Mayor Riordan Names Veteran Staffer to Team Targeting Underserved Areas

Mayor Richard Riordan on Thursday appointed a veteran staffer who has promoted economic development in South Los Angeles to head his Business Team.

Jeffery Walden, who helped bring Magic Johnson Theatres and the Crenshaw Sav-on Shopping Center to South Los Angeles, replaces Alfonso Salazar, who recently left the mayor’s office.

The appointment of Walden--a Los Angeles native and member of the Black Business Assn. and the Crenshaw Chamber of Commerce--underscores Riordan’s commitment to commercial development in underserved areas, Walden said.

Riordan recently announced an initiative to focus on developing several “catalytic” commercial and industrial projects in blighted neighborhoods. Walden said those projects and neighborhoods--South and East Los Angeles and parts of the San Fernando Valley--will be the team’s priority.

“It’s going to be our focus, to bring quality development into the inner city . . . to talk to companies that have not invested there yet and to make that happen,” he said.

Walden has worked for the city since 1978 and for the Riordan administration since 1994. He most recently served as a senior business development representative for the Business Team. Besides the Crenshaw projects, he helped facilitate developments in Watts, Marina del Rey and Century City, particularly in the field of multimedia.

The Business Team, created in 1995, works one-on-one with the business community to attract and retain companies and to facilitate permitting, site selection, financing and job training. It has a staff of 18.

Salazar left the mayor’s office to work for the administration of Gov. Gray Davis.