PALMDALE, Calif. — “That was on the president’s desk,” Mayor Austin Bishop said of the replica of the White House that sits on his own desk at Palmdale City Hall. It’s not an aspiration for his future. It’s a memento from his past when he worked on the TV show, "The Event."
“I used to work for the studios,” he said. “I’m a local 729 set painter and set designer. That’s how I got my start.”
Bishop would get an early start since he had to drive from Palmdale to Burbank or Century City.
“You really got to leave at 4:30 a.m. to make it, because the 14 Freeway does start getting real busy around that time,” he explained. “And in the afternoon, I’d say around two or three o’clock, it’s the same thing. It stays busy all the way till around six or 7 p.m.”
Palmdale is a hot spot for so-called super commuters with almost 17% of workers who live in the city commute 90 minutes or more to work, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“That’s why it’s important to try to bring the opportunities here,” Mayor Bishop said.
He points to opportunities like the ones created by a massive new Trader Joe’s food assembly and distribution center that’s scheduled to be up and running in the next few weeks.
That site, just within the border of the city, will bring in 1,000 local jobs.
Then, there’s aerospace.
The Antelope Valley has long been a hub for the industry, and something Republican Congressman Mike Garcia, who is currently running for reelection, says he’s worked to maintain — particularly jobs connected to Department of Defense contracts.
“The job is to make sure that we keep these aerospace and defense jobs in Southern California,” he explained. “It is difficult to do business with California’s regulations and taxes.”
He calls economic development — especially in the Antelope Valley, a huge issue, one that “falls into one of the major security buckets of economic security.”
He stresses the need to train people to fill current vacancies and attract new companies to the region.
“We literally have jobs looking for people right now,” he stated. “We not only need to find the work and bring the big programs to the district, but also help the workforce develop so that we can sustain these programs.”
George Whitesides, his democratic opponent, also emphasizes the need to increase the presence of industries of all sizes in the district.
“People are craving local jobs,” he said, pointing out that commuting 20 hours a week is like a half-time job just to get to work.
He told the story of how it took one small business owner in Agua Dulce 14 months to navigate through the LA County permitting process.
“I think that’s just too long, and it’s just too hard,” he said. “We should be making it easier rather than harder for folks to set up new businesses.”
Whitesides refers to small businesses as “the main driver of job growth in the United States” and would like to see elected officials streamline the process so entrepreneurs can start businesses and stay in business.
“We can look at tax policy to reduce the burden on entrepreneurs and small businesses,” he said. “We can look at other ways to support industries like aerospace or medicine or entertainment so that those industries grow in our district.”
Looking over the map of Palmdale, Mayor Bishop — who now owns his own printing business minutes away — points to the site LA County has selected to open a massive facility where Metro will produce and test thousands of railcars and buses.
He says big projects like that and the Trader Joes facility mean big infrastructure changes.
“Because once a large company like this comes in,” he said. “It’s the domino effect. The rest will follow.”
He hopes to create a road to new opportunities that aren’t a super commute away.