Editorial: Why L.A. needs a larger City Council – L.A. Times
It’s hard to imagine that the City of Los Angeles was once the “City of Dreams,” with the first skyscraper planned in the late 1800s, that the city would be a leading industrial and financial hub in America.
And yet, Los Angeles has done just that for the past century, with enormous success.
L.A. has been at the forefront of technological innovation, a center for both innovation and industry, a destination for international tourism, a city filled with arts and entertainment, and above all, a city whose residents are proud of their city and the people that live here.
In the years following World War II, Los Angeles was the home of the greatest industrial boom of the 20th century, with the building of over 100,000 buildings, including office towers, apartment buildings, department stores, malls, hotels and other structures.
In recent years, the population of L.A. has surpassed 2.8 million, with a growing economy in which nearly 2 million residents work in technology, research and entertainment industries.
As the Los Angeles economy continues to expand, however, L.A. has also become crowded.
While the city population, including the City of Los Angeles, is projected to double by 2040, our land use and planning policies have not kept up, and are not designed to deal with the expected growth in population.
Los Angeles is a city of great contrasts.
From top to bottom, its population is dominated by the very wealthy, while the vast majority of residents live in poverty or near poverty and are either unemployed or underemployed.
The city’s high cost of living and lack of affordable housing are only exacerbated by the fact that the City Council cannot put together a plan for the development of a truly affordable housing portfolio that would include all income levels.
While L.A. certainly has
