|
Chair’s Message
Mark Panatier
Chair of the Board: April 1, 2008 - March 31,
2009
Vice President,
A.F. Gilmore Company - Farmers Market
2008-05 | Giving Back and Staying Involved
Giving Back and Staying Involved
The word that best
describes the next year is FOCUS.
I don’t know what motivates
some people to volunteer but I volunteer to “give
back and stay involved.” This year I look forward to
working with many of you on issues that will build
on and extend Hollywood’s vitality.
It may surprise some that a
person from the original Farmers Market at Third and
Fairfax would be leading the Hollywood Chamber of
Commerce. The A.F. Gilmore Company, owner of the
Market, has a long association with the Hollywood
community. In fact, the Hollywood Stars baseball
team of the Pacific Coast League played at Gilmore
Field from 1939 to 1957. This association and my not
having an office in central Hollywood will allow me
to bring a unique perspective to the Chamber Board.
So what’s in store for this
year? The word that best describes the next year is
FOCUS. We will focus on a few important issues and
work hard to complete them or move them to the point
of completion by year’s end.
Based on recent discussions
with fellow Board members, you can expect us to
FOCUS on issues in the areas of:
-
Membership – where there will be a special
focus on supporting our small businesses, which
are the core of our membership.
-
Economic Development – not just the large
projects but small ones as well, and we want to
help build an economic base for all businesses.
-
Legislative Action – important issues at
the City, County, State and Federal levels that
will enhance the ability of our businesses to
prosper, not just survive.
-
Tourism and Marketing – make the Chamber’s
heavily visited website more informative and easy
to navigate so that people who want to dine, shop,
establish a business here, or simply come visit
will use it and tell others about us.
Finally, I look forward to the
coming year and want everyone to remember that good
things don’t just happen. The Hollywood Chamber and
its dedicated staff has been and will continue to be
the organization through which good things get done
and through which businesses have an important voice
in Hollywood.
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 Jeffrey C. Briggs,
Outgoing Chair
Chair of the Board: April 1, 2006 - March 31, 2008
Attorney at Law, Briggs Law
2008-03 |
Thank You, Hollywood!
2007-11 |
It's the Chamber Calling
2007-07 | Save
Hollywood’s Backbone
2007-03 | Mobile
Hollywood
2007-01 |
See Hollywood For The First Time--Again
2006-09 |
I Wish All Politics Really
were ‘Local’
2006-06 | Hollywood Chamber Goes
to Washington
2006-05 | Chamber
Steps Up: Relevancy, Visibility, and Accountability
Thank You,
Hollywood!
We are blessed with truly extraordinary people here
It has been my great privilege to serve as Chair of
the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce since April 2006.
We continue to live and work at an extraordinary
time in Hollywood’s history, and the Chamber has
honored and humbled me by letting me serve as its
volunteer leader over the past two years.
This newsletter recites elsewhere much of what we
have accomplished, are working on still, and what
remains to be done. I can take no credit for
anything we have done right, all the blame for what
we haven’t, and just am very appreciative to have
had the opportunity to work with and to get to know
so many fine people while sitting as Chair. I always
loved this neighborhood—now I appreciate and respect
it far more deeply. We are blessed with truly
extraordinary people here in Hollywood.
Thank you, Chamber members, for recognizing with
your renewals, your participation in Chamber events,
and your contributions to the Chamber’s Community
Foundation, that supporting the Chamber gives you a
voice that is stronger than just the sum of its
individual membership. Thank you in advance for
remembering that we are here to help you, and to let
us know what we do right, what we do wrong, and what
we need to do better. Please call or email us—we are
your Chamber.
Thank you, volunteer Chamber board members, for
caring about the shape of our community and for
putting in your time to get things done, both with
your own hands and by supporting the efforts of your
board colleagues and Chamber staff.
Thank you, volunteer Chamber officers and Executive
Committee, for probing and prodding and pushing for
more accountability and professionalism at all
levels of the Chamber.
Thank you, Chamber staff, for putting up with too
little thanks and too many complaints, but for
trying to remember to support and thank one another.
Be proud of what you do for a living here—it
matters, and you make a real difference.
Thank you, Chamber President and CEO Leron Gubler,
for your steady hand on the rudder, for your calm,
your humility, your capacity to listen, and your
ability to navigate among competing views and
interests to quietly but assuredly develop
consensus.
