Dolores M. Bernal, LAANE’s multimedia specialist, is in Haiti now on assignment from Pacifica's Free Speech Radio News. To hear her reports, tune into KPFK (90.7 FM) weekdays at 6:30 pm. You can also go online to hear the broadcast anytime after 4pm: http://fsrn.org

Dolores has covered elections, politics and three major hurricanes (Katrina, Rita and Gustav). She worked for the Las Cruces Sun-News in New Mexico. In addition to producing LAANE videos and managing other multimedia projects, Dolores writes for Internet audiences on sites such as MSNBC’s Newsvine. In June 2009, she co-founded the online news site News Junkie Post.

Fight for Clean Air and Good Jobs Moves to the Courts and to Congress

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Sierra Club, both key members of a the LAANE-led Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, filed suit on January 4 against the Long Beach Harbor Commission over what they describe as a backroom agreement between the agency and the American Trucking Associations (ATA) that could illegally reverse efforts to improve air quality in communities surrounding the Port of Long Beach.

“This deal puts the wolf in charge of the henhouse – with a likely result of dirtier air for local communities. Industry cannot be allowed to dictate clean air efforts and rollback the Port’s clean air advancements,” said David Pettit, director of NRDC’s Southern California Clean Air Program.

The new agreement, entered into on October 19, gives the ATA authority to oversee future updates to the clean trucks program at the Port of Long Beach even if the Port is acting to protect public health and safety. The arrangement requires the Port of Long Beach to receive ATA’s approval before making changes to key portions of the clean trucks program or risk the ATA filing a lawsuit.

Meanwhile, two dozen California members of the U.S. House of Representatives have joined port officials and mayors from many major port cities in support of a revision to an archaic law prohibiting local regulation of the trucking industry that is being used to undermine efforts to fix a system that leaves truck drivers in poverty and unable to maintain their vehicles.

Relying on the federal law, the trucking industry has succeeded in blocking key provisions of the groundbreaking Los Angeles Clean Truck Program and forced drivers into exploitative and onerous lease agreements for emissions-compliant trucks, further driving down take-home pay in an already-weak economy.

In a letter last November to the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, the lawmakers supporting local regulation indicated their desire to protect the Port of Los Angeles’ Clean Truck Program and permit officials in Oakland, LA and around the country to enact similar operational requirements for port property to meet federal and state clean-air standards and improve safety, security and congestion.

In the letter to Rep. James Oberstar the lawmakers wrote: “As you consider transportation policies during this Congress, we urge you to allow California ports to implement and enforce critical truck management programs.”

Noting that 50 percent of imports pass through California’s ports, creating particularly acute challenges for trucking.  The condition of the trucks earned these trade hubs a notorious reputation as the place “where old trucks go to die.”  The Congressional leaders urged an amendment to the outdated Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA), enacted to “deregulate” the trucking industry.

"This is a historic fight to clean up the nation's ports and a historic partnership of environmentalists, workers and community members.  Whether we are in City Hall, at the Harbor Commission, or in Congress, our determination to create good jobs and a healthy environment remains unchanged," said Patricia Castellanos, LAANE's Deputy Director and chair of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports.

A LAANE study released in November found that the Century Corridor hotel living wage ordinance, combined with the successful negotiation of collective bargaining agreements at four LAX-adjacent hotels will produce $23.9 million in economic benefits.

In 2006, a coalition of community members, workers and clergy leaders joined together as the Coalition for a New Century in an effort to transform thousands of low wage hotel jobs into family-sustaining jobs and to upgrade a lackluster L.A. tourism district that is often the first glimpse visitors have of the region.

In the span of a few years, the Coalition—working with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles City Council—has managed to transform one of the lowest paying hotel submarkets in the region into one that is on the path to providing quality, middle-class jobs.  These wage and benefit increases are the outcome of a living wage ordinance implemented in July 2008 and union contracts at four of the 12 Century Boulevard hotels.  The 10% increase in wages constitutes less than 2 percent of hotels’ revenue.

The report estimates the benefit of the living wage policy and the union contracts for the 2,400 workers employed at the 12 hotels over the first four years of their implementation—and the increased economic benefit to the community overall.

• The unionization effort, combined with the living wage law, will have a $23.9 million impact, including $18.5 million in direct improvements in compensation and $5.4 million in additional local revenue due to hotel workers’ increased spending in the region.
• The increase in spending by hotel workers as a result of higher wages will generate an estimated 106 new jobs in L.A. County over four years.
• Century hotel workers who are covered by union contracts are expected to see their wages increase by more than 14% over the four years, boosting their average annual wage above the federal poverty line for a family of four. These workers will receive, on average, an additional $13,002 in wages and benefits over the first four years of implementation.
• The average worker affected by the Living Wage Ordinance is projected to receive an additional $4,141 in wages over the first four years of the law’s implementation.
• By 2012, average wages paid to Century Corridor hotel workers are projected to surpass those paid to Anaheim hotel workers and to approach the average wages paid in Santa Monica and Downtown hotels.

The increased earnings and benefits—from the policy and from the union agreements—help communities as well, as workers spend their increased wages at local establishments and rely less on taxpayer-funded public assistance.

“Our study proves the benefits of a high road, sustainable tourism model, which can certainly be replicated in other cities and states,” says Jasleen Kohli, LAANE Research/Policy Analyst.

“Transforming the Gateway to L.A.: The Economic Benefits of a Sustainable Tourism Model” can be viewed here.

L.A. City Council Moves to Attack Problem of Food Deserts

In response to a community effort to bring responsible grocers to underserved areas, the L.A. City Council voted on December 16 to draft an ordinance that would address the lack of access to healthy, affordable food in low-income neighborhoods.

The vote came a day after members of the Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores provided testimony at a city council committee hearing.  Among those testifying was Dr. Cheryl Resnik, from USC Fit Families Program in East Los Angeles, who called the lack of healthy food options an “epidemic” for children in food desert communities.

“Our children don’t have enough healthy food options, and it’s hurting them in a very dramatic way,” she said.  “Rates of obesity, diabetes and other chronic conditions in children in South and East Los Angeles are more than double the rates for children in West Los Angeles.”

City residents for decades have lamented the lack of grocery shopping options in South Los Angeles and in other underserved parts of the city.  In 2008, A Blue Ribbon Commission, convened by the LAANE-led Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores, released a report urging L.A. city leaders to take the lead in remedying a growing gap in the grocery industry’s treatment of underserved and affluent communities.

In spite of repeated efforts to expand access to good grocery options for underserved parts of the city, whole swaths of Los Angeles are “food deserts,” the report found. Even in those low-income communities where major chains have opened, the quality of food and service is inferior to what is offered in stores in more affluent neighborhoods, the report showed.

Grocery jobs in less affluent neighborhoods are also inferior to those in other parts of the city. The average grocery worker in East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles and the Northeast San Fernando earns at least $7,000 less than employees of West Los Angeles stores, according to the California Economic Development Department, which collects employment data.

The Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores urged the City to create a city-wide policy that would designate areas of the city underserved by full-service markets as Food Priority Districts where all grocers seeking to expand should be encouraged and supported.

In addition, coalition members want the law to require grocery chains seeking to open a new store or renovate an existing store to be evaluated in terms of the store’s impact on a community’s health, economic well being and environmental sustainability.

“A lot of promises have been made to L.A.’s communities, but there’s been little to show for it over the years,” said Elliott Petty, Director of Retail Projects at the Los Angles Alliance for a New Economy. “This policy will establish standards in an industry that is critical to the physical and economic health of its residents.”

The committee also heard testimony from Rev. Norman Johnson, pastor of First New Christian Fellowship Missionary  Baptist Church in Los Angeles and co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Commission on the L.A. Grocery Industry and Community Health, as well as representatives from Occidental College’s Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 770.

10,700 Gain Family Health Care Coverage

Thanks in large part to a LAANE and SEIU-led campaign to update the L.A. Living Wage Ordinance, thousands of workers and family members gained family healthcare coverage for the first time on January 19.

Last September, the Los Angeles City Council passed an amendment to the city’s living wage ordinance after LAANE, SEIU’s Airport Workers United, and the Reaching Higher for Healthcare Coalition waged a campaign to update the ordinance to account for family health care costs.

“I can’t express how important this is for me and my family,” said Claudia DeLeon, a security officer at the airport and a member of SEIU’s Airport Workers United. “I have thousands of dollars of debt because I had no insurance when my two year old son was bit in the face by a dog. But, at least now I know that we will be able to see a doctor when we need to.”

In December, Airport Workers United announced new union contracts providing family medical, dental and vision coverage for airline contracted workers at LAX.  The contract benefits more than 2,500 workers and an estimated 3,200 family members.

Another 2,200 workers and their 2,800 family members received access to family health coverage because of the amendment to the ordinance, bringing the total benefiting from the amendment to 10,700.

The living wage amendment, which went into effect this month, increased the amount employers may devote to healthcare from $1.25 to $4.50 per hour.  Now airport workers must either be paid an hourly wage of $10.30 per hour plus health insurance or $14.80 without health insurance.

“Airport workers are responsible for everything from cleaning and searching airplanes to assisting passengers with disabilities—jobs which expose them to injuries and illnesses, including infectious diseases,” said Carolina Briones, director of LAANE’s airline services project.  “It’s only right that they and their families have access to quality health care.”

Before passage of the LAANE policy, many airport workers relied on state and county assistance—and many had no healthcare at all. The update to the living wage means that they are now able to receive medical care, including regular check-ups, vision and dental care.

Their employer-provided coverage means that they no longer must seek out public assistance, which reduces the number of people seeking state and county care during a time when more and more people are relying on the public safety net for help.

As we send out New Vision, LAANE’s newsletter, the fate of national health care reform hangs in the balance.  We urge you to take action to ensure passage of a real health care reform bill. Here in Los Angeles,  thousands of L.A. airport workers won full family health benefits with the help of the newly-amended L.A. Living Wage Ordinance.  Read more below.

Take Action - Let's Urge Congress to Finish the Job on Health Care!

This is a critical time for our national leaders to act in the interest of working families and the millions of Americans who lack quality health insurance. Sign this petition, circulated by Health Care for America Now, urging Congress to pass real health care reform.
To go to the petition, please click here.

