Things to read from the past week:
- Councilman wants L.A. to buy an apartment building using $46 million in COVID-19 aid: But will there be enough money or time to do so? (LA Times)
- Can Gavin Newsom use the pandemic to beat back homelessness?: "“Project Homekey” could deliver in months what homelessness advocates have wanted for decades: a huge infusion of cash, and a way around cumbersome regulations. But the silver lining comes with a time limit." (CalMatters)
- Feds Add Charges Against Former LA Deputy Mayor Ray Chan And Four Others In City Hall Corruption Case: "Federal prosecutors have added five new defendants, including a former L.A. deputy mayor and the head of a major Chinese real estate development firm, to the wide-ranging City Hall corruption case centering on former City Councilman José Huizar." (LAist)
- Using the Homeless to Guard Empty Houses: "As the pandemic makes an already terrible housing crisis worse, a new version of house-sitting signals a broken real-estate market." (The New Yorker)
- San Fernando Valley’s Latino neighborhoods hard hit by L.A. County’s COVID-19 outbreak: "In Los Angeles County, which is a major COVID-19 epicenter, five of the 25 communities with the highest infection rates are located in the northeast San Fernando Valley, in areas that are home to 'essential' workers at prime risk of getting COVID-19, and include ZIP codes with high rates of crowded housing. Some are plagued with pollution and are encircled by three bustling freeways, a railroad line and dozens of industrial facilities, as well as a power plant that for three years had been leaking methane." (LA Times)
- Patsaouras Plaza Busway Station: How It Is Today and How It Got There: A detailed history of the new bus platform that opened earlier this year at Union Station (Streetsblog LA)
- Addison Rae She’s All That Remake Is Wreaking COVID-19 Havoc: "In news that’s the perfect amalgamation of everything 2020 stands for, the city of Los Angeles is reversing course on a decision to close down a prominent COVID-19 testing site to accommodate the filming of Addison Rae’s gender-swapped She’s All That remake. Per the Los Angeles Times, the studio behind the movie, Miramax, was granted a filming permit for one day at the city’s Union Station on December 1, which effectively forced '504 people' with coronavirus-testing appointments to seek their tests at another location that would 'honor' them." (Vulture)
- Glendora Installs Temporary Protected Bike Lane and Crosswalk Improvements: "The temporary improvements are part of a broader effort to improve first/last-mile connections around the future Glendora L Line Station" (Streetsblog LA)
- State Limitations on Inclusionary Zoning Hurt Residents’ Health: "Much of the existing literature and debate on inclusionary zoning’s effectiveness focuses on the impacts to local housing markets, but this study makes the case that inclusionary zoning also delivers health benefits." (Housing Matters)
- Can Nithya Raman, the Urban Planner New to City Council, Fix Los Angeles?:"Nithya Raman hasn’t even been sworn in as a Los Angeles city councilmember, but her election earlier this month has already had ripple effects." (Curbed)
- Opinion: Our stimulus plan will rescue renters: Mayors of Los Angeles and Miami advocate for using security deposit money as "stimulus" for renters...if they purchase insurance. (CNN)
- Real estate developer pleads guilty in sprawling L.A. campaign money laundering case: "Leung’s apartment project, located in L.A.'s Harbor Gateway neighborhood, was proposed more than a decade ago. It was initially opposed by staffers in the Department of City Planning, and the Planning Commission, made up of appointees of Mayor Eric Garcetti, rejected it outright." (LA Times)
- Metro Board approves Final EIR for East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project: "The project will officially begin major construction in 2022 and is scheduled to open by 2028. When complete, the new Valley light rail line will make it easy to connect between Metro’s G Line, Metrolink, Amtrak and numerous east-west Valley bus lines." (The Source)
- Apple snags Culver City offices, warehouses in $162M deal: "Tech giant could have redevelopment plans for square block of properties" (The Real Deal)