Thank you, Councilmembers LaBonge and Garcetti, and
your fine staffs, for your friendship to me
personally, for your willingness to listen to and
work with the Chamber, for supporting our local
businesses when merited on a given issue despite
differences on others, for constantly reminding us
that Hollywood is bigger than LaBrea to Vine, and
for inspiring us by your examples to think
creatively, to innovate, and to help you lead the
way not just to a better Hollywood but a better Los
Angeles.
Thank you, Johnny Grant, for far more than could be
recited in this small space, but mostly for showing
us how to embrace the future without forgetting our
history. The full measure of your genius probably
never will be fully appreciated, but examples reveal
themselves to us every day in what always will be
your town.
Thank you, business owners and employers, commercial
and residential property owners, developers and
preservationists, studios and crews, schoolteachers
and nightclub operators, governmental units and
charitable service providers, residents and
visitors—that is to say, thank you, Hollywood—for
building an example of what a densely populated,
frequently visited, twenty-four hour a day/three
hundred sixty-five days a year business and
residential district realistically can aspire to be
in the twenty-first century. You are making
Hollywood more than a brand name known around the
world—you are proving what a diverse urban community
can accomplish for all of its citizens when people
work harder on the broader dreams and visions they
share than on their mere differences of opinion.
Thank you all for letting me be a part of
Hollywood’s close-up these past two years.
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“It’s
the Chamber Calling . . . .”
The old-fashioned phone call seems to be making a
comeback!
Under the leadership of Senior Vice Chair Charlie
Armstrong, the Board of Directors of the Hollywood
Chamber of Commerce has launched an aggressive
membership drive designed to put Chamber members
more directly in touch with the Chamber’s volunteer
leaders. It is working—retention is up, and after a
long period during which overall membership has
remained level or even slightly decreased, both new
and total membership numbers once again are trending
up.
The centerpiece of Charlie’s campaign plan is
proving the Chamber’s “value proposition” by direct
outreach to members from Chamber leaders. Our
membership staff is doing an outstanding job—just
ask any new member—but no matter what the Chamber
does to communicate regularly with existing members
about what the Chamber is up to—our weekly on-line
newsletter, and the bi-monthly report you hold in
your hand—there appears to be no substitute for
personal contact after one first signs up. The
Chamber’s membership staff, and the volunteer Board
members making calls—report that members appreciate
it even if nothing more than a message is left
saying someone from the Chamber called. In this busy
day and age, maybe the number of on-line newsletters
and mailings one receives is just too mind-numbing
to stay current. The old-fashioned phone call—even
if aided by an automated system for leaving a
message—seems to be making a comeback!
Aside from learning this lesson in running your own
business—that is, the need to make an occasional
phone call instead of relying only on email or some
other substitute for personal contact—please know
that when a Board member asks you how the Chamber
can help you, she or he really means it! Your caller
might not know the answer to your question, but can
find out who does.
Need to know when Hollywood Boulevard next will be
closed, and why? Need help figuring out how to find
parking for your tenants or visitors for a special
event—or every day? Need help getting a permit
through the city labyrinth? Want to know who to call
to get a pothole fixed or a street light replaced?
Wonder how to go about converting an old industrial
space to lofts or office space? Need to know how
small businesses can save money on taxes in Los
Angeles? Want to know where to send a homeless
person who wants medical help or a meal? Need help
figuring out a ballot proposition? Want to know how
to get your wares in front of other Chamber members
or our three million-plus monthly website visitors?
The Chamber has or can get answers to these and many
other questions, from the big issues of the day to
the little things that drive you crazy because you
just don’t know whom to call.
The Chamber is working on your behalf every day in
myriad ways—take a moment to tour through our
website at www.hollywoodchamber.net and you will
understand the role your Chamber plays in making
things happen in Hollywood. We are good at the big
things—but we are good at the small things, too.
Maybe you don’t need help getting a zoning variance,
or care what we are doing to support or oppose a
particular new development or proposed
ordinance—maybe what you most need is a way to get
rid of that mattress someone dumped on the sidewalk
in front of your business. Well, the Chamber can
help you figure out how to get that done. The more
of you that ask, the more we make these things our
priority.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is yours. When you
are a member, it is not just you speaking when the
Chamber calls someone else on your behalf, it is the
Chamber’s entire membership. Make the Chamber work
for you—talk to us, and tell us how we can help you.
