Richard Riordan: L.A. needs Austin Beutner as next mayor
In my travels up and down and across the Southland, I saw Angelenos hungering for economic opportunity. I saw their children unjustly denied quality classrooms. I saw an entire city in need of steely, principled leadership.
That campaign was longer ago than I'd care to admit. However, the challenges as we head into the next campaign are all too familiar. Now, as then, too many Angelenos can't find good-paying jobs. Too many boys and girls are denied their fundamental right of a good education. Far too often, we find ourselves asking: Who can lead Los Angeles in its recovery and rebirth?
To me, the choice is obvious: Austin Beutner, to be the next mayor of Los Angeles.
As the city's chief executive of economic and business policy, Austin rolled up his sleeves and tackled the challenge of job creation. In a little more than a year on the job, he's made a lasting impact.
As the city's "jobs czar," Beutner implemented necessary policy changes that attracted futuristic companies to our region. That includes a three-year business-tax holiday for firms that move to L.A and the Valley's State Enterprise Zone hiring tax credits - plus, something of particular interest to me, cutting in half the time it takes to permit a restaurant. An accomplished businessman in his own right, he made sense of city rules and regulations
that, frankly, were nonsensical from the vantage point of those attempting to do business in the Southland.We see signs of this approach bearing fruit: Google setting up shop in Venice; global ventures including the architectural giant Gensler and BYD, a leading Chinese clean-technology firm, making L.A. their U.S. headquarters. And, here in the San Fernando Valley, there's the case of BlackLine Systems, a financial software provider that opted to relocate from Calabasas to within the San Fernando Valley limits - because Austin Beutner sold them on the merits of enterprise zones and the business-tax holiday.
But, perhaps most important of all, Austin Beutner brought a fighting spirit to City Hall. He sent a message across America and across the ocean that L.A. is open for business. Here at home, he re-educated our civic leaders in the all-important lesson that Los Angeles, more so than any other city in America, possesses both vibrancy and a wellspring of talent and diversity that can win any honest competition.
Based on my knowledge and experience in leading this city, I believe this is what the mayor's race should be about: how we overcome the challenges of the present, win the competition of the future and, in doing so, return jobs, hope and optimism to our sunny land.
It requires a mayor with the right blend of private- and public-sector experience - an individual who possesses both a clear economic vision and the skills-set to bring that vision to life. That's Austin Beutner.
As a small-business owner myself, I appreciate the depth of despair brought on by this prolonged and terrible recession. But as a career entrepreneur and a career activist - and, yes, a career optimist - I believe in the greatness of our city and the possibilities of a better tomorrow. I believe we can and will rebound - as long as we're led by a mayor who's a driving force behind economic growth, can shepherd jobs and investment back to our city, and can convince us all simply to believe in ourselves again.
For the many complicated lessons I've learned in life, this is one lesson that came easy: to succeed, the next mayor of Los Angeles must restore our city to its rightful place as a fabled land where talent and innovation can flourish - a city that prides itself as a cradle of the jobs of the future, and not a graveyard of the jobs of past.
Los Angeles needs Mayor Austin Beutner.
Richard Riordan was mayor of Los Angeles from 1993 to 2001, and later served as secretary of education under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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