Can Traditional Manufacturing Jobs Make a Comeback in Downtown Los Angeles?

While I agree manufacturing can and needs to make a comeback in the US, as does Hal Sirkin of the Boston Consulting Group in his Huffington Post column, cities and states need to be realistic on what types of manufacturing can survive within their specific economic climate. 

In Los Angeles, some politicians feel industrial land needs to be preserved for assembly line factories which are a better fit for the wage, utility, land and infrastructure costs of rural Alabama as opposed to the type of highly specialized manufacturing that has a chance of surviving - much less thriving - in the middle of a congested city with high taxes, land costs, utility costs, and living costs.

In fashion, we are seeing smaller lines and luxury brands bringing back production that once was overseas while other types of more boutique manufacturing are also starting to return in the various tech, electronic entertainment and other high value added businesses. But for those industries to thrive, many of them need to be located within mixed use, live/work communities which will allow for a 24/7 creative environment as opposed to large industrial parks that some are proposing to build in the middle our high cost urban area.