A rendering of the bird's eye view of what the NFL stadium would look like in Downtown L.A. (Photo courtesy AP)
The Blue Ribbon Commission on the Downtown Event Center’s Subcommittee on Job Creation met on Monday to hear feedback from the public on the proposed NFL stadium in L.A.
The meeting was one of several meetings set up to establish the groundwork for job creation and financial concerns. The committee met last week to discuss the impact on the general fund. The focus of Monday’s meeting was job creation, and on Tuesday, the committee will meet to discuss the impact on Convention business.
L.A. resident and construction worker Shomari Davis talks about how important the new building project is to job creation.
Construction workers from the community were among those who attended the meeting to advocate the importance of offering jobs to unemployed construction workers in L.A.
“In construction, if there’s not a lot building happening, a lot of people are out of work and losing homes,” said L.A. resident and construction worker Shomari Davis. “We’re in a hurting situation right now. We understand that building is tantamount to our existence. It’s a lifeline to the American dream.”
According to Davis, the construction industry is at 40% unemployment without this building project.
Representatives from AEG delivered a presentation on their plan and answered questions from the subcommittee and the public about the specifics on the plan. The subcommittee asked AEG to make public their analysis of where the L.A. jobs are going to come from and where in the community they will be filled. The committee said it was very important that the jobs are offered to local community members.
“We’re learning a little bit about how organizations like YWCA and others are good partners for a project like this and some tools that we might use to make sure jobs do go to Angelinos,” Austin Beutner, co-chairman of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s blue ribbon panel, said.
The commission will also be addressing traffic concerns in their meeting on Tuesday. It will suggest ways of mitigating traffic and any public transportation plans that could be implemented to alleviate congestion in the area around the stadium.
