Jake's blog
Let's talk about how the State brought the hammer down on bad local governments, and now there's a lot of new housing in the pipeline as a result.
tl;dr: Earlier this year, the State threatened to nuke city zoning laws if cities didn't plan to build enough housing. The cities tried to play games, the State nuked the zoning, and now there's a TON of new housing in the pipeline. So, about seven months ago, I wrote an essay explaining that every city in greater LA has to establish a rezoning plan to add their fair share of housing. Overall, greater LA needs to try to add 1.3 million more houses between 2021 and 2029. The cities of SoCal divided the quota up amongst themselves. If your plans...
Let's talk about what the California Legislature has done recently to make housing easier to build.
Bottom line, up front:This year, there's been four major reforms that have come out of Sacramento so far. They're pretty good measures which (1) should make it cheaper to build more housing by eliminating mandatory parking near transit (bill AB2097); (2) make more land available to build apartments on by legalizing apartments in commercial zones (bills SB6 and AB2011); (3) putting a measure on the ballot this November where the voters will decide whether to make it easier for the State to fund affordable housing (bill SCA2); and (4) making student housing exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (Bill...
Let's talk about how homelessness, poverty, and mental health funding aren't the same problem.
I've gone quiet for a while, since I'm finalizing my manuscript and the artwork for my book, "The Lost Subways of North America", which, God willing, will come out next year. TL;DR: I've been traveling the country doing research for my book, and the low levels of homelessness in poor places with badly-funded mental health systems is shocking. One of the things that's hit me most about traveling the country for my research is just how little of a connection there is between poverty and homelessness. Places like Detroit and West Virginia are dirt poor. If you drive around the...
Let's talk about suburban decay.
One really interesting phenomenon I've seen as I've gone through the Rust Belt is that the blighted city neighborhoods are now extending into the first ring of suburbs, the types of places which were built and laid out during the wealthy years of the 1950s and 1960s. We talk a lot about urban decay as a people and as a country, but not a whole lot about suburban decay.This shouldn't come as a surprise, in some ways. Most cities have name recognition, branding power, as marketers say. New York = banks. Los Angeles = movies. Detroit = cars. And when...
Let's talk about how the State of California is bringing the hammer down on bad local governments who won't allow more housing.
BOTTOM-LINE, UP FRONT: The State of California has issued an ultimatum to LA's local governments: reform your land use laws to allow more housing, or else we nuke your land use law this October and anything goes. THE BACKGROUND We're in a housing crisis because it's not legal to build enough housing in LA to meet the demand. The epicenter of the problem isn't in the encampments under the 101 - it's in leafy suburbs like South Pasadena, Manhattan Beach, and Beverly Hills, where it's been new housing has been almost totally banned in the last 50 years. Because of...