LOS ANGELES

ONE MAN’S OPINION-In the February 21, 2020 issue of Forward, which was established by Socialist Jews in 1897, Aiden Pink writes: 

HEALTH POLITICS-Lyndon Johnson had a saying about special interests trying to get his support to pass some blatantly self-serving legislation: “They can’t make chicken salad out of chicken (bleep)!”

PLANNING WATCH-In American elections politicians veer left during campaigns to catch the attention of the electorate, which is more progressive on the issues than the two major political parties.

VOTING FOR GREEN SOLUTIONS-In 2018, California committed to getting all its electricity from climate-friendly sources by 2045.

GUEST WORDS--Los Angeles County is premiering a voting system this month that officials think could become a model for the nation. 

EASTSIDER-When Charter Reform was passed in 2000 establishing the Neighborhood Council System, everything worked well for the first few years. Under a hands-off Mayor James Hahn. You can read about these heady days here.   

ALPERN AT LARGE--There are a few things that some of President Trump's most ardent opponents will concede that they agree with that Orange Man in the White House--not the least of which is that China is a problem.

SOUTH OF THE 10--Former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Charlie Beck has come out of retirement, temporarily, to serve the city of Chicago as its Interim Police Superintendent.

SCIENCE POLITICS--Science and new information about the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) was what I expected to hear from our CAL EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld at this last Thursday’s Work Group meeting in Simi Valley.

MY TURN-In looking at the primary race on March 3 for the office of Los Angeles District Attorney between incumbent Jackie Lacey and her challengers George Gascon and Rachel Rossi, I find it astounding that none of them are willing to deal with the critically important underlying causes for the disproportionate targeting of minorities by the DA and the LAPD.

MAN’S OPINION ONE -In a nation founded on the basis that our Republic is the best form of government to secure the inalienable rights of every individual, Angelenos prefer feudalism.

PROGRESSIVE CAPITALISM-I went to see Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-prize-winning economist, speak at USF last week. Lectures by economists don’t tend to fill up large rooms, but in this case, the place was packed, with a long line out the door and people bringing in extra chairs. 

CLIMATE POLITICS-This month Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro proposed a new bill promoting mining, expanded agriculture, and energy production on indigenous lands in the Amazon.

GELFAND’S WORLD--In a previous CityWatch column, I asked whether a city agency, in this case DONE -- the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment – could punish a neighborhood council based merely on an allegation.

ABSTRACT-We need housing that is affordable and accessible for all. But there is a significant difference between housing that working-class households can afford and what is called “Affordable Housing.”

CAL BUZZ-Two national news headlines defined the state of play in the first weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign: 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-In an article originally published in The Federalist on October 2, 2019, The Honorable Chuck DeVore notes that, according to a new poll from the Institute of Governmental Studies at U.C. Berkeley, a full 74 percent of the state’s very conservative voters say they’re looking into moving, and 84 percent of those cite California’s political culture as their rationale for leaving. 

OTHER WORDS-I recently spent three weeks at the border between El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico. The experience strengthened my resolve, as a person of faith and Sister of Mercy, to share more about how the situation there concerns all of us in the United States. 

GUEST COMMENTARY---Modern problems require modern solutions.

@THE GUSS REPORT-In some other dimension, the late John Walsh, the eccentric, crusty and crotchety Dean of LA City Hall gadflies, is probably gesticulating wildly while proclaiming, “I told you so!” 

PLANNING WATCH-Like the country as a whole, Los Angeles is caught in a downward economic spiral of its own making.  A City Hall-assisted housing crisis has been made worse by economic inequality, while City Hall’s counterproductive, trickle-down responses have created even more economic inequality. These two processes feed on each other, and the objective result is that the rich get even richer at the expense of everyone else. 

A few data points reveal how massive economic inequality has become in the United States, how it is getting worse, and how it prices out millions of Americans from housing in good times, and even more in bad times, such as the Great Recession. Beginning in 2007, at least seven million families lost their homes. Most of them became renters, while the foreclosure kings who bought their houses – Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross – are now Trump cabinet members. 

UC Berkeley economist Emanuel Saez has documented how economic inequality in the United States increased from it low point in the late 1970s, to its current level, which matches the 1920s.  According to Prof. Saez, the top .1 percent (.001) of earners have incomes that are, on average, 196 times greater than the bottom 90 percent.  If we look more closely at this 90 percent, 140 million of them live in official or unofficial poverty.

