Economic evangelist wows business gathering
Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class spoke–is still speaking–to the Downtown Long Beach Associates annual gathering. His point: Long Beach is poised to take advantage of an economic change bigger than the switch from agriculture to industry: the rise of creative types.
We’ll deal with more in a [...]

How much is Lakewood really shelling out to developers?

PHOTO by SUSAN SABO
Long Beach has taken a pretty good pounding over the years for a development strategy that shortchanges residents by giving sales-tax rebates to mega-retailers—especially since neighboring Lakewood has been able to attract more of those big stores without resorting to such tactics.
“Lakewood has never [...]

Every time Long Beach offers to rebate sales tax to mega-retailers in an attempt to lure their business to town, some reporter is sure to call Lakewood City Hall for comment. That’s what I do, anyway. Lakewood kinda likes to righteously remind the world that it doesn’t stoop to such self-cheapening tactics.
“Lakewood has never given [...]

LB Consumers For Choice is front for mega-retailer’s campaign. [From LBreport.com]
The Long Beach City Council hasn’t even decided if there will be a referendum yet, but Wal-Mart has already begun funding a supposedly grass-roots campaign to overturn a ban against big-box stores, according to Bill Pearl’s relentlessly excellent LBreport.com.