LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS
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Crime falls, food truck central, and other happenings Around Town.
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Audit tags City Council’s use of funds secured from selling property.
W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
February 15, 2010
Volume 39, Number 7
INSIDE
A Clothes Encounter
How to Feed Thousands The Convention Center Hotel’s Army of Food Service Workers Preps Its Cauldron-Like Steamers and Closet-Size Ovens by richArd Guzmán city editor
Urban Scrawl on city finances.
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Time for the economic forecast.
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Business steps up on homelessness.
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I
t’s pretty clear that Eric Branger and Paul Rossi can both take the heat — after all, each has spent a career in the kitchen. Still, probably nothing they have done will match up to the orders they’ll be slammed with this week. Branger is the executive chef of the 1,001-room Ritz-Carlton/J.W. Marriott hotel tower at L.A. Live, and Rossi is the director of food and beverage at the $1 billion establishment. The 878 rooms of the J.W. Marriott portion open Monday, Feb. 15, and are completely sold out for a three-day conference. All of which means that, come open-
ing day, guests will expect a brand new hotel to operate at four-star standards. The food and beverage staff, which accounts for about 300 of the hotel’s 700 employees, have long been training for the building’s debut. The cooks, busboys, sous chefs, servers, bartenders, managers and others have been learning the ins and outs of the two hotels’ five kitchens. They have been studying the various menus and preparing to meet proper Marriott and Ritz service etiquette. They have been serving test meals to construction workers and other staff to make sure they are on top of their game when the doors open. It’s a tall order — or make, that, see Hotel, page 15
To Have and to Hold, and Hold and Hold and Hold Downtown Groans as the Chetrit Group, a New York Landlord, Lets Key Buildings Sit Empty by AnnA Scott StAff writer
Changes on the Medallion block.
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A special ‘Healthcare’ section.
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owntown Los Angeles has seen a tidal wave of investment and redevelopment in the past 10 years. All across the community there are glossy new high-rises, glistening mega-projects and even seven-figure restaurants. Yet the flash has not always been applied evenly, and the community carries the landmarks of a neighborhood in transition. In certain places the glitzy projects stand near vacant or dilapidated buildings that have not
seen activity for years. Several of Downtown’s fallow properties have been sidelined by the recession, and every stalled plot or building has its own particular backstory. However, three large, longvacant edifices are owned by the same New York City-based firm. The lack of progress on the structures is sparking criticism from multiple Downtown stakeholders. The Chetrit Group, a family-run batch of investor-developers led by Joseph Chetrit, is as well funded as it is low profile. It owns the see Chetrit Group, page 10
How Miguel Santana, Who Six Months Ago Signed on as the City’s Top Budget Advisor, Manages His Baptism by Fire by ryAn VAillAncourt
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18 CALENDAR LISTINGS 20 MAP 21 CLASSIFIEDS
photo by Gary Leonard
The closely held, New York-based Chetrit Group has scrapped plans to turn Giannini Place into a condominium project. The building at Seventh and Olive streets is one of three Downtown buildings that the company has allowed to sit vacant for years.
The Man Behind the Budget Crunch StAff writer
Five great entertainment options.
photo by Gary Leonard
Eric Branger, executive chef of the Ritz/Marriott, with a steamer in one of the new hotel’s five kitchens. The food department employs about 300 people.
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hese days, Miguel Santana may be the busiest man in Los Angeles. Hired six months ago as the city’s Chief Administrative Officer, his job is to come up CONVERSATIONS
with a plan to close a current budget shortfall of about $212 million — and a $485 million deficit is looming next year. Although he had no role in engineering the city’s financial mess, his prescription for layoffs to avoid financial insolvency has not exactly made him a darling of public employees. But Santana says the human impact of potential layoffs is not lost on
him: Job loss has hit close to home for the 40-yearold Bell Gardens native and married father of four daughters. Before assuming his current role last August, Santana was the deputy chief executive officer for the county of Los Angeles, where he oversaw the administration of the county’s social services, which amounted to $9 billion of the county’s $22 billion budget. A graduate of Whittier College and Harvard’s Kennedy School for Government, where he received a Masters in Public Administration, Santana also spent more than 10 years working for County Supervisor Gloria Molina. Last week, Santana spoke with Los Angeles Downtown News about cutting back, moving for-
The Voice of Downtown Los Angeles
ward and working on furlough days. Los Angeles Downtown News: How many hours per week have you been working? Miguel Santana: I think last week I must have sat in the council center table for at least a period of 24 hours if you add them all up. There’s no doubt that there’s a lot of work involved in this. Ironically I’m furloughed myself. It’s obviously just a reduction in pay and not in work. Working those long hours though are part of the job. Q: When you took this job six months ago, to what degree did you comprehend the crisis you were walking into? see Santana, page 8