Fox Studios’ Impact on Small Businesses

Letters supporting the Fox Studios expansion project consistently promote economic loss to the Westside as a reason to give Fox anything it wants. Craig Wald’s is an excellent example of fear-mongering as this community looks forward to a crucial Jan. 11 hearing on the project.

Wald accuses Westside citizens of not “looking beyond their back yards.” One might wonder whether he’s the one wearing blinders, or exactly what hat he is wearing. And exactly who are the “500 Westside business leaders” who, along with City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, support a major impact on the Westside without knowing exactly what will be built (because Fox has never provided a detailed plan) and without assurances of protection from abuse by the developer (because Fox has insisted on very restricted review)?

”. . .Westside businesses could not even survive without the business Fox studios generates.” Is Wald suggesting that Fox--even in the unlikely event that they abandon this prime studio lot--would be replaced by an empty lot? Most Fox employees and visitors live in other areas and spend their money near their homes. Residents of condos built on the property would be permanent Westside citizens spending their money right here, funneling fewer car trips onto Westside streets and nurturing small business.

The suggestion that jobs will be lost if there is no expansion is absurd. Fox will certainly not close down their operations in Hollywood. But Wald seems ignorant of the effect of an expansion on Westside small-business jobs. Seven years ago, when the Westside Pavilion made “congestion” a household word on the Westside, local citizens predicted that parking and traffic plans would not work. They were right. Many small Pico/Westwood businesses closed because traffic and parking became unbearable to their customers. And this continues to happen as Fox proposes doubling its impact on the area. Wald, in fact, seems to support a death knell for small Westside business. And jobs. One wonders what sort of business he represents.

Can Wald really imagine that a huge Fox expansion will miraculously reverse a bad situation? That’s imagination that even a modern film studio can’t muster. Fox itself admits that two-thirds of the worst local intersections will operate at or near gridlock even after “mitigation.” Approval will do just the opposite of what Wald claims. It will devastate the Westside economy.

When Wald, Yaroslavsky and other Fox supporters begin to ask the hard questions and demand answers from Fox, they can expect Westside residents to trust their motives. Until then, when we look beyond our back yards, we’ll know that the public trust has been sold out.

ALLAN RABINOWITZ

Los Angeles