CITY HALL HOSTS NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS - You can fight City Hall, and we will provide you the opportunity to do it.
We are the neighborhood councils of the City of Los Angeles. We have also formed a group of regional and citywide coalitions of neighborhood councils, which increases our political clout.
This Saturday, September 22 we will be having a public gathering for all Angelenos -- basically anyone and everyone who lives in LA -- to talk about our movement, what we are going to do next, and how we should do it.
We call this the Congress of Neighborhoods. If you are interested in attending, you can check out the registration page here. (Note: this system requires that your browser be set for cookies enabled).
You will notice that active participants and leaders of neighborhood councils are encouraged to attend, but it's also a chance for those of you who have been involved in your local residents' association or block club, and now wish to take it to the next level.
We will be putting on a surprising number of help sessions and workshops on many topics of interest, including how you can get started, how to participate, and how to lead. The registration form gives you a chance to select from among workshops in 3 different sessions.
I'd like to give a plug for a session I will be running, because it deals with our attempts to actually do something productive about the current economic decline in the LA area.
The organizers currently have it on the Session 2 schedule under the title, "Role of the City's Port, Airport & DWP in Trade and Business," but the actual discussion should go well beyond these introductory matters (as interesting as they may be) and get down to how trade growth can help us regular working people get jobs and survive.
The core element is that international trade is expected to grow robustly during the next several years, including exports as well as imports. This is going to provide opportunities for local job creation and business development. The question we have been asking is this: How can we arrange for the most job and business development in the private sector based on international trade?
One answer involves making Los Angeles more business-friendly, and this is something that neighborhood councils should definitely take up.
Another answer involves negotiating with foreign trade organizations and their governmental representatives in order to maximize the number of us locals who will be hired or contracted to do value-added work on imports.
Finally, there is training in how to get into the export market. The Port of Los Angeles gives a half-day class in this subject.
So if you are interested in this aspect of neighborhood council action or just in boosting the local economy, consider signing up for our workshop. It is going to be held during the second set of workshops (10:50 am). We will be hosting a panel from the Port of Los Angeles, LAX, and the Korean Trade Organization, and possibly one or two surprise guests. (Note: We are not the panel on the DWP, which is already completely sold out.)
If this is not your cup of tea, there are lots of other workshops. There will be a workshop on green growth. There will be numerous workshops on the details of how to run a meeting, how to deal with difficult people, and how to find your way through the maze of local government.
For those who are willing to stay through the early afternoon, there will be a forum for mayoral candidates. We already have 3 of the top competitors who have committed. Sparks will fly.
Finally, there is going to be a session at 2:30 which involves the always contentious (but improving!) relationship between neighborhood councils and city government.
Registration is important because it gets you parking.
Come and participate. Become engaged. Come fight City Hall.
(Bob Gelfand is the 2012 chair of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition and can be reached at [email protected])
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 75
Pub: Sept 18, 2012