REDEVELOPMENT—N. Hollywood Living Wage Allies Have Uphill Battle

Jose Molina knows the drill. At 38, the Mexican-born janitor is one of thousands of Valley residents who move from one low-paying job to another, now earning slightly more than $7 an hour cleaning a Van Nuys office building. Molina has no illusions of someday making $30,000 a year. “I no think so,” he said with a heavy accent. So it comes as little surprise that Molina and others in his North Hollywood neighborhood support the drive to have future tenants of the $400 million NoHo Commons retail complex provide its workers with a so-called living wage. But that support is tempered by skepticism. The project, if living wage proponents were to succeed, would become one of a handful of developments scattered throughout the United States that require wage guidelines. And even in those projects, activists have met with mixed results at best. In Minnesota, for instance, living-wage proponents felt they scored a victory when the Minnesota Wild National Hockey League team agreed to create 50 full-time living-wage jobs as a condition for the construction of a new arena in 1999. However, at the same time, the team expected to generate more than 150 other arena jobs that would not be tied to living-wage commitments. In St. Paul, Minn., Media One, now AT & T; Broadband, last year pledged to provide living-wage jobs to low-income residents as part of a deal it made to relocate there. An AT & T; spokesperson said that pledge has not yet been implemented. Los Angeles is one of more than 40 cities that have living-wage ordinances for contractors that do business with them. However, contractors and developers dealing with the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency are exempt from those requirements because, although operated by the city, it is technically a state agency. City officials said they support the living wage in theory; they also said they are concerned that it may scare off potential tenants, according to agency spokesman Thomas Knox. While the notion of a living wage sounds good to many in the mostly working-class community, it remains a sticking point with project developer J. Allen Radford. Radford, among the growing number of developers courted by living-wage activists, says he is not in the business of telling tenants how much to pay their employees. While he sympathizes with activists, Radford complained that living-wage activists could kill the very project they support. Better than nothing Kevin Whelan, a Minnesota-based organizer with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform, or ACORN, says weak living-wage ordinances and business opposition have slowed efforts. “Getting 50 living-wage jobs from the Minnesota Wild is a small number, but 50 jobs are better than none,” he said. Likewise, Valley living-wage activists see a rough road ahead for their efforts. Erika Zucker, policy director for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, said living-wage efforts are still in their infancy and are a long way from acceptance in the business community. “There is a lot of opposition, so we have to take one step at a time,” she said. Cameron Levin, an analyst with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, says the living-wage proposal is nothing new to the area. “It’s been tried very successfully in Hollywood,” said Levin, referring to the TrizecHahn Development Corp.’s $567 million hotel, theater and retail complex at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. Under an agreement with the Community Redevelopment Agency, TrizecHahn has guaranteed 1,000 living-wage jobs, mostly at a planned Marriott Hotel and with janitorial and security staffs through the complex. The company also agreed to “encourage” its tenants to pay their workers a living wage. Beth Harris, a TrizecHahn spokeswoman, said the company supports living-wage efforts and is giving preference to potential tenants that would do the same. “It’s hard to tell what will happen, but we want to meet with the developer and have a dialogue,” said the Valley Jobs Coalition’s Roxane Auer. “A lot of people here are counting on this project.” The North Hollywood project, now in the final stages of development, is the recipient of $20 million in funding from the redevelopment agency, which approved the plans for the area around Lankershim and Magnolia boulevards. The Valley Jobs Coalition’s proposal has been presented to the agency for review and possible consideration. But Auer says it’s been revised twice while in agency hands and may still not pass muster with the agency board. “There’s a lot of opposition to this plan,” she said. Just above the poverty line The coalition defines a living wage as one that allows an income just above the federal poverty line for a family of four in Los Angeles: $7.72 an hour with benefits, $8.97 without. The federally-mandated minimum wage is now $5.75 an hour. According to U.S. government statistics, there are 6 million adults who earn less than $16,400 a year the federal poverty line for a family of four. According to state figures, 315,000 Valley residents live below that. Other statistics show that seven of L.A. County’s 10 fastest-growing occupations pay less than $8.50 an hour, according to the non-profit California Budget Project. Roxana Tynan, an aide to former L.A. City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who led the effort to develop the Hollywood and Highland project, said TrizecHahn’s agreement is a model for other projects, such as NoHo. “My sense is that this project will lead to bigger things,” Tynan said. “We hope to have a living-wage proposal for the CRA that will cover tenants, but we’re still a long way off from that.” Agency board members did not return telephone calls to the Business Journal and agency spokesman Thomas Knox said he would not comment on the proposal or possible board actions. The Community Redevelopment Agency could vote on the living-wage proposal later this year. The 22-acre NoHo project is scheduled to open in about two years with a hotel, restaurants, movie theaters, and a variety of stores, shops and service businesses. It is expected to generate about 4,000 jobs, including those required for its construction.