Category: Economy

The Empty Spaces

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Large expanses of asphalt and black tar bake in sun day after day. These are the parking lots behind retail stores, many untenanted, forgotten and forlorn on the west side of Halbrent,north of Erwin, east of Sepulveda.

This area is chiefly known for two businesses: The Barn, a six-decade-old, red-sided furniture store and Star Restaurant Equipment & Supply advertised for 12 hours every weekend on KNX-1070 by radio fillibusteress Melinda Lee.

The Barn uses its parking lot to store trucks. But next door to the north, lot after lot is empty.

I came here this morning with a camera, lens cap off, a provocative act in the bracero’s hood. In the shadows, undocumented workers hide behind doorways and look away when I aim my digital weapon at asphalt.  I mean the Mexicans no harm or ill will.

Blithely walking and lightly thinking, daydreaming, I forgot that I have no business here amidst the enormity of emptiness and unproductivity.

I’m looking for a story, for an angle, for a job.

So many are out of work and so much can be done to employ mind and muscle and money.

There is such a wealth and a waste of land in Los Angeles, and America in general. Imagine what Tokyo or Bangkok would do with all these unused acres!

These empty spaces are within a five-minute walk from public transportation, Costco, LA Fitness, CVS and Staples as well as two grammar schools, three banks and an Asian supermarket.

This is a walkable place.

A well-financed visionary could build a low-rise, dense, green, urban farm upon these entombed soils, plant Oak trees, create a little garden with fresh fruits and vegetables, oranges, lemons, and asparagus.

This is a place of potential.

An architect could design some functional and modern attached houses, artfully shading them with native trees.

But for now, the parking lots suffer in silence; waiting for the day that California fires up its economy, wakes up from its long slumber and pushes progress.

A Week’s Worth of San Fernando Valley Manufacturing Jobs

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Rocketdyne mechanics, Canoga Park, circa 1960/ CSUN Digital Collections

Years back, manufacturing jobs were a mainstay of prosperity in the San Fernando Valley.

Huge aerospace, automobile, electronics, and construction companies fueled a vibrant, strong economy.

New immigrants, and working people from other states came to California and were able to find employment at General Motors, Teledyne, Ford, Lockheed and McDonnell-Douglas.

Today, there are almost two million people living in the San Fernando Valley.    The unemployment rate in Los Angeles is 11.6% but many, many more are barely earning enough to survive in low paying and part time work.

And in Craigslist, a grand total of 46 manufacturing jobs (6 or 7 a day) were advertised in the San Fernando Valley for the entire week of May 15-22, 2012.

On any one block in Van Nuys, there are probably seven people looking for work.

Here are the jobs:

Tue May 22

  1. Mechanical Design Engineer – (Chatsworth)
  2. Field Service Engineer – (Chatsworth)
  3. Machinist / Machine operators wanted –
  4. Chemical Engineer – (Chatsworth, CA)
  5. BINDERY – (NORTHRIDGE)
  6. Full-Time Seamstress Wanted – (Burbank, CA.)
  7. CNC Milling Machine Operator –
  8. TOOL / MOLD MAKER – (VALENCIA)
  9. Sheet Metal Fabricator – (Van Nuys,Ca)

Mon May 21

10. Machinist Set up/Operator –

11. Internal Mfg Logistics Specialist – (Montrose)

12. Service and Sales Rep – (Van Nuys)

13. Shipping and Receiving Warehouse Position – (Chatsworth)

Sat May 19

14. Purchasing/Inventory Control Manager – (Simi Valley)

Fri May 18

15. WAREHOUSE ASSEMBLY & PACKAGING POSITION – (CANOGA PARK)

16. Manufacturing Test Engineer – (Chatsworth)

17. Conventional Machinist – (Van Nuys)

18. Warehouse/Shipping/Inventory/Logistics – (San Fernando Valley)

19. Programmer, CNC Lathe Operator – (Burbank)

20. CNC MILL OPERATOR WANTED – (SF VALLEY)

Thu May 17

21. Conventional Machinist Needed!! – (North Hollywood)

22. handyman needed – (van nuys)

23. Machine Operator / Grinder Operator – (Chatsworth, CA)

24. Receiving Dept, Lead person – (Van Nuys, Ca)

25. Maintenance/CNC/Mechanical Engineer (Many Positions) – (Santa Clarita)

26. Regional Distribution Manager – img

27. Tech Assistant – (Northridge, CA)

28. Creative Seamstress/Prototype Maker Needed [pt] – (Tujunga, Ca)

29. CNC Machinist – Mill & Lathe – (Simi Valley)

30. Injection Molding – Set-up Technician – (Santa Clarita)

31. Die Casting Machine Operator / Die Setup person – (North Hollywood, California 91605) img

Wed May 16

32. Pre Production Assistant – (Chatsworth)

33. QUALITY INSPECTOR – MACHINED PARTS – (Chatsworth, CA)

34. Manufacturing Engineer – (Santa Clarita)

35. Inspector Class A or B – (Chatsworth, CA)

36. Shipping Clerk- 2nd Shift Positions – (Chatsworth, CA)

37. Receiving Inspector – (Valenica)

38. Jr. Material Handler – (N. Hollywood)

39. Sewers – (ProtecTARPS, SUN VALLEY, CA 91352)

40. Purchasing Manaager – (Santa Clarita)

41. Warehouse/Inventory Control Manager – Bilingual – (North Hollywood)

Tue May 15

43. CNC Programmer/Manufacturing Engineer/Machinist – (Santa Clarita)

44. Program Manager / Project Manager / Manufacturing – (Valencia)

45. Quality Assurance / Control – (Valencia)

46. Warehouse Positions – (Santa Clarita)

The Eternal Garage Sale.

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Garage Sale: Kester, n. of Magnolia. Sherman Oaks, CA.

Spread out on lawns and along the sidewalks: blankets and sheets. They are covered with old clothes, boxes of CDs, vacuum cleaners, pots, pans, glassware, chairs, hats, scarves, underwear, socks, and baby clothes.

Since the Depression laid its dollar-killing hands around the neck of Los Angeles, two years ago, junk sales have blossomed and proliferated and spread like dandelions. Jobless, insecure, fearful, angry; the people are throwing their vast array of crap onto the public sidewalks and private lawns of LA hoping to get $40 or $60.

Jack and his Mom

Outside a neat, small apartment in Sherman Oaks’ Posoville district, my friend Jack’s mom sells stuff every weekend. They live together in a three-room, vinyl-floored unit whose walls are decorated with carved crucifixes and many paintings.

White-haired, dressed in sweats, speaking in an accent that originated somewhere east of the East River, she gave me a hearty welcome. “Go to Unit #13 and see my son,” she ordered.

I walked through the gate, past the jellybean shaped swimming pool and knocked on the door.  Italian, single, straight, 45, delivery service driver; Jack answered and gave me a hug.

He was watching the game, (whatever game that was I do not know), next to a bigger lug named Caesar, a large, oversized, crotch-picking co-worker in an AC/DC t-shirt and cargo shorts whose pockets held two freshly rolled joints.

Caesar, grinning ever so proudly, told me he had walked out on his wife of 14 years last week. She lived down the street with his two kids, 10 and 14. He had just come back from Las Vegas with Nikki. “I like to eat pussy,” he explained.  His wife didn’t know where he was, which was fine with him.

Jack, though, has had some bad health problems lately. He can’t keep food down. He went to several doctors and has had a colonoscopy. He lost weight. He lost his appetite. He thinks he might be allergic to gluten.

The talk, as it does often these days, turned to “who caused the economy to crash”. I waited for the roulette wheel of scapegoats to spin and this time it landed on a surprise group.

Jack blamed “immigrants” who bought more house than they could afford and then crowded all their relatives in. These relations were all non-workers and non-citizens but they collected government benefits like disability, food stamps and unemployment.  Their housing speculation (not Wall Street or the Federal Reserve or banks), he explained, had driven the whole economy into the ground.

Jack also talked about “who owns Beverly Hills” and how he found a website that named all the names of the property owners in every house and “none of them are Americans”.

Unloved and Unneeded

There are many garage sales in Los Angeles now. They are set up anywhere by anyone. You don’t even need a garage anymore.

All along the wide, sunny, indistinguishable arteries of Kester, Balboa, Roscoe, Vanowen, Tujunga, Riverside, Burbank, Magnolia, Woodman, Moorpark, Venice, National, Sepulveda, and Pico; a city is emptying its closets and cleaning out its drawers and dumping its used, unloved and unneeded detritus; hoping to sell for pennies what was once purchased for dollars.

These are the red-flag days in California’s economy and in its social order. We Angelenos, we Americans are becoming more like our garage sales. Put out on the street to be had for next-to-nothing. Cheapened, starving, and needy. Down to our last nickel. And perhaps ready to be ignited by someone who will gain power from the powerless.

Food Pantry List.

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HOW TO HELP

Call food pantries for hours and other information on how to donate.

Lutheran Social Services: 6425 Tyrone Ave., Van Nuys; 818-901-9480; http://www.lsssc.org

Valley Interfaith Food Pantry: 11076 Norris Ave., Pacoima; 818-718-6460; http://www.vic-la.org

Meet Each Need with Dignity: 10641 N. San Fernando Road, Pacoima; 818-897-2443; http://www.mendpoverty.org

FISH of West Valley: 20440 Lassen St., Chatsworth. 818-882-3474.

SOVA: 16439 Vanowen St., Van Nuys. 818-988-7682; http://www.jfsla.org.

North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry: 4930 Colfax Ave.; 818-980-1657.

Guadalupe Community Center: 21600 Hart St., Canoga Park; 818-340-2050.

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church: 8520 Winnetka Ave., Winnetka; 818-341-3460.

West Valley Food Pantry: Prince of Peace Church, 5700 Rudnick Ave., Woodland Hills; 818-346-5554.

First Methodist Church of Reseda: 18120 Saticoy St., Reseda; 818-344-7135; http://www.fumcreseda.org.

Rescate at Canoga Park Community Church: 22103 Vanowen St.; 818-884-7587; http://www.rescatefamilycenter.org.

Lunch in Canoga Park.

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Today, I went west to a camera store along Sherman Way.

One passes through a lot of ugliness driving through West Van Nuys, Reseda, and Canoga Park.

There is the double- wide street, grand in intention, but cheap in reality. Lined with billboards, car washes, stucco apartments, Korean and Mexican fast food, discount toys, second-hand tires, used clothing, boarded-up theaters, motorcycle supply stores and ghastly mini-malls. Even its churches are uniquely hideous: without proportion, grace or any redeeming beauty.

Along one stretch of Sherman Way, there is a visually thriving, most likely economically struggling, bunch of antique stores, reminiscent of Burbank’s Magnolia Boulevard. For some reason, perhaps nostalgia, quite a few barber shops, not hair salons, offer discount cuts.

I thought I might eat Indian.

But then I discovered a boisterous and energetic Italian-American grocery: full of cannoli, cookies, pastas, salamis, breads, and a long wall of refrigerated drinks.

I stepped up to the counter and ordered a meatball hero with peppers. I walked around waiting for the sandwich and glanced upon generations of faded photographs showing customers and this neighborhood: what it once looked like and what it is today.

A framed illustration of Christ hung over the meat slicer.

There were American and Italian plastic flags taped to the wall and some of the workers wore POW and MIA caps. Their arms were tattooed with eagles, rifles and crosses.

At the picnic tables outside: groups of guys, on their lunch hour and talking shop. Dressed in jeans, soft guts inside voluminous cotton t-shirts, slouched over sodas and sandwiches, engrossed in computer talk.

At a table in front of me, one man talked to two others about a co-worker who made $65,000 a year and was “failing”. Uncomfortable laughter. Those three got up and left.

A middle-aged white man and a tanned woman with fried blond hair sat down. He told her she was “like a man” and had the aggressive talents to succeed at her job. He said that Carl loved her and thought she was adorable.

I was overhearing snippets of life on a workday in Canoga Park. And like that stretch of the Ventura Freeway between Reseda and DeSoto, it passed by fast, without distinction.

The West Valley is truly nowhere, and much of it is has been settled by escapees from other parts of Los Angeles, who ran to LA, when they left Iowa, Iran, Manila or Memphis. They work in Warner Center, for health insurance companies, or they are computer techs in black glass buildings on Sherman Way.

And on Topanga Canyon near Victory, Westfield is busy creating a “town center” at the mall. And across the street, Anthem Blue Cross is actuarially looking out for our financial and physical well-being.

This is Canoga Park or West Hills or Woodland Hills, subdivided ranch lands, packed to the gills. The folks out here live in a decaying nation that cannot muster the moral strength to provide decent jobs to its people or health care for all. But Nordstrom,  Macy’s, Best Buy, Crate and Barrel, Borders and Pier One–all wear great, big smiles of promise and prosperity.

So let us fly the flag high and hope for better days ahead.

Young Tarzanians Defy Recession.

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Reprinted from the San Fernando Valley Business Journal:
These Young Entrepreneurs Got Gelt and Some Chutzpah

By Eric Billingsley – 2/1/2010
San Fernando Valley Business Journal Staff

Take a minute to think back to when you were young, bright-eyed, and totally confident about your ability to enter the commercial real estate business and make a name for yourself.

Everything seemed possible, and you were convinced you could do things smarter, faster, and more profitable than your predecessors and competition. And each transaction, even the little ones, fueled that entrepreneurial spirit.

Not a bad exercise to do every now and then in a tough real estate market.

Now, meet 25-year-old Keith Wasserman, Damian Langere, 29, and Evan Rock, 24, principals of Gelt, Inc. Founded about a year ago, the Tarzana-based boutique commercial real estate firm specializes in retail, industrial and multi-family properties.

“Some of the most successful companies were started in recessions,” said Langere, co-founder of Gelt. “We’re trying to build something that’s fresh and new.”

They’re all newbies to the commercial real estate business, and in my opinion, the embodiment of that bright-eyed entrepreneurial spirit. And youth and ambition aside, they’re not just all talk.

The trio has closed 10 transactions since December 2008, formed a staple group of mentors, and attracted $2.5 million in investment capital. The capper, and testament to their entrepreneurial drive, is they all still live with their parents in order to re-invest money back into the business.

Gelt has acquired nine four-plexes and one 78-unit apartment complex in Bakersfield. Most of the transactions are REO properties. And after the purchase, the company rehabilitates the buildings, leases them out, and works with a third party property manager.

They are purchasing most of the properties in all-cash transactions, and said they hope to double or triple the number of properties in their portfolio in 2010. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, the term “gelt” is Yiddish for money.

“The main goal of Gelt, Inc. is to provide affordable housing,” said Wasserman, co-founder. Returns for investors have also been solid. For now the company is focusing on Bakersfield but would eventually like to expand into other markets.

The group is also tech savvy. They have a web site and use blogs, quirky videos of their due diligence process, Google Docs, social networking, iPhones and BlackBerrys to keep investors in the loop and market the company. They are also hosting regular investor seminars.

And they’ve managed –with some help from Wasserman’s father – to attract a large percentage of international investors.

“I want us to push the limits of how we brand this company,” said Wasserman, adding he wants Gelt to be the type of business where investors and clients always have access to the CEO and other principals. And he wants the business to be transparent.

The company is the brainchild of Wasserman. In 2004 he launched a general merchandising business on the Internet, which he said was one of the top 500 eBay sites. Then he worked in the property management business and eventually obtained his brokers license.

A couple years ago he and Langere, his cousin, teamed-up to form Gelt. Langere eventually quit his job as an environmental consultant, and the duo put up their own capital to buy the company’s first property. Then they brought on Rock, who worked for a brief time with a commercial brokerage, as VP of operations.

And the Gelt guys are getting plenty of guidance in how to grow the business and navigate the commercial real estate market from the “grey hairs.”

Wasserman’s father, prominent Valley lawyer Steve Wasserman, Adrian Goldstein and Robert Hernandez, are mentoring the youngsters. All are experienced real estate investors. And Wasserman Sr. and Goldstein have invested in some of Gelt’s properties.

“I can only speak about Keith, but I’ve seen a transformation in him from a college graduate to a real estate entrepreneur,” said Wasserman Sr. “They’ve got the business going. And they call me all the time because everything is a new experience for them.”

Why would an investor trust his/her money with Gelt, Inc.?

He said Wasserman Jr., Langere and Rock work 24/7. They’re constantly performing due diligence, rehabilitating properties and attracting new investors. They have a lot of good resources to use and have made a good name for themselves in the Bakersfield market.

“It’s very hard work and they probably look at dozens of properties before they get their hands on one,” said Wasserman Sr. What about the issue of them still living at home –Keith and Damian both live with Wasserman Sr.? “They’re up in Bakersfield a lot, and it gives them easy access to me.”

Staff Reporter Eric Billingsley can be reached at (818) 316-3124 or at ebillingsley@sfvbj.com.

San Fernando Valley Business Journal, Copyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved.