Proposed Arena for Downtown Los Angeles

As vice chairman of the Southern California Business Assn., which represents the Los Angeles County Hotel Motel Group, I would like to express our concerns regarding Councilman Joel Wachs’ statements on the proposed arena at the Los Angeles Convention Center (Oct. 9).

Regarding the concerns of the Convention Center’s current clients: It should be noted that they were using the Convention Center before the renovation and expansion. Therefore, losing North Hall cannot be a substantive issue, since that capacity has been tripled. Additionally, we will have another 160,000 square feet of exhibition space available next month.

Regarding the loss of revenue: The expansion of the Convention Center and the monies associated with that expansion will never be recouped by the city by simply renting this facility to for-profit trade shows. The payback can only be achieved through additional revenues that convention attendees bring.

Regarding the loss of parking: While parking may be of some importance to local consumer show managers, it is not a critical issue for conventions. In fact, San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center does not have a single parking space.

It is our hope, as members of the concerned business community, that Los Angeles does not once again miss the opportunity to make the fabric of both social and professional life better, due to parochial and misguided interests.

RANDALL K. VILLAREAL

Vice Chairman

Southern California Business Assn.

Los Angeles

* Los Angeles cannot afford to better our schools. It cannot spare the money for pay raises to the Police Department. It is not financially capable of improving needed services. So how is it possible for the City Council to generously donate our tax dollars to a rich big shot from another state to build a structure next to a failing one?

If this plan is sure to improve and revitalize the downtown area, why keep it secret for a year? All the hoopla the developers and the council members are trying to persuade us to believe isn’t worth beans and they should realize they are only insulting our intelligence!

JIMMY FILIPIAZ

Los Angeles