East Los Angeles Ca

Raising hopes for better times in economically depressed areas of Los Angeles' Eastside, the state Monday designated parts of Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Lincoln Heights as an "Employment Incentive Area." The special designation of the predominantly low-income, Latino area could usher in millions of dollars in investment and create jobs for up to 1,000 unemployed residents in the next few years, officials said.

Raising hopes for better times in economically depressed areas of Los Angeles' Eastside, the state Monday designated parts of Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Lincoln Heights as an "Employment Incentive Area." The special designation of the predominantly low-income, Latino area could usher in millions of dollars in investment and create jobs for up to 1,000 unemployed residents in the next few years, officials said.

The following organizations and companies served as the Los Angeles Times' Small Business Strategies Conference Advisory Team, helping to design the conference and find speakers. The Anderson School at UCLA 110 Westwood Plaza, Suite B201 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481 (310) 825-6121 http://www.anderson.ucla.edu E-mail: mba.admission@ anderson.ucla.edu * Asian Business Assn. 988 N. Hill St., Suite 119 Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213) 625-2221 http://www.asianbiz.com * Black Business Assn. of Los Angeles.

As eager as I was to get out of college, who'd have thought that three decades later I'd want to go back? UCLA isn't my alma mater. Although I've been on the campus many times and even taken an extension class, I still had missed plenty, including the school's Japanese garden, a concert in Royce Hall and the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.