L.A. City Council Moves to Attack Problem of Food Deserts

In response to a community effort to bring responsible grocers to underserved areas, the L.A. City Council voted on December 16 to draft an ordinance that would address the lack of access to healthy, affordable food in low-income neighborhoods. Read More »

10,700 Gain Family Health Care Coverage

LAANE Study Shows Century Corridor Hotel Living Wage Produces $23.9 Million in Economic Benefits

A LAANE study released in November found that the Century Corridor hotel living wage ordinance, combined with the successful negotiation of collective bargaining agreements at four LAX-adjacent hotels will produce $23.9 million in economic benefits.  Read More »

Fight for Clean Air and Good Jobs Moves to the Courts and to Congress

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Sierra Club, both key members of a the LAANE-led Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, filed suit on January 4 against the Long Beach Harbor Commission over what they describe as a backroom agreement between the agency and the American Trucking Associations (ATA) that could illegally reverse efforts to improve air quality in communities surrounding the Port of Long Beach.  Read More »

Premier Progressive Dinner in Los Angeles

LAANE Multimedia Specialist in Haiti to Cover Earthquake’s Aftermath

Dolores M. Bernal, LAANE’s multimedia specialist, is in Haiti now on assignment from Pacifica's Free Speech Radio News. Read More »

Salon Series Commences

LAANE’s first in a series of salons was held at the home of Shana Weiss and John Silva on September 29, and co-hosted by LAANE Advisory Boardmember Lara Bergthold. Following  dinner, guests took part in a lively conversation with LAANE’s Executive Director, Madeline Janis, who discussed LAANE’s mission and key projects, including the ongoing fight to reduce cancer-causing pollution at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the work to transform the region’s low wage tourism jobs, and the effort to bring quality grocery stores to Los Angeles’ underserved ‘food deserts.’

Greg Good, director of LAANE’s recently-launched Waste and Recycling Project, outlined  strategies that are being developed to create good jobs and reduce the environmental hazards of one of the region’s most unregulated and dangerous industries.

Aimed at outreach toward new supporters and progressives, including many from the entertainment industry, the salon series offers a unique in-depth approach to sharing LAANE’s message and strategy with those who want to become more involved.

LAANE Kicks Off Membership Program

On September 22, LAANE hosted its first membership party at the home of longtime LAANE supporter Julia Meltzer. Aimed at celebrating LAANE’s first 100 members, the crowd reached 160 by the time the doors opened and the music began to play at the refurbished loft space alongside the L.A. River.

With a goal of signing up 10,000 members within five years, the membership program offers younger activists and community members a way to become more involved in LAANE’s work to create good jobs, a healthy environment, and thriving communities through direct action, digital activism and social media.

Currently LAANE is offering two types of membership: Activist members can join for $50, while the Premier Membership Circle requires a $250 donation and offers the added benefit of an annual debrief reception with Executive Director Madeline Janis.

Special thanks to all of our co-hosts and all the new members of LAANE.

Become a LAANE member today, click here.

LAANE Announces Upcoming 2009 City of Justice Awards Dinner

LAANE Advisory Boardmember Barbara Maynard Finds Inspiration in People’s Every Day Battles

Bus Tour Highlights Health and Food Crisis in East L.A.

Long Beach March Marks Launch of “Hope for Housekeepers” National Tour

Nearly 350 hotel housekeepers joined clergy and community leaders at a march and rally in Downtown Long Beach on September 30 to raise public awareness of the high risk of injuries for room attendants in Long Beach’s booming hospitality industry and to bring attention to Hyatt's across-the-board firing of housekeepers in Boston.

The event marked the launch of the “Hope for Housekeepers” campaign, a national effort by Hyatt housekeepers to stop the abuse of women in the hotel industry and bring a message of hope to fellow Hyatt housekeepers and the thousands of women working as housekeepers across the globe. The event also was part of a LAANE-led effort to raise job standards in the Long Beach, where the tourism-dependent economy has contributed to high poverty rates and where hotel wages lag those in comparable submarkets.

“Sometimes, I have to clean up to 30 rooms in one shift,” said Celia Alvarez, who has worked as a housekeeper for the Hyatt Long Beach for 19 years. “I have to rush through our work just to finish that many rooms in 8 hours—lifting, tucking, pulling, over and over again.  Because of this intense motion, I am permanently injured in my lower back and shoulder and can no longer work.”

In a recent academic study of 50 hotels operated by the top five hotel companies, Hyatt had the highest reported rate of injury for housekeepers, with housekeepers often cleaning up to 30 hotel rooms a day in just eight hours. The authors also report that many forgo health insurance for their families because of the high cost.  

A LAANE study, published earlier this year, found that the city of Long Beach had subsidized the construction of the Hyatt Long Beach with an estimated $77 million.  “Long Beach residents deserve better than substandard jobs and backbreaking working conditions for hotel workers in exchange for their considerable investment,” said Maria Loya, director of LAANE’s Responsible Hotels Project.

Hyatt housekeepers are organizing a seven-city tour, starting with Long Beach, featuring the symbol of their movement -- the Hope Quilt.  This quilt stitches together the stories of Hyatt housekeepers and the pain they endure everyday just to provide for their families. Each patch symbolizes a story of pain, injury, and even death or miscarriage brought about by the heavy burden of their workloads.  

"When our hotel guests see their rooms nice and clean, they have no idea that the housekeeper who did the work was probably injured," said Alvarez.  "Guests should know that we're suffering."

In Boston on August 31, Hyatt Hotels fired 100 long-term housekeepers and replaced them with low wage workers from a subcontractor.  The fired housekeepers claim they were told they were training the subcontracted workers as “vacation” replacements.  Hyatt workers and housekeepers across the nation held actions and vigils in support of the Boston Hyatt 100 Housekeepers.  Nearly 200 hospitality workers and community supporters were arrested last week as part of a non-violent civil disobedience action in downtown Chicago. The action, witnessed by over 600 workers and community supporters, took place in front of the Park Hyatt Hotel amid an escalating local labor dispute and a growing public backlash against Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels for the firings. Hotel workers in San Francisco also staged a major civil disobedience action in conjunction with the Chicago civil disobedience.

