Oren Hadar

Measure HLA is stuck. The ballot measure LA voters passed 2½ years ago said the city must install planned bike lanes when repaving. But the city stopped repaving, and new bike lane projects have slowed to a trickle. Exactly one HLA-compliant project has been installed. What comes next?

HLA requires ALL Mobility Plan elements to be installed when repaving, including for pedestrians. The complete street. It’s like a restaurant set menu. Nice for a special occasion. But if my family had to order an appetizer and dessert every time we went to Olive Garden, we'd go a lot less often.

Measure HLA is stuck. The ballot measure LA voters passed 2½ years ago said the city must install planned bike lanes when repaving. But the city stopped repaving, and new bike lane projects have slowed to a trickle. Exactly one HLA-compliant project has been installed. What comes next?

The workaround: Large Asphalt Repair (LAR), a long patch the city calls maintenance - no need to fix curb ramps. Put LAR under the bike lanes, leave the rest of the asphalt untouched, and install the bike lanes cheaply. I was outraged by these patches at first. Now I think they’re an important tool.

Measure HLA is stuck. The ballot measure LA voters passed 2½ years ago said the city must install planned bike lanes when repaving. But the city stopped repaving, and new bike lane projects have slowed to a trickle. Exactly one HLA-compliant project has been installed. What comes next?

Sorry, this is just false. Permits have been pulled to begin construction on these buildings. Only a handful have been built. Almost all will be finished years after the election.

Could SB 79 help fix LA's parks shortage? I was amazed to learn that almost every one of the city's most park-poor neighborhoods was upzoned by SB 79. Even more surprising: the law itself could hold the key to building more parks there.

LA's first response to SB 79, Low Rise, was all about avoiding neighbor backlash. It only allows incremental change (3-4 story buildings). But incremental and holistic planning are enemies. One asks how little damage change can cause. The other asks how much good it can create.

Could SB 79 help fix LA's parks shortage? I was amazed to learn that almost every one of the city's most park-poor neighborhoods was upzoned by SB 79. Even more surprising: the law itself could hold the key to building more parks there.

That overlap is an opportunity: a quirk in SB 79's design could help the city get land for parks. My explanation, plus some potential scenarios.👇

Could SB 79 help fix LA's parks shortage? I was amazed to learn that almost every one of the city's most park-poor neighborhoods was upzoned by SB 79. Even more surprising: the law itself could hold the key to building more parks there.

We desperately need more parks. Only 62% of Angelenos live within walking distance of a park. Chicago: 98%. New York: 99%. San Francisco: 100%. LA ranks 93rd out of the 100 biggest US cities for parks. Seven years ago we ranked 55th, but other cities kept adding parks, while LA essentially stopped.

LA protects drivers' feelings at pedestrians' expense, and it's killing us. A crosswalk in my hood makes people wait up to 60 seconds so cars don't get annoyed. Pedestrians give up and just cross. Why have a signal at all? A 🧵 about the city’s codependent relationship with drivers.

The city is in a codependent relationship with drivers, sacrificing its own needs (protecting pedestrians’ lives) to avoid upsetting the other party. The codependency is literally killing us - Vision Zero launched in 2015 with a goal of zero traffic deaths by 2025. They doubled instead.

LA protects drivers' feelings at pedestrians' expense, and it's killing us. A crosswalk in my hood makes people wait up to 60 seconds so cars don't get annoyed. Pedestrians give up and just cross. Why have a signal at all? A 🧵 about the city’s codependent relationship with drivers.

The predictable result: impatient pedestrians started crossing before the signal turned red, which meant cars would show up later to a red light with no pedestrians to be seen. Everyone - peds and drivers - thought the signal was broken.

LA protects drivers' feelings at pedestrians' expense, and it's killing us. A crosswalk in my hood makes people wait up to 60 seconds so cars don't get annoyed. Pedestrians give up and just cross. Why have a signal at all? A 🧵 about the city’s codependent relationship with drivers.

In 2016, my neighbors and I won a grant for street upgrades on Pico Blvd. After talking to 1500+ people, the #1 ask was a signalized crosswalk at Pico/Masselin. It got installed in 2020, during the COVID lockdown, when signal coordination was turned off across LA to deter speeding on empty streets.

👀 👀 👀 Zero SB 79 buildings proposed in LA in the first month. As of Aug. 1st, no projects had been filed under the 3-4 story Low Rise program, which the city created to avoid fully implementing SB 79 for now. The rules were in flux until June, so hopefully things pick up soon as developers adjust.

Excited to have been chosen for the Roots of Progress Institute’s Blog-Building Intensive Fellowship! I’m part of a group of 43 amazing bloggers from around the world who write about progressive policy in all kinds of different fields. rootsofprogress.org/fellows/#ore...

TIL everyone's favorite developer villain Geoff Palmer got the courts to declare inclusionary zoning illegal in California in 2009, and it stayed that way until the legislature fixed it in 2017.

A lot going on here, but it basically shows building permits issued in CA cities with IZ requirements. The vertical dotted lines show years when IZ was banned. Permits increased after the ban and plummeted after IZ was reinstated.