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September 20, 2010
Each night, car sales manager Jimmy Mejia lies in bed pondering the deals he might make the next morning.
And each morning, he dons a white shirt, suit and tie before pasting a smile on his face for a 12-hour day at West Coast Auto in North Hollywood.
"You know what? I wish I was busy and had money in my pocket," said Mejia, general manager for the 50-car lot on north Lankershim Boulevard. "The recession, it doesn't feel like it's over.
"All you can be is positive. I think about my bills, my kids. It's how I recharge my batteries in the morning ... I don't sell, (we) literally don't eat."
While some Cambridge economists Monday declared the worst recession officially dead last summer, economists and business owners across the San Fernando Valley said, Phhhft!
The 18-month recession may be officially over as of June 2009, but no one in economically shell-shocked L.A. was singing "Happy days are here again."
On Friday, state employment wonks announced the jobless rate in Los Angeles County last month had hit a record high 12.6 percent.
But in the city of Los Angeles, where unemployment hovered at 14.3 percent, one in seven workers was on the dole.
"I think this was an event that may have been pleasing to economists, but (it) doesn't say a lot about conditions in California, Los Angeles County or Los Angeles," said Harvey Berg, a business consultant and board member of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley.
"I don't see people out waving (victory) flags."
While economists say the recession officially ended 15 months ago, it was so severe that only a few rays of light have seeped into the region's long tunnel of economic despair.
The economic engine in Los Angeles is ever-so-slowly rumbling, sputtering to life in only a few sectors, local economists say.
The entertainment industry in the San Fernando Valley has seen an uptick in shooting and longshoremen at Los Angeles Harbor are now working full time, with trucks and trains starting to pick up speed.
"It's nothing to write home about," said Nancy D. Sidhu, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp, which tracks jobs throughout the region. "Because everything was so awful, every one improvement doesn't feel like an improvement, unless it's staring at you in the face."
When she asks retailers whether sales have picked up over last year, she said they say, "'Yes, but ...' It's very spotty, one industry after another."
Sidhu didn't expect double-digit joblessness to end until 2012.
For the businesses along the gritty sidewalks of north Lankershim Boulevard, it's as if the economy tanked in 2007 - then fell through the gates of hell.
Many say business fell by 50 percent, and then plunged further into 2010.
"Business is bad," said Erick Zanzanyan, owner of Erick's Foods taco truck, which serves mostly construction sites, filling up on propane at Lankershim and San Fernando Road. "My customers, they don't have money to pay for hot lunches.
"They bring their food from home."
Along a mostly industrial Lankershim Boulevard, storefronts sit empty. Hamburger stands are boarded up.
One flooring company whose sales dried up has parked a taco truck in front of his store to make ends meet.
A battery company without spark now doubles as a demolition company.
Plumbing company workers without orders pitch pennies or play poker in the back, business owners say.
Meanwhile, they say police stand in wait on street cleaning day to issue parking tickets to refill empty city coffers.
Illegal street vendors have multiplied.
And the hookers who once appeared on a blue moon have returned in force, hovering in the shadows around liquor stores or strolling by the light of day.
"People are not making it," said Cindy Sower of Sun Valley Equipment Rentals who grew up in the business founded by her father, Leonard, in 1959. "People are working so hard to put food on their tables, (buy) clothes for their kids, pay their mortgage.
"They don't have any money left over to tithe at church."
Sower's business, which rents construction equipment such as cement mixers and rototillers to contractors and homeowners, might be called a bellwether for the economy.
But she and her employees saw rentals drop by half last year on top of a 50 percent decline the year before, she said. While her yard was once empty of equipment, cement mixers fill a corner of the lot.
And they've never seen business this bad.
"People are not working on their yards. They can't afford the water to plant," Sower said. "People say because of the recession, homeowners will do it themselves. They don't have the money.
"I want to believe (the recession) is over, but I haven't felt it, nor do I see it."
Down the street, Honorato Valencia sits in his Colima Body Shop, eating caldo de pollo with his 8-year-old daughter. Since the recession, he said business is down by half.
"Business is bad," Valencia, who preps and paints alone, said. "It's slow. We're still in the recession."
At a nearby bus stop, Charlie Bostick of North Hollywood waited with all the other carless residents. He'd just gotten off work at his print shop job.
"Haven't had a raise in three years," Bostick said. "We lost a couple of people, laid off. I'm spending a lot less, not going to movies, not as many video games."
The economy, "it still feels sluggish," he said. "I don't feel as happy, or secure."
A few years ago, Mejia worked five days a week selling luxury cars, where he sold three to four cars a day.
Now he works up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, and says he's lucky if he sells and finances a single car each day.
But with four kids, two still at home, he's says he's got to remain positive, however you describe the economy.
"It's a miracle - I see God - if we sell three cars a day," said Mejia, a Brooklyn native in a black suit looking out at his lot full of Hummers, Mercedes and other sleek marques. "Every morning, you get up. You dress sharp. Say, 'I'm gonna sell two cars, two cars.
"It's the attitude. Gotta think positive. Rain, shine, 115 degrees, I am out there. And you'll always get a smile, or a positive attitude. And if I don't sell a car, I'll plant a seed ... you will come back.
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