LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS October 13, 2008
Volume 37, Number 41
INSIDE
Church & State Arrives 16
2
Going green, money for Little Tokyo, and other happenings Around Town.
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Cliche Stadium looks at how the Dodgers got from there to here.
W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
Real Live Jobs More Than 3,000 People Seek Out Positions In AEG’s Mega-Project
Enrollment plans for the arts high school.
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Urban Scrawl on the Broadway streetcar.
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In the hunt for Class A office space.
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The day Downtown got bombed.
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Trying to climb 75 flights of stairs.
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by RichaRd Guzmán city editoR
A
rmando Vargas was at the head of a long line last Tuesday morning. On a day when temperatures would soar into the 90s, he was there early in the effort to find a job in Anschutz Entertainment Group’s $2.5 billion L.A. Live project. “I’m hoping to get a job as security for L.A. Live,” said the 19-year-old. “I’ve been here since 8:30 a.m.” AEG officials said about 3,000 people showed up throughout the day on Oct. 7, many with resumes in hand. They were competing for about 500 jobs available at more than a dozen entertainment businesses and restaurants set to open in the coming months as part of the second phase of L.A. Live. Those who set up booths included Lucky Strike Lanes and Lounge, the Yard House, Wolfgang Puck Catering and the Grammy Museum. Although interviews did not begin until 10 a.m., the line on a rooftop parking lot began to form about 90 minutes before that. The job fair continued until 7 p.m. Organized by AEG, most of the open positions were for hospitality jobs, including cooks, bartenders, housekeepers, baristas, ticket sellers and security guards. The new workforce, AEG officials said, is another step in the quickly growing South Park neighborhood, which is home to a bustling entertainment district, Downtown’s only chain grocery store and a slew of condominium and apartment buildings that house thousands of residents. “We’ve said all along that not only will L.A. Live bring more investment into Downtown from business owners and people visiting the theater, the restaurants and the clubs, but it would also have a genuine impact on the job market,” said Michael Roth, vice president of communications for AEG. “These 500 jobs will be in all types of positions, focusing a lot on hospitality, but there will also be management positions and security and public safety tasks.” see Job Fair, page 11
photo by Gary Leonard
How tough is the economy? About 3,000 people attended a job fair on Tuesday, Oct. 7, for restaurant and retail slots in the second phase of L.A. Live. They were competing for about 500 positions.
Making Sense of the Meltdown Downtown Panel Tackles Credit Crisis and How to Fix It The weird world of Martin Kippenberger.
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22 CALENDAR LISTINGS 27 MAP 29 CLASSIFIEDS
by Ryan VaillancouRt staff wRiteR
S
tanding beside a panel of economic and real estate experts about to address the current financial meltdown, moderator Jack Knott, dean of the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development, offered a rather sober introduction. The group of experts that gathered at the USC Davidson Conference Center on Tuesday, Oct. 7, included three academics, one chief executive of an asset management company, another investment firm’s chief risk officer and a veteran equity analyst. It was a group with the expertise and
knowledge capable of offering silver linings. But no such luck. “I had the pleasure of having dinner with our panelists and I was a little nervous about the economy before dinner,” Knott said, before turning the microphone to the group. “Now I’m really nervous. I have a little bit of indigestion.” The panel, organized by USC and titled “The Real Estate and Credit Meltdown: How Did We Get Here and Where Do We Go?” attracted more than 200 graduate and undergraduate business students as well as real estate professionals in search of answers.
One by one, the panelists offered their takes on what exactly brought the economy to its knees. Some blamed multi-party greed, while others took aim at inept regulatory agencies for failing to stop the glut of risky sub-prime mortgages flooding the marketplace. Everyone on the panel agreed that the problem now centers on the harsh reality that major financial institutions simply don’t trust each other. Banks won’t lend to each other and the same lack of confidence has average investors running away from the tumbling stock market. see Economy, page 10
Since 1972, an independent, locally owned and edited newspaper, go figure.