CSUN Economic Research Center Chief Retiring

Dan Blake will step down next month as the director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center after five years of compiling demographic and economic data for business and civic leaders. But Blake is no mere number cruncher. Through reports, appearances at conferences and in the media Blake contributed to a higher profile for both the center and its host, Cal State University, Northridge while also promoting the San Fernando Valley and its identity as a unique part of the city of Los Angeles. “We have helped people understand the Valley and what its potential is and what the issues are,” Blake said. Blake taught at the university for nearly three decades as an economics professor and then later took on the research center director position while decreasing his classload. That position was supposed to be just half-time for five years but Blake found himself going beyond that as he and the staff engaged in research on job creation, housing, and education that will leave current and future political and business leaders with information handy for enhancing and developing the Valley. Blake leaves the center when the fall semester ends and will be replaced by Bill Roberts, also an economic professor at CSUN. Blake will stay around for the remainder of the school year to help with the transition. Blake came to CSUN in 1971 after attending colleges in Montana and Oregon. The Valley had a more suburban feel to it then and he saw the aerospace industry take off in the 1980s and then be curtailed the following decade with the end of the Cold War. But changes in the Valley’s economy as large employers such as Lockheed and General Motors in Van Nuys made cuts in their workforce opened up new opportunities. “We have a thriving self employed sector because we had highly skilled workers let go by the large aerospace companies yet they had valuable skills and strong roots in the Valley and wanted to stay here,” Blake said. Reports from the center have tracked and analyzed those changes in employment and demographics. That data is valuable to city and county officials in their policy planning, businesses considering locating to the Valley, not for profits applying for grants and students doing research projects. The reports are also of value to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., whose senior economist Jack Kyser plays a similar role for the county as Blake does for the Valley. Both are the go-to guys for the media for an explanation of economic factors and a look at what may happen in the coming years. The center’s reports get down into levels of detail that the LAEDC doesn’t have the staff to cover, Kyser said. “The San Fernando Valley is bigger than some metro areas, so when you are dealing with an area that size having Dan out there putting out those reports helps give insights,” Kyser said. The reports have a side benefit of giving a higher profile for CSUN and the research center. Blake also hopes that the university is seen as a valuable partner not only in providing education but in advancing quality of life in the Valley. Blake will be missed at the school both personally and professionally because the knowledge and expertise he brought to the research center was an asset to the community, said Bill Jennings, dean of the College of Business and Economics. While Blake may have been head of the research center, that doesn’t mean he wanted the spotlight to himself. Most people want publicity just for themselves but Blake would never use the word “I” but always credited the research center or CSUN, said Marvin Selter, a North Hollywood businessman who served as chairman of the center’s advisory board. “That is a strong statement,” Selter said Retirement, however, won’t mean that Blake will step away from pursuing research projects in areas of interest to him: the Valley’s relations with the rest of Los Angeles and with the county, the effectiveness of training programs and reducing environmental impacts while also creating good jobs. “I will have more time to engage in pure research,” Blake said. “I will not quite disappear.”