Daniel Blake

Pass It On…It’s the Economy

For some people, the economy is like the thing that goes bump in the night. The harder it is to see or understand it, the scarier it is.

But Daniel Blake has a talent for coaxing the creature into the light and replacing its imagined horribles with thoroughly researched analysis. Which may explain why, in matters economic, Blake’s calm voice has become one of the region’s most sought-after on the air and most frequently quoted in print.

During a recent and typical seven-day stretch of news coverage, he offered his views on Glendale’s status as a Valley industrial/commercial center, nodded his approval for a proposal to extend the Orange Line (for commuter buses) to Chatsworth, predicted job growth rates for medium-sized businesses, and commented on record Valley foreclosures as well as housing sales (“Buyers are starting to come back into the market and that’s a good sign”).

Outgoing director of Cal State Northridge’s 11-year-old San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center, the economics professor has tracked, measured, graphed and assessed his way to an intimate knowledge of the regional economy.

He shares that knowledge through the center’s Web site (www.csun.edu/sfverc) and through the CSUN San Fernando Valley Economic Report, unveiled each year at a summit of Greater Los Angeles area movers and shakers, welcomed this year by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The center’s report is an exhaustive accounting of Valley economic performance and trends, including a hard look at economic indicators such as bankruptcies and unemployment insurance claims, an overview of residential, industrial and commercial real estate and construction and the San Fernando Valley Real Estate Outlook on the commercial real estate and multi-housing markets.

Nationally, attention is being paid. The Association for University Business and Economic Research recently beamed the national klieg light on the center when it announced that the eighth of its economic reports had earned the AUBER Award of Excellence for data publications.

Visit www.csun.edu/busecon/ for information on CSUN's College of Business and Economics.