Los Angeles Trade Asia

Should Mayor Richard Riordan go on an eight-city, 15-day trade mission to Asia, at a cost to taxpayers of $469,775? Members of the Los Angeles City Council, albeit somewhat reluctantly, agreed Tuesday that the trip was OK. But their vote was highly unusual, coming at the request of Controller Rick Tuttle, who wanted the council to approve the trip even though it has no authority to block it.

Mayor Richard Riordan and his traveling delegation left Japan on Friday for the rest of Asia, taking with them a clearer vision of the critical but complex role that overseas deals will play in Los Angeles' economic growth. Over the past week, Japanese businessmen have approached mayoral aides to broach the idea of building a major Los Angeles hotel. U.S.

Moments before leaving Los Angeles International Airport on the most ambitious overseas trip of his administration, Mayor Richard Riordan promised to return with results: "We'll come back with cash," he told reporters as he boarded a plane for Tokyo. Fourteen days and eight cities later, the mayor fulfilled that promise.

Forty-five years after concluding his U.S. Army tour in the Korean War, Mayor Richard Riordan returned for the first time Saturday to the stark stretch of no-man's land that marks the brutal and still-unresolved conflict. Traveling with his wife and a few top Los Angeles officials, Riordan was escorted through the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea--a strange and bleak place where opposing soldiers face off within easy sight of each other, waiting for any sign of danger.

Nearing the end of his two-week trip to Asia, Mayor Richard Riordan addressed an enthusiastic group of Western business leaders Wednesday, using his speech to deliver his strongest endorsement yet of Los Angeles International Airport's costly proposed expansion. "We're expanding--we're not just waiting--to be ready for the 21st century," Riordan said during a speech billed as the most important of his trip. "We have to be ready to handle the increased demand."

A record number of imports are expected to stream through the Port of Long Beach--the nation's busiest--this month as retailers, who earlier this year fretted about a potential container shortage, bulk up their holiday season inventories, port officials said. But exports from Long Beach and neighboring Los Angeles harbor are expected to fall as the dollar's recent strength and ongoing financial turmoil in Asia continue to stifle demand for U.S. goods to the region.

In an indication that fallout from Asia's economic turmoil continues to jostle the U.S. and local economies, the nation's busiest ports at Long Beach and Los Angeles reported Thursday that overall export volume in August was down at least 4% over a year ago. At the Port of Long Beach, which handles more cargo than any other U.S. harbor, the drop was even more pronounced at 11.5%. And August also marked the port's fifth straight month of decline in export volume.