In his State of the City address, Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti portrayed the city as “not only strong, it’s getting stronger every day.”
The address was the third by Garcetti since he took office in 2013, and he took the opportunity to shine light on Los Angeles’ improving economy. Among figures he specifically cited included a gain of 109,000 new jobs in Los Angeles
“When I raised my hand to become your mayor, I described City Hall as a place where jobs came to die,” he said. Three years later, he added, “City Hall is widening the circle of opportunity … and we’re seeing those benefits ripple across every corner of our city.”
Garcetti gave his speech Thursday, April 14, inside Noribachi, an LED maker located near the Port of Los Angeles.
“Economic prosperity translates into a better life for us,” he said. “It helps the city to improve our core services and get back to basics.”
Noribachi relocated to Los Angeles in 2012 from New Mexico after Garcetti and his team learned the company was looking to expand.
“We helped launch them, because they reflect who we are as Angelenos, and who we want to be as a city – they’re high-tech, they’re inventive, they’re global,” Garcetti said.
The company has since doubled its staff to 170 employees.
Along with Noribachi, Garcetti cited the port, which recently experienced its busiest quarter since it was established 109 years ago, as parts of Los Angeles that portray the city as a tech-friendly and global place to do business.
Garcetti also repeatedly discussed employment on Thursday, citing his youth job programs and a plan to hire 5,000 new employees at City Hall.
Yet despite declining unemployment, the mayor also talked about the city’s rising crime rates and homelessness, calling on building more affordable housing.
“If we’re building luxury high rises, we need apartments people can afford,” he said.
“Beyond the extraordinary human toll, keeping people on the streets costs much more than finding them housing,” the mayor added.
The mayor also told the stories of many Angelenos, including a former gang member who now works at a company that hires formerly incarcerated Angelenos to install solar panels. At the conclusion of his address, he also brought multiple Angelenos up on stage including Yey Coronel, executive director of the Filipino American Service Group Inc. (FASGI), as an example of a Los Angeles resident who was a lawful permanent resident for years before applying for US citizenship.
Among Garcetti’s big announcements during his speech was that Los Angeles would become the largest city in the United States to commit itself to providing every LAUSD graduate one free year of community college. He is expected to help the college district with a $3 million fundraising effort and aims to implement the program within a year, board member Scott Svonkin told City News Service.
The district would match funds the mayor is able to raise.
“Having a one-year cushion to find out what we really want to do can benefit us as students,” said David Perez, a community college student, according to CBS.
Another community college student, Paul Olivares, told CBS that the announcement could encourage more students to focus on their future.
“If people can’t pay for college, they just won’t go and they’ll try to enter the workforce and probably end up working at McDonald’s,” he said.
The mayor also touched on the city’s passage of a $15 per hour minimum wage, which he called “the largest anti-poverty measure in our city’s history.” The ordinance was received positively by many, but not so much by business groups who say they’ve felt periodically neglected by City Hall.
“They need to do more to bring jobs to the city,” said Valley Industry and Commerce Association President Stuart Waldman, who attended the mayor’s address, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. He added that the mayor’s business team needs to hire additional people to be effective.
Toward the end of his speech, Garcetti touched on some November ballot measures he and other elected officials will ask that voters approve. The measures seek to expand housing for the homeless and public transportation.
“I want to build our future and I want to build it together,” he said. (Agnes Constante/AJPress)
