Things to read from the past week:

  • This L.A. project shows that homeless housing can be done quickly and cheaply: "When the last touches of landscaping are done next month, the 232-bed Vignes Street development will have shattered the axiom that homeless housing takes years to build and is exorbitantly expensive. From start to finish in under five months and at a cost of about $200,000 per bed, it has shaved years and hundreds of thousands of dollars off a traditional homeless housing project." (LA Times)
  • Cities Say They Want to Defund the Police. Their Budgets Say Otherwise.: "Los Angeles, which spends about a quarter of its general fund budget on police, finalized a landmark $150 million reallocation away from police to communities of color in July. But activists there are now faced with a new challenge: Ensuring that they have a say in how the funds are spent. Already, some of the money has been used to backfill furloughs, and there are proposals to use funds for sidewalk fixes, tree trimming and other projects that are necessary but not necessarily transformative reinvestments." (Bloomberg CityLab)
  • Metro Proposes $73.2M Loan to Caltrans for Overruns on 5 Freeway Widening through Burbank: "If the loan is approved, it could impact Metro’s capacity to pursue federal or state funding for other capital expenses." (Streetsblog LA)
  • Why there are oil wells all over Southern California: "Why are there oil pumpjacks laboring away along the La Cienega shortcut through Baldwin Hills to LAX?" (LA Times)
  • How fair housing and COVID-19 intersect: "While the medical community has worked valiantly in the fight against a deadly pandemic, policymakers have largely failed to connect the dots between COVID-19 and the biggest driver of overall inequality between whites, and Black and Brown people: residential segregation." (The Hill)
  • Queen Mary operator files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy: "More than two dozen hotels and other properties, including the Queen Mary, listed as entities under Singapore-based Eagle Hospitality Trust filed for bankruptcy on Monday in Delaware court with a total of more than $500 million debt, according to court records obtained by the Post." (Long Beach Post)
  • Eviction cases in California projected to double: "Landlords are expected to file 240,000 new eviction cases — twice what occurs in a typical year, according to estimates by state court officials. The projection takes into account the looming expiration of state eviction protections, which end in late January." (LA Times)
  • In sunny Los Angeles, more homeless people die from the cold than in SF and NYC, combined: "Since 2019, 12 unhoused people have died from hypothermia in Los Angeles. By comparison, only two people died from hypothermia in San Francisco, a smaller county with roughly 1/10th of the homeless population, that rarely sees sunny skies or temperatures above 70 degrees, according to data obtained by L.A. Taco from the San Francisco Medical Examiner. The Los Angeles Times found that in 2018 more unhoused people died in Los Angeles than in New York and San Francisco combined." (LA Taco)
  • Metro FY21 Mid-Year Budget Adjustment: More Money than Expected, but None to Restore Cut Transit Service: "When COVID hit last year, Metro sales tax revenue dropped, leaving a hole in Metro’s budget. Metro received some relief – $846 million – from the initial CARES Act federal stimulus. The agency undertook several cost-saving measures, including cutting bus service by 20 percent in September 2020." (Streetsblog LA)
  • The Standard hotel in West Hollywood is shutting down: "The location was the first that hotelier Andre Balazs opened in the Standard chain of boutique hotels. The brand, with its irreverent upside-down logo, cultivated a casual, cool, celebrity-studded ambience. The chain grew to six locations in the Los Angeles area, New York, Miami and London, and it operates under parent company Standard International." (LA Times)
  • Biden’s plans may offer hope to L.A.’s homeless population — if Congress goes along: "The last available data show over 65,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County and more than 150,000 in California overall. Experts and public officials all expect homelessness to increase as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic." (LA Times)
  • Column: LA Could Be a Blueprint for What Real Estate Looks Like When Workers Return:  Reflecting on what the country looks like today, it's a real possibility that in the not-too-distant future L.A. sets not only the stage but also a new standard for what a health-conscious commute and a productive work life looks like as a model for apprehensive Americans. (dot LA)
  • How to Get a COVID-19 Vaccine in Los Angeles Without a Car (We Like LA)
  • New Phase of Burbank Wash Bike/Walk Path Opening Very Soon: "The new 0.75-mile long path – officially called phase two of the Burbank Wash Bikeway – extends along the Burbank Western Wash, from Olive Avenue to Alameda Avenue. The path offers new mobility and recreation opportunities for a neighborhood of primarily multi-story apartment buildings – one of the more population-dense parts of the city of Burbank." (Streetsblog LA)