Mayor Villaraigosa revealed to the world what the Los Angeles Mayor’s Council on Innovation and Industry has been up to and it is: the (t)expo Line, a “technology corridor” along the Expo light rail line. (The LAMCII is intended to “communicate our city’s boundless creativity, spur investment in high-growth industries, connect our plentiful talent to opportunity, and help LA achieve greater recognition as an innovation capital,” according to a press release.) According to the site Curbed LA will encourage development along the Expo Line, which currently runs from Downtown to Culver City and which will one day hit Santa Monica (part of the actual real thing Silicon Beach), using tax incentives and offering up city-owned land to create public-private “innovation hubs.” The group is also working with USC and UCLA “to be cornerstone tenants and co-locate their incubation efforts at one of these locations.” The press release compares the effort to New York’s Roosevelt Island, where Cornell is creating a tech campus.
LAMCII is also working on the Leading Edge Awards (an international innovation competition) and the Edge.LA Fellowship Program to match local college students with local businesses (to fight an apparent brain drain in the city–UCLA engineering students leaving left and right).
So, if you ‘re waiting for a train, stick around.
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