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VICA News
Stay updated on news and updates from Valley Industry Commerce Association.Monday, June 25, 2018VICA President Stuart Waldman on the importance of preserving choice for consumers. Read more(0) Comments
Monday, May 28, 2018Next week, California will take the first step in choosing its next governor. Lots of fancy promises have been made – our next governor is going to expand all kinds of popular programs which will make California greener, better educated and more connected. I’m not against any of those goals, laudable as they are. I don’t believe that any Californian opposes those aspirations. But I am concerned with what no candidate wants to discuss: how we’re going to pay for it. Read more
Monday, April 30, 2018Imagine, if you will, being able to ride a rail line on Van Nuys Boulevard in the northeast San Fernando Valley to the West Valley along Sherman Way and across the Cahuenga Pass to Downtown Los Angeles. No, I’m not talking about a distant future, but rather, the recent past. The year is 1911, the community of Van Nuys had just been established in February, and in December the first trolleys operated by the Pacific Electric Railway Company rolled into the San Fernando Valley from Downtown Los Angeles. Read more
Monday, April 2, 2018As I was driving home the other day through Van Nuys, I passed an abandoned vacant lot. You see these around the San Fernando Valley pretty often, and every time I see one, I think through the possibilities for this unused land. The Valley could benefit from the revitalization of these abandoned lots – new businesses, new community hubs of retail and restaurants, and perhaps most urgently, new housing and jobs. Read more
Monday, March 19, 2018Angelenos spend more time sitting in traffic than residents of any other place in the world. Our public transportation systems need major investment. Skyrocketing housing costs are driving people further away from major employment centers like Downtown L.A., the Warner Center, Glendale, Burbank and Silicon Beach. The result? Traffic, smog, and an ever-diminishing quality of life. Read more
Monday, February 26, 2018Although California is in the doghouse as far as the Trump Administration is concerned, we are the best prepared to capitalize on some of President Donald Trump’s proposals on infrastructure. Given the importance of an effective transportation system to our economic vitality, California and Los Angeles are already taking steps to address our critical infrastructure needs. Read more
Monday, February 5, 2018I was watching A Christmas Story with my kids recently, and it rang a little too true. You will recall that our hero, Ralphie, really, really, really wants a Red Ryder BB gun – and when he gets it, he nearly shoots his own eye out. I think that all kids have this experience to some extent. Happily, my own kids haven’t shot their own eye out (yet) but as kids grow up, they learn the lesson that not everything they want is necessarily good for them. Read more
Monday, January 8, 2018As advocates for the business community, our work will never be finished in California. Just when you think that there cannot possibly be any more laws to create, legislators dream up something new. As the New Year rolls around, employers are reading up on changes to labor law and how they can comply. Get comfortable: you’ll be reading for a while. You don’t need me to tell you how important it is to comply with every little new rule, no matter how obscure or how little it will actually affect your employees. Read more
Thursday, December 21, 2017California is the world’s sixth largest economy, and the Los Angeles region drives much of that economic output. In fact, recent federal data show that last year the Los Angeles-Orange counties metro area had a gross domestic product of $1 trillion, second only to the New York metro area and higher than most states and many entire nations. Read more
Monday, December 11, 2017We’re now squarely in the holiday season. In November, we teach our children to give thanks for their blessings. But barely four weeks later, we ask them to put together their holiday wishlist so we can give them the things that they want. So in that contradictory but all-American spirit, here are the blessings that I’m grateful for, and my wishlist for the things I want to improve for our San Fernando Valley. Read more