Since the Hope for Housekeepers campaign launched in Long Beach, the Hope Quilt has traveled to San Clemente, San Francisco, San Antonio and Indianapolis.  The final destination of the quilt will be the Hyatt headquarters in Chicago.  To date, the Hope Quilt stretches more than 125 feet long, and is continuing to grow.

To find out more about the Hope for Housekeepers campaign and to show your support by signing their pledge, please visit www.hotelworkersrising.org/hope.

Watch A Video On The March:

Big City Mayors Join L.A. Coalition in Growing Movement to Clean up the Nation’s Ports

September 2009 Issue

Justice on the March

Workers and Community Leaders Declare Boycott of Long Beach Hilton

After more than a year of appeals and little progress, hotel workers are asking for clients and community members to boycott the Long Beach Hilton, owned and operated by HEI Hotels & Resorts. The boycott comes in the wake of efforts to improve wages, secure affordable health benefits and ensure a fair process for workers to decide whether to form a union.

Long Beach Hilton workers and a number of faith leaders held a press conference on September 3 calling on the community to boycott the hotel. Several clients of the Long Beach Hilton have already pledged to pull their business from the hotel if the boycott remains in place leading up to their events.

“If a labor dispute is in effect as we come closer to [our event date], it is most likely that we would…be unable to use the Long Beach Hilton as a General Synod hotel,” said Edith Guffey of the United Church for Christ, a future client of the hotel.

The Long Beach Hilton is the first hotel in Long Beach to face a boycott, and the second HEI hotel that is currently under boycott. Conditions at the hotel have become a rallying point for a diverse alliance of community leaders concerned about the link between low-wage jobs and poverty in their city.

“I stand by the workers in calling a boycott of the Long Beach Hilton,” said James Thing, a member of the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs & a Healthy Community and a professor of sociology at Cal State Long Beach. “Many of the parents and guardians of our students work in the hotel industry and need fair working conditions and adequate health care for themselves and their families.”

Workers currently do not have access to affordable health care—family plans can cost several hundred dollars a month—forcing some to rely on government assistance to pay for medical care for themselves and their families.

“For over a year, we have struggled to address our concerns with the managers at the hotel,” said Elizabeth Martinez, a waitress at the hotel. “Calling for a boycott is not an easy decision for us to make, but we have tried all other options and this is the only one left.”

The Long Beach Hilton has been at the center of much controversy over the last year. In July 2008, more than 600 Long Beach hotel workers, community supporters and elected officials marched in front of the Long Beach Hilton, raising awareness about poverty wages and difficult working conditions in the city’s growing hotel industry. A few months later, community members held a toy drive to support the families of Long Beach hotel workers, including many families from the Hilton. In February 2009, nearly 300 college and university students from United Students Against Sweatshops demonstrated in front of the Hilton demanding that the hotel adhere to higher labor standards.

Coalition and community leaders have held numerous delegations to hotel management and actions in front of the hotel. Assemblymembers Warren Furutani and Bonnie Lowenthal, City Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga and representatives from Councilmembers Patrick O’Donnell and Gerrie Schipske’s offices are among those who have participated in delegations and actions.

“When we see injustice in our communities, it is our responsibility to stand up and be counted,” said Steve Neal, 9^th District City Council candidate and Executive Director of the Labor Community Services Food and Emergency Program. "I will not eat, sleep or meet at the Long Beach Hilton, and will urge others to respect this boycott until the workers are treated with respect and dignity.”

LAANE Releases New Report on Jobs, Income and Poverty in L.A. County

On September 29, LAANE is releasing a report analyzing new data released that day by the federal government on jobs, income and poverty in L.A. County.

The report paints a picture of how the local economy has fared during the initial phase of one of the nation’s worst recessions. Accompanying the report is a series of podcast interviews with leading experts on the environment, health care, job quality and the social safety net.

Profiles of workers from different industries – some struggling, others doing better as a result of successful organizing efforts – are also featured, along with an essay by LAANE executive director Madeline Janis.

“Our goal is to provide readers with essential information on our local economy, compelling human stories and a set of bold ideas to create a new economy for all,” said Jessica Goodheart, LAANE Research Director and author of the report. “It’s time for us to come together to create good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment.”

A Lifelong Passion for Justice

LAANE Advisory Boardmember Tracy Gray’s Activist Roots Go Back to Childhood

LAANE Advisory Boardmember Tracy Gray credits conversations with her father, a Vietnam veteran, for opening her eyes to economic justice issues. “I remember back in the 70s he talked about race, opportunity and the economic implications of race.” He saw the armed forces as the only pathway to economic self-sufficiency for many Americans, Tracy remembers. “Even though I was a child, this planted a seed and eventually inspired me to work toward what I call ‘creating equitable wealth’—bringing access to wealth to women and minorities.”

Decades later, Tracy heads Collaborative Equity Partners, a venture catalyst consulting firm focused on the emerging domestic market, and is serving in L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s administration as Special Advisor for Capital Formation. Formerly LAANE’s Director of Retail Policy, she joined the Advisory Board in 2008 after completing her M.B.A. program.

Before joining LAANE, Tracy worked for a venture capital fund, as a business development consultant in the music and digital media industries and as a systems engineer with the Space Shuttle program.

How did you first get involved with LAANE?

I saw an ad for a research position at LAANE and immediately applied as I wanted to learn more about economic development policy. Prior to LAANE, I worked at a venture capital firm and did some research around economic development incentives for our portfolio companies. The more I got into economic development, the more I wanted to learn. I felt the perfect place to do that was through a policy organization whose aim was to create an equitable playing field.

