HUD No. 00-262
Further Information:	For Release
In the Washington, DC area: 202/708-0685	Tuesday
Or contact your local HUD office	September 26, 2000

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CUOMO HONORS AWARD WINNING L.A. COUNTY TECHNOLOGY CENTER

ALTADENA, Calif. - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today presented a HUD Best Practices Award to the Business Technology Center of Los Angeles County's Community Development Commission.

Cuomo presented the award, given to HUD-funded programs that significantly improve the lives of residents in the communities they serve, on the last day of his three-day swing through 20 California cities. The center was funded by the Community Development Commission using a $3,255,000 HUD Community Development Block Grant.

The Business Technology Center is the largest high-technology incubator in California and the only such incubator in the country owned and operated by a county government. Its mission is to create jobs by assisting start-up and early-stage high technology firms. Located in a minority community that is 48 percent low- or moderate-income, the technology center has also sparked developer interest in the West Altadena Redevelopment Project Area.

"I salute the Best Technology Center for its HUD Best Practices Award, and the County Community Development Commission for deliberately locating the center in a neglected commercial corridor," Cuomo said. "Study after study shows that small business and technology, specifically information technology, will be the catalyst for economic development in the coming decades."

A HUD best practice is defined as a program or project, management tool, or technique that fulfills at least two of the following characteristics:

• Generates a significant positive impact on those it is intended to serve
• Can be replicated in other areas of the country, region, or local jurisdiction
• Demonstrates the effective use of partnerships among government agencies, non-profit
• organizations, or private businesses
• Displays creativity in addressing a problem, and demonstrates effective leveraging of resources.

Cuomo delivered Monday's keynote address at Creating Partnerships for Renewed Hope in Los Angeles. The HUD-sponsored conference brought together community and faith-based organizations, public officials and business leaders. Cuomo's trip concluded today in Los Angeles at Closing the Gap: Investing in America's Communities, an economic development conference that focused on effective strategies, tools, and resources for creating partnerships that address the needs of America's distressed communities.

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