You may see significant reform of California s public finance system. The state can t grow out of th

Cecilia best western olympic inn Estolano is chief executive officer of the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles, a city agency that makes strategic investments to create economic opportunity and improve the quality of life in the city. In August, the state of California siphoned about $70 billion from its 2010 budget to help balance its own shortfall, and made plans to take a total of $100 million from the agency over the next three years. Estolano discussed this challenging best western olympic inn situation, as well as the agency best western olympic inn s future plans, particularly its aggressive investments in Clean Tech.
Cecilia Estolano: It effectively wipes out our new tax increment financing [new funds derived from local property best western olympic inn taxes], and we ve had to slash our entire work program small business loans, infrastructure, new parks. Work with private developers. We re slashing best western olympic inn every category. The cuts are so deep that in some cases we ve had to dig into our affordable housing best western olympic inn funds, which we really don t want to do.
But we do have reserves that we re using to fund a work program of about $380 million. We ve been trying to spend 30 percent of our available resources, distributed in 32 project best western olympic inn areas all around the city. We re still in business, but we re not able to add any new projects. Last year we were able to put $190 million worth of investment on the street. When I got to this agency we were doing about $80 million. It s going to drop a lot this year. There s less activity best western olympic inn going on in the community to go along with the fact that the state took so much money from us. We still have $140 million in commitments for projects that we re going to try to get out the door this year.
We d planned best western olympic inn for a downturn we had anticipated a 46 to 47 percent decline in tax increment revenues. But then the state came along and decided to balance its budget on our backs. Still because of the bleak situation we need to continue to lay the groundwork best western olympic inn for an economic recovery: infrastructure, business assistance, program EIR s to make it easier to develop once money starts best western olympic inn flowing, funding biomed and entertainment, establishing a clean tech corridor on the east side, and developing the Crenshaw corridor where it intersects with Gold Line. That includes infrastructure improvements, transit-oriented development, and affordable housing on Crenshaw Boulevard south of the 10 Freeway.
No, it was unconstitutional. Helping best western olympic inn the state pay off its deficit is not a redevelopment purpose. There is no net benefit to anyone other than the state of California. It s not serving redevelopment, and it s also not keeping money in the area where it s generated. We sued the state last year and won. They are appealing that money. We re going to sue them again. We think we ll win, but because best western olympic inn we re a responsible agency we have to escrow that money and can t use it until we win. Legislators counted on the fact that we d sue and it didn t matter because they wanted to balance their budget based on a house of cards that will fall apart. It s clearly unconstitutional but it s going to take a long time to resolve.
I think we ve seen a tremendous amount of support from voters for protecting local government resources. There are numerous, and growing movements for reform. The Bay Area Council is calling for a constitutional convention. California Forward has a package of reform measures to put on the ballot. The League of Cities best western olympic inn wants to put something on ballot to protect local resources. The legislature is looking best western olympic inn at a committee on reform. Everyone understands that the system is broken. The question is how to fix it, and will the voters trust the legislature to fix itself. They don t.
You may see significant reform of California s public finance system. The state can t grow out of this crisis. Not with troubling rules like a two-thirds vote to pass the budget, a two-thirds vote to raise taxes, Prop 13 [which significantly limits how much the state can collect from property taxes]. So the state steals money from localities best western olympic inn to balance its budget. It has people furious. That s why you re seeing all these reform proposals begin to gain steam. We haven t seen the worst. When these cuts begin to take effect Californians are going to be fed up. They re really going to be angry because they ll be paying more and receiving substantially less.
Transportation is a field that s very important. The people of Los Angeles County voted to raise their sales tax to get billions for public best western olympic inn transit. It will spur money for real estate. High-speed best western olympic inn rail will literally change the landscape of California. **The Anaheim to LA segment is first in line. How that gets aligned and the way it changes development patterns in the region should be of particular interest to architects. Other bright spots for architecture include universities, particularly in the community college districts, where there s still some investment flowing.
And Clean Tech. Our Clean Tech Corridor best western olympic inn (www.crala.net/ct) on the east side of Los Angeles provides space to companies that plan to launch projects for heavy manufacturing [related to Green technologies]. It provides space for companies and inviting live/work opportunities for designers. We want LA to be an entrepreneurial hub that attracts best western olympic inn the creative intellectual capital that is powering the country. We think it can be the center of LA s manufacturing base. We re about to hear from METRO about whether they re going to purchase rail cars from the Italian rail manufacturer AnsaldoBreda S.p.A. If so they will locate best western olympic inn their manufacturing facility in the area, creating 400 jobs. Their contract would be to build additional cars for the city s new lines and repair or rebuild cars already in service. This could make LA the most important public transportation manufacturing center best western olympic inn in the country.
The corridor itself is much bigger than the property we own. We own 20 acres. We ve spent $14 million purchasing a brownfield site from the state California located between Washington and Olympic Boulevards just west of the LA River. It used to be a Crown Coach site that was going to become a prison. We used brownfield grant money to clean it up. That investment was $14 million. We re also investing in infrastructure new roads and sewers, an investment in revitalizing the LA River, and parks and in new housing. We re also trying to spur more private activity and attention to the clean tech corridor. best western olympic inn We re a catalyst; we can set the tone and articulate a vision. We want to spur private investment that s much more powerful than our little dollars. The goal is to create 5 to 10 dollars for every dollar invested.
When there s a lull you have to plan for the economic recovery. Architects can play a role in that. Right now we re in a planning mode. We re trying to reuse our industrial lands and reshape them in ways that can be more effective. I think you re not going to see ground up construction. You may see the adaptive reuse of industrial spaces that will require creative architecture. It s not just that the product is green but the buildings where they re made have to be green. Architects are leading the way in coming up with more efficient structures; helping us come up with cool industrial spaces and remake them into flexible, effective spaces.