L.A. becoming pro-business?

I realize it's quite a leap, but the mayor's economic point man, Austin Beutner, is certainly giving it a try. He outlined some of his successes in a Daily News oped:

This transition will not occur overnight. We need to untangle decades of bad policy and red tape that are strangling private-sector employment in our city. One thing I've learned in my brief time as the first deputy mayor - there is too much talk and too little action.

He'll get no argument on that one. Actually, Beutner already has done quite a bit -- the Chinese automaker BYD is setting up operations here, and Microsoft will hold a big conference at the convention center. But the real problem is institutional. In other cities the reflex among government officials is to actively assist businesses. In L.A., there is no such reflex.

Decades of poor policy and bad practice have combined to make Los Angeles a hard place for businesses to succeed. There is no shortage of good ideas around - from reforming the city's business tax code and cutting and streamlining bureaucracy to helping to foster jobs of the future in technology, trade and tourism. It is going to take more than politicians standing up and repeating these ideas to make them a reality.