Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Long Beach Loses Out

Via curbed la and District Weekly, Tesla has chosen Downey over Long Beach to manufacture the new four-door electric Model S.

The highlight:

But while Downey’s city officials were united and aggressive in their pursuit of Tesla’s enigmatic CEO Elon Musk, the City of Long Beach—particularly Mayor Bob Foster and city management—was accused of being difficult and nearly indifferent toward the possibility of a manufacturing plant that is expected to bring between 1,000 and 1,200 jobs to the area.

In fact, it was Musk who most strongly voiced that criticism, telling LBReport.com in an August 16 interview that “if the behavior of city management and the Mayor were the deciding factor, Long Beach would definitely not win.”

In that same interview, Musk said Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske was “the first and only call” to him personally and confirmed her internet journal (blog) dispatch to the effect that his company’s staff came away from meetings with other Long Beach officials “thinking that Long Beach actually didn’t really want us there and would much prefer the movie studio.”

Nice work!

It would have been nice to have those 1,000+ jobs in our beloved LB. Sad.

6 comments:

  1. Way to go Bob! A sad case of looking out for his own, not our city's, best interests... this was a golden opportunity to showcase LBC as business/green friendly and as an affective recruiter of industry... guess the threat of any non-union job development is too much for our fair city...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been following this story since Gerrie - wish she was in my district - Schipske publicly criticized the Pat West at a council meeting for essentially snubbing Tesla. The city leadership have no true vision or foresight. Let's just continue to put all of our eggs in one (nonexistent?) basket, shall we? Tesla not only meant good paying jobs and a healthy boost to the local economy, but they are on the bleeding edge of transformative automotive technology. An opportunity pissed away... golden indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mrkgard and Anon,

    Agreed that this was a blown opportunity. Yes, jobs, tax revenue, etc., but what I keep thinking about is the missed opportunity to help make Long Beach, already a cool coastal town, synonymous with high-tech in SoCal.

    Think of the interest that could have created among other technology companies (and the media!). Who knows where it would have led, but let's be honest: As a city, Downey doesn't have nearly the appeal of LB--and I think bringing Tesla here would have had much more of a high-profile impact (especially in the press).

    ReplyDelete
  4. El Bee... good point... I work downtown for a small tech firm, and would love to see an expansion of tech opportunities in this city... I can imagine the media coverage and teslas scooting around the city... a serious blown opportunity and has me wondering what the heck are city leaders are thinking... the real bitch is if other companies are considering LBC, then they see this as a red flag and we have to work that much harder to get business here... great jorb jackasses!

    PS... once again thanks for your insight on real estate as I await my buying opportunity...

    ReplyDelete
  5. So Feinstein, Boxer, Rohrabacher, and Richardson will ask for how many more C-17's in FY2011 and beyond, even as the DoD says they don't need anymore?

    Nice work, Mayor. Looking to place more homes on Lakewood Blvd (even the Dougals Park project 86'd homes) , and then over by Cherry?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm sorry, but Long Beach is an increasingly LIBERAL city, and essentially, liberals have a socialistic (or you can call it "progressive" if you like, still same thing) view which they follow.

    It's no surprise to me that public officials elected by this city act in this manner.

    Heck, do we still have Jet Blue even? That's only a matter of time before they leave right??


    So let me get this straight, we could have had an NFL football team here, with a huge stadium (gee, that wouldn't have boosted the downtown area now would it), and then we could have began an era of high-tech job-providing businesses.............

    NAH!

    Give me an aquarium, and a gay parade, and we'll call it a day.

    ReplyDelete