California
Los Angeles
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)
www.laane.org
mcecena@laane.org
Who We Are
Founded in 1993, LAANE is recognized as a national leader in the effort to address the challenges of working poverty, inadequate health care and polluted communities. Combining a vision of social justice with a practical approach to social change, LAANE has helped set in motion a broad movement to transform conditions in Los Angeles and beyond.
For the past 15 years, LAANE has been in the forefront of the nation’s most dynamic progressive movement. LAANE spearheaded the defeat of Wal-Mart’s ballot initiative in Inglewood, led Los Angeles’ groundbreaking living wage campaign and pioneered a new approach to economic development that has become a national model for community empowerment.
In 2008, LAANE played a pivotal role in the passage of one of the country’s most sweeping anti-pollution and anti-poverty measures, a Clean Trucks Program for the region’s ports that will dramatically improve air quality and raise the standard of living for as many as 16,000 truck drivers. LAANE also helped enact the nation’s first Construction Careers and Green Jobs Policy, which will ensure middle-class jobs for thousands of construction workers and open a path to good careers for at risk populations.
LAANE’s efforts to transform conditions in the region’s key industries have led to significant improvements for tens of thousands of working men and women. LAANE has also published a series of influential reports, including studies on working poverty and the impact of Wal-Mart on urban America.
LAANE is a co-founder of the Partnership for Working Families, a rapidly growing national alliance that is fighting for good jobs and healthy communities in nearly 20 major metropolitan areas.
LAANE and its leadership have received numerous honors, including awards from the Mayor of Los Angeles, the Speaker of the California Assembly, the UCLA School of Law and the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese.
About Walmart in Los Angeles
One of the most active parts of our campaign includes working with residents and small businesses to preserve Chinatown and oppose a proposed Walmart grocery store. In February 2012, Walmart proposed a small format grocery store in Chinatown and obtained its building permits a month later. LAANE and its coalition of small business owners, residents, Asian-American organizations, and other groups have mobilized to oppose the store, with an appeal against the building permits pending review. Low-road retailers such as Walmart, who want to enter into the City of Los Angeles have actively resisted paying family supporting wages and benefits, and create the threat of displacement for small businesses and cultural/historic districts.
Walmart plans to open a small-format grocery store in order to avoid the oversight that an existing L.A. City superstore ordinance requires. The law, passed in 2004, as the result of the mobilization by LAANE and its coalition, enables the city to weigh numerous factors, such as job quality and business loss, in deciding whether to allow big box developments to proceed. L.A.’s superstore ordinance was enacted following Walmart’s failed attempt to open a superstore in the city of Inglewood. Despite spending more than $1 million on a ballot initiative to circumvent the public review process, Walmart was soundly defeated by a coalition of small businesses, clergy, community groups, and unions in 2004.
In the News
Walmart’s Chinatown permits challenged by L.A. labor nonprofit
March 29, 2012 — Los Angeles Times
Chinatown Walmart Wins Building Permits As LA City Council Readies Chain Store Ban
March 23, 2012 — Huffington Post
Walmart In LA: Chinatown Store Protesters Say Walmart Employees Rely On Welfare
March 9, 2012 — Huffington Post
Porterville
California Healthy Communities Network
www.calhcn.org
pgtucker@aol.com or info@calhcn.org
Who We Are
The California Healthy Communities Network (CALHCN) is a project of the Tides Center, an independent nonprofit organization registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) public charity. CALHCN is made up of organizations and individuals who share common concerns regarding poorly planned, environmentally unsustainable, economically discriminatory and socially unjust land use and development practices in California. There is also a deep commitment to social justice and economic rights for communities. The Network’s goal is to advance the interests of communities in the State of California by projecting a unified voice in support of programs and policies that set new standards and raise the bar for the people of California.
A wide-range of organizations have joined the Network, from social service agencies and churches to labor unions, community-based organizations, environmental organizations and civil rights groups. Importantly, the Network’s membership reaches beyond traditional alliances, bringing a broader set of forces to bear on issues around which we can all unite.
About Walmart in Porterville
The California Healthy Communities Network filed a lawsuit in Tulare County Superior Court challenging a proposed Walmart Supercenter in Porterville. The group claims that there was inadequate analysis of the environmental impact of the project. (Read more in the news clips below.)
In the News
Lawsuit Delaying Super Walmart Plans
March 20, 2012 — South County Recorder
Porterville Walmart Clears City Council Vote
Feb. 8, 2012 — ABC News
