If any sector is showing signs of healthy expansion, it's financial services. And Countrywide Financial may be leading that sector in national job creation. In the city of Lancaster, in Los Angeles County, the corporation's home loans division invested $10 million in a loan processing center expansion that added 500 employees and 102,000 sq. ft. (9,476 sq. m.), and opened in early 2004.
      But the company has pledged this would be the last time it expanded in California, citing taxation, wage rates, cost of living and housing and the state's recently implemented family medical leave provisions.
      Regulations are indeed the leading item on corporations' radar. One company wants to modernize and expand near the L.A. harbor, but can't due to regulatory constraints. Others lament the lack of targeted incentives that other states offer in abundance. But many think attitude is what really needs the re-engineering.
      "The majority of political representatives has little experience with the private economy and often appears disinterested, if not repulsed, by how the economy operates," reads the report.
      Many think it comes back to basic involvement of the business community. Some feel a spring in their step since Gov. Schwarzenegger took office, while others feel a more pressing need to get involved earlier in the political and legislative process.
      In an interview, Kotkin says the region's challenges are also a function of one of the largest and most complex counties in the nation. "One of things that happens in a complex economy like L.A.'s is that well organized small groups can prevent good things from happening."
      Even in the recently concluded mayoral race, "the idea of fixing the infrastructure is simply not a first-rung priority in L.A.," says Kotkin. "In the San Fernando Valley, there's only passing knowledge we even have a port. It's far away ... at least a 45-minute drive." But, alluding to another oft-cited regional challenge, he says, "It can be a lot longer than that."