Opinion: L.A. needs to grow without pushing out poor and middle-class residents

To the editor: The anti-development Measure S has been resoundingly defeated. The remaining question is how Los Angeles can best develop itself not just for the wealthy. (“It’s time for a new conversation about L.A.’s future,” editorial, March 20)

As we expand transit and plan for a more walkable, bikeable city, we must ensure these public investments don’t gentrify neighborhoods and push out long-time residents. L.A. continues to lead the nation in housing unaffordability and homelessness.

It is not enough to say let’s build a denser, more sustainable city; affordable housing for the lowest income earners who depend on transit the most and anti-displacement policies must be at the center of these plans. Investments must lead to high-road employment of local residents. We must consistently evaluate development plans to ensure they stabilize struggling communities.

These are hardly new conversation topics, but the influence of developers and others who benefit the most from the status quo has stymied past efforts to move forward solutions to what is a full-blown housing crisis. Hopefully now, we will see a renewed citywide commitment to equitable community development and renter protections.

Laura Raymond, Los Angeles

The writer is campaign director at the Alliance for Community Transit Los Angeles.

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To the editor: It is true that downtown L.A. is now home to thousands more people who are living in fairly new, high-end apartments and condos. But no matter how nice the new dwellings are, the sidewalks there still smell of human waste.

When I walk downtown on Saturday mornings, I see the diversity that represents the new normal. There are joggers and dog walkers who live nearby, workers heading to their jobs and, yes, mentally ill homeless people wandering about. No matter how many luxury high-rises are built, the sidewalks will still stink and conflicts will erupt — unless plans are implemented to address the number of mentally ill homeless people living on the street.

I regularly observe threatening and often loud behavior by some of these people. If this problem remains, downtown’s new residents living in those condos and apartments will depart for neighborhoods where the sidewalks do not smell of human waste.

Julie Lie, Long Beach

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