Eastside Uses Goodyear Blimp in Bid to Win Designation as an Enterprise Zone

Eastside business leaders admit that they blew it nearly two years ago when they failed to get behind an effort to have the state designate their area as an enterprise zone, where businesses are granted tax breaks and other incentives to grow and create jobs.

“We were kind of complacent,” said Steve Kasten, president of the Lincoln Heights Chamber of Commerce, who, like other business people thought--incorrectly, as it turned out--that the economically depressed area would win automatic enterprise zone status. Instead, Pacoima, Watts and the area east of USC were designated in early 1986--and the Eastside lost out.

The state Department of Commerce will designate three more enterprise zones July 1. This time around, the Eastside business community is taking no chances.

Local political heavyweights--including Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley--hosted a reception Thursday for state commerce officials. Afterward, they boarded the Goodyear blimp Columbia for a 1 1/2-hour bird’s-eye tour of Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights and El Sereno.

Businesses in the enterprise zone would be eligible for 15 years to receive tax credits for hiring unemployed workers inside the zone and purchasing new equipment. Interest on loans made to businesses inside the zone could be deducted from the lenders’ gross taxable income.

If the area wins enterprise zone status, city officials estimate that existing business will create a minimum of 1,000 new jobs within five years and stimulate $10 million worth of investment, primarily through below-market-rate financing. The city also hopes to attract a minimum of 10 new industrial firms to create at least 1,000 new jobs.

At 18.5 square miles, the proposed Eastside enterprise zone was much too big to tour by bus or car, said Robin Scherr, director of the Business and Economic Council, a coalition of Eastside chambers of commerce, business people, educators and community officials formed after the area failed to win enterprise zone status. A tour by train was shelved after officials balked at coming up with a $10,000 deposit demanded by Amtrak.

Officials then approached Goodyear about using their blimp for the tour. The company agreed and donated the use of its blimp.

“They (commerce officials) don’t really know anything about our community except what’s in our application,” Scherr said. “This is much more dynamic,” she said of the aerial tour.

Besides organizing the tour, the Business and Economic Council undertook its own economic survey of the area, held meetings to gather community input and support, and assisted the city in putting together the enterprise zone application.

The group’s survey found that crime and graffiti had given the area an image that scared away new investment. Business owners indicated that it was difficult to recruit and retain office employees because of the perception of crime.

“We are trying to change people’s perceptions of the Eastside,” Scherr said. “We want to stop people associating the Eastside only with graffiti, vandalism and crime.”

Kasten, who is also chairman of the business council, said an enterprise zone will bring much needed attention to the area. “It will give us a great deal of publicity,” he said. “Major employers will notice the community more. . . . I think this time we will win.”