Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held a town hall meeting Thursday to present his plans to stimulate job creation in Los Angeles.  

Mayor Villaraigosa (Judy L. Wang)

The meeting was hosted at Grifols Biological, a global health care company that has partnered with Villaraigosa to expand its East L.A. facilities to create 300 new jobs.

The room was packed with businessmen and women, apartment landlords, small family business owners and law enforcement officers.

Villaraigosa addressed the urgency of job creation. 

“I’d ask people, ‘Where are you from?’ And they would say ‘Temecula,’ ‘San Bernardino,’ ‘Riverside.’ That’s a really great thing,” he said, “but we need to get more people from L.A. because the taxpayers of L.A have to benefit from these efforts.”

Behind Nevada, California has the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation. The unemployment rate has risen in L.A. County from 12.3 to 12.5 percent.

Millions of Californians face chronic unemployment as 16.3 percent have incomes below the poverty line. 

Villaraigosa outlined his plan in five major steps that included extending a three-year tax exemption on new businesses; the modernization of L.A. International Airport (LAX); and Measure R, a half-penny sales tax that would help double the size of the rail systems and repair roads and highways. The LAX modernization could cost up to $4.1 billion but could create 39,000 jobs. As for Measure R, the mayor said he sees the need to close the time gap. 

"People would ask me, 'Where's that subway you promised?' and I have to explain to people that this was a half-penny sales tax, not a 10 cent sales tax," the mayor said. "But those questions got us to thinking, if we could accelerate the 30 years of spending into a 10-year period of time. We could bond against and try to get a loan to bridge the difference. It could create 166,000 jobs, double the size of the rail system, save 10 million gallons of gas and increase transit boarding by 77 million."  

The mayor unveiled a new website, LocateLA.org. The website is designed to provide businesses wishing to expand, re-locate, or start-up with information about their desired areas. Business owners can search communities, businesses, buildings or sites to find statistics relevant to their business ventures.

After the conference there were mixed reactions to the mayor’s proposals. Arnie Corlin, board member for the trade group Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, was unsure of Villaraigosa's pitch.

“I haven’t decided yet," Corlin said. "I think it is important that we make the government bureaucracy easier for creating jobs. For individuals like myself who have a challenge going through the city process, I found it very onerous.”  

Bill Hoston, president and CEO of Transportation Foundation of Los Angeles, left the meeting appreciative that the mayor was willing to facilitate the conversation.

“I like the idea that the mayor has a team of people that will help you," Hoston said. "It’s business-friendly and we’re not a business-friendly state. The economy is very bad right now and California is probably in the worst state it has ever been in. The mayor is trying to bring all this together, which is good.” 

Reach reporter Judy L Wang here. Follow her on Twitter.