Posted on 01/08/2014 1:11:00 PM PST by BenLurkin
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Poverty, weak job creation and other issues currently plaguing Los Angeles could leave the city “sinking into the future,” according to a report released Wednesday.
The report titled A Time For Truth (PDF) from the Los Angeles 2020 Commission, which was convened to study and report on the city’s fiscal stability, warns the city is suffering from a “crisis in leadership” and a lack of confidence on the part of investors.
“Los Angeles is sinking into a future in which it no longer can provide the public services to which our people’s taxes entitle them and where the promises made to public employees about a decent and secure retirement simply cannot be kept,” the report stated.
KNX 1070′s Ed Mertz reports several pressing issues cited by the commission include poor economic development, traffic, a declining school system, budgetary cuts and deficits, rising pension costs and other factors that have contributed to the city’s current fiscal condition.
Commissioners focused specifically on slow job growth and stagnant wages that have left about 28 percent of working Angelenos at the poverty level, even as median income levels linger at 2007 levels, according to the report.
Budget constraints imposed after years of essentially flat revenue streams have also left the city facing a “death of a thousand cuts” that has resulted in severe declines in service levels since 1994, the report stated.
“Although City Hall forecasts revenue will grow about 1 percent next year, the only thing certain is expenses will grow by more than 5 percent in the same forecast,” the report said. “The implications of that gap are obvious.”
According to the report, a lack of investment dollars can also be blamed in part on reduced city services, such as an estimated 75 percent reduction in tree trimming services and libraries that operate with a workforce 30 percent smaller than levels from as recently as 2011.
Resources for building and safety, economic development, street services and sanitation have all been sharply reduced since 1993 after cuts to over 1,300 workers in those departments, the report stated.
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“Investment dollars will not flow to neighborhoods that suffer from crumbling sidewalks and pothole-filled streets,” notes Carol Schatz, President and CEO of the Central City Association of Los Angeles.
The report also describes the Los Angeles Unified School District as a “failing” public school system that will graduate less than 60 percent of its 640,000 students from high school despite a $7.1 billion budget. The report isn’t all doom-and-gloom: commissioners say LA can grow into a top-notch 21st-century city on the strengths of its ethnically diverse “pool of human capital,” world-class universities like UCLA, USC, and Caltech, and the city’s international brand, which represents “creativity, innovation, meritocracy, opportunity and a desirable lifestyle.”
Despite providing specifics on issues, commission chair and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor said the report isn’t directed at any single public official.
“This is not just about one person or two people or a leader here or a leader there…it’s about everyone,” Kantor said. “That’s why we don’t mention any names, we talk about leadership in general.”
The independent commission, formed by City Council President Herb Wesson and chaired by Kantor, is comprised of 13 former civic and business leaders, including former California Governor Gray Davis, and former U.S. Labor Secretary and California Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis.
“A Time For Truth” is the first of two reports the commission is expected to produce, with the second expected to cover commission recommendations and possibly alternative solutions for addressing the challenges facing the city.
Detroit on the Pacific, with lots of Mexicans.
Just like Detroit, only larger.
Manual Arts High School, ‘87. Also, pleased to meet you :o)
Thanks BenLurkin, for both:
LA To Receive Up To $500M As White House ‘Promise Zone’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3109717/posts
Blade Runner
Here are the real problems as listed from the report but NOT emphasized in any of the reporting:
The cost of benefits—mainly workers’ retirement and healthcare costs—have been rising rapidly and cannot be sustained at current revenue levels. Pension costs
accounted for 3% of the City’s budget a decade ago, and 18% this year. The cost of covering further increases will continue to cut into the City’s ability to supply services.
Los Angeles is Weak in Job Creation
Too Many Angelenos Live In Poverty
Big Things Don’t Get Done
LA Suffers From Chronic Budget Deficits
Regulatory Burdens Are Stifling for Small Employers
Stopgap Measures and Band-Aid Solutions
Pie-in-the-Sky Revenue Forecasts Won’t Save The City
Budget Gimmickry
Transparency and Accountability Are Lacking
So, there’s nothing really unique in this laundry list of urban woes: it’s the exact same list in every failing Democrat-run fiefdom.
The Blade Runner version would be preferable, due to those anatomically correct pleasure replicants. Wait, did I say that out loud?
1. 40% of all workers in L. A. County ( L. A. County has 10.2 million people) are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly illegal immigrants working without a green card.
2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
3. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.
4. Over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal, whose births were paid for by taxpayers.
5. Nearly 35% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.
6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.
7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.
8 Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.
9. 21 radio stations in L. A. are Spanish speaking.
10. In L.. A. County 5.1 million people speak English, 3.9 million speak Spanish.. (There are 10.2 million people in L. A. County ..)
Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops, but 29% are on welfare. Over 70% of the United States ‘annual population growth(and over 90% of California , Florida , and New York ) results from immigration.
29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens .
I settle for the franchise to be limited to net tax payers.
If you can’t run your own affairs in the black without government help, you don’t get a say in how public affairs are run.
I’d settle
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