Marcus Tiggs’s charming but severely understated personality keeps him from rising to heavyweight stardom in an era when raucousness transcends talent.
Two mornings ago, before the most modest sized audience of the City Council campaign season, Mr. Tiggs shined like blaring headlights in a choking fog.
The first two answers he reeled off – following reflection – surely warmed the heart cockles of the leaders of the Downtown Business Assn.
Perhaps the tone was set by the intimacy of the casual setting — the frill-less second floor Board Room of the Kirk Douglas Theatre, which better resembles a receptacle for dusty old sets that never will be utilized again.
In a Downtown glutted with restaurants, moderator Ken Kaufman, himself the owner of two, framed what he branded the $64,000 question:
What can be done to induce/introduce a more diverse commercial face in Downtown?
Mr. Tiggs’s answers in forums during the last 2½ months have not attracted trumpet-level attention, possibly influenced by his easygoing demeanor.
“What concerns me,” the bankruptcy lawyer told the DBA, “is why stores shutter. That is the $64,000 question.”
Closures frequently escape with minor notice so populous are Downtown restaurants.
In recent months, five Downtown eateries,includibg Chop Daddy that only had been open briefly, went dark.
Why? asked Mr. Tiggs.
“Anomalies or trends?” he wondered. Are the rents too high?”
He wondered if the fast-to-close businesses “receive the love that they should be getting.”
Parenthetically, it should be noted that all five locations reportedly are hunkered down at the starting line, ready to start with a new round of tenants.
Mr. Tiggs’s second answer was to whether Culver City should have a minimum wage law – if the state fails to make its own $15 landmarker.
A staunch opponent of any minimum wage regulation – important to remember he deals with bankruptcies for a living – Mr. Tiggs foregoes hand-wringing for single-word advice.
Education.
If you go to school, learn, train, he says, you won’t have to fret over making $7, $10 or $15 an hour.
Maybe the rents ARE too high.
For both businesses and residents.