Ask the L.A. mayor candidates: What would you do to help the economy thrive?

By William Nottingham

May 21, 2013 6 AM PT

During separate video interviews with the Los Angeles Times last month, L.A. mayoral candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel responded to questions from individual voters.

Among them is Baldwin Hills restaurateur Brad Johnson, who operates Post & Beam. Johnson asked: “What would you do to cultivate a thriving economy in the Crenshaw Corridor to make it similar to other emerging neighborhoods such as Downtown and Culver City?

“As a native New Yorker, I’ve watched with great interest as over the last five to 10 years Harlem has become a viable part of the city’s economy after years of neglect. Can we do more of the same in L.A.?”

Here’s the video of what Garcetti had to say to Johnson.

The answer from Greuel, who responded to Johnson’s question in writing, is below:

As a small-business owner, I know that the way to ensure that our economy thrives and our neighborhoods are revitalized is by cultivating walkable communities and bringing neighborhood businesses and jobs to a community.

This helps drive economic activity at the neighborhood level and in turn at the citywide level. This is why my focus as Mayor will be to make our city business friendly again.

One of the first things I’ll do is streamline our city’s business regulation so that we don’t drown new businesses in a sea of red tape. I also plan to phase out the city’s business tax to encourage more businesses to open rather than chase them away.

As Mayor, I will be that job czar that advocates for more businesses to come to our city. And one of the places I’ll start is in our emerging neighborhoods. I believe they represent the most opportunity for the City to grow its economy, create jobs and grow revenue.

As Mayor I will focus on marketing and branding these neighborhoods to highlight their diversity and cultural assets. As Mayor I will prioritize our economic development investments for these neighborhoods, lead tours for investors, focus marketing strategies - whatever it takes.

I want to see key corridors in our city, like Crenshaw Boulevard, Van Nuys Boulevard and Cesar Chavez Avenue, thriving again with new shops and restaurants, breathing new life into these historic neighborhoods.

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