Entries Tagged 'Business' ↓

I’ve never been crazy about traveling on business because most of it is done by plane. When you live in New York, hassle Number 1 is just getting to the airport. It’s a schlep regardless of whether you are flying out of LaGuardia, JFK or God help you, Newark Liberty. Add the recommended minimum one hour arrival time before departure, the indignity of airport security, the often late takeoffs, the cattle car-like seating, the fee-based in-flight services and it just takes all enjoyment out of the process. I didn’t even mention the rising costs of air travel.

So this recent trip down to Washington DC was a welcome relief because I took the train. Being a bit of a romantic, nostalgic type, I have always liked trains anyway, but this was an especially enjoyable journey. A simple subway ride from my apartment to NY Penn Station, then a seat aboard the Acela Express, the new roomy, quiet, clean, comfortable high speed trains that run between Boston and DC.

No TSA Nazi made me open my suitcase or remove my shoes. I took a seat in the “Quiet Car” where there was space to stretch my legs, get up and move around, go to a café car that served food at its real cost (not the $5.00 per everything rate the airlines charge) and in just a few short hours I was in downtown DC, a short cab ride from my hotel, rested and unstressed.

My recommendation to President Obama is screw the airlines. They’ve never been well run anyway. Let’s make a major investment in a far more environmentally friendly form of transportation and make railroad travel popular again in every part of the country. Get Americans out of their cars and ground the airplanes. Faster travel isn’t synonymous with better travel. Train travel is simply more civilized.

After filming its first two seasons in Hollywood, the hit ABC television comedy Ugly Betty is picking up stakes and heading east to where its fictional story is set, New York City. LA’s loss is the Big Apple’s gain but it took some savvy legislation in Albany to make it all happen.

Ugly Betty stars Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, the intelligent, hardworking, yet decidedly unglamorous publishing assistant at the cute-throat fashion industry bible, Mode magazine. She and her family reside in Queens while each day she navigates the corporate jungle in Manhattan. Except in reality, it was all done on the sound stage and backlot of a studio in Hollywood.

Series creator Silvio Horta and Ferrera secretly longed to have the show shot in New York and now, thanks to film and television production tax credits recently signed into law by New York Governor David A. Paterson, they’ll get their wish. The NYS Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development now offers credits covering up to 30% of the cost of production and an additional 5% is also available from the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting.

That’s the kind of incentive designed to give a shot in the arm to the local film industry and keep producers from traveling to places like Toronto, Canada to try to inexpensively recreate New York locations. As everyone knows, you can’t really fake New York even if you can make the movie more cheaply.

Regular viewers of shows like Sex and the City and the Law & Order franchise, know how this city is as much a character in those series as the actors themselves. Shooting Ugly Betty here will enable them to take advantage of real fashion industry locations unavailable anywhere else, upping the glamour quotient considerably. The show will reportedly use either Silvercup Studios in Long Island City (in the real borough of Queens) or Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, as its home base starting June 30.

Update: There are two sides to every story. My cousin who works in television production in Hollywood, sent me the text of an ad appearing in the trades, from the west coast-based crew of Ugly Betty who will be losing their jobs as a result of the move.

To Whom it Should Concern

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Members of the State Senate and State Assembly, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the Los Angeles City Council, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors:

We are writing to you because we just lost our jobs. We are the 300 plus members of the crew of the television show Ugly Betty. We were informed this Tuesday that the production of our show is moving to New York primarily because of the 35% tax incentives being offered by the state of New York. Instead of making good wages and paying our fair share of California state income tax, we will all be collecting Unemployment Benefits. In addition, we will certainly be cutting our spending back to the bone, which will not only cut back our sales tax contributions substantially, but it could end up costing the jobs of the people who provide services and products to us. Not only are these crew positions being lost; all of our local vendors are losing our business.

Our production buys: lumber, paint, wallpaper, cabinets, other building materials, office products, fabric, art supplies, computer equipment, food, beverages, flowers, film, makeup & hair products, wigs, insurance, jewelry, clothing, etc.

