Towering Neighbors
Now, here’s an irony. A director of Good Guys, a Bay Area electronics retailer that opened its first Los Angeles store Sunday, is Russ Solomon, president of Tower Records. But the Good Guys store, in the Beverly Connection at Third Street and La Cienega Boulevard, sits next to a Wherehouse, another big music retailer.
What gives?
“We put the stores where people like to shop,” Ron Unkefer, founder and president of Good Guys, said of the decision to select the site. But never fear, Tower. As Good Guys expands in Southern California, Unkefer added, “we do expect to do some deals with Tower.”
Ecology Comes to the Fore
“Green” has not normally brought to golfers’ minds lofty thoughts of saving the planet or even their neighborhoods. But that may be about to change, whether they like it or not.
As Grant Spaeth, president of the U.S. Golf Assn. recently warned, golf courses are coming under attack from environmentalists concerned that new ones may be covering wetlands and wildlife habitat and that new and old may be contaminating local ground-water supplies with pesticides and herbicides.
“We believe it’s a real concern to them (environmentalists),” Spaeth told a convention of Utah golfers. “The problem we’re having is we don’t have the data to show whether they’re wrong or whether the chemicals can be used safely.”
Nevertheless, said Spaeth, who cited environmentalist opposition to a proposed new course near his home in Palo Alto, the USGA is throwing everything it has into the fight. “It’s a very, very major focal point of our resources,” he said.
Opening the Door to Jobs
Business boosters like to call Southern California the Gateway to the Pacific Basin. But what does that mean? Well, it means jobs, for one thing--63,049 of them, according to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.
Among Pacific nations, Japan leads the way as a Southern California employer with 528 companies accounting for 49,900 jobs in the region. Australia comes in second, with 121 companies that employ 7,300 Southern Californians. Other big Pacific-based employers are Hong Kong (1,855 jobs), South Korea (1,620) and Taiwan (1,240). At the lower end of the ladder, firms from China, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand each employ fewer than 500 workers in the area.
The jobs come in many forms. In a new directory of Pacific-based companies, the L.A. chamber cites their “amazing diversity,” pointing to activity in advertising, banking, construction, manufacturing, importing, exporting and real estate investment.