There isn’t another organization that is as strategic as LAANE. The work LAANE does impacts people across the country—across the world, actually, as I’ve met people overseas who knew about LAANE. Our reach is further than Los Angeles so I always want to stay involved with LAANE. The respect people have for LAANE travels with you, and I want to give back because LAANE has helped me with my career. Plus, it’s home.

What did you do once you left LAANE?

I wanted to start my own fund because when I was at the venture capital firm, I very rarely saw women and minority entrepreneurs pitching their companies. When I would hang out with venture capitalists, no one looked like me. I only knew of a handful of other people of color and none were focused on technology where the “big money” was being made. All the wealth was being created in a shrinking market, which is against every sound business model out there. It seemed like a lack of knowledge more than anything else—on the part of the VCs and minority entrepreneurs. So I saw an opportunity in the growing market of women and people of color. I wanted to be the catalyst that changed this.

I thought my digital media and technology background, along with my knowledge of economic development policy, would give me an advantage. But I needed to go to business school. With an eclectic professional background and the fact that I’m a woman of color, I felt I couldn’t just go to any school. Having a degree from a Top 10 business school is very important in venture capital circles, so I decided to get two! The Columbia/U.C. Berkeley program was the perfect fit. The Berkeley side focused on entrepreneurship and social issues, while Columbia focused on finance. We had an international seminar class where I traveled to India to study the entertainment industry and microfinance, and to Argentina to study macro and microeconomics in the different industries in Latin America.

How did your experience of business school compare with your time at a nonprofit such as LAANE?

When I first worked at LAANE, business was often our opponent, but I felt there were ways to work with business and there were best practices in business that nonprofits could also benefit from (and vice versa). Business is about making money, and, right or wrong, in this country money is power. LAANE is about empowering communities—organizing is about power. In business school, I kind of did the opposite by trying to show my classmates the importance and economic value of adding a social screen to business decisions. I think I was somewhat successful at doing both.

What other organizations are you involved with?

I’m on the board of Create:Fixate, an arts organization aimed at increasing access to the arts and to emerging artists. I’m also a board member of the Lin Cole Foundation, an environmental organization, and I’m joining the board of Global Girl Media, a nonprofit that helps young girls around the world express themselves and their ideas through digital media.

Was there an activist who inspired you while growing up, and who is the most inspiring to you today?

Growing up, I’d say Martin Luther King, Jr. and JFK. The whole civil rights movement was an inspiration and so those leaders stand out. Today, it’s Bishop Desmond Tutu because he combines activism and a sense of humor. I remember seeing him as an undergrad at U.C. Santa Barbara. The anti-apartheid movement inspired me during college to become an activist—and of course, Mandela was important to me, too. But there was Bishop Tutu making me laugh in the middle of all that horror. He’s incredible.

What can you tell us about yourself that people might not know?

I’ve traveled to 30 countries. I spoke Japanese as a child. I do a new thing every week. With my MBA program, I’d had this amazing year and I was afraid I’d have nothing to look forward to, and I wanted to keep that energy alive and have something to be excited about. So I decided to do something new every week—I’ve fire-danced, taken an improv class, learned to use power tools and walked across the L.A. River bridges. It’s been an amazing experience and it’s made me much more present in how I relate to everything and everyone. If you’re truly present, you find you’re doing new things all the time and you see all the wonder that’s out there.

LAANE Launches New Website

Expanded Content, Interactive Features Offer a Rich Resource on the Local Economy

LAANE has launched a new website with expanded content and a host of interactive features. The site not only includes information on LAANE’s work, but news and opinion on the critical issues facing our region.

These are some of the elements of the new site:

• Resource centers on health care, green jobs and working America

• A guide to workers’ rights, community health and environmental policies locally and around the country

• Video and audio profiles of workers, community activists, faith and business leaders and elected officials

• Take Action opportunities

• Multimedia page with videos, podcasts, slide movies and other features

• RSS feed with the latest news on all of LAANE’s projects

“Our hope is to make this site a valuable resource for lawmakers, journalists, researchers, activists and anyone interested in the great economic and social challenges of our time,” says LAANE Executive Director Madeline Janis. “Los Angeles needs a place where we can discuss these issues, work toward solutions and ultimately move toward a new economy for all.”

Expanded Content, Interactive Features Offer a Rich Resource on the Local Economy

LAANE has launched a new website with expanded content and a host of interactive features. The site not only includes information on LAANE’s work, but news and opinion on the critical issues facing our region.

These are some of the elements of the new site:

• Resource centers on health care, green jobs and working America

• A guide to workers’ rights, community health and environmental policies locally and around the country

• Video and audio profiles of workers, community activists, faith and business leaders and elected officials

• Take Action opportunities

• Multimedia page with videos, podcasts, slide movies and other features

• RSS feed with the latest news on all of LAANE’s projects

“Our hope is to make this site a valuable resource for lawmakers, journalists, researchers, activists and anyone interested in the great economic and social challenges of our time,” says LAANE Executive Director Madeline Janis. “Los Angeles needs a place where we can discuss these issues, work toward solutions and ultimately move toward a new economy for all.”

LAANE Advisory Boardmember Tracy Gray’s Activist Roots Go Back to Childhood

LAANE Advisory Boardmember Tracy Gray credits conversations with her father, a Vietnam veteran, for opening her eyes to economic justice issues. “I remember back in the 70s he talked about race, opportunity and the economic implications of race.” He saw the armed forces as the only pathway to economic self-sufficiency for many Americans, Tracy remembers. “Even though I was a child, this planted a seed and eventually inspired me to work toward what I call ‘creating equitable wealth’—bringing access to wealth to women and minorities.”

