From: GJohnson( )
To: susan.strick@lacity.org; contact.center@dfeh.ca.gov; shou.committee@senate.ca.gov; mayor.helpdesk@lacity.org; lahd.rso.central@lacity.org; hcidla.reap@lacity.org; paul.krekorian@lacity.org; councilmember.price@lacity.org; councilmember.harris-dawson@lacity.org; councilmember.lee@lacity.org; councilmtgitems@santamonica.gov; cityatty.help@lacity.org; councilmember.hernandez@lacity.org; councilmember.blumenfield@lacity.org; councilmember.raman@lacity.org; councilmember.yaroslavsky@lacity.org; cd10@lacity.org; councilmember.park@lacity.org; councilmember.mcosker@lacity.org; councilmember.soto-martinez@lacity.org
Date: Friday, February 17, 2023 at 02:01 PM PST
DFEH case number 202211-18897616
DFEH case number 202211-18872714
DEFH case number 202201-15997931
How Segregated Is Los Angeles?
Do Proposed Fixes Make Things Better Or Worse?
DICK PLATKIN 16 FEBRUARY 2023 CITYWATCHLA.COM
PLANNING WATCH LA – From the 1930’s through the 1960’s, many Los Angeles banks redlined minority neighborhoods by deliberately denying mortgages to their residents.
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 barred all forms of housing discrimination, including redlining and bias by real estate and rental agents. Nevertheless, a recent rationale for up-zoning affluent neighborhoods desired by real estate speculators is that increasing the permitted density of new real estate projects (i.e., up-zoning) counters segregated racial patterns linked to redlining. But, like bogus claims that up-zoning reduces homelessness and economic inequality, the argument that it also reverses segregated housing patterns is flat-out wrong. Up-zoning affluent neighborhood does not reduce racial and ethnic patterns because it increases the value of local properties and creates windfall profits for property owners and developers.
Big surprise that up-zoning makes Los Angeles an even more unequal city and exacerbates racial and economic segregation.
Fair Housing Laws: Current State and Federal fair housing legislation has noticeably reduced racial and ethnic isolation in Los Angeles. California’s 1963 Rumford Fair Housing Law preceded the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 by five years. California’s Fair Housing Law was then strengthened in 1988 by the Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA).
1930s Redlining Map of Los Angeles
Since the adoption of these laws, LA’s segregated neighborhoods have dramatically shrunk. According to a 2017 Brookings study, LA’s once redlined neighborhoods now have 580,000 non-Black residents and 40,000 Black residents. In fact, the Black population of the old redlined areas was 6.5 percent, compared to 9 percent for the rest of Los Angeles.
These demographic changes resulted from the phenomenal growth of LA’s Latino population, many of whom moved into formerly Black neighborhoods. This has been confirmed by CSUN maps (See below.) documenting the dispersal of LA’s Black population from South Central Los Angeles to other neighborhoods between 1990-2010, largely a result of fair housing laws and Latino migration. Furthermore, these demographic trends continued from 2010 to date.
Lobbying hard for the deregulation of LA’s zoning laws, the YIMBY (Yes in my backyard) group, Abundant Housing calls for up-zoning well-off Los Angeles neighborhoods in order to, they say, reduce racial segregation.
“Only by building more housing can we achieve this goal for people of all backgrounds and needs. Existing exclusionary zoning and land use policies exclude people and are historically rooted in racial and economic segregation. AHLA believes in equity and racial justice as a core part of WHERE and HOW we upzone–that is why we support housing distribution plans that concentrate housing objectively in high-opportunity, job-rich, and transit-served neighborhoods.”
Camouflaged by obfuscating language, LA’s new 2021-2029 General Plan Housing Element offers 136 implementation programs, some of which would up-zone affluent neighborhoods. For example, implementation program 124: Promote and affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH) states;
“Promote and affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH) opportunities throughout the community in all housing, planning and community development activities.
Take a variety of actions to overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity to promote diverse communities that grant all Angelenos access to housing. Increase place- based strategies to encourage community revitalization and protect existing residents from displacement through various policies, programs, and goal setting (e.g., AFH Plan).”
Why these policies will backfire. If implementation programs to monitor housing conditions in Los Angeles eventually appear, they will reveal the folly of up-zoning well-off neighborhoods to achieve racial integration, reduce homelessness, and increase economic equality.
Why? Up-zoning increases property values by allowing real estate developers to automatically build larger, taller, denser buildings with minimal parking. Property owners and real estate developers would no longer require zone variances, zone changes, and density bonuses to reel in lucrative windfall profits. As a result, owners of up-zoned parcels could flip them for immediate financial gain. Alternatively, they could turn to developers to demolish existing buildings and replace them with the highly profitable luxury apartment buildings mushrooming throughout Los Angeles.
This is the essence of the up-zoning programs contained in LA’s new Housing Element. They create instant wealth for property owners and enhanced opportunities for real estate investors and developers. This is one reason why economic inequality continues to rise in LA, and with it, reinforced patterns of racial and ethnic separation.
If the Housing Element’s monitoring programs ever appear, I expect them to fully document these trends. It would pound yet another nail into the coffin of up-zoning’s false promises.
(Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatchLA. He serves on the board of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA). Previous Planning Watch columns are available at
the CityWatchLA archives. Please send questions and corrections to rhplatkin@gmail.com.)
My Comments
Like comedian Chris Rock said, to get rid of the low income and Black and Latino tenants, all you have to do is deny them housing. Price them out. Where would those few biased landlords be without the support of the equally biased Los Angeles Housing Department that practices separate but unequal housing services? Mayor Karen Bass will be no different. In 2022 LAHD investigated and processed 8711 complaints. 2022 per monthly average number of calls processed thru hotline 14,355 monthly. Source: https://housing.lacity.org/ . 168,000 housing complaints per year 2022 which dwarfs the alleged 60,000 homeless on the streets of Los Angeles, yet the Mayor does not declare a state of emergency due to those housing complaints. Why not?
According to your article, the government is again at the forefront of housing segregation in Los Angeles. The new Home Sharing Law actually defines hotels as including “apartments” so that means that landlords are allowed to rent out rent controlled apartments as “hotel” rooms, further decreasing the available rent controlled units. Rent control is dying under our very eyes as there are hundreds less per year with so many landlords skirting the home sharing ordinance. I live in a rent controlled building and have been denied tandem parking and intercom repairs for seven years. But brand spanking new well to do white tenants get what I do not as well as: “Mini split duct air conditioning and heating, DACK app and entry code for smartlock, Owner provided Wi-Fi and high speed Spectrum Internet, InHouse washer and dryer, Maid service, Enhance your stay add-ons, Desk with chair and lamp, Guest parking, A full maintenance team, who can deal with most repairs with in 24 hour, A fully loaded kitchen, Bedding and towels, Air purifier, a shower water filter, anti-allergic mattress encasement & disposable slippers with your wellness in mind.” Source https://justbringyourtoothbrush.com/. Whether these “hotel guests” are illegal or not, they certainly are creating units that are separate and not equal and reducing the stock of rent controlled units and the city Housing Department does nothing. And most of the people I see moving into these neighborhoods are Jewish and white and Asian. Three to five years many of these neighborhoods will be 99% white, Jewish, Asian. Doesn’t matter who the Mayor is.
This is offered to home sharing guests at this address but
denied to me as a Black Tenant
Mini split duct air conditioning and heating,
DACK app and