Letters to the Editor: L.A.’s exclusionary zoning is pushing our community heroes farther away
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To the editor: As Professor Richard Green so accurately observed, in Los Angeles, “we just don’t build stuff” (“How to save $2,000 a month in L.A.: Rent,” Aug. 19). Decades of exclusionary zoning have completely priced the next generation out of homeownership — except those backed by substantial generational wealth. Policies that hinder homebuilding push families into the exurbs or out of California altogether. That separation will have lasting consequences for elder care as homeowners age in place while their children and grandchildren are forced away.
Our essential community heroes — namely, our teachers, nurses, police officers, firefighters and others — can no longer afford the communities they serve. They commute from farther and farther out, weakening the civic fabric Los Angeles depends upon.
How much longer will city leaders fight to preserve the ossifying Los Angeles of yesterday, with 74% of its residential land zoned for single-family homes, before we finally call this a failed experiment?
Lisa Ansell, Beverly Hills