Decades later, Tracy heads Collaborative Equity Partners, a venture catalyst consulting firm focused on the emerging domestic market, and is serving in L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s administration as Special Advisor for Capital Formation. Formerly LAANE’s Director of Retail Policy, she joined the Advisory Board in 2008 after completing her M.B.A. program.

Before joining LAANE, Tracy worked for a venture capital fund, as a business development consultant in the music and digital media industries and as a systems engineer with the Space Shuttle program.

How did you first get involved with LAANE?

I saw an ad for a research position at LAANE and immediately applied as I wanted to learn more about economic development policy. Prior to LAANE, I worked at a venture capital firm and did some research around economic development incentives for our portfolio companies. The more I got into economic development, the more I wanted to learn. I felt the perfect place to do that was through a policy organization whose aim was to create an equitable playing field.

There isn’t another organization that is as strategic as LAANE. The work LAANE does impacts people across the country—across the world, actually, as I’ve met people overseas who knew about LAANE. Our reach is further than Los Angeles so I always want to stay involved with LAANE. The respect people have for LAANE travels with you, and I want to give back because LAANE has helped me with my career. Plus, it’s home.

What did you do once you left LAANE?

I wanted to start my own fund because when I was at the venture capital firm, I very rarely saw women and minority entrepreneurs pitching their companies. When I would hang out with venture capitalists, no one looked like me. I only knew of a handful of other people of color and none were focused on technology where the “big money” was being made. All the wealth was being created in a shrinking market, which is against every sound business model out there. It seemed like a lack of knowledge more than anything else—on the part of the VCs and minority entrepreneurs. So I saw an opportunity in the growing market of women and people of color. I wanted to be the catalyst that changed this.

I thought my digital media and technology background, along with my knowledge of economic development policy, would give me an advantage. But I needed to go to business school. With an eclectic professional background and the fact that I’m a woman of color, I felt I couldn’t just go to any school. Having a degree from a Top 10 business school is very important in venture capital circles, so I decided to get two! The Columbia/U.C. Berkeley program was the perfect fit. The Berkeley side focused on entrepreneurship and social issues, while Columbia focused on finance. We had an international seminar class where I traveled to India to study the entertainment industry and microfinance, and to Argentina to study macro and microeconomics in the different industries in Latin America.

How did your experience of business school compare with your time at a nonprofit such as LAANE?

When I first worked at LAANE, business was often our opponent, but I felt there were ways to work with business and there were best practices in business that nonprofits could also benefit from (and vice versa). Business is about making money, and, right or wrong, in this country money is power. LAANE is about empowering communities—organizing is about power. In business school, I kind of did the opposite by trying to show my classmates the importance and economic value of adding a social screen to business decisions. I think I was somewhat successful at doing both.

What other organizations are you involved with?

I’m on the board of Create:Fixate, an arts organization aimed at increasing access to the arts and to emerging artists. I’m also a board member of the Lin Cole Foundation, an environmental organization, and I’m joining the board of Global Girl Media, a nonprofit that helps young girls around the world express themselves and their ideas through digital media.

Was there an activist who inspired you while growing up, and who is the most inspiring to you today?

Growing up, I’d say Martin Luther King, Jr. and JFK. The whole civil rights movement was an inspiration and so those leaders stand out. Today, it’s Bishop Desmond Tutu because he combines activism and a sense of humor. I remember seeing him as an undergrad at U.C. Santa Barbara. The anti-apartheid movement inspired me during college to become an activist—and of course, Mandela was important to me, too. But there was Bishop Tutu making me laugh in the middle of all that horror. He’s incredible.

What can you tell us about yourself that people might not know?

I’ve traveled to 30 countries. I spoke Japanese as a child. I do a new thing every week. With my MBA program, I’d had this amazing year and I was afraid I’d have nothing to look forward to, and I wanted to keep that energy alive and have something to be excited about. So I decided to do something new every week—I’ve fire-danced, taken an improv class, learned to use power tools and walked across the L.A. River bridges. It’s been an amazing experience and it’s made me much more present in how I relate to everything and everyone. If you’re truly present, you find you’re doing new things all the time and you see all the wonder that’s out there.

Workers and Community Leaders Declare Boycott of Long Beach Hilton

After more than a year of appeals and little progress, hotel workers are asking for clients and community members to boycott the Long Beach Hilton, owned and operated by HEI Hotels & Resorts. The boycott comes in the wake of efforts to improve wages, secure affordable health benefits and ensure a fair process for workers to decide whether to form a union.

Long Beach Hilton workers and a number of faith leaders held a press conference on September 3 calling on the community to boycott the hotel. Several clients of the Long Beach Hilton have already pledged to pull their business from the hotel if the boycott remains in place leading up to their events.

“If a labor dispute is in effect as we come closer to [our event date], it is most likely that we would…be unable to use the Long Beach Hilton as a General Synod hotel,” said Edith Guffey of the United Church for Christ, a future client of the hotel.

The Long Beach Hilton is the first hotel in Long Beach to face a boycott, and the second HEI hotel that is currently under boycott. Conditions at the hotel have become a rallying point for a diverse alliance of community leaders concerned about the link between low-wage jobs and poverty in their city.

“I stand by the workers in calling a boycott of the Long Beach Hilton,” said James Thing, a member of the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs & a Healthy Community and a professor of sociology at Cal State Long Beach. “Many of the parents and guardians of our students work in the hotel industry and need fair working conditions and adequate health care for themselves and their families.”

