Compete4LA aims to help level the playing field for local businesses that can support the region’s major sports, entertainment, and cultural events.
Built through a partnership between the Los Angeles Business Council Institute and the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy’s Center for Economic Development, this small business database was created to identify and target small, local businesses located in high-need, high-opportunity and priority neighborhoods specializing in the following fields:
Manufacturing
Retail Trade
Wholesale Trade
Transportation & Warehousing
Arts, Entertainment, & Recreation
Accommodation & Food Services
Administrative, Support, Waste Management & Remediation Services
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
How the database was created
We engaged the ERI and produced a typology to identify neighborhoods in Los Angeles County with small and underserved businesses that are ready for investment and are prepared to participate in contract opportunities for major capital infrastructure projects. Our methodology focuses on neighborhoods where strategies to target small, people of color-owned, and women-owned businesses could both stimulate economic growth and address poverty. We start the neighborhood-level analysis presented in this report with identifying three types of neighborhood: high-need neighborhoods, small business priority neighborhoods, and high-opportunity neighborhoods. We overlay these three neighborhood types to identify the census tracts that are high-need, high-opportunity, and could benefit from investment in small businesses. We then determine three tiers of investment areas, excluding those neighborhoods that are already doing well or have too low a population size. These investment areas include: Tier 1: Information Short, Tier 2: Opportunity Rich, and Tier 3: Equity Ready. Through this analysis we provide a guiding frame for investment in minority owned business owners and their communities.
Advisory Council
Sonya Blake
President & CEO
Valley Economic Alliance
Scott Bosarge
Senior Vice President, Business Services
AEG
Bob Graziano
LA Sports & Entertainment Commission
Shannon Hoppes
Chief Procurement Officer
City of LA
Jennifer Ito
Research Director
USC Dornsife Equity Research Institute (ERI)
Dion Jackson
Program Director
USC Center for Economic Development (CED)
CEO & President
Affordable Living for the Aging
Mary Leslie
President
LABC Institute
Leonard Mitchell
Executive Director
USC Center for Economic Development (CED)
Mark Morales
Vice President, SBA & Supplier Diversity
City National Bank
Dr. Manuel Pastor
Director
USC Dornsife Equity Research Institute (ERI)
John Reamer, Inspector of Public Works
Director of the Bureau of Contract Administration
City of LA
Brenda Shockley
Deputy Mayor of Economic Opportunity & Chief Equity Officer
City of LA
LABC Institute Leadership Council Co-Chairs
Brad Cox
Senior Managing Director, Trammell Crow Company Chair LABCi
Jon Vein
Los Angeles Convention and Tourism Board of Commissioners
LABC Institute Leadership Council
AEG
Antonio Manning
Affordable Living for the Aging
Dennis Huang
Asian Business Association
John Reamer
Bureau of Contract Administration
City of LA
Luci Ibarra
Caruso
Alicia Wachtel Osin
Cedars Sinai
Motz Feinberg
Cedars Sinai
Mark Morales
City National Bank
Robert Sausedo
Community Build
Armen Ross
Crenshaw Chamber of Commerce
Kevin Blackburn
Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco
Gene Hale
Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce
Richard Ziman
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation; Founding & Vice Chair
LABC
Shatarra Jackson
Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company
Paul Silvern
HR&A
Mikal Quarles
JPMorgan Chase & Co Enterprise and Small Business
Sarah Bowles
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
City of LA
Shannon Hoppes
City of LA, LA Chief Procurement Officer
Carolyn Hull
City of LA Economic and Workforce Development Department
Lisa McShane
Los Angeles Dodgers
Kecia Washington
LADWP
Marquita Thomas
LA LGBT Chamber
Miranda Rodriguez
LA LISC
Miguel Cabral
LA Metro
Maria Camacho
Los Angeles Rams
Bob Graziano
LA Sports & Entertainment Commission
Stephen Cheung
LAEDC
Peter Gutierrez
Latham & Watkins
Lily Rocha
Latino Restaurant Association
Brooke Lauter
Lauter Communications
Amber Meshack
LAWA
Jon Vein
Los Angeles Convention and Tourism
Theodora Oyie
Mindful Integrations
Sharon Coleman
National Association of Minority Contractors
Priscilla Chavez
National Association of Women in Construction
NAWBO
Darnell Tyler
NBCUniversal
Glen Herold
NFL West
Mike Castillo
Office of Councilmember Curren Price
Morgan Sutton
Office of Councilmember Krekorian
Lilly O’Brien
Office of Supervisor Holly Mitchell
Tricia Carey
Port of Los Angeles
Michael Mahdesian
Servicon Systems, Inc
Victor Parker
Small Business Administration
Brad Cox
Trammell Crow Company
Donna Ruff
Union Bank
Effie Turnbull Sanders
USC
Dr. Manuel Pastor
USC
Dr. Michelle Turner
USC
Dion Jackson
USC CED
Jennifer Ito
USC ERI
Sabrina Kim
USC ERI
Sonya Blake
Valley Economic Alliance
Dorene Dominguez
Vanir Construction
Nadine Watt
Watt Companies