Riordan pledges to work closely with H'w'd
The newly elected mayor also said he "will not idly sit by" and allow production to run away to other states.
He called the entertainment industry the "most important" in Southern California and perhaps the U.S. because of the huge trade surplus it enjoys.
Riordan also took questions after his 15-minute speech, and said he hoped to streamline the permit process in order to make "one-stop shopping" available to production companies. The mayor said he's already established a task force for location problems and would announce a new liaison between City Hall and the industry.
"We will be your partners," he said, adding that businesses must do whatever's necessary to "make government get out of the way."
Alluding to past restrictions on business, Riordan noted that the city only recently approved Fox Inc.'s Century City expansion, a process that took several years. That procedure was indicative of past government, Riordan said, adding the city has "simply been the enemy of the entertainment business the last (several) years, and this has got to stop."
