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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Garcetti Talks Future at UCC Luncheon

The United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley held its 14th Annual Richard Leyner Mayor’s Luncheon Oct. 5 with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as keynote speaker. Five years into his term and a fourth generation Angeleno of Eastern European and Mexican heritage, Garcetti charmed the room of about 400 attendees with 20 minutes of overview on how City Hall is dealing with such overwhelming problems as crime, homelessness and traffic. “I’m just a boy from Encino,” said Garcetti, who was born and raised in San Fernando Valley. Various crime categories are down by 5 or 6 percent and new jobs are up 236,000, but the mayor lamented the dearth of affordable housing. “You don’t have to be homeless to feel that housing is out of reach,” he said, adding that he’s been involved in homeless issues since he started volunteering at age 14. “It’s not only a moral crisis, it’s a financial crisis.” The mayor trumpeted the Valley’s industry and movement into tech. Citing several Manufacturing Week events he had attended earlier in the week, such as Chatsworth-based innovation incubator Toolbox L.A., and Walker Foods, creators of El Pato. Only in L.A. will one find an Irish company that makes Mexican salsa, he said. He also joked about being up in the Bay Area earlier in the week where people would say they’re from the Valley. “No, no, no, this is THE Valley,” Garcetti said laughing, pointing out that the term “Silicon Valley” didn’t exist when he was growing up. Garcetti called the San Fernando Valley “the middle of the world, the center of the universe, and it’s a great anonymous place.” He employed the recent sale of the “Brady Bunch” residence to cable TV network HGTV in North Hollywood, the exterior of which became the “quintessential family home” of the household headed by architect Mike Brady on the popular 1960s sitcom, as an extended metaphor on the middle-class California dream. “The future was full of possibility (on the show),” he said. “Not all that much has changed.” He cited the Valley as “not too affluent or too blue collar” and a home of aerospace with Aerojet Rocketdyne potentially powering humans to Mars. “This is a place where anything’s possible,” he said. Garcetti pinned his hopes on the billion-dollar economic stimulus that Los Angeles stands to gain from the 2028 Olympics and added that Los Angeles has already been given $164 million toward that end by the Olympic Committee – a first, he said. “While the torch came through (the Valley in 1984), no events were held here,” he said, promising that not only will a cluster of games be held north of the 101 but he shared loose plans to “leave behind the best sports park as a legacy” in the San Fernando Valley. “We can even do surfing in the Valley,” he said, regarding an artificial facility planned for the sports category that can be constructed anywhere in Los Angeles. Gloria Pollack of Gelb Group and chairwoman of events for the United Chambers, delivered an inspirational preface, urging captains of industry in the room to invest in the future by hiring and grooming interns from the community, such as two Canoga High School student leaders who were present. “We want them to be the best they can possibly be,” Pollack said. Seated at tables around the room: employees of lead sponsor Galpin Motors, Comcast NBCUniversal, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Parker Brown, Lewitt Hackman, the Valley’s police force, and other groups and agencies contributing to the Valley’s civic and economic portfolios. Politicians and civic leaders in attendance included Sen. Bob Hertzberg; City Councilmembers Nury Rodriguez, Paul Krekorian and Bob Blumenfield; Mayor of San Fernando Sylvia Ballin and Mayor of Calabasas Fred Gaines; executive members of Southern California Realtors Association; and Valley Economic Alliance Chairman Randy Witt.

Michael Aushenker
Michael Aushenker
A graduate of Cornell University, Michael covers commercial real estate for the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. Prior to the Business Journal, Michael covered the community and entertainment beats as a staff writer for various newspapers, including the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, The Palisadian-Post, The Argonaut and Acorn Newspapers. He has also freelanced for the Santa Barbara Independent, VC Reporter, Malibu Times and Los Feliz Ledger.

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