If you haven’t yet received a call from one of our
Board members, don’t despair—we have a lot of
members to call, and only a relatively small number
of Board members. But we will get to you. So when
you get the word that “The Chamber is calling,” take
a moment to pick up the phone and let us know how we
can help you. Or just pick up the phone right now
and call us. When we ask how we can help you, we
really do want to know and really will try to help.
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Save
Hollywood’s Backbone
We need the
Governor—one of Hollywood’s own—to lead the way
California is home to the
world’s largest entertainment business—we now have
our second actor as Governor—and “Hollywood”
is its capital. Our Hollywood—our district
in the heart of Los Angeles—is the backbone of that
business. From major studios and distributors to
independent stage and post-production houses, from
casting agencies to resident actors and their
guilds, from music and recording schools to top live
performance and movie theaters, from television
shows to radio, from the Academy Awards to the
Hollywood History and Wax Museums, and even to
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, we have it all.
But Hollywood is home—and
supportive spine—to more than just those who work
and aspire to work directly in the entertainment
business. Hollywood is home to caterers and
carpenters, to florists and fashionistas, to truck
drivers and limo drivers, to delis and designers,
and to so many others whose businesses depend
substantially, some even entirely, upon those who
work directly in the “business.” And make no
mistake, the entertainment business is threatened
these days.
Piracy already has dramatically
changed the landscape of the music business, and not
for the better in terms of those who make their
livelihoods selling recordings and supporting those
that do. The motion picture business is next, and
the damage is enormous already, even at its nascent
stages. Your Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is doing
what it can to assist filmmakers in protecting their
work from theft: Among other things, we support
local area congressional representatives like Diane
Watson and Howard Berman in the important
legislative work they are doing to fight
international piracy. Our local police, sheriff,
and FBI field office are enforcing copyrights in the
streets every day.
But what really is needed most
is an attitude adjustment—people need to understand
that unlawful downloading and copying is theft, and
if it continues unabated there will be little left
to steal. We also hope the motion picture and
television trade associations will learn something
from the experience of the record companies and
figure out a way—sooner than later—to get on the
same page both as to industry standards for digital
copyright protection and as those who demand quick
access to entertainment content via digital media.
Of more immediate concern,
meanwhile, is what our state legislators—and our
entertainment insider Governor—have failed to do to
ensure California’s preeminent role in filmmaking.
In each of the past several years, the legislature
has failed to pass tax credits and other measures
designed to keep producers, and especially
independent producers operating on smaller
filmmaking budgets, from going to other states
offering all kinds of credits and inducements to
make movies and television shows anywhere but in
Hollywood. Some other states have become so
successful in this regard that they now are building
permanent studio facilities. One day soon, if it
hasn’t already happened, other states will have an
infrastructure to support filmmaking that will rival
Hollywood’s—and it won’t take long for the
carpenters and electricians and florists to flock to
those states and their lower costs of living. This
is a talent and skill drain Hollywood—and
California—cannot afford to suffer.
The Hollywood Chamber of
Commerce is monitoring this year’s legislative
agenda carefully and is supporting efforts, like
those of state Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas to educate
his fellow legislators about the importance of the
entertainment industry to the entire state’s
economy, to enable filmmakers who want to prepare,
shoot, and complete post production work in
California to do so on at least a close to level
playing field with the other states who seek their
business. We applaud Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez
for creating a Select Committee on Preservation of
California’s Entertainment Industry, and for
appointing local Assemblymember Paul Krekorian as
its Chair. Local Assemblymember Kevin DeLeon also
is an important appointee on that committee, along
with several other Los Angeles area assemblymembers.
But it is clear, in yet another tight budget year,
that they have a long way to go to gain the support
of their legislative colleagues in both houses for
economic incentives benefitting an industry too many
associate only with Hollywood.
Hollywood remains, outside of
our state, the face of California. “Hollywood” is
bigger than our district, bigger than our city and
county, and bigger than Southern California—the
skilled employees of the studios and production
companies and post production houses, and of the
many businesses that support and depend on them for
viability, are the backbone of an infrastructure
that pays more than its fair share into the state’s
coffers for the roads we drive on and the schools
our kids attend and the levies needing
reconstruction up north. It is time the rest of
California’s legislators wake up to the fact that
the industry that supports their own districts’ pet
projects is in the early stages of an exodus and now
needs their help. And we need the Governor—one of
Hollywood’s own—to lead the way. It would not be
parochial for him to do so—it truly would benefit
“all the people” he claims he went to Sacramento to
represent.