Workers currently do not have access to affordable health care—family plans can cost several hundred dollars a month—forcing some to rely on government assistance to pay for medical care for themselves and their families.

“For over a year, we have struggled to address our concerns with the managers at the hotel,” said Elizabeth Martinez, a waitress at the hotel. “Calling for a boycott is not an easy decision for us to make, but we have tried all other options and this is the only one left.”

The Long Beach Hilton has been at the center of much controversy over the last year. In July 2008, more than 600 Long Beach hotel workers, community supporters and elected officials marched in front of the Long Beach Hilton, raising awareness about poverty wages and difficult working conditions in the city’s growing hotel industry. A few months later, community members held a toy drive to support the families of Long Beach hotel workers, including many families from the Hilton. In February 2009, nearly 300 college and university students from United Students Against Sweatshops demonstrated in front of the Hilton demanding that the hotel adhere to higher labor standards.

Coalition and community leaders have held numerous delegations to hotel management and actions in front of the hotel. Assemblymembers Warren Furutani and Bonnie Lowenthal, City Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga and representatives from Councilmembers Patrick O’Donnell and Gerrie Schipske’s offices are among those who have participated in delegations and actions.

“When we see injustice in our communities, it is our responsibility to stand up and be counted,” said Steve Neal, 9^th District City Council candidate and Executive Director of the Labor Community Services Food and Emergency Program. "I will not eat, sleep or meet at the Long Beach Hilton, and will urge others to respect this boycott until the workers are treated with respect and dignity.”

LAANE Releases New Report on Jobs, Income and Poverty in L.A. County

On September 29, LAANE is releasing a report analyzing new data released that day by the federal government on jobs, income and poverty in L.A. County.

The report paints a picture of how the local economy has fared during the initial phase of one of the nation’s worst recessions. Accompanying the report is a series of podcast interviews with leading experts on the environment, health care, job quality and the social safety net.

Profiles of workers from different industries – some struggling, others doing better as a result of successful organizing efforts – are also featured, along with an essay by LAANE executive director Madeline Janis.

“Our goal is to provide readers with essential information on our local economy, compelling human stories and a set of bold ideas to create a new economy for all,” said Jessica Goodheart, LAANE Research Director and author of the report. “It’s time for us to come together to create good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment.”

LAANE Advisory Boardmember Tracy Gray’s Activist Roots Go Back to Childhood

LAANE Advisory Boardmember Tracy Gray credits conversations with her father, a Vietnam veteran, for opening her eyes to economic justice issues. “I remember back in the 70s he talked about race, opportunity and the economic implications of race.” He saw the armed forces as the only pathway to economic self-sufficiency for many Americans, Tracy remembers. “Even though I was a child, this planted a seed and eventually inspired me to work toward what I call ‘creating equitable wealth’—bringing access to wealth to women and minorities.”

Decades later, Tracy heads Collaborative Equity Partners, a venture catalyst consulting firm focused on the emerging domestic market, and is serving in L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s administration as Special Advisor for Capital Formation. Formerly LAANE’s Director of Retail Policy, she joined the Advisory Board in 2008 after completing her M.B.A. program.

Before joining LAANE, Tracy worked for a venture capital fund, as a business development consultant in the music and digital media industries and as a systems engineer with the Space Shuttle program.

How did you first get involved with LAANE?

I saw an ad for a research position at LAANE and immediately applied as I wanted to learn more about economic development policy. Prior to LAANE, I worked at a venture capital firm and did some research around economic development incentives for our portfolio companies. The more I got into economic development, the more I wanted to learn. I felt the perfect place to do that was through a policy organization whose aim was to create an equitable playing field.

There isn’t another organization that is as strategic as LAANE. The work LAANE does impacts people across the country—across the world, actually, as I’ve met people overseas who knew about LAANE. Our reach is further than Los Angeles so I always want to stay involved with LAANE. The respect people have for LAANE travels with you, and I want to give back because LAANE has helped me with my career. Plus, it’s home.

What did you do once you left LAANE?

I wanted to start my own fund because when I was at the venture capital firm, I very rarely saw women and minority entrepreneurs pitching their companies. When I would hang out with venture capitalists, no one looked like me. I only knew of a handful of other people of color and none were focused on technology where the “big money” was being made. All the wealth was being created in a shrinking market, which is against every sound business model out there. It seemed like a lack of knowledge more than anything else—on the part of the VCs and minority entrepreneurs. So I saw an opportunity in the growing market of women and people of color. I wanted to be the catalyst that changed this.

I thought my digital media and technology background, along with my knowledge of economic development policy, would give me an advantage. But I needed to go to business school. With an eclectic professional background and the fact that I’m a woman of color, I felt I couldn’t just go to any school. Having a degree from a Top 10 business school is very important in venture capital circles, so I decided to get two! The Columbia/U.C. Berkeley program was the perfect fit. The Berkeley side focused on entrepreneurship and social issues, while Columbia focused on finance. We had an international seminar class where I traveled to India to study the entertainment industry and microfinance, and to Argentina to study macro and microeconomics in the different industries in Latin America.

How did your experience of business school compare with your time at a nonprofit such as LAANE?

When I first worked at LAANE, business was often our opponent, but I felt there were ways to work with business and there were best practices in business that nonprofits could also benefit from (and vice versa). Business is about making money, and, right or wrong, in this country money is power. LAANE is about empowering communities—organizing is about power. In business school, I kind of did the opposite by trying to show my classmates the importance and economic value of adding a social screen to business decisions. I think I was somewhat successful at doing both.

What other organizations are you involved with?

