Following up with our 2012 and 2013 work with the Los Angeles Business Council, the premier business advocacy organization in Los Angeles County, Urban One co-authored the 2014 LA’s Next Frontier: Capturing Opportunities for New Housing, Economic Growth, and Sustainable Development in LA River Communities with Paul Habibi of UCLA Anderson School of Management and Grayslake Advisors.
The 2014 Report explores the sustainable economic development potential of the LA River and its surrounding neighborhood. It details the many economic, social, and environmental benefits that can be achieved for the city and its river-adjacent communities through investment in ecosystem restoration and sustainable infrastructure development, including affordable housing.
One of the most surprising results of this study was the level of environmental inequity found within our region. According to data from the state’s CalEnviroScreen report, which identifies pollution burden and negative socioeconomic indicators in California communities, nearly 40 percent of neighborhoods within one mile of the LA River fall between the index’s 90th and 100th percentile—the most-burdened ten percent of census tracts in the state. This is double the rate of highly-polluted and demographically vulnerable census tracts in LA County, and nearly four times the rate found in the state as a whole. Restoring the LA River ecosystem and connecting its surrounding neighborhoods with greenway paths, parks, and other sustainable connections and destinations will go a long way toward righting this historic wrong.
Revitalization will also bring economic benefits to local residents, many of whom have suffered from the departure of manufacturing and other middle class jobs out of the city. Renewed interest in the river has brought developers and other investors to its banks, and with them come opportunities for providing jobs and services that river-adjacent neighborhoods now lack. The city and region as a whole can benefit from this new investment, as the state, county, and City of Los Angeles unemployment rates all remain elevated above the U.S. average.
The report acknowledges that increasing development has the potential to impact housing prices and lead to displacement of existing residents. Mr. Habibi and the LA Business Council Institute therefore identify provision of affordable and workforce housing—in addition to new market rate units—as one of the primary long-term goals for investment in these communities. River neighborhoods can play a major role in helping the city meet Mayor Garcetti’s goal of building 100,000 units by 2021, with room to add 8,000 units per year in river-adjacent neighborhoods in the city, all without dramatically increasing density. With the appropriate planning and financing tools in place, a substantial number of new units could be made affordable to lower-income and moderate-income residents.