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LOS ANGELES-Investment in the urban core, transit, housing andemployment were among the topics touched upon at ULI's UrbanMarketplace conference, held yesterday in Downtown. The half-dayevent was entitled Cracking the Urban Core: Housing and Jobs."Thepurpose of the event is to bring investors, lenders and developerstogether to address urban infill," Susan Kamei, executive directorof ULI, tells Globest.com. "We want to use our resources to makethe connection between jobs and housing."Kamei tells Globest.comthat developing around public transportation is one of ULI'sprimary focuses, especially in Los Angeles. "We are not New York;we are never going to have a subway station on every corner," Kameisays. "But Los Angeles is going beyond rail and is using all formsof public transportation." She adds that the number of bus stopshas recently been increased by the Department ofTransportation.Panelists at the event included Dolores Conway,director of the USC Casden Real Estate Forecast; Denise G.Fairchild, president of the Community Development TechnologiesCenter; Carlos Jackson, executive director of the LA CountyCommunity Development Commission; Michael I. Keston, chairman andCEO of the Lawrin Co.; and Robert J. Norris, executive vicepresident of Century Housing.The panel, moderated by John McIlwain,senior resident fellow with ULI, discussed how and where investmentdollars would most benefit the inner city.Rotating breakoutsessions included other topics such as "Public Financing,""Sourcing New Land Opportunities," "What Can Los Angeles Learn fromNew Orleans," and Transit-Oriented Development."The conference drew700 attendees, the most in the conference's history. "When we firststarted six years ago, I felt like we were swimming upstream,"Kamei says. "Now it's getting attention and the support isgrowing."