BURBANK : Mayor Calls Business Key to City’s Future

Burbank Mayor George Battey Jr. said that small business can help rebuild the city, which lost a major employer three years ago, but complained about state budget cuts in his annual state of the city address to the Burbank Chamber of Commerce.

Key to Burbank’s future, he said, are programs such as an economic retention program where Battey and other officials meet regularly with local business people.

“It’s time for you businesses to tell us what you need to restore California to its former economic vitality,” said Battey in his Wednesday address. Burbank lost 15,000 jobs since Lockheed Corp. began closing down its operations there, and another major employer is not likely to come along to fill that gap.

“We’re going to have to work with a lot of the small businesses,” Battey said, explaining that small companies, with a few hundred employees or less, will have to replace the loss in the job base.

Battey cited encouraging statistics for the city such as a near doubling of the amount of permitted construction, from $47 million last year to $90 million in 1993.

However, the Media City Mall is at only 70% capacity, and Battey told the audience that if they wanted to move to the mall, “there still is some space available.”

He applauded the efforts of the Downtown Stakeholders Assn., which has renamed the downtown “Burbank Village” and is planning a special services district to improve the area. Their efforts showed that “no longer will it be City Hall telling the downtown businesses how to solve their problems,” Battey said.