Wilshire Center/Koreatown Business Resource Fair

Attention all businesses! This is a free informative program within our community. Do not miss this opportunity to ally your business to public sector contracting jobs. The City of Los Angeles Community Development Department Economic Development Division, in cooperation with the Wilshire Center Business Improvement District, is sponsoring a free Business Resource Fair on Thursday, November 19, 2009, 7:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, 3663 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. The purpose of the Business Fair is to distribute information to businesses on City, State and Federal programs that can assist in reducing the cost of doing business within the City of Los Angeles and show ways to succeed in this difficult business climate, such as taking advantage of tax reductions, electrical rate discounts, and procurement opportunities within the City of Los Angeles.

We currently have about 30 presentations and exhibitions from various business assistance organizations, consisting of, The Wilshire Center Business Improvement District, Industrial Development Authority, US Department of Commerce - Minority Business Development Agency & Los Angeles Commerce - Minority Business Development Agency & Los Angeles Minority Business Enterprise Center, Minority Business Opportunity Center, BVAN, L.A. Business Assistance Center, Wilshire & Hollywood Work Source Centers, Franchise Tax Board, Department of General Services, State Equalization Board, IRS, L.A. County Economic Development Corp., DWP, CRA, L.A. Department of Public Works, LAUSD, U.S. General Services Admin., USC, METRO, Metropolitan Water District, Los Angeles International Airport, Community Development Commission, Sempra Energy Utilities, Small Business Development Center hosted at Pacific Coast Regional, Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment, Office of Building and Safety, Office of Finance, Office of Contract Compliance, Tax consultants, SBA, Employment Development and Bond Assistance Program. Learn more at wilshirecenter.com/business.

HEROs and Homeless

PATH Partners® Images www.pathpartners.org

You see them every day; they push shopping carts full of whatever possessions they have left, or carry their things in trash bags slug across their shoulders. Some are quiet, polite and smiling. Some are in your face hostile and scary, kicking down trash cans and newspaper racks as they go.

They are the homeless and their numbers are growing. Due to the economic downturn, more people are finding themselves on the street as jobs are lost and they can no longer afford their rent. Add this group to those already dispossessed due to metal illness and substance abuse problems, and the crisis deepens.

Here in Wilshire Center/Koreatown, we strive to maintain the delicate balance between the needs of our business community and the rights of the homeless individuals among us. We employ, through Portals, people who were formerly on the streets and are now finding their way back to a more stable life. They are our maintenance crew, and they do a fine job of keeping Wilshire Center neat and clean.

Our security team is ever on the lookout for ways to help both the businesses and the homeless. They do whatever they can to diffuse volatile situations that sometimes arise such as tracking and reporting violent homeless individuals, and working with the police to help clean up encampments that have gotten out of control by encroaching on private and public areas and are becoming a health hazard.

They also reach out to those individuals who need and want a helping hand by providing them with information on available services and often initiate contact between the homeless and organizations that can help. One such organization is PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) which was formed in 1984. Their mission is to break the cycle of homelessness by empowering people with the tools for self-sufficiency, and they operate out of three facilities (West Los Angeles, Hollywood and Central Los Angeles), connecting clients to a comprehensive program of housing (emergency, transitional and permanent), street outreach, employment preparation and placement assistance, individualized case management and supportive services.

PATH has a strategic outreach program called HERO. This is comprised of outreach workers who travel in the community to encourage people living on the street to use local services and resources. This team also responds to calls for assistance from law enforcement, businesses and concerned citizens. For more information, go to their website at www.epath.org.

WC Website Redesigned

The redesigned wilshirecenter.com website has been launched. The goal was to to consolidate web content, eliminate outdated info, draw in more web traffic and improve the overall website experience. We believe that the new website has the potential to appeal to a wider variety of people. The WCBID is now also using social media networks such at Facebook and Twitter to help keep people informed of what’s going on in the community. Let your tenants know about this great new interactive community website.

Holiday Lights and Santa

The WCBID holiday lights will be installed on November 15 along Wilshire Boulevard and will stay up until January 15. Santa Claus will visit our area on December 18 between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. at Wilshire and Normandie.

WC Cool District Action Plan and How to Improve Cashflow

We are happy to announce that we have begun the building energy audit work with the assistance of ARUP (www.arup.com). The framework for the audit work is the goal of reducing the District’s energy consumption by at least 20% by 2020 for all 1180 buildings within the District as part of District’s 2% per year reduction program. The initial work is to undertake benchmarking and preliminary assessment level audits of a cross-section of the Wilshire Center BID buildings. CRA has agreed to assist in the funding the Cool District program for about $200,000, which will enable us to conduct a significant number of free audits for building owners. ARUP will initially be conducting about 10 to 12 preliminary energy audits for building owners within the district. They have already charted out all the existing buildings in the area and estimated their CO2 emissions, but need the preliminary audits to get a more accurate estimate (the estimate of energy usage so far indicates that the BID area is producing 335,000 tons of CO2 per year; and they estimate that by implementing simple energy efficient measures there could be an immediate 10 million dollars in savings initially). Any information on the individual buildings gathered by ARUP will be kept strictly confidential.

