Finding Silver Linings in LA’s Renting Culture

A map of LA's home ownership. Lighter areas have higher rates of renters.
It seems that people are often quick to dismiss projects in the LA region due to its culture. We shouldn’t expand mass transit because people love their cars too much. We shouldn’t build high density developments because people want to raise their kids in the suburbs with big backyards.

However, recent data from the Census and the American Community Survey shows that our “LA culture” may not be as deeply ingrained as we often think it is.

In looking at the data, you can come up with three major takeaways:
1. 52% of residents in the LA metro area are renters (the highest rate in the country)
2. Half of these renters are spending too much of their income on their monthly rent
3. 45% of households own one or fewer cars
These numbers present a great opportunity for the region’s city planners and developers. Half of the population is incredibly mobile - they don’t have the anchor of home ownership and they technically have the ability to move every year.

City planners should be pushing even harder for high density, transit oriented developments. They also should be less committed to expanding transit networks out to far-reaching areas of the region. Instead of expanding the network out to places like Azusa, METRO should be focusing more on improving access to the economic centers (insert shameless plug for my Ringbahn idea here). Planners should also be creating incentives for developers to build affordable high density housing. Developers seem to be focusing on sexier, high-end rental buildings, but the data shows that there’s a need for affordable places to live.

People in the planning community have been optimistic that the Los Angeles of 2030 will look very different than it does today. Although there have been some recent setbacks, the data shows that Angelenos are ready to live in a bigger, yet more sustainable city.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Alternative Design for USC's Coliseum Renovation

Image
I recently wrote a rambling, 2,000 word, mostly critical review of USC’s proposal to renovate the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. However, it isn’t fair to simply sit back and criticize carefully-thought out plans without giving feasible suggestions. There have been many Coliseum renovation plans presented before, but the vast majority have been entirely unrealistic or too expensive . In addition, previous plans haven’t viewed the Coliseum in the same way that the USC Athletic Department seemingly does - as a historic stadium in need of a general facelift and a few modern amenities. Thus, I set out to create an alternative that accomplishes everything that USC’s proposal does, but in a more aesthetically pleasing and flexible way. *I should note that I’m not an architect. I am someone who has traveled to see approximately 70 professional and college stadiums and who has a near-encyclopedic memory of hundreds of stadiums around the world. My drawings may not be 100% to scale, bu...
Read more

Coliseum Renovation Plans Leaked

Image
I was messing around with the url on  coliseumrenovation.com  tonight and I was able to get to the pages with updated renderings for the Coliseum renovation plan. USC is expected to officially release these in the next week or two, but you can get an early look here.  I feel like the reaction when the original plans were released in October was mixed at best. If you didn't like the plans then, you're going to be disappointed, as it appears that there have been virtually no changes. I took screenshots from  http://coliseumrenovation.com/overview  and posted them below.  I'll have a follow-up post with some commentary in the near future. If you're new to the blog, you can see my alternative renovation plans  here  and  here . Legal Talk: These images technically belong to USC and came from the url mentioned above. I make no claims of owning these images. New rendering of "The Scholarship Club Tower." Image from http://colise...
Read more