Failure of Infrastructure Planning in Los Angeles
SIX FAILINGS AND SEVERAL REMEDIES FOR THE PLANNING PROCESS IN LOS ANGELES Los Angeles residents who follow local land use issues have a gut feeling that their city is poorly governed and poorly planned. Here is one effort to explain why these feelings are sound and to also offer potential solutions based on years of city planning experience in and out of City Hall. In a nutshell, the Los Angeles planning process, from the allocation of public resources to project level decisions, has stumbled badly. Its Achilles heal is its reluctance to carefully consider the capacity of local public services and infrastructure to meet the existing and future needs of the city’s residents, institutions, and businesses. Once this glaring defect can be remedied, then the city can begin fixing much of what is broken. More specifically, a careful examination of City Hall’s minimal efforts to address LA’s needs for infrastructure and public services reveals six related shortcomings. Furthermore, the on...