"Transit Revolution": Will Los Angeles Become Gentrification Ground Zero?

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"Transit Revolution": Will Los Angeles Become Gentrification Ground Zero?

Thursday, 26 February 2015 00:00
By Laura Raymond, Truthout | Op-Ed


In diverse, working-class neighborhoods across Los Angeles, an unprecedented $40 billion mass transit expansion is being met with mixed emotions. On the one hand, low-income residents are by far public transit's biggest users, and expanded transit routes promise greater mobility and better access to job opportunities. But the very real prospect of displacement and gentrification looms. Studies from around the country show that as public transit improves, housing costs in the surrounding area rise, and low-income residents, often in communities of color, are priced out.

Already, large new developments of market rate and luxury housing are coming to areas in LA near new rail stations under the idea of "Transit Oriented Development," or what is commonly referred to as TOD. TOD seeks to build more housing near transit hubs and is a major strategy in combating LA's infamous traffic issues and greenhouse gas emissions.

However, a new white paper just released by the Alliance for Community Transit -LA (ACT LA), warns that without significant, ahead of the curve, affordable housing policies, low income residents who ride transit will be replaced by higher-income, multiple car owning households who are less frequent transit users. This would be devastating for LA's communities, posing serious economic and health risks to people who must leave their neighborhood support systems, as well as self-defeating to the entire point of expanding the transit system and focusing on TOD: increasing transit use.

But if it adopts a forward-thinking strategy, Los Angeles can address housing needs, link quality jobs to the transit build out, and protect existing small businesses from rising rents and competition from chain stores. These will be key factors in ensuring longtime residents are able to afford to stay living near transit and are not pushed out to the margins of the city without access to the transit system that their tax dollars funded. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/29271-transit-revolution-brings-los-angeles-to-a-crossroads-sustainable-thriving-city-or-gentrification-ground-zero