A Zillion New Neighbors

But there appears to be a huge disconnect between the life imagined by city planners and the life actually lived by its residents.

“There’s a small but significant population here that enjoys the urban lifestyle,” Yaroslavsky points out. “But the vast majority of people who came to Los Angeles from cities like New York and Chicago didn’t come to a warm-weather climate to live packed into tiny apartments in transit corridors. That’s what they left behind, looking for something different.”

Anybody home? The condos are mostly dark when editor Jerry Sullivan strolls by this ''sold out'' building each night. (Photo by Orly Olivier)

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More About

• David Robinson
• Zev Yaroslavsky
• Joel Kotkin
• Politics
• Local Politics

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The transportation systems that support the kind of density seen in those cities are not even on the drawing boards here. As Kotkin notes, it would take the entire federal budget to fund any one of those mass-transit systems in Los Angeles. Kotkin is concerned that the reality of downtown in 2050 will “look more like Mexico City or Tehran” if development isn’t handled more responsibly.

In 2005, Senate Bill 1818 was signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, requiring cities to offer high-density bonuses in exchange for a very small fraction of affordable housing. A revision the following year decreased the affordable-housing requirements in these high-density giveaways. Now, another largely unknown ordinance is working its way, stealth like, to the City Council.

Watch for it this fall. This one is called the Density Bonus Ordinance. It will affect the entire city and waters down zoning safeguards, wiping out current residential zoning restrictions on developers, including green­space setbacks, height requirements, and covenants for parks and schools.

All across the city, “We’re going to see a demolition derby,” Yaroslavsky warns.

Kotkin cautions that the market simply won’t support the kind of unfettered development being quietly planned.

“There’s a pack mentality over there [at City Hall],” Yaroslavsky adds. “You’re about to see this explode on the scene. There’s a revolution happening, an uprising in every part of the city. People realize that the neighborhood council movement is not doing its job. What happened in the ’70s and ’80s, when people took matters into their own hands, I think you’re going to see a new generation of activists.”

Sandy Kanphantha contributed to this story.