This month, we are reconnecting with John Keisler, Director of Economic Development at the City of Long Beach, for an update on the City, key economic developments and how it is navigating the pandemic.
Thank you, John for the opportunity to reconnect and share a window on the City of Long Beach. To start, would you share with our readers what your role as the city’s Economic Development Director encompasses?
The mission of the Economic Development Department is to create inclusive economic opportunities for workers, investors, and entrepreneurs in the City of Long Beach. In other words, our job is to help people make more money and provide for their families. It is the best job in the world!
Would you help our readers understand the size of Long Beach and provide an overview of its economic footprint in terms of its key sectors and strengths?
Long Beach is one of the largest cities in the State of California—a $3 trillion economy—and located just 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles on the beautiful Pacific Ocean. We have approximately 500,000 residents and operate one of the busiest international seaports in North America. Our incredible University produces over 10,000 graduates per year, and we are one of the leading hubs for aerospace manufacturing and rocket launch companies. We are diverse, dynamic, and nestled between both Los Angeles and Orange counties which together now produce over $1 trillion in GDP on an annual basis.
The past year has certainly been one of the most challenging that most of us have ever faced. What have been some of the resources that the City has drawn upon to weather the disruption caused by the pandemic?
The past year—2020—has been one of the most challenging and rewarding years of my career and has tested the spirit, resilience, and mettle of our community. Fortunately, we have an extremely innovative Mayor and City Council, our own federal Workforce Development agency, and the strongest community partnerships of any City economic development department in the country. We have drawn on our diversity for ideas, inspiration, and resilience. These partnerships have allowed us to serve the communities most impacted by COVID-19 in the most creative and effective ways in our City history.
We are now one year since the start of the pandemic. How is Long Beach doing overall?
Over the past year, Long Beach residents filed over 250,000 unemployment assistance claims as we watched our unemployment rate go from an historic low of approximately 4% to over 20% in a matter of weeks. We also experienced an historic reconciliation process around systemic racism and the inequities in our economy. We have a long way to go but we have bounced back in many sectors and watched employment expand in some high-tech manufacturing with many exciting announcements about company expansion, venture capital, and construction of new commercial and residential buildings. At the same time, our tourism, hospitality, entertainment, and other service sector businesses have not recovered and this has impacted our diverse communities of color at higher rates than others. It has not been equal in its impacts and we are just now beginning to make major reforms around racial equity and economic equity both that will make us a better City for all people.
John, what are the key economic development priorities that you and your office are currently focused on over the next 12-18 months and to what extent has the pandemic changed your priorities?
We just announced a $200 million recovery package to protect our people and get the economy back on track. You can read more about the details online. This recovery plan was developed after over 40 hours of community outreach, five economic impact studies, and hundreds of participants from various sectors of the community and the economy shared their challenges and recommendations for investment. In short, the plan seeks to vaccinate service sector workers, provide direct relief to businesses and non-profits, and invest in customer and visitor activation to get the economy back on track.
For our readers in Canada who may be less familiar with the City of Long Beach, what makes Long Beach an attractive destination for investment and relocation?
Long Beach is one of the most modern, diverse, and innovative cities in the nation. We have a history of building, making, and moving stuff—and we have invested heavily in our education systems and our transportation infrastructure. In short, we invested in the key resources that sustain long-term economic growth—schools, universities, ports, railroad, airports, and now fiber networks. The reason that the most innovative rocket and satellite launch companies are now clustering in Long Beach is because of the talent and the infrastructure we provide. The weather, food, arts and culture is also as good as it gets!
A focus of many of Long Beach’s economic stakeholders has been to nurture and grow a local start-up community and to promote innovation. How is the Long Beach tech/start-up community doing now and what is on the horizon to continue to help it grow?
The local tech sector is booming in Long Beach and the surrounding region but we are most proud of our new Long Beach Accelerator which introduced its first cohort in 2021. We also produce over 1,200 engineers a year at California State University Long Beach, and partner with the University Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship to create opportunity and foster the startup ecosystem for companies looking to locate and grow in Long Beach. Several technology companies announced major investments this year including Zwift, Laserfiche, Relativity Space, Rocket Lab, Spin Launch, and Virgin Orbit among many others.
It has been exciting to see the launch of the new Long Beach Accelerator and the announcements around its first cohort. Where does the Accelerator fit in the economic development strategy and what can we expect to see in the coming year?
Of course. The Long Beach Accelerator is a partnership between the City, University, and private venture capital investment community. There are few public-private partnerships like it that seek to provide access to technical assistance, investment, and mentoring for diverse technology entrepreneurs. Because of its unique structure, the new cohort also has access to unique marketplaces to test their solutions such as the City of Long Beach and all of its service areas. The Accelerator is currently recruiting its Summer cohort and will invite up to six more startups to launch in Long Beach.
MAPLE is proud to be a partner of the City of Long Beach and we’ve always been impressed with the degree of collaboration between the City’s economic development stakeholders including the California State University Long Beach, the Port of Long Beach, the Mayor’s Office, the Economic Development team and the business sector among others. To what do you attribute this orchestration between government, business and academia and what are the implications for businesses?
Collaboration begins with good people who genuinely like each other and what is best for their community. People who live in Long Beach love their community and are willing to donate time, energy, money, and talent to make it better for current and future generations. There is also something special in Long Beach that values diversity, individuality, and the creative process. We get to shape our City every day and the creative process is much more fun when you do it with friends!
Thank you very much, John for taking the time to share a window on Long Beach. Do you have a personal message to share about where we all are in the pandemic and the opportunities in front of us?
Innovation is born out of crisis. Both Americans and Canadians are descendants of immigrants, explorers, and entrepreneurs who set-out from their home countries to discover and build things. That same creative and resilient spirit will emerge from this current crisis to make our two countries better than ever. It is also time for us to face some of the systemic problems with old systems and build a better, more equitable economy for our children.
For more information on the City of Long Beach, please visit the Economic Development Office website at http://www.longbeach.gov/economicdevelopment/