I’m on the board of Create:Fixate, an arts organization aimed at increasing access to the arts and to emerging artists. I’m also a board member of the Lin Cole Foundation, an environmental organization, and I’m joining the board of Global Girl Media, a nonprofit that helps young girls around the world express themselves and their ideas through digital media.

Was there an activist who inspired you while growing up, and who is the most inspiring to you today?

Growing up, I’d say Martin Luther King, Jr. and JFK. The whole civil rights movement was an inspiration and so those leaders stand out. Today, it’s Bishop Desmond Tutu because he combines activism and a sense of humor. I remember seeing him as an undergrad at U.C. Santa Barbara. The anti-apartheid movement inspired me during college to become an activist—and of course, Mandela was important to me, too. But there was Bishop Tutu making me laugh in the middle of all that horror. He’s incredible.

What can you tell us about yourself that people might not know?

I’ve traveled to 30 countries. I spoke Japanese as a child. I do a new thing every week. With my MBA program, I’d had this amazing year and I was afraid I’d have nothing to look forward to, and I wanted to keep that energy alive and have something to be excited about. So I decided to do something new every week—I’ve fire-danced, taken an improv class, learned to use power tools and walked across the L.A. River bridges. It’s been an amazing experience and it’s made me much more present in how I relate to everything and everyone. If you’re truly present, you find you’re doing new things all the time and you see all the wonder that’s out there.

Workers and Community Leaders Declare Boycott of Long Beach Hilton

After more than a year of appeals and little progress, hotel workers are asking for clients and community members to boycott the Long Beach Hilton, owned and operated by HEI Hotels & Resorts. The boycott comes in the wake of efforts to improve wages, secure affordable health benefits and ensure a fair process for workers to decide whether to form a union.

Long Beach Hilton workers and a number of faith leaders held a press conference on September 3 calling on the community to boycott the hotel. Several clients of the Long Beach Hilton have already pledged to pull their business from the hotel if the boycott remains in place leading up to their events.

“If a labor dispute is in effect as we come closer to [our event date], it is most likely that we would…be unable to use the Long Beach Hilton as a General Synod hotel,” said Edith Guffey of the United Church for Christ, a future client of the hotel.

The Long Beach Hilton is the first hotel in Long Beach to face a boycott, and the second HEI hotel that is currently under boycott. Conditions at the hotel have become a rallying point for a diverse alliance of community leaders concerned about the link between low-wage jobs and poverty in their city.

“I stand by the workers in calling a boycott of the Long Beach Hilton,” said James Thing, a member of the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs & a Healthy Community and a professor of sociology at Cal State Long Beach. “Many of the parents and guardians of our students work in the hotel industry and need fair working conditions and adequate health care for themselves and their families.”

Workers currently do not have access to affordable health care—family plans can cost several hundred dollars a month—forcing some to rely on government assistance to pay for medical care for themselves and their families.

“For over a year, we have struggled to address our concerns with the managers at the hotel,” said Elizabeth Martinez, a waitress at the hotel. “Calling for a boycott is not an easy decision for us to make, but we have tried all other options and this is the only one left.”

The Long Beach Hilton has been at the center of much controversy over the last year. In July 2008, more than 600 Long Beach hotel workers, community supporters and elected officials marched in front of the Long Beach Hilton, raising awareness about poverty wages and difficult working conditions in the city’s growing hotel industry. A few months later, community members held a toy drive to support the families of Long Beach hotel workers, including many families from the Hilton. In February 2009, nearly 300 college and university students from United Students Against Sweatshops demonstrated in front of the Hilton demanding that the hotel adhere to higher labor standards.

Coalition and community leaders have held numerous delegations to hotel management and actions in front of the hotel. Assemblymembers Warren Furutani and Bonnie Lowenthal, City Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga and representatives from Councilmembers Patrick O’Donnell and Gerrie Schipske’s offices are among those who have participated in delegations and actions.

“When we see injustice in our communities, it is our responsibility to stand up and be counted,” said Steve Neal, 9^th District City Council candidate and Executive Director of the Labor Community Services Food and Emergency Program. "I will not eat, sleep or meet at the Long Beach Hilton, and will urge others to respect this boycott until the workers are treated with respect and dignity.”

LAANE Releases New Report on Jobs, Income and Poverty in L.A. County

On September 29, LAANE is releasing a report analyzing new data released that day by the federal government on jobs, income and poverty in L.A. County.

The report paints a picture of how the local economy has fared during the initial phase of one of the nation’s worst recessions. Accompanying the report is a series of podcast interviews with leading experts on the environment, health care, job quality and the social safety net.

Profiles of workers from different industries – some struggling, others doing better as a result of successful organizing efforts – are also featured, along with an essay by LAANE executive director Madeline Janis.

“Our goal is to provide readers with essential information on our local economy, compelling human stories and a set of bold ideas to create a new economy for all,” said Jessica Goodheart, LAANE Research Director and author of the report. “It’s time for us to come together to create good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment.”

City of Justice Dinner

Big City Mayors Joins L.A. Coalition in Movement to Clean Up Nation’s Ports

Bus Tour Highlights Health and Food Crisis in East L.A.

Long Beach March Marks Launch of “Hope for Housekeepers” National Tour

LAANE Kicks Off Membership Program

Salon Series Commences

LAANE Advisory Boardmember Barbara Maynard Finds Inspiration in People’s Every Day Battles

Barbara Maynard’s intense energy and passion for justice has made her firm, Maynard Consulting Services, the “go to” place in Southern California for progressive campaigns... Read More