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Here are all the areas in the city of L.A. still zoned only for Single-Family Homes

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In a study conducted by the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley last year, researchers found that “78% of residential land in the Greater Los Angeles region and 74% in the city of Los Angeles itself was zoned exclusively for single-family homes, prohibiting apartment buildings and other multifamily developments.”

Image/Map/Data is courtesy of the Othering & Belonging Institute of UC Berkeley, California.

Additionally: “Consistent with prior research, which we summarized in our report, we found a disturbing relationship between the degree of single-family zoning, racial demographics, and racial segregation. In particular, we found that restrictive zoning had a strong exclusionary effect. We found, for example, that municipalities with the highest percentage of single-family-only zoned residential areas had the highest percentage of white residents and the lowest percentage of Black and Latino residents. We also found that the highest observed levels of racial residential segregation occurred in the communities with the highest proportion of single-family zoning.”

Find and download the full report here.

J.T.

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Here is The City’s new Plan to House L.A. from 2023 – 2029

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According to the L.A. City Planning department:

“On June 14, 2022, the full City Council adopted the targeted amendments. The Housing Element will guide the creation and implementation of the City’s housing policy from 2021 to 2029. On June 29 [2022], the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) informed the City of Los Angeles that its 2021-2029 Housing Element was in full compliance with State law.” The plan is said to begin implementation as early as this February 2023

L.A. Planning Executive Summary (Adopted)Download

From the Executive Summary of this report, according to former Mayor Garcetti in his 2021 State of the City address:

“Loving Los Angeles means facing the bitter truth about our past that maps of our city were drawn to protect the wealth of white people and destroy the wealth of Black people and other people of color. Redlining and exclusionary zoning resulted in a city where today Black and Mexican origin families hold 1/90th of the wealth of white families on average, it’s a city where Black people are overrepresented among those experiencing homelessness by a factor of four, and where Latino homelessness accounts for the greatest jump of newly homeless Angelenos.”

You can also learn more about this document via L.A. City Planning’s FAQ page.

J.T.

In Los Feliz, No Good Deed Goes Uncovered

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The working people of Los Angeles are people who do not believe in much until they see it. Here is a recovered Deed Restriction from Los Feliz, circa 1926, reading, on Paragraph 11:

“This property…subject to the following conditions…That said property or any part thereof shall not, nor shall any interest therein at any time, be rented, leased, sold, devised or conveyed to or inherited by, or be otherwise acquired by or become the property of or be occupied by any person whose blood is not of the Caucasian Race, but persons not of the Caucasian Race may be kept thereon by such a Caucasian occupant strictly in the capacity of servants of such occupant.” 

The image is taken from Cal State University Northridge’s LA: On Film and On Record series.

Since 1926, the Los Feliz neighborhood has grown in diversity, but according to a study of the 90027 zip code, in which Los Feliz is situated, as recently as 2018, 59% of the neighborhood remains white. Latino and Asian residents make up 21% and 13% of the neighborhood’s population, while Black residents make up only 3% of the population. The data make Los Feliz one of the more segregated neighborhoods with respect to the city of L.A.’s current demographics.

To learn more about deed restrictions and housing in Los Angeles, you can now RSVP for Making Our Neighborhood: Redlining, Gentrification, and Housing in East Hollywood, our panel series with This Side of Hoover, via EVENTBRITE.

J.T.