"If you are looking for a strategy to seriously undermine a civilization, just make sure there's not enough affordable housing," Denny Zane tells writer Jeremy Rosenberg on KCET's "The Laws That Shaped LA" blog. Denny tells Jeremy about his concerns about the Ellis Act, which passed in 1985 and allowed landlords to evict tenants in order to "go out of business" and remove their buildings from the rental market and demolish them in order to turn them into condos or to build new apartments or condos or — according to some advocates — sometimes escape rent control laws.

In the past decade more than 20,000 units have been “Ellised” in four California cities with rent control ordinances, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Monica and Berkeley, and the records show that this number increases as the market becomes more active. Tenants rights activists say the number of Ellis Act evictions is already increasing as the real estate market begins to recover — tenants in at least 17 buildings in San Francisco’s Mission District, for example, were given eviction notices at the end of 2012.

In Los Angeles, where passage of the Measure R local sales tax has provided for the build-out of 12 new rail lines — new transit construction also tends to stimulate the market — there is concern about the increasing number of buildings that have been purchased in urban core neighborhoods where many transit riders and low income residents currently live. A recent study for the Los Angeles Housing Department expressed concerns about the effect of new transit lines on affordable housing in transit-rich neighborhoods, which currently house a high percentage of low- and moderate-income workers and their families — in Hollywood, Koreatown, downtown LA and Venice Boulevard to the south. The LAHD study is on our website here.

Read more on the KCET blog here.

Zipcar's third annual Millennial survey shows that cars are still the most highly prized "piece of technology" among every age group but the under-35ers. When these Millennials were asked which piece of technology they could not live without, only 28% said their cars, compared to 30% who said their mobile phones, and 35% who said their computers.

In case you are interested . . . 

The blog post cites research from the University of Connecticut analyzing a dozen historically dense small cities in which the share of residents driving to work ranges from 43 to 91 percent. Comparing the rates of auto use to the number of residents and employees per square mile, the study found that cities with higher rates of driving have fewer people — because cars take up so much space.

The study also found that cities with higher rates of auto use devoted about twice as much land to parking for each resident and employee, and noted that as the cities with the least parking — Berkeley in California, Arlington in Virginia, and Cambridge in Massachusetts — cut back on the number of surface lots the number of people and jobs increased, as did incomes . . .

The authors conclude that " . . . cities might be able to guarantee a parking space in front of every destination . . . but they are likely doing so at the expense of those things that cities really need — namely people."

Read more. 

 

LA Streetsblog reports that Move LA's Denny Zane and Transform's Ryan Wiggins were among those at the California Air Resources Board hearing on Wednesday who testified that revenues from the state's Cap and Trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should fund transit and active transportation. "We need investment in transit, especially transit operating budgets, and active transportation infrastructure to support the GHG emission reduction goals of SB 375," said Denny. "Federal and state transportation funding has been stagnant and even declining for years." SB 375 is the state law that mandates a reduction in GHG emissions using transportation and land use strategies.

Ryan expressed concerns that some are arguing that the money should go toward improving road conditions and widening freeways — to reduce congestion, which also reduces emissions in the short term.

The fledgling Cap and Trade program sets limits on carbon dioxide emissions for virtually all sectors of the state's economy, which is the 9th largest in the world. Emissions allowances are allotted to polluters, and companies whose emissions exceed their allocations must either obtain extra allowances or buy credits from other projects that cut GHG emissions. The program debuted late last year.

More on LA Streetsblog.

 

According to the Federal Highway Administration per capita vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. dropped by 0.4 percent last year to 9,363 miles — the eighth straight year that has seen a reduction in driving. Per capita VMT peaked in 2004 and has declined every year since for a total decline of 7.5 percent. A variety of factors are cited, including the fact that Baby Boomers are retiring and Millennials are less interested in cars, and that more people are living in compact, mixed-use development that makes it easier not to drive. The story, on the State Smart Transportation Initiative blog, says fuel prices don't seem to be a factor, since the reduction in driving has continued in boom times and in hard times.
Read more.

 

Metro's Transportation Library and Archive just posted an interactive timeline of LA's transit agencies dating back to 1874 and an organizational flow chart of how these agencies were related: 220 agencies in 140 years!! And when you click on the icon of a transit agency you can get more info on each operator as well as photos. It may be more information about LA transit than anyone wants to know, but the sheer volume is impressive in a city everyone thinks was built up around the car.

So many people have visited the Metro Library site that you have to click on the link under "Max views exceeded" -- to go here.

The Source blog says all is well since the toll lanes opened on Saturday. ExpressLanes converted 14 miles of existing HOV lanes to HOV/HOT lanes during non-peak hours, which means solo car commuters can buy their way into the carpool lane. But it also means that carpoolers need a transponder -- which has been controversial.
More info on how  to get a transponder here.

A Streetsblog story notes that when NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg first proposed congestion pricing for lanes in New York he got a lot of pushback, but LA Metro has not gotten much flak here.
Read more. 

Streetsblog has a provocative story today noting that China is now operating four high-speed rail lines at a profit, even when factoring in payments to cover construction costs, and that the country will have built more than 11,000 miles of track for bullet trains by 2015 -- and hopes to have 31,000 miles by 2020.
Read more.

President Obama's  "Plan to Make America a Magnet for Jobs by Investing in Infrastructure"includes a provision to enact America Fast Forward Bonds as well as implement the newly eexpanded TIFIA program. These two financing tools together were Plan A for accelerating Measure R-funded transit projects. Measure J was Plan B! And now the President is with us!
Read the fact sheet about his new 7-point plan here.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Bill Shuster (R-PA) is in charge of fashioning a transportation reauthorization bill for the U.S. House of Representatives before it expires at the end of September 2014. He held a hearing Wednesday to figure out what to do to replenish the Highway Trust Fund, which is spending $15 billion more annually than it receives, and has been kept afloat with three transfusions totaling $34.5 billion out of the General Fund. Everyone agreed that more money is needed, though disagreed on how to get it. Just how much money is needed was calculated in a series of reports by the American Society of Civil Engineers last month: a $2.7 trillion investment in transportation and other infrastructure by 2020 if the US is to remain competitive. . .
Read more in the Washington Post.