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Mobile
Hollywood - The Easiest Place in the City to Get
Around
If we want to encourage
people to walk between stops and use public
transportation more, we first have to win their
hearts and minds, and we have to get them here to do
that.
Ten years ago, the Hollywood
Chamber’s Economic Development Committee was happy
if it just had a project—any project—to review. Now
developers desiring the Chamber’s support for their
projects are waiting in line to get on the
Committee’s monthly meeting calendar. The
Committee’s annual Economic Development Summit could
have been held in the Chamber Board Room several
years ago; last year we had to turn people away from
the AMPAS Mary Pickford Center’s large auditorium,
and we are looking for a much bigger venue this
Spring. Long-time Economic Development Committee
Co-Chairs Brian Folb and Ira Dankworth have been
great leaders as we have come from trying to find
projects to consider to having to choose among
projects to support.
With the powerful voice the
Chamber’s work has earned it throughout the city’s
various development departments comes responsibility
for ensuring that Hollywood’s growth is sensible.
The jobs/housing balance is critical, and
preservation of Hollywood’s history is what makes
our district the tourism center of the County—the
Chamber’s Economic Development Committee and its
Board of Directors will continue to focus on those
issues as new projects are presented. But right now
transportation problems that come with growth
literally are screaming for solutions. We embrace
the vision of our Mayor, our district’s
councilpersons Eric Garcetti (President of the City
Council) and Tom LaBonge and their staffs, the CRA,
and others to develop a long-term district-wide
mobility plan encouraging new travel behavior by our
fellow citizens. We look forward to working with
them to see it happen. We urge only that the plan
accepts reality while it pursues that laudable goal
First, some realities: We are
the City of the Car and that isn’t going to change
anytime soon. Cars need places to park. A retail
business’s parking needs are different from a
residential development’s parking needs, which are
different from a nightclub’s needs, which are
different from an office building’s needs. And with
the construction of our job-producing and
residential buildings generally comes a loss of
parking spaces as street lots give way.
When the City encourages
developers to build less parking than the
development is replacing, it is not taking-on these
realities. When the Department of Transportation
(DOT) fails to build a new parking structure
promised as a condition of community support for a
new senior housing center (as at Ivar and Selma),
then DOT is consciously ignoring these realities. We
can’t encourage people to change their habits if
they never come here in the first place because they
know they can’t conveniently park. If we want to
encourage people to walk between stops and use
public transportation more, we first have to win
their hearts and minds, and we have to get them here
to do that.
Once here, Hollywood probably
is the easiest place in the city to get around. The
subway runs one end to the other, with enough stops
to make walking virtually anywhere in the
Hollywood/Sunset corridor an easy stroll. Dash buses
run regularly as well throughout the District. Our
local hotels mean accessible cabs (and we are
working to ensure pedestrian ability to hail cabs
from the street a la New York). The Holly Trolley
probably was ahead of its time when introduced last
year, but it will be back to circulate people from
major parking structures throughout the
shopping/dining/night-life center of the District.
In fact, there really is a lot of parking in
Hollywood—it isn’t all right next door to one’s
every destination, but it is there, and so long as
we can keep people coming to Hollywood in the first
place, we have the opportunity to be a City leader
in acculturating them to using alternative modes of
transportation for getting around within the
District once they arrive. But we have to get them
here first, and that means visible, accessible
parking.
The Hollywood Chamber of
Commerce has encouraged and supported the
development and growth in Hollywood that has
transformed the District over the past decade into
the City’s hottest place to visit, live, and work.
We stand ready to work with our local councilpersons
and with the City’s planners to take responsibility
for the transportation impact of that growth—and for
helping change the way people think about their
mobility. Let’s keep, however, the horse before the
cart—we have to get people here first, then show
them a new way to get around.
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See Hollywood For The First Time--Again
What I did see, for the
very first time, was the endless sea of smiling
faces and waving arms as we made our way around the
2 mile route. It was electrifying.
Every once in awhile we get the opportunity to see
something familiar from a new direction. It usually
turns out that we hardly knew at all what we thought
we knew so well. Hollywood has given me two such
opportunities in the past couple months.
