SOLUTIONS, SOLUTIONS, SOLUTIONS
My buddy F, who works in Xbtijohupo, ED actually has a California housing solution other than not moving to California in the first place. I am not positive that Angelinos will appreciate this input, but he theororizes that frozen property taxes creates a disincentive to turn housing over, since taxes go up when you do that. Thus, the housing situation is too static. His solution(s) is to (a) unfreeze property taxes, (b) get Angelinos out of their cars and in to public transportation, which would be supported by (c) higher density housing in urban-like areas (think suburban Washington, DC with mountains, sun, and a beach. I am not entirely sure that I have properly paraphrased him, so there may yet be revisions.
Personally, I have not figured out the solution to this issue, but I suspect that the "shortage" of land is perceived more than actual. There are crappy parts of LA, and I can only assume that those areas reflect something less than the $1000 a month rent average. For whatever reason, where we have had urban pioneers in the Chi, they do not seem to have had them in LA. Maybe this reflects the ideal that people move AWAY from places where urban pioneering is necessary to get to LA. If that is true, the city may simply be maturing past the point of 40 acres and a mule for every moron able to make it out there from the Rust Belt. To live in LA, it may become necessary to have a culture of urban hip that we see in mature cities in the Midwest and East. In other words, I suspect that the market is operating properly, but people's tastes in that market are not yet pushing them back to affordable housing.
By the way, I think the LA Times won like five Pulitzers today. If that is true, I strongly encourage everyone with access to that fine Tribune Company paper to go out a buy five copies a day. It will make you smarter. Also, as I said before, we have Cub salaries to pay back here in the Chi.
So, I am still taking suggestions on the housing problem in LA. E-mail them in, I will butcher summarizing them, and we can all discuss.
My buddy F, who works in Xbtijohupo, ED actually has a California housing solution other than not moving to California in the first place. I am not positive that Angelinos will appreciate this input, but he theororizes that frozen property taxes creates a disincentive to turn housing over, since taxes go up when you do that. Thus, the housing situation is too static. His solution(s) is to (a) unfreeze property taxes, (b) get Angelinos out of their cars and in to public transportation, which would be supported by (c) higher density housing in urban-like areas (think suburban Washington, DC with mountains, sun, and a beach. I am not entirely sure that I have properly paraphrased him, so there may yet be revisions.
Personally, I have not figured out the solution to this issue, but I suspect that the "shortage" of land is perceived more than actual. There are crappy parts of LA, and I can only assume that those areas reflect something less than the $1000 a month rent average. For whatever reason, where we have had urban pioneers in the Chi, they do not seem to have had them in LA. Maybe this reflects the ideal that people move AWAY from places where urban pioneering is necessary to get to LA. If that is true, the city may simply be maturing past the point of 40 acres and a mule for every moron able to make it out there from the Rust Belt. To live in LA, it may become necessary to have a culture of urban hip that we see in mature cities in the Midwest and East. In other words, I suspect that the market is operating properly, but people's tastes in that market are not yet pushing them back to affordable housing.
By the way, I think the LA Times won like five Pulitzers today. If that is true, I strongly encourage everyone with access to that fine Tribune Company paper to go out a buy five copies a day. It will make you smarter. Also, as I said before, we have Cub salaries to pay back here in the Chi.
So, I am still taking suggestions on the housing problem in LA. E-mail them in, I will butcher summarizing them, and we can all discuss.
posted by David at 6:56 PM
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