Prop 10 Aftermath
Let's Go LA
by letsgola
3y ago
In the wake of the failure of Prop 10 in yesterday’s election, by a 2-1 margin, it’s again useful to take a step back and remember what the larger state of play for housing in California looks like. The Left’s SB 827? In many ways, I think the politics of Prop 10 played out in a very similar way to SB 827. Like YIMBY disappointment that there was little enthusiasm for SB 827 among left groups, many organizations supporting Prop 10 were frustrated that YIMBY groups did not endorse Prop 10 or offer stronger support. Many YIMBY groups have explicit principles calling for greater tenant protection ..read more
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Metrolink RER Philosophy
Let's Go LA
by letsgola
3y ago
In our previous post, we looked at the potential for a downtown rail tunnel for Metrolink Regional Express Rail (RER) service, which would help turn Metrolink into a complimentary service to the Metro rail network. It would reduce the need to transfer, eliminate congestion on Metro, and greatly improve connectivity for Metrolink riders. With that in mind, we should look at what type of service would best suit each of the Metrolink lines, which vary greatly in the type of land use patterns they traverse. First, it’s good to identify the goal of what exactly we’re trying to do here. Let’s define ..read more
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Is Union Station Obsolete?
Let's Go LA
by letsgola
3y ago
This question has been bothering me for a while. The momentum behind current plans is so large that it’s probably just a philosophical question, but I still think it’s worth examining in detail both for LA to think about what we’re trying to do and as a case study for other cities that might be considering transit investments. An Historic Mistake A fair amount of money has already been invested in improving transit at Union Station, including the Red Line, the Gold Line, the bus plaza, the Silver Line, and Metrolink. An even larger amount of money is planned to be spent soon, including run-thr ..read more
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Zoning and Immigration Restrictions
Let's Go LA
by letsgola
3y ago
The impact of California’s high housing costs on refugees has rightly gotten some play in the media lately. CALmatters ran an article detailing the challenges faced by people trying to earn a living in a new country with high rents looming over their heads. The inability of California to welcome more refugees due to high housing costs highlights that the crisis arises not just from inadequate tenant protections, but from a lack of supply. Tenant protections and rent stabilization will help people who already live here, but don’t do anything for people who are trying to escape desperate situati ..read more
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Who Can Telecommute?
Let's Go LA
by letsgola
3y ago
Telecommuting has been held out as a solution for America’s transportation and land-use woes for my entire adult life and then some. Ever since the rise of the internet and the first tech bubble of the late 90s, it’s been proposed that eventually, the technology would be so good that you do your job from anywhere. That way it wouldn’t matter if Los Angeles were expensive, because you could just live in Spokane and do your job from there. The experimental evidence we have from the last 20 years does not support this theory. An organization that promotes telecommuting found that between 2005 and ..read more
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South Bay Boulevards
Let's Go LA
by letsgola
3y ago
Though I live in Glendale now and have written extensively about Palms, one of my favorite parts of LA County is the South Bay. Development and land use patterns in this collection of under the radar cities like Gardena, Torrance, and Lawndale are genius – though perhaps we should say accidental genius. For readers outside of LA, the South Bay is roughly the area south of the 105 and west of the 110 – though Carson extends east of the 110 and is South Bay in my mind, and the portions of the “beach cities” (El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach) west of PCH may or may no ..read more
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In Praise of Remodeling
Let's Go LA
by letsgola
3y ago
Just a short note that I was reminded of recently when I came across a project in LA that proposes to convert a manager’s office into a one-bedroom apartment in an existing building: subdividing old housing is very good, but it has been curtailed by zoning. Reconfiguring buildings that already exist is one of the cheapest ways to create new housing units. Unsurprisingly, it is one of the primary ways that affordable housing was created in the past. Single-family housing was converted into boarding houses. Once-fashionable homes on Bunker Hill in downtown LA became cheap apartments, providing m ..read more
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Missing Middle Musing
Let's Go LA
by letsgola
3y ago
I recently had the opportunity to travel to both Philadelphia, a city I don’t know very well, and Boston, a city I lived in for 12 years before moving to LA in 2012. In Philadelphia, I was fortunate enough to have @riccoja show me around Northern Liberties and Fishtown; in Boston, I spent a lot of time walking around the city looking at how things had changed (or not changed) since I left. (I also visited DC, but really just the tourist thing and didn’t get to see much new development.) I came away from my trip with two main thoughts on housing in Los Angeles: We have systematically made it h ..read more
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Impact Fees Are Bad, Taxes Are Good
Let's Go LA
by letsgola
3y ago
One of the more nefarious impediments to housing construction in California, in my opinion, is the proliferation of impact fees on new development. Impact fees first became widespread in the 1980s, a consequence of Prop 13 bankrupting local governments’ ability to pay for public improvements like parks and schools. The state allowed cities and counties to start charging community district fees, also known as Mello-Roos fees, whereby each unit in a new subdivision pays a fixed amount to cover the construction of new public facilities. These fees only apply to new construction in a particular di ..read more
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Never Tweet
Let's Go LA
by letsgola
3y ago
It’s not an exaggeration to say Twitter changed my life. I’ve met people that I probably never would have otherwise. My knowledge and world view has been greatly expanded by connecting with people in transportation, urban planning, architecture, and many other fields. I’ve been able to listen and understand where people are coming from on issues I have no experience with and from communities I have no direct connection to. I probably wouldn’t be involved in housing advocacy if not for Twitter. That said, it has felt very exhausting lately, and I’ve had a few conversations with some of my earli ..read more
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