ARUP will then report back to the owners with what their cost savings would be if they implemented the recommended energy savings technologies. If this is attractive to the owner then an investment grade audit would be done. The conservation measures could then be financed at preferential lending rates utilizing the large volume of opportunity represented by the District, and the different options for this are being explored by the Clinton Foundation. There would be a guaranteed simple payback in 3 years.

David Hodgins, Assistant Director Commercial Sector Building Retrofit Program for the Clinton Foundation (clintonfoundation.org) is working with the mayor to establish a program to allow for the work to be financed and secured by a lien on the property tax. The project would most likely have to be cash flow neutral or cash flow positive in order to be financed, and ARUP is able to assess the potential for this at no risk to the owner. This program represents a new and exciting model for how to reduce GHG emissions while saving money at the same time. Since the WCBID came up with the Cool District Concept, it may be of value to building owners in the form of positive publicity for this area. Please feel free to reach out to WCBID for more information.

Greenform (greenform.net) has been retained to produce a preliminary carbon master plan that creates a transformative vision for the study area as a thriving sustainable residential and business community, and with a vision that shows how this community moves to a reduction of 80% of its carbon footprint (CO2) within the next 40 years. For more information about this program please visit wilshirecenter.com/cooldistrict

Discard Bulky Items

We are working with Councilman Tom LaBonge and Councilman Herb Wesson on the issue of bulk items that are not being called in by tenants. Please inform your tenants to call 3-1-1; the City will haul away discarded bulky items such as old couches, tables, furniture, mattresses, refrigerators, appliances, computer monitors, e-waste, etc. It’s EASY! Just call 3-1-1 or email San.CallCenter@lacity.org, let the City know what is needed to be picked-up and they will haul it from the curb. Love L.A., keep it clean! Click here for more information.

Green Community and Bike Center

We are exploring with CRA a concept for a green community center and bike center at the Wilshire Vermont MTA station. It is to be a place where tenants can get information and products to save energy and water, on recycling, composting, bike routes, bus routes and more on how to reduce one’s carbon footprint. We hope to partner with DWP, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, LA Bicycle Coalition, DOT, L.A. Environmentablity, Gas Co and a number of energy saving product companies.

We are working with graduate students at SCI-Arc, an architectural and planning school in downtown L.A., who are assessing the potential for a bike sharing program within the Wilshire Center/Koreatown community. L.A. is buzzing with news about bicycles. From the newly revised Los Angeles City Bicycle Plan to the October debut of David Byrne’s book, “Bicycle Diaries”, rethinking the role of bikes can be an important part of making WC/K a more livable community.

The City of Los Angeles has also released its Draft Bicycle Plan; to see the City wide bicycle plan go to www.labikeplan.org.

Wilshire Blvd Subway Line Extension to the Sea with a Line down Crenshaw by 2020

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board re-affirmed its plan on October 23, 2009 to apply for federal funding for the Subway to the Sea, which will provide a much-needed link between the Westside and the rest of the Metro system, via a Wilshire Boulevard subway line. If Metro receives federal funding for this project, the subway could be completed in as little as ten years. There is funding for a Crenshaw Line (currently a rail line) starting at Wilshire and Crenshaw connecting to the Expo Line and beyond, possibly to the airport. The Crenshaw line's budget is $1.7 billion, but LA County Supervisor Ridley-Thomas wants a total of roughly $2.1 billion so that parts of it can be built as a subway. These projects are part of the MTA’s $300 billion long-range transportation projects.

Residential Parking Issue

Tenants are having trouble finding parking spaces close to their buildings due in part to businesses in the area taking up parking on the residential streets and 2 hour parking restrictions. We need to look into permit parking, angle parking and one way streets. Some have worked with the Council office and have turned in signed petitions, but things are getting stalled at DOT. We need to explore a way to minimize the red tape. The WC/K CRA traffic study is due to come out soon, and that may help. Please email your thoughts on this problem and its solution to info@wilshirecenter.com. We need more creative minds working together.

Comment by an Assessee

I am so thrilled that you helped our neighborhood with the removal of the food truck.   We do everything we can think of to help the neighborhood have pride and be responsible for how we are.   I have owned that building since 1995 and have been constantly upgrading it, even in these hard economic times.   Truly, I have lost two tenants in the front of the building because of the noise from the truck but also have lost potential new tenants because the buildings across the street don't have pride in their homes.   It is such a fabulous neighborhood with such interesting architecture...   I am grateful for your immediate response to our dilemma.   - Susan Blais

Wilshire Center Business Improvement District at info@wilshirecenter.com,
ph: 213-487-7003, fax : 213-386-5853, 3600 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1032, Los Angeles, CA 90010

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