While the housing crisis effects all portions of the U.S. population, those at the top can easily absorb increased housing costs, even for luxury apartments, such as the Caruso building at 8500 Burton Way.  According to the Los Angeles Times its penthouses rent for $40,000 per month, while its other apartments typically cost $12,000 per month. 

This increasing income inequality is one of the most important factors contributing to homelessness.  When rents go up and incomes are stagnant or declining, too many existing residents are priced out of their houses or apartments. According to KCBS News, in Los Angeles the rent for a one- bedroom apartment increased by 84 percent between 2010 and 2018. During the same period incomes only rose by 11 percent.  While LA has experienced a housing and McMansions boom during this same period, this new housing is expensive, and it also pulls up the rents of existing apartments and houses. As a result, CBS News reports that those who can no longer afford rent increases are pushed out. They then have fewer places where they can afford to live, forcing many of them to sleep in cars or on the streets. 

The construction of so much new, expensive housing is not a fluke.  It is the consequence of many City Hall ordinances and practices. For example, various up-zoning schemes have already expanded LA’s untapped zoning capacity by over 20 percent.  According to the General Plan Framework Element, in the mid-1990s LA's zoning build out population was 7.2 million people. Subsequently, LA’s two density bonus programs, SB 1818 and TOC Guidelines, in combination with laws green-lighting Accessory Dwelling Units (“Granny Flats”), lifted this zoning build out figure to approximately 9 million people – more than double LA’s existing population. 

Nevertheless, more up-zoning is in the works, an enormous financial benefit to property owners and developers.  Local Transit Neighborhood Plans, Community Plan Updates, and Re:code LA would push LA’s zoning capacity even higher.  If the State of California eventually imposes statewide SB 50-type up-zoning on top of these local developer giveaways, the goose that lays these golden eggs will soon be foiled by unintended consequences. 

First, there are not enough affluent buyers and renters to consume so much luxury housing, the reason why most new apartment buildings post prominent vacancy signs. 

Second, new, unplanned apartments and McMansions overwhelm LA’s already fragile infrastructure and services, and these inevitable failures make the city an increasingly unappealing destination.  Good weather cannot hide traffic jams, broken sidewalks, and homeless encampments forever. 

The downward spiral’s prospects:  While the relationship between income inequality and the housing crisis is easy to understand, the unintended consequences are more complicated.  The State and City’s “housing” programs to assist developers also create additional economic inequality.  This additional economic inequality then compounds the housing crisis and accelerates LA’s downward spiral. 

For example, upzoning, whether imposed by Sacramento, or created though municipal ordinances, quickly increase the value of commercial and would-be commercial parcels and buildings. When property owners flip their suddenly more valuable properties, they are only taxed at a low capital gains rate. Or, if they sell a partial ownership in a building, Proposition 13 locks in old property tax rates for the new owner.  he investors’ wallets get fatter, while the ranks of those who must rent apartments and houses from them get poorer. These tenants must spend an ever-increasing amount of their fixed incomes to keep a roof over their head. Millions of rent-burdened tenants are then left with less disposable income after they pay their higher rents, while their landlords grow ever richer through rent extraction. 

At this point, these former house and condo owners no longer accumulate equity and tax benefits from deductible mortgage interest and property tax payments. The percentage of their income they must pay for housing has increased, but it only covers their rent since mortgages are far beyond the financial reach of most Los Angeles tenants.  Rent extraction is now so pronounced in the United States that the home ownership rate has plummeted to an historic low, especially in Los Angeles, the U.S. city with the lowest homeownership rate.

As this downward economic cycle unfolds, it forces millions of homeowners to join the ranks of renters, and for these renters to spend an increasing amount of their family income on housing.  When combined with stagnant or declining wages, this process pushes too many people into overcrowded conditions, friends’ couches, or even worse, the streets. 

But this downward spiral did not just happen. Federal, state, and city governments created it, and they, therefore, can rescind it. To do so, they must abandon a host of Reagan era supply-side “trickle-up” planning programs that fuel gentrification. n LA, rent control must be strengthened by ending vacancy decontrol and expanding the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance to include all housing, not just apartments constructed before 1978.  Just as importantly, all upzoning scams, like TOC Guidelines, must be repealed.  

Furthermore, the trickle-down rationale behind these wealthfare programs must be continually refuted.  It is absolutely “fake news,” and it warrants repeated rebuttals and coordinated political actions to end the investor handouts.

(Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA.  He serves on the board of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA) and is co-chair of the new Greater Fairfax Residents Association. Please send comments and corrections to [email protected].)

-cw