By Nick Diamantides
Staff Writer
Blair Cohn doesn’t shuffle paper. He pushes the envelope. “I want to see things happen in this part of town and my job is to make sure they do,” he said. As the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association’s new executive director, Cohn is in a place poised for significant transformations. He just doesn’t want to let any opportunities slip by.
The BKBIA hired Cohn about a month ago to replace former executive director Susan Cooper who resigned to pursue other business interests and to spend more time with her aging parents.
“In the last month, I have really been trying to learn the landscape up here,” he said, explaining that he has been studying the organization’s successes and challenges as well as the concerns of the business owners and property owners. “Another very important piece of the puzzle is the resident issue,” he said. “We have to bridge businesses and the association to the residents and vice versa to make a truly unified community.”
Cohn said five major goals constitute the mission of the BKBIA. These include recruiting new businesses to the Bixby Knolls area, supporting existing businesses in the area, conducting more events that draw people to Bixby Knolls, making improvements to the area’s buildings, streetscape and landscape, and increasing communication between businesses, property owners, residents, the association and the city in order to bring about positive changes.
“The goals were established long before I came here,” he said. “There are committees for each of the goals, and my job is to be the real driver to see progress–to see that we are moving toward accomplishing each goal.”
Cohn believes that in order for Bixby Knolls businesses to prosper, all five goals must be pursued simultaneously. “To be successful in this area we have to have fire in all cylinders,” he said. “We can’t afford to just focus on one goal this year and another goal next year.”
Cohn noted that Greneker Solutions, a consulting firm, recently completed a study on possible Bixby Knolls streetscape improvements and presented its findings and recommendations at a community meeting. “The whole idea is to brand the area and really define it,” Cohn explained. “We want Bixby Knolls to be just as easily identifiable as the downtown or Belmont Shore.”
He added that the BKBIA revitalization committee will be meeting soon and he is going to ask committee members to make some decisions on streetscape improvements.
“I’m going to ask them to choose what they want so we can go the North PAC and ask for the money to pay for it,” he said. He was referring to the North Long Beach Redevelopment Project Area Committee, which makes recommendations to the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency as to what projects it should fund.
“My point is that Bixby Knolls does not want to be overlooked,” he said. “Downtown, Northtown and Belmont Shore have gotten a lot of attention from the city, but there are issues here too.”
Cohn said he hopes the BKBIA can attract more cafes, restaurants and unique retailers to the area.
“I want a News of the World stand up here,” he said. “They sell newspapers and magazines from all over the nation and the world and it’s a place where people can meet their neighbors and talk about the issues of the day.” That, he explained, would fit into the overall goal of making Bixby Knolls more attractive and accessible to pedestrians.
“There has been a lot of study and discussion on what things need to happen in Bixby Knolls,” he added. “I am here to make them happen.”
Cohn has been making things happen for other people for most of his adult life.
After graduating from Milliken High School in 1985, he went on to USC where he studied business marketing. From his dorm room there, he began booking rock bands at local nightclubs. Soon, he was arranging concerts, art shows and other events.
After earning his bachelor’s degree, he was hired by an educational seminar company. “For them, I booked 300 continuing education seminars a year and arranged educational conferences in different parts of the United States,” he said. “After that, I became the race director and operations director for the Long Beach Marathon.”
In more recent years, Cohn has worked as an independent contractor helping to organize the Orange County Marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon and Long Beach’s University by the Sea. “For one year, I also worked for Long Beach’s Special Events Office,” he said. “That gave me a good education on how the city works from a compliance side of things.”
Now, with all that experience as his background, Cohn feels fully equipped to handle the challenges of serving as BKBIA executive director.
“The pyramids were built brick by brick, and that’s what we have to do here,” he said. “I am here to generate as much energy as I can, build new events and unite the community. We can’t please everybody, but we can do good things to make a real contribution to the area. That’s my ultimate goal.”
