 A monthly newsletter published by United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles. UN4LA's mission is to bring communities together to plan for a sustainable future. Growth must be shaped by community engagement, not developer dollars. Contact UN4LA PURPLE LINE T.N.P. LOOKS LIKE MORE OF THE SAME Last week the Department of City Planning (DCP) unveiled a so-called Transit Neighborhood Plan (TNP) for the communities surrounding the Purple Line Extension (currently under construction). Once again, the DCP is telling us that this current attempt at Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) will encourage transit ridership. City planners seem oblivious to the fact that they've made the same promise numerous times over the past 15 years, and Metro ridership is lower than it was 30 years ago. In reality the Purple Line TNP seems like another blatant effort to empower developers and sideline the community. Dick Platkin breaks it down in this article from CityWatch. City Planning Initiates Update to Wilshire Community Plan WHY WE NEED TO PROTECT OUR TREES If you live in LA County, you've probably noticed that it's been pretty hot lately. Temperatures in the region are rising, and are expected to continue rising for the foreseeable future. Our first line of defense against extreme heat is our trees. Not only do they keep our communities cool, they also clean the air we breathe and assist with stormwater capture. In November of last year Tree People released a report on the state of LA County's trees. While it finds that some cities are stepping up to preserve and expand their urban forest, we still have a long way to go. You can read the report by clicking on the link below. Public Trees for Public Good: An Assessment of Urban Forestry Management and Practices in Los Angeles County THE NEED TO INVEST IN THE HARBOR AREA While residents of the Central City often feel overwhelmed by endless waves of new development, other parts of LA have been neglected for decades, and City Hall doesn't seem to notice. James Preston Allen, Publisher of Random Lengths News, laments the lack of planning that has led to the decline of San Pedro and other Harbor communities. Mistakes Come Back to Haunt the Harbor HOW WILL INGLEWOOD GROW? Inglewood is booming. Real estate investors are swarming to the city as the new Rams/Chargers stadium continues to take shape, surrounded by massive amounts of residential and retail development. This piece from KCET talks about impacts both good and bad that might be in store for Inglewood residents. How Stadium Development Could Impact Inglewood
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 A monthly newsletter published by United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles. UN4LA's mission is to bring communities together to plan for a sustainable future. This city's growth must be shaped by community engagement, not developer dollars. Contact UN4LA EVICTIONS CONTINUE AS CITY HALL DELAYS PASSAGE OF HOME SHARING ORDINANCE All over the City of Los Angeles, property owners are converting apartments into short-term rentals (STRs, i.e. AirBnB, VRBO, etc.). The proposed Home Sharing Ordinance (HSO) would limit this practice, but City Hall keeps kicking it down the road. In other words, while the Mayor and the City Council keep insisting we need to build more housing, they're allowing landlords to take thousands of units off the market. This article from Curbed was published back in February. Not much has changed since then. Los Angeles Is Still Dragging Its Feet on Airbnb Regulations from Curbed MAYOR'S PLAN FOR HOMELESS SHELTERS IS DEEPLY FLAWED In April Mayor Eric Garcetti put forth an initiative to build temporary shelters for the homeless, calling the plan A Bridge Home. The Mayor has set aside $20 million from the 2018/19 budget, proposing to give each Council District about $1.3 million if the Councilmember identifies an area with a high concentration of homeless people and selects a site for a temporary homeless shelter. Unfortunately, the Mayor's plan reveals that he has little understanding of the process by which the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) engages with people living on street and refers them to housing and services that meet their needs. A Bridge Home or a Bridge to Nowhere? from CityWatch PLANNING COMMISSION OVERRIDES COMMUNITY ON EXPO PLAN City Hall wants us to believe that when it comes to community planning they're interested in getting our input. Don't buy it. Area residents worked with the Department of City Planning for years on the Expo Corridor Plan, and most residents were happy with the version that was agreed on in October 2017. But when it went before the City Planning Commission in November of that year, the Commissioners made major changes to the plan at the last minute. Community members were angered by the switch, but it's just one more example of City Hall's dishonest approach to planning. Bait and Switch for Expo Plan from CityWatch UCLA ZIMAN CENTER ASKS IF WE HAVE TOO MUCH DEMOCRACY In May UCLA's Ziman Center for Real Estate and Mercy Housing California held a symposium entitled “Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Democracy?” Graduate students from the University's Urban and Regional Planning Program were deeply disturbed both by the title and the focus of the gathering, and wrote the following letter to express their concerns. Graduate Students Oppose UCLA’s Complicity in Displacement from Knock DEADLINE FOR PROMENADE COMMENTS The deadine for comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Promendade 2035 project has been extended to Thursday, July 26. If you do submit comments, be sure to include the following case number in the subject line: ENV-2016-3909-EIR Promenade 2035 Draft EIR |
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