Just when ports need them the most, truckers flee the industry

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Ricardo Ceja keeps detailed records of his payments. | Daina Beth Solomon

Ricardo Ceja keeps detailed records of his payments. | Daina Beth Solomon

Ricardo Ceja scowled as he flipped through recent paystubs for his job trucking cargo to and from the Port of Los Angeles. His October salary is $1,680, but his employer cut more than a third for costs like truck repairs, and won’t reimburse him for several hundred dollars spent on fuel.

The total amounts to much less than what Ceja expected to earn when he took on the job several years ago, and he sympathizes with many fellow truckers who have fled the industry seeking better wages.

“They pay me every week, but they deduct whatever they want,” he said on a recent afternoon at his Lawndale apartment. “They throw you a bone with a string.” [Read more…]

South LA has prospective buyers, with nothing to buy

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The Los Angeles housing market is swinging back into shape after imploding during the financial crash. Homes are selling for more than a million dollars in West L.A. and hitting above the million and a half mark in Beverly Hills.

Recovery is underway even in low-income areas such as South L.A., which was stung particularly hard by predatory loans and foreclosures. Prices have crept up to the pre-bust levels of 2005. And just like 10 years ago, residents today want to become homeowners. But realtors are finding there just aren’t enough homes go around.

“Any home that’s halfway decent is selling,” said realtor Leon Higgins, who’s worked in South L.A. for 15 years. “But you still have more buyers than what’s available to sell.” [Read more…]

Are port truckers making money — or losing it?

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Ricardo Ceja reviews his paystubs at his Lawndale apartment. | Daina Beth Solomon

Ricardo Ceja reviews his paystubs at his Lawndale apartment. | Daina Beth Solomon

At about $1,700 a month, Ricardo Ceja’s truck driver paystub looks decent. But then come the deductions — for insurance, registration, inspection, parking, repairs, fuel and the truck lease — until Ceja comes up $900 dollars short.

“This is modern age slavery,” Ceja says. “And they’ve been getting away with it.”

He’s been on strike recently against LACA Express, where he works without benefits as an independent contractor hauling cargo to and from the Port of Los Angeles. [Read more…]

Herbalife vendors sell for their supper

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A chart marking weight-loss progress hangs at Angel Perez's nutrition club. | Daina Beth Solomon

A chart marking weight-loss progress hangs at Angel Perez’s nutrition club. | Daina Beth Solomon

Angel Perez never planned to join the family business of selling Herbalife health products. But as a restaurant manager, she soon grew tired of the long hours keeping her away from family.

Perez began cultivating a client base four years ago and now makes between $3,000 and $4,000 a month running a Herbalife nutrition club in Inglewood.

The career switch provided Perez a “decent, honest living” on a flexible work schedule. And it put to use her 2008 business degree from California State University at Dominguez Hills.

“If you’re going to make a living off of it, you have to take it seriously,” she said of selling Herbalife products. “You have to treat it like a business.” [Read more…]

Are long-foreclosed homes stunting neighborhood development?

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All foreclosures on the city's registry as of summer 2014. | Housing and Community Investment Department / LA Times

All foreclosures on the city’s registry as of summer 2014. | LA Times map with Housing and Community Investment Department data

The little teal house in Watts with the front garage and a concrete driveway was foreclosed early in 2013. Over the next year and a half, squatters invaded and wrecked the place. The trash heaped up into tall piles in the living room and hallways.

“It’s a drug house, the weeds are overgrown, it’s blight,” said activist Joanne Kim from the nonprofit Community Coalition, describing this location and the symptoms of others like it, left abandoned for more than a year.

Eventually activists banded to get together to draw the city’s attention and kick out the intruders.

Still, the house remains on L.A.’s foreclosure registry.

“Everyone has to take of their homes,” said Kim. “But the banks are not taking care of these properties.”

That can lead to a number of harmful side effects, like depleted property values, which in turn discourage business and investment. [Read more…]

A few dollars, a big difference

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Los Angeles roots for the underdog while riling businesses with proposals to hike the minimum wage.

Garcetti announces his plan for a new minimum wage this Labor Day weekend. | LA Times

Garcetti announced his plan for a new minimum wage on Labor Day at a South L.A. park. | LA Times

Mayor Eric Garcetti says his proposal to raise the minimum wage in Los Angeles by nearly 50 percent over three years will boost struggling families above the poverty line, making the city affordable even for busboys, cashiers, janitors and others living off $9 an hour. In turn, he says, these workers will pump dollars back into the economy.

But business owners say the pay boost – which would reach $13.25 by 2017 – could trigger side effects that would endanger businesses and cut jobs. Some companies have said they would consider skipping town altogether. Restaurants and stores that depend on their locations may need to slash labor hours or take a gamble on hiking prices. Entrepreneurs might jump ship into the underground economy. Even businesses outside of the city could wither if compelled to hire L.A.-based companies at steep rates.

At the root of this debate are 3.3 million people nationwide earning the federal minimum rate of $7.25 an hour or less. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, half of these people range from 16 to 24 years old, and 77 percent are white.

[Read more…]

Minimum wage hikes suggest optimism for economic growth

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Garcetti announces his plan for a new minimum wage this Labor Day weekend. | LA Times

Garcetti announces his plan for a new minimum wage this Labor Day weekend. | LA Times

Los Angeles hotel owners got a jolt early this year when Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a plan to boost the minimum wage for 10,000 housekeepers, bellboys, janitors and other menial workers at the city’s largest hotels from $9 to $15.37.

Now Garcetti wants to bring that pay raise to all industries across the city, ultimately aiming to lift 567,000 people out of poverty. He said in a statement:

Our city has always enjoyed the greatest prosperity when everyone can afford to support themselves and contribute to our economy.

By improving the quality of life for the working class, the mayor also aims to boost the economy. Will it work? And conversely, what can the minimum wage tell us about the economy’s health? [Read more…]