Revitalizing Los Angeles: Lessons from New York’s Historic Comeback

Dan Biederman began his career by turning around dangerous and neglected areas of Midtown Manhattan. During the 1980s, he created Bryant Park Corporation, 34th Street Partnership, and Grand Central Partnership, and currently serves as the president of the first two of those downtown managers. His private consulting firm, Biederman Redevelopment Ventures, grew out of this work, and has since served as a consultant and operator of other downtown redevelopment/management efforts in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Pittsburgh, Boston, Baltimore, and Newark, among many other cities.

Bryant Park Corporation, founded in 1980 by Biederman with the assistance of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, is one of the largest efforts in the nation to apply private management backed by private funding to a public park.

34th Street Partnership, which Biederman founded in 1989, covers a critical area with over 33 million square feet of commercial space, including Pennsylvania Station, Madison Square Garden, the Herald Square shopping district, and the Empire State Building. In January of 1992, the Partnership opened with a $6 million annual program of security, sanitation, social services, tourist information, public events, and debt service on a major capital improvement bond of $25 million for improvements to the district’s streets, sidewalks, and plazas. The district has radically widened its programs and resources since then.  Crime has been reduced by 90%, the streets are free of litter, and dozens of retailers have been helped to upgrade their facades and merchandising. The Partnership has received many awards for its pioneering work, including the 2003 Society for Environmental Graphic Design Award for its Self-Illuminated Street Sign, the NYC Department of Small Business Services 2003 Neighborhood Development Award, and the Urban Land Institute’s 2005 Award for Excellence for its line of Custom Designed Street Furniture.

Biederman has written, lectured, and taught extensively in the field of urban management. In December of 1995, he served on a twelve member advisory panel convened in Oklahoma City by the Urban Land Institute to explore strategies for the economic recovery of the downtown area in the aftermath of the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. His publications include articles in Urban Land and the Harvard Business Review.

Dr. Lee Bowes is one of the leading experts on Welfare to Work and Prison to Work Workforce Development policies.

In the 1990’s, Bowes and her husband, Peter Cove, were instrumental in educating both political parties about the merits of implementing a national “Work First” policy. She is a frequent guest and speaker at associations that deal with welfare to work policies. Bowes has held the position of CEO since 1987. Bowes was an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She lectures on human resource management, social policy, and innovative management techniques. Bowes has a book published, No One Need Apply: Getting and Keeping the Best Workers.

Peter Cove, a social activist and businessman, is one of the nation’s leading advocates for private solutions to workforce development and alleviating poverty. 

As the founder of America Works in 1984, Cove has worked to link private-sector investment and employment with welfare reform. Cove has also devoted his energy to prisoner reentry initiatives, advocating tirelessly for second chance legislation on a national level, to inform policy-makers that the work first model of services is the answer for successful reintegration of ex-offenders into communities.

Cove has a book published, Poor No More: Rethinking Dependency and the War on Poverty.

Rafael Mangual is the Nick Ohnell Fellow and head of research for the Policing and Public Safety Initiative at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and a contributing editor of the Institute’s flagship publication, City Journal. His first book, Criminal (In)Justice: What the push for decarceration and depolicing gets wrong and who it hurts most, was published in July of 2022 by Center Street, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. In 2020, Mangual was appointed to serve a four-year term on the New York State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and in 2022, he was elected to the Council on Criminal Justice.

Mangual regularly appears on both national and local television and radio to comment on issues of crime, justice, and safety. His writing on these issues has been featured in a wide array of publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Mangual's expertise is regularly sought by policymaking bodies, including committees of both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, before which he has testified on multiple occasions.

Matthew Taylor is an American artist and technologist who works in film, sculpture, and photography.

As a filmmaker, Taylor has filmed all over the world in 25 countries including Argentina, Guatemala, Poland, Italy, France, Chile, Germany, and Albania. He has conducted interviews with a range of talent including former presidents, leading CEOs, world leaders, groundbreaking artists, best-selling authors, astronauts, and creative thinkers. To date, he has completed more than 150 short films, fashion works, ballet and dance pieces and directed seven feature documentaries and two short films.

In 2015, Taylor wrote and directed Los Abandonados, a Spanish-language feature documentary about the assassination of Alberto Nisman in Argentina. The film aided in the derailment of Kristina Kirchner’s crony government.

In 2020, Taylor released Marcel Duchamp: The Art of The Possible, a feature length documentary on the life and work of Marcel Duchamp, exploring the critical underpinnings of art in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Last year, Taylor directed a short film entitled Invisible Hand which explores the nature of memory and transference of other’s memories, and the physiological toll trauma exerts on one’s ability to recall events.

Taylor possesses a filmmaking skillset that ranges across every aspect of film production from director of photography to editor. He enjoys being “hands on” in all production projects and will pick up the camera himself to get certain shots.

Michelle Taylor is the co-founder of Electrolift Creative, a creative boutique that produces documentaries, short films, and other creative content.

Taylor got her start in the film industry in Washington, D.C. when she joined a growing nonprofit and managed the marketing and distribution of feature-length films. In 2008, Taylor joined a national consulting firm as the executive vice president where she worked with dozens of clients to help them attain revenue goals, implement strategic plans, increase visibility, build coalitions, and improve messaging.

Turning her attention to film, Taylor produced several short films, commercials, and music videos. Her first feature documentary was Los Abandonados, a Spanish language investigative film that uncovered the truth behind Alberto Nisman’s death in Argentina.

In 2020, Taylor produced the award-winning documentary, Marcel Duchamp: Art of the Possible. She oversaw filming in four countries, seven states and interviews with twenty-nine artists and scholars. To date, this film has screened in over thirty-five international film festivals, was co-produced by Arte in France and Germany, and screened on SkyTV in the United Kingdom and on public television in ten countries, including Poland, Japan, Taiwan, and Brazil.

Taylor is also the producer of the short drama, Invisible Hand, which was released in 2021 and has screened in over twenty film festivals. She produced the film, Gotham: The Fall and Rise of New York as well as the short film series, This is New York. Looking ahead, Taylor is working on pre-production of a narrative comedy as well as the mockumentary, This is Arcadia Sky.