Our production rents: lighting equipment, sound equipment, video playback equipment, heavy machinery, office equipment, backdrops, costumes, furniture, scenery, props, soundstages, offices, parking facilities, cars, trucks, storage facilities, computers, camera equipment, grip equipment, editing equipment, drafting equipment, cell phones, computers, toilets, dumpsters, live plants, production trailers, tools, hardware, artwork, walkie talkies, etc.

Our production also uses the services of: dry cleaners, printers, location companies, Special Effects companies, utilities, caterers, payroll services, restaurants, security, Post Production Services, Clearance Houses, etc.

When we shoot on locations around Los Angeles we pay for permits; we pay homeowners & businesses for the use of their property, we hire police and fire department personnel, we pay for facility engineers, etc.

So, while the loss of our individual positions may be insignificant, the loss of this production is staggering. Now multiply this by all the other productions going to New York, New Mexico, Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina and other states with incentives, not to mention Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Eastern Europe, etc. and the cost to the California state economy is monumental. We implore you to do everything in your power to level the playing field and bring our jobs back to California by enacting meaningful incentives to keep film and television production in our state.

Sincerely yours

The Crew of Ugly Betty

Former NBA star Tim Hardaway�s headline grabbing pronouncement this past week, �I hate gay people,� sent shockwaves through the professional sports community, generated personal backlash and may have ultimately cost him untold amounts of money in professional opportunities. But it didn�t surprise many people, especially not LGBTs. What is surprising is that the sports world still hasn�t faced an inevitability that other segments of society began to address years ago.

Hardaway�s candid comments during an interview with a Miami radio station were in reaction to the revelation that another former NBA player, John Amaechi is gay and had hidden that fact during his entire pro career. Amaechi came out in a book to be released this week that has sparked reaction from players, fans and sports commentators.

John Amaechi hoped by coming out he could facilitate a dialogue on the topic of gays in sports and indeed one is now beginning. Thus far, most of the mainstream media comments have come from heterosexuals (or those presumed to be). People on both sides of this issue have already addressed Hardaway�s reaction and the fact that it may be more common among athletes than people want to admit.

But not enough public comment is coming from gay people, and not enough has been done to place this subject within the broader issue of the LGBT presence in today�s workplace.

Six gay male athletes from professional baseball, football and basketball have come out, but all after retiring. A central issue of the debate is whether or not a gay athlete, in any sport, could come out during their active career. Those who believe that will never happen, fall on the argument that team cohesion would be negatively affected and straight athletes won�t feel comfortable in the same locker room. That was the gist of Hardaway�s sentiments.

Those who believe otherwise call those arguments specious. A careful look at the changes that have taken place in the rest of society since the beginning of the modern gay rights movement, suggests that fear and ignorance are the primary obstacles preventing a player from coming out and those obstacles have been overcome in many other fields.

Corporate America has been a leader in creating fairness and inclusive work environments for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees. The business community faced the issue of gays and lesbians in the workplace when they began to see employees who happened to be some of their best and brightest, leave when discrimination based on sexual orientation was prevalent. They further recognized that a sizeable LGBT consumer market was closed to them because they were not willing to reach out.

Today, according to the Human Rights Campaign�s 2005-2006 �The State of the Workplace� report, a majority of Fortune 500 companies, 253 (51 percent), offer domestic partner health insurance benefits. An additional 430 (86 percent) of the organizations include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies, and 81 include gender identity and/or expression, marking a tenfold increase from 2001. (A PDF of the HRC State of the Workplace 2005-2006 report can be viewed HERE.)

While more than 30 states still do not protect employees from termination simply for being gay, and no federal law exists either, the business community increasingly understands there is no upside to keeping doors of opportunity closed to gay employees. Businesses are some of the staunchest supporters of employee non-discrimination legislation. They know they risk losing good workers while also missing out on business opportunities.

The federal government is learning that lesson the hard way. In 2003, the United States Army dismissed 37 Arabic translators who were gay or lesbian, under the military�s �Don�t Ask, Don�t Tell� policy. This was the same year the U.S. invaded Iraq.

Four years later, with the situation in Iraq an unqualified disaster, hundreds of billions of dollars wasted and attacks by insurgents against U.S. and Iraqi forces increasing, our inability to decipher intelligence gathered from Arab-speaking sources has been severely compromised. Luckily, this past week, the State Department agreed to consider a suggestion from New York Congressman Gary Ackerman that they hire those dismissed Army linguists and put them to work at that agency.

