Newsletter: California Inc.: Waze carpool app aims to redefine people’s commutes
Welcome to California Inc., the weekly newsletter of the L.A. Times Business Section.
I’m Business columnist David Lazarus, and here’s a rundown of upcoming stories this week and the highlights of last week.
Investors climb back on the bus Monday after the troubling news Friday that job growth slowed sharply in May to just 138,000, an unexpectedly lackluster figure that raises concerns about the labor market — but probably not enough to derail an expected Federal Reserve interest rate hike this month. The unemployment rate ticked down a tenth of a percentage point to 4.3%, the lowest since 2001.
LOOKING AHEAD
Totally awesome: Marketing and design professionals will gather in Los Angeles this week for “PromaxBDA: The Conference 2017,” which promises to be “100% awesome.” The event will run through Thursday at the J.W. Marriott Hotel. Among the speakers will be Kevin Demoff, the Los Angeles Rams’ vice president; James Sommerville, Coca-Cola’s vice president of design; Franklin Leonard, founder of the Black List; and CNN journalist Dylan Byers.
Carpool app: On Tuesday, Waze will launch a carpooling app across California that lets drivers offer rides to people traveling the same general route. Passengers who wish to carpool with a driver will be able to download a separate app called Waze Carpool and request a ride. Unlike Uber and Lyft, which take a commission from each ride and whose drivers use it as a source of income, Waze Carpool operates more like an old-school carpool, where riders chip in only to cover the cost of gas.
Election day: Los Angeles voters will elect a new congressman this week in a race that has been fueled by money from outside interests. One candidate for the 34th District Congressional District, Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, tapped into money in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento. The other candidate, attorney Robert Lee Ahn, has reached out to wealthier parts of Los Angeles County and Southern California. Over $2 million has been spent by the pair for the coveted seat representing downtown.
Rising stock: Boingo Wireless shareholders will gather Thursday for the Los Angeles company’s annual stockholder meeting. In April, the company saw its shares close for the first time above its initial public offering price of $13.50 in 2011. The stock topped $16 last week, making for a market capitalization of $624 million. The meeting begins at 10:30 a.m. at the Hotel Palomar, 10740 Wilshire Blvd.
Finance: An Obama-era rule for retirement advisors, delayed by a review ordered by President Trump because of strong Republican and financial industry opposition, will partially take effect Friday. The regulation requires investment brokers who handle retirement funds to put their clients’ interests ahead their own. But a component of the regulation, that firms accepting commissions put the rule’s provisions into customer contracts, will not take effect until Jan. 1.
THE AGENDA
Monday’s Business section delves into efforts to reform a new type of home-improvement financing, known as PACE, which is intended primarily for energy-efficiency projects. PACE lending is booming, in part because contractors have become enthusiastic sales people in recent years, taking advantage of lenders’ easy-to-use online systems and underwriting that doesn’t take into account credit score or income. Now, amid criticism that some contractors have misrepresented the financing to homeowners, regulators, government officials and even the industry are weighing reforms.
STORY LINES
Here are some of the other stories that ran in the Times Business section in recent days that we’re continuing to follow:
Burning mad: Corporate executives generally shy away from addressing hot-button political issues for fear of alienating customers. But after President Trump announced that he will withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate change accord, a who’s who of Fortune Magazine cover models took to social media to criticize the decision.
Farmworkers: Increasingly fond of locally grown produce, Californians are far less enthusiastic about locally housed farmworkers. They have deployed lawsuits, hastily written regulations — and, apparently, the torch — to segregate thousands of seasonal workers to seedy roadside hotels and crowded housing in cities where affordable shelter is already limited. That age-old “not in my backyard” reaction threatens growers’ ability to fill the current labor shortage.
New turf: City National Bank, L.A.’s “bank to the stars,” has branches in Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Westlake Village and — coming soon — a location in a Crenshaw Boulevard strip mall storefront currently occupied by a payday lender. It’s uncharted territory for an institution that built its business catering to affluent customers but has pledged to boost the amount of lending and services it provides in lower-income and minority neighborhoods.
Mall trouble: Between 20% and 25% of the nation’s shopping malls will close in the next five years, according to a new report from Credit Suisse that predicts e-commerce will continue to pull shoppers away from bricks-and-mortar retailers. Long-standing retailers are dying off as shoppers’ habits shift online. Traditional mall anchors, such as Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Sears, have announced numerous store closings in recent months.
Fired: Uber has fired Anthony Levandowski, the star engineer at the center of the company’s fight with self-driving rival Waymo. Levandowski — a former Waymo employee who until recently was leading Uber’s effort to replace human drivers with robot cars — has refused to hand over documents requested by Waymo and a federal court judge in a high-profile legal battle between two Silicon Valley giants. Waymo is part of Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
WHAT WE’RE READING
And some recent stories from other publications that caught our eye:
Lunch break: Fewer Americans are taking a break in the work day to go out to lunch, reports the Wall Street Journal. Restaurants are feeling the pinch as more people eat at their desks. “Many U.S. workers now see stealing away for an hour at the neighborhood diner in the middle of the day as a luxury. Even the classic ‘power lunch’ is falling out of favor among power brokers.”
Privacy undone: The Washington Post looks behind the scenes at how congressional Republicans engineered a rollback in regulations aimed at protecting the privacy of Internet users. “How the privacy rules came to be undone helps to explain and inform the strategies behind the broader range of Republican initiatives in the works. The rollback of privacy, for example, was the first step by the Republican-led FCC to overhaul Obama-era net neutrality rules.”
Wellness guru: A West Los Angeles juice bar owner is the latest celebrity wellness guru, reports the New York Times. In 2014, Amanda Chantal Bacon, owner of Moon Juice, began selling a line of jarred herb powders that now includes Spirit Dust, Beauty Dust, Power Dust, Brain Dust, Dream Dust and Sex Dust. Unlike raw juices, the dusts “were easy to package and ship, had a long shelf life and faced zero competition from the likes of Coca-Cola.”
Nutty crime: In the Central Valley of California, nut growers and police have been scratching their heads over the large-scale thefts of almonds, walnuts and pistachios, reports Outside magazine. “The number and style of the thefts — quick and professional, as if the characters from ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ had descended on the Central Valley — have drawn the attention of federal organized-crime investigators and prompted the creation of a regional task force.”
Covfefe: It was around midnight at the White House, and President Trump inexplicably sent out an unfinished tweet containing the mysterious word “covfefe.” Before long, says Wired, “social media was in a mad dash to try to define Trump’s typo. News reports followed, and soon a five-alarm internet fire was burning.”
SPARE CHANGE
The covfefe story got me thinking about movies involving language barriers. Some that come to mind include this scene from “Love Actually,” this one from “Dances With Wolves” and this one from “The 13th Warrior.” Then there’s this one from “The Fifth Element,” which, like covfefe, incorporates total gibberish.
For the latest money news, go to www.latimes.com/business. Mad props to Scott J. Wilson for helping put this thing together.
Until next time, I’ll see you in the Business section.
