Mayor Talks Transit Projects, Future of LA
GlobeSt.com
By Natalie Dolce
... Historically horizontal and car-crazy Los Angeles has to veer quickly toward vertical growth and mass transit if it wants to succeed as a habitable, sustainable city of the future, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told more than 600 professional planners, city officials, lenders and community leaders in Downtown Los Angeles Thursday...
... The day's keynote speaker, chairman Stan Ross of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, cited the importance of job growth to fix the economy and assessed the potential fallout from distressed assets. President Obama's priority right now is jobs, Ross pointed out, "and that is the only thing that will drive this economy."
The huge volume of loans approaching maturity "gets me really nervous," Ross said. "There will be a lot of defaults," he continued, saying that many borrowers may not be able to refinance and that many of the loans will end up being restructured. In the interim, he said, "We will limp along for a while...