While gays and lesbians can serve in every other branch of the federal government, including at the White House, the United States still does not allow them to serve openly in the military. Most of our allies do and a recent poll shows most Americans are also in favor of a change in policy.

Twenty of the 25 NATO nations allow gays in the armed forces, including Canada. Ironically in 2004, nine countries that deployed troops in Iraq allow gay service members. Those countries together contributed 60 percent of the coalition forces on the ground. Gay troops are already serving with U.S. forces, just not within U.S. forces. (A PDF report on foreign military forces that allow openly gay service members can be viewed HERE.)

Arguments that gays and straights serving together will negatively affect unit cohesion seem a bit farfetched. Just look at most local police departments. Openly gay officers are partnered right alongside their straight brothers with no loss of effectiveness. The New York City Police Department has almost 38,000 officers, the largest in the country, and openly gay officers have been an integral part for more than 20 years. Law enforcement is far more dangerous than sports and the need to be able to rely on ones partner far more critical, yet cops have managed to overcome their fears.

At the college level, there are already gay athletes who have come out. Their teammates and coaches have continued to embrace them. With a rise in the number of gay and lesbian teens coming out in high school, the possibility exists that we may someday see an openly gay athlete enter college, play his entire collegiate career and get drafted into a pro career without ever having to live in the closet.

For the sports world to catch up to the rest of society, league officials will have to demonstrate the leadership shown by corporate CEOs and government officials. It isn�t up to pro players to accept an openly gay teammate. Players don�t get to pick their teammates. It�s up to team owners. They set the policies and work rules and decide who gets a contract and who doesn�t. If they say an openly gay player can be on the team, it will happen.

By doing so, they may also attract a new and larger fan base. I can personally attest to the fact that there are legions of gay sports fans.

In 1947, when the Brooklyn Dodgers made Jackie Robinson the first Black player in Major League Baseball, some racist Dodger players presented management with a petition saying they weren�t going to play with him. Those players were traded, waived or sent to the minors. Dodger ownership made it clear change was here and they needed to get with the program or get out. Baseball was forever improved as a result.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines �phobia� as �a persistent, abnormal and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous.� Homophobia then, is an abnormal and irrational fear of homosexuals, despite the overwhelming awareness that there is nothing to fear.

A gay player on a pro sports team isn�t the problem. Homophobia is.

It doesn�t seem fair.

A month and a half ago Kenneth L. Lay, the disgraced former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Enron, was convicted of six counts of fraud and conspiracy and four counts of bank fraud for lying to investors, employees and regulators so he could disguise the financial weaknesses of the Houston-based energy giant.

Hundreds of Enron employees who had their retirement funds tied to Enron stock lost everything. Lay was a close personal friend and financial backer of both Presidents Bush. The case served as a symbol of corporate greed and excess in the 1990�s.

While awaiting sentencing on charges that might have sent him to prison for the rest of his life, Lay died early Wednesday morning of a massive heart attack. He was 64.

Further coverage:

The Houston Chronicle link
Fortune Magazine link
The New York Times link

(Note: Links connect you to PDF files.)

While there are days when I�m either bored or stressed by my 9-5, at the end of the day (like today, for instance) I know there�s a paycheck and health benefits waiting for me. I can pay my bills and get sick at the same time.

If I were still a struggling actor or had made the full leap to underpaid, overworked food service industry worker, and were plying my trade here in NYC, I might not be so lucky.

Two studies released this week speak to the difficult conditions facing artists and restaurant workers in New York, and they ain�t pretty. A report by the Freelancers Union on how arts funding overlooks the needs of individual artists, showed that 75% of creative workers avoided seeking medical care as a result of being uninsured and 58% save nothing towards retirement each month.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the New York City Restaurant Industry Coalition drew a link between public health and working conditions in the city�s restaurant industry, basically showing that when employers cut corners by understaffing their kitchens, not training workers for their positions and forcing them to continue to work while sick or injured, it puts all of us at risk. Examples cited in the report talked of food handlers cutting themselves and being forced to continue working, possibly contaminating the food they served to customers.

It�s hard y�all. Kinda makes pimpin� look easy.