbol of an L.A. revival.

- Brad Berton

24 Address homeless population

Los Angeles County has an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 homeless people many of them African-American and Latino men concentrated in inner-city neighborhoods.

Mental and physical illness, and drug and alcohol abuse contribute to their ranks, but advocates say that the vast majority are homeless primarily because they are unemployed.

And that's often because they lack the education, training and social skills to get and keep a job that will get and keep them off the streets.

Welfare reform at the state level would do much to cut the current taxpayer costs associated with supporting the homeless - but the reforms will also likely swell their ranks.

This year in L.A., 6,000 drug addicts and alcoholics will be removed from the Social Security disability dole and these people already on the margins of society - are seen by advocates as prime candidates for homelessness, and in some cases, crime.

"The least economic way of dealing with the homeless is opening the Twin Towers jail," said Jeff Dietrich, a member of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, which operates a soup kitchen in downtown and a hospitality house in East L.A.

The Department of Social Services and private programs by groups such as Goodwill Industries of Southern California, the Catholic Worker and the Los Angeles Mission attempt to counsel, train and place L.A.'s homeless. But funding limits dictate that only a small percentage of candidates are admitted to these programs. Without greater private support, existing programs could be further overwhelmed as welfare reform takes hold.

L.A. has had a schizophrenic attitude about the homeless problem. In a 1995 Gallup survey, 94 percent of L.A. County respondents said they had been approached by a homeless person for money in the previous 12 months, compared with just 77 percent of respondents nationally.

But while one in six respondents said they recognized that they could become homeless themselves, L.A. residents were less sympathetic as a whole to the homeless than the national average.

Far more L.A. respondents than the national average said their attitudes toward the homeless had changed in the last five years, and a higher proportion of the change was negative, the survey found.

Enlightened self-interest from the private sector will be key to dealing with the growing homeless population, advocates say.

"It's a grass roots thing," explained James Lewis, vice president of program ministries at the Los Angeles Mission. "We count on people of goodwill who believe this is a problem."

Douglas Barr, CEO and president of Goodwill Industries, agrees. Support of job training programs for the homeless is essential, Barr believes, because "Joe Blow businessman wants welfare reform to succeed. If it doesn't, we'll be back to the situation where the rolls continue to expand and he picks up the costs."

- Ben Sullivan

25 Promote public-private partnerships

Many large U.S. cities - including New York, Miami and Cleveland - have realized that the best way to make local governments smaller and more efficient, yet still keep services at the same level, is to team up with local businesses.

But with the exception of a few key areas, such as health care for the city's poor, Los Angeles has yet to make the big leap into public-private partnerships.

With government trying to make itself leaner, and with business increasingly interested in public policy, L.A. could take a cue from some of these efforts.

Home to Greater Philadelphia First, Philadelphia was one of the first cities to have a major business leadership organization devoted to working with city and county governments.

Greater Philadelphia First, founded in 1983 and headed by 35 local chief executives, has teamed up with city and county governments on finding funding for regional transportation projects, building a new $5 million convention center and helping the City of Philadelphia avoid bankruptcy.

One of the organization's biggest accomplishments was the creation of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office. The office - funded by suburban counties and Greater Philadelphia First - has been responsible for bringing major film productions to the city, including "Philadelphia."

Although Los Angeles is nowhere near Philadelphia's level of government-business partnerships, some L.A. officials already have their eyes turned toward more public-private projects.

"I'd like to see a public-private partnership in the creation of a Downtown Coordinating Council that would represent ... diverse efforts in sharing information, resources and ideas," said City Councilwoman Rita Walters.

Some industries have already launched their own public-private partnerships.

For example, Burbank-based Calstart is a 4-year-old consortium of more than 200 private and public entities devoted to a developing a cleaner transportation industry in California.

Even without an extra effort on the part of government or business, there's a good chance public-private partnerships will develop naturally.

Xandra Kayden, adjunct professor of public policy and social research at UCLA, predicted that more public-private partnerships will be formed out of necessity, as local governments become leaner.

"It will prevent us from falling further behind to have public-private partnerships, if we're intent on cutting the size of government," Kayden said.

- Daniel Taub

A PLAN TO FOSTER THE ECONOMY AND THE COMMUNITY IN THE COMING YEAR

1 Work on L.A.'s image 2 Act on charter reform 3 Get more cops on the street 4 Develop firm plans to expand LAX 5 Create a more flexible tax structure 6 Promote "Made in L.A." products and services 7 Harness entertainment and technology 8 Resolve the subway issue 9 Do something about traffic 10 Get an NFL team back to Los Angeles 11 Learn from LEARN 12 Encourage vocational training 13 Cut down on bureaucratic red tape 14 Provide health care for the uninsured 15 Generate a more unified business voice 16 Create incentives for hiring the underemployed 17 Attract foreign investments - and investors 18 Encourage more BID's 19 Create incentives for volunteerism 20 Stop bickering about the Alameda Corridor 21 Provide minorities with more access to capital 22 Fix roads 23 Resolve downtown sports arena issue 24 Address homeless population 25 Promote public-private partnership

Eli Broad

CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SUNAMERICA INC.

"REVITALIZING DOWNTOWN"

Like all other of the world's most prestigious cities, the heart of Los Angeles is its downtown. More than just the historic source of our city's famously vibrant, energetic sprawl outward, downtown is our most important source of economic and cultural energy. Hundreds of textile manufacturers, toy import/export firms, produce and flower wholesalers, law firms, accounting companies and business consulting firms call downtown home.

Downtown is now on the cusp of important economic change. And the successful transition into this new era is imperative if the city's business sector is to continue expanding.

Barbara Rodstein

CHIEF EXECUTIVE, HARDEN INDUSTRIES

"EDUCATION REFORM"

Clearly an educated work force will contribute to a desirable labor poo. Each company has a responsibility to provide their own training and employment opportunities within their sphere of influence, whether it be within their own company or within their specific industry. Extending company mentoring programs deeply within the teen groups especially - ones that translate learning and training into employment opportunities - should be the responsibility of each company, small or large.

Morley Winograd

CO-AUTHOR, 'TAKING CONTROL: POLITICS IN THE INFORMATION AGE'

"POLITICAL/STRUCTURAL REFORMS"

The political leadership of los Angeles must abandon their industrial-age view of building an economy from the top of City Hall down, and instead create an ecology for economic growth that starts at the grass roots in every neighborhood. ...

The only way for the city's economy to grow is to adopt political and structural reforms that encourage private enterprises to flourish. Reinventing, rebuilding and re-engineering the institutions of Los Angeles will bring the city the economic growth it deserves.

Laurence L. Hummer

FREEMAN, FREEMAN & SMILEY LLP

"CHARTER REFORM"

The current "weak mayor" system makes it hard for anyone occupying the L.A. Mayor's Office to get things do. The practical power of each city council member over decisions on land-use planning and development in that council member's district adds a confusing layer of governmental involvement. The perception of this situation in the business community means that the City of Los Angeles loses business opportunities and employment.

Michael Levine

LEVINE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE INC.

"LAW ENFORCEMENT"

A sense of order is essential, not merely to preserve a sense of liberity, but to increase wealth. Crime takes away the necessary incentive to save and invest.

In the current societal climate of lawlessness, the city simply cannot be made safe with a police force under 12,000. Our current police chief should be fired and an effort should be mounted to attract New York City's former police commissioner, William Bratton. He has lowered crime in New York by 30 percent.

Jack Kyser, CHIEF ECONOMIST

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP. OF L.A. COUNTY "MONITORING ECONOMIC GROWTH"

The City of Los Angeles should create a standing, blue ribbon committee to monitor the long-term economic health of the city. This committee would review proposed legislation, point out potential long-term risks to the economic and financial health of the city, and suggested ideas to encourage quality growth in terms of jobs and tax base.

Lauren Raissen

PRESIDENT AND CEO, BREATH ASURE INC. "ATTRACTING FOREIGN INVESTMENT"

Many foreign professionals see L.A. in a negative light, as a city rife with gangs, crime, smog, traffic and high tax burdens. A proactive imaging campaign that targets foreign universities, industries and professional associations is needed to portray Los Angeles as a place where dreams can become reality, where entrepreneurs can flourish economically while enjoying everything else that this culturally diverse city has to offer.

Rita Walters COUNCILWOMAN, NINTH DISTRICT

"PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS"

For downtown Los Angeles, there are any number of initiatives underway, including Business Improvement Districts, cultural attractions, and proposals for a new cathedral and new sports arena. There's a lot of energy and concomitant good ideas. I'd like to see a public-private partnership in the creation of a Downtown Coordinating Council that would represent all these diverse efforts in sharing information, resources and ideas.

Ross Goldberg SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CAREAMERICA HEALTH PLANS

"SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CAREAMERICA HEALTH PLANS"

In order for L.A. to grow, we must address these challenges both academically and technologically. Teachers must feel passion towards learning and classrooms that are clean, safe, comfortable, friendly and current. And parents must be invited to participate in the education of their children and recognize the need for an environment fostering the value of education and knowledge.