First was the reopening of the Griffith Park
Observatory after a long renovation closure. It was
worth the wait, and the cost. The new public areas
are exceptional in terms of content and comfort—that
was expected. What was not expected was that so
much could be added inside while so little outside
has changed—except to be able to see this
magnificent building in virtually all its original
glory for what seems like the very first time. All
the new space was built underneath the wonderful
park in front of the building, and its magnificent
welcoming sculpture, looking as it always did, but
brighter. What really stopped me short, however,
were the views of the surrounding Griffith Park
hillsides and of the city spread out endlessly
below. I don’t think there is any better view of
Hollywood and the rest of the city, especially as
the lights come on at night. This is a destination
worthy of the word, and people will, indeed, flock
to the new Observatory in droves, further
invigorating an already vibrant tourism economy at
whose center is Hollywood. I bet visitors already
have paid for the renovation in overall added
contributions to the local economy.
But when was the last time you visited a monument
like this without a guest from out of town—just went
to remind yourself why you take guests there at all,
to try to see everything through their uninitiated
eyes? The Observatory re-opening was that occasion
for me. I left with a renewed appreciation not only
for the Observatory, but for all the things in
Hollywood we residents take for granted. I want to
take my own bus tour again, stand in Frank Sinatra’s
footprints at Grauman’s and have my picture
taken, have a drink at the Pig & Whistle and
actually look at the beautiful ceilings
there, and pause to take in the wonderful Egyptian
Theater courtyard--all once again for the very first
time.
Second was actually participating in the Hollywood
Christmas Parade—seeing it not from curbside as
usual, but along the entire route while riding with
an equestrian unit. I actually didn’t see much of
the Parade itself, except for my own group and those
in front and back of us. But what I did see, for
the very first time, was the endless sea of smiling
faces and waving arms as we made our way around the
2 mile route. It was electrifying. Nobody had a
clue who I was (except for the Chamber’s rooting
section in the grandstand, thank you very much), but
it didn’t matter—face after face, especially of
children, sought mere eye contact with all of us
passing by, and a return wave, simply to make a
connection with someone in the Parade. They
acted—and believe me, it was not just the
children—like it was the most exciting thing they’d
ever done. That kind of enthusiasm is infectious,
and I found I couldn’t stop trying to make eye
contact or stop waving, and didn’t want to. I
gladly would have gone around the route again. It
was without question the most unique way to
experience a parade that I can imagine. My next
grandstand seat will not be a letdown, it will let
me watch the passing parade with a new set of eyes.
Hollywood, thanks for showing me familiar things
again, as if for the very first time. My
appreciation for the unique community in which we
live and work here in Hollywood has increased
ten-fold, and I intend to let the scales fall from
my eyes and really see you once again, for myself.
Join me, my friends and colleagues—Hollywood is
ready for its close-up, and so are you!
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I Wish All
Politics Really were ‘Local’
You are a member of
a strong community coalition
of people who “get it,” and then get it done.
As your Chamber’s Chair this
year, I have been privileged to see firsthand how
our local government officials and their staffs, as
well as many interested citizen volunteers at the
Chamber and other community organizations, work
together to get things done here in Hollywood.
No, they haven’t solved
violence in the Middle East or global warming. But
our Hollywood heroes and heroines made telephone
calls, Blackberried emails, wrote letters, and
personally lobbied city and state transportation
department heads to relight an out-of-commission
message sign on the “101” freeway encouraging people
to take the next exit when Highland congestion
dictates; got the powers-that-be to widen Highland
Avenue north of Hollywood Boulevard to address the
ever-increasing queuing of buses, cars, trucks, and
motorcycles that travel that route 24/7; formed a
smart-growth team to support developments that will
bring more good jobs, parking, and living space
(including affordable housing) to Hollywood; are
developing plans to bring a new “Central Park” to
Hollywood; are working hard to re-route the LA
Marathon to make it less inconvenient for Hollywood
residents, tourists, Sunday churchgoers, and
businesses; built a new elementary school playground
named in honor of our Hollywood “Mayor,” our beloved
Johnny Grant; removed graffiti throughout the area;
installed new surveillance cameras to deter crime on
the Boulevard; placed white-gloved traffic police at
key intersections during rush hour; lifted
prohibitions on tunneling that would have precluded
any extension of the subway line from Hollywood to
the Westside; championed legislation that will keep
“Hollywood” jobs in our community, along with all
the other businesses they support; and performed
myriad other tasks too numerous to catalog here that
genuinely contribute to the well-being of our homes
and businesses.
And I dare say one could
participate in any or all of these activities
without the subject of a fellow-participant’s
political party affiliation ever coming up. How
refreshing!
In our
little corner of the world we call Hollywood –
certainly one of the most diverse communities on the
planet – one sees democracy and free enterprise and
neighborly compassion work hand-in-hand every single
day. Our elected officials and neighborhood
activists understand that business investment in the
community is required to make Hollywood a desirable
place to live and work, as well as a place that can
take care of its disadvantaged; for their part, our
business owners prove time and time again that they
are more than willing to invest in and donate to the
community to make it a place their businesses and
employees can thrive alongside residential neighbors
when they can see tangible results from their
efforts – and tax payments – right outside their
doors.
So it is that we come together
at neighborhood councils, at citizen/police advisory
meetings, at Chamber meetings, and the like not as
Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Greens, or
Libertarians, but simply as Hollywood and Los
Angeles citizens with common interests in our own
local environs – from sidewalks to traffic, from
schools to food banks, and from places of worship to
places to eat and drink and socialize. “Left” and
“right” on the “bigger” issues of the day simply
have no place at the table when politicians,
business owners, and residents convene – as they do
so frequently – to effect change right here in
Hollywood. What we think about global warming or the
global war on terror, or about NAFTA or NASA, is
irrelevant to the immediate jobs at hand right here
in our own backyards. We talk and listen to each
other about getting things done here in Hollywood
with respect, without demagoguery, and with a common
desire to accomplish real tasks and to achieve
mutually beneficial goals whose impact we all can
see and feel every day. And then we get those things
done. What a concept.
This coalition of
not-really-so-strange bedfellows consists of people
like you and me – they have families, jobs, hobbies,
and interests that all present their own challenges
in daily life – but they still make time to help
make Hollywood work better for all of us. As a
member of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, you
have already been inducted into this coalition. When
you attend the Chamber’s Legislative Action,
Healthcare, Economic Development, Tourism, and/or
Board Meetings; when you attend one of our
best-in-the-City mixers, breakfasts, luncheons
and/or Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Community
Foundation fundraisers; when you access the Chamber
website’s Member Business Directory to “buy
Hollywood” – you are a member of a strong community
coalition of people who “get it,” and then get it
done. Without your Chamber dues, your ideas, your
feedback, and your follow-through, the Hollywood
revitalization effort would just be another in a
series of “good-intentioned” ideas rather than
something we can see all around Hollywood every
single day.
It often is said that “all
politics are local.” It certainly works here in
Hollywood. If only that were true in Sacramento and
Washington!
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Hollywood Chamber Goes to
Washington:
Organized Lobbying with Significant Role
 In
the past several weeks, delegations of Hollywood
Chamber staff, Board members, and committee members
visited Sacramento and Washington, D.C., to discuss
a variety of issues with our state and federal
representatives and their staffs, the Governor's
office and his Washington staff, and officials from
other groups representing businesses in our
community. The Chamber's President and Public
Policy Director visit with these representatives
throughout the year as particular issues arise, but
these annual delegation trips to our state and
national capitols give our Board and other Hollywood
Chamber activists a chance to see for ourselves the
challenges facing and opportunities afforded the
organized voice for business our Chamber embodies.
These were my first such trips in
my many years of involvement at the Chamber, and I
admit to having approached them with skepticism—it
is said that seeing government "work" is like
watching sausage being made in that neither is
something you want to see up close. I am pleased to
report that much of my skepticism was misplaced, and
I encourage our members to participate in our future
trips--I promise they will neither include nor
resemble a hot dog plant visit.
The first thing that struck me
was the amount of work that faces our
representatives and their staffs. While I would
like to see fewer laws and less regulation, and,
thus see our legislators and their staffs much less
busy, for good or ill at present we find ourselves
with a very busy government and we have to make do
with that reality. The result of this busy
government is that an organized voice like the
Chamber's has a significant informative role to
play--seeing the stacks of paper piled high in
everyone's office, it was easy to forgive the
occasional lack of knowledge about some issues and
seize the opportunity to educate our representatives
or their staffers on the finer points of pending
legislation of importance to our members. As just
one example, we met with a senior staffer of a
legislator about AB 777 (a bill seeking tax relief
for certain motion picture and television
productions similar to that offered in several other
states taking some of that business away from
California) who acknowledged that his boss’s leaning
against the bill was based solely on the cursory
report on the bill provided by a party caucus. We
left that meeting confident that we had engaged the
staffer's interest in the real impact of the bill,
had armed him with arguments in favor of its passage
that were consistent with his boss's own legislative
goals, and had learned what additional information
could be helpful in answering other concerns his
boss and other similarly-leaning legislators will
have as the bill works its way through Sacramento.
While it remains to be seen whether our efforts will
be helpful in stopping "runaway production" and the
drain it imposes on businesses from small production
companies to post-production companies to lighting
companies and to the florists, caterers, carpenters,
and electricians who serve the film industry and
live and work right here in Hollywood, at the very
least we contributed significantly to getting AB 777
a full and fair hearing.
The second thing that struck me
on these recent visits was the seriousness with
which our views were taken, even when our views
conflicted with those of a particular legislator.
For example, Senator Barbara Boxer was adamant in
her opposition to a small business healthcare
insurance bill the U.S. Senate was debating on the
very day we met with her. She knew from our advance
work with her staff that we supported the measure;
nevertheless, she not only still took the time to
meet with us between hearings and votes, but she
took the time to explain the basis for her
opposition and to argue in favor of an alternative
bill she believes will give small businesses the
cost benefits of "pooling" without compromising
healthcare insurance requirements established by any
individual state and its elected representatives.
We received a similar reaction from Congressman
Xavier Becerra. Whatever the merits of the then
pending bill--which subsequently was rejected in
Congress—the Hollywood Chamber and its Healthcare
Committee now are far better armed to ensure this
important legislative effort is successful in its
next incarnation. But what was most revealing was
that these legislators care enough about what the
Hollywood Chamber and its members think to take the
time to listen and explain themselves to us. Time
and again we heard how important it is for them to
hear from constituents, and in particular from
organized groups of constituents like the Hollywood
Chamber. That they took the time to talk with us is
both a credit to these representatives and a
testament to the power of the Hollywood Chamber’s
voice.
Finally, I was struck by the
earnestness with which our representatives and their
staffs address "local" issues. Our California
representatives have their hands full with plenty of
statewide issues one reads about in the news every
day, as do their federal counterparts with national
issues, but it now is clear to me that local issues
get equal attention if not equal billing. The day
we met with Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg to
discuss the Infrastructure Bond and subway
extensions, for example, she was testifying with her
characteristic vigor about the need to protect
legitimate towing company operators in Hollywood
from the unintended consequences of well-meaning
legislation proposed to curb abuses by questionable
operators. Similarly, the day we met with
Congresswoman Diane Watson to discuss anti-film
piracy legislation, she was thrilled to hear about
long-range plans for new green space in Hollywood
and also started putting together an idea for an
entertainment industry "summit" in Hollywood to
bring attention to the many local businesses
impacted by "runaway production." The sincerity
with which these and many of our other political
representatives listened to and supported our ideas
was inspiring for all of us who attended these
meetings.
Follow-up is key, of course, and
is underway. You will read elsewhere in this
newsletter about other items we discussed on our
Sacramento and Washington trips, and we will
continue to keep you apprised of upcoming issues of
importance to your businesses and to our community
so that you can provide us with your comments and
advice. We will use our new website
www.hollywoodchamber.net to connect you
with our political representatives—and they will use
our website to connect with you (now that they know
we get 2 million hits from 50,000 different visitors
every month—yes, you read that correctly, so think
what our site can do for your business!).
But what you should know is that the voice of the
Hollywood Chamber does get heard and can
make a difference. So when the Chamber reaches out
to you in a letter-writing campaign, it is not a
vain effort; when it seeks your input and presents
it to our elected officials, it has impact.
Representative democracy is alive and well, but it
takes constant vigilance--a vigilance your
participation in the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce
ensures.
I want to thank everyone who
participated—at their own, not the Chamber’s,
expense—in our recent trips to meet with our
political representatives. I learned a lot from you
and from the trips, and I look forward to working
with you and all our members to put that knowledge
to work.
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Chamber
Steps Up: Relevancy, Visibility, and Accountability
I am humbled to preside over
the Board of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for
the next year. I stand on the shoulders of
giants—those very dedicated men and women of the
Hollywood community who volunteer so much of their
time and money to the many endeavors in which the
Chamber is involved as a leader and important
participant.
I am especially indebted to our
two most recent Chairs, Karen Diehl and Michael
Taylor, and Hollywood’s Honorary Mayor, Johnny
Grant, from whom I have learned so much. But the
backbone of the Chamber always will be its dedicated
staff and the extraordinary Leron Gubler, the
members of the Chamber’s Board of Directors, the
non-Board members of the Chamber’s committees and
task forces, and the Chamber members themselves. It
is awe-inspiring to work with so many dedicated
people who always seem to squeeze a little more time
out of each day to participate in making Hollywood a
better place to work and live.
Last year’s Chair Karen Diehl
asked the Chamber Board to “Shake it Up,” to
approach tasks old and new with an open mind in
keeping with Hollywood’s iconic legacy of staying
ahead of the curve. Under her leadership we made
real inroads in “shaking things up” with respect to
local transportation issues—our meetings with local
officials led to significant changes in plans for
the widening of and turn lanes on the Highland
Avenue/Franklin Avenue convergence, and our support
for our local city council members in their efforts
to invigorate discussion of rapid transit
alternatives was instrumental in Congressman Henry
Waxman’s recent removal of longstanding obstacles to
consideration of any underground system between
Hollywood and the West Side.
The Chamber also
continues to work closely with the Mayor, the
Community Redevelopment Agency, local neighborhood
councils, and Hollywood businesses and residents in
considering issues raised by Permanent Supportive
Housing proposals and other new ideas for both
facing up to and responding to homelessness in our
community in a genuinely effective and long-term
way. We also “shook things up” by identifying a new
idea for development of green space in
Hollywood—building a park over a portion of
the Hollywood Freeway. And we will continue to
pursue Karen’s vision that Hollywood’s signature
events like the Parade and the Academy Awards not
only must entertain the millions who watch those
events live and on television, and benefit local
businesses in terms of burnishing the Boulevard’s
image as an unparalleled tourist destination
throughout the year, but also must work well for our
local stores and restaurants at the time of such
events in spite of related temporary street
closings.
In “shaking it up” in these and
many other ways last year, the Board’s appreciation
grew for the impact the Hollywood Chamber of
Commerce has when its members and staff speak, or
even when the Chamber merely is identified, in
support of a new project or idea—not just locally,
but statewide and even nationally and
internationally. This year I have challenged
the Board to “step up” to that responsibility in
three ways: Relevancy, Visibility, and
Accountability. The Chamber cannot be relevant to
its members if it is not visible and if its Board
members do not do what the members are asked to do
to support Chamber activities; the Chamber cannot be
visible if it is not pursuing relevant initiatives
and if it is not accountable for making progress on
them; and the Chamber cannot be accountable if it is
not visibly taking a position on matters relevant to
its members.
So as the Chamber Board and
staff commence the 2006-07 year, I have challenged
them to consider each task we undertake in terms of
how it is relevant to improving the local economy or
otherwise fulfilling the Chamber’s mission, how
lending the Chamber’s considerable weight to a
relevant project can be made more visible, and how
progress on those tasks can be measured. It is in
that light that we will establish a Political Action
Committee for purposes of endorsing candidates and
legislative proposals, continue to tackle
transportation issues affecting Hollywood
immediately and regionally, address serious
solutions to business and residential issues raised
by homelessness, find ways to increase the value of
our community’s signature events to our local
businesses, make the community more livable for the
many new residents who are lining-up to fill the new
apartment and condominium units opening up in the
coming year and beyond, make room for the many new
employers who want to set up shop in Hollywood but
need more local office space so people can work as
well as live here, and ensure that it is
Hollywood—not Vancouver, or Toronto, or
Albuquerque, or San Antonio—that remains the
place to film and finish motion picture and
television productions.
One of our Directors recently
commented to me that in a world where opposition to
any new business or community development project is
so common and so loud—and often disproportionately
so in comparison to true community views—the Chamber
is one of the few places where one can seek an
organized voice for new ideas. That really
resonated with me. As the Hollywood Chamber’s Chair
in the coming year, I pledge that the Chamber will
continue to be an organized voice in support of
growing our local economy, growing our members’
businesses, growing space in which to live and
work in Hollywood, and growing our capacity
for capturing the uniquely American brand of
optimism and aspiration that “Tinsel Town” inspires.
I ask all our members, my
fellow Board members, and the Chamber staff to “step
up” to the challenge and opportunities the Hollywood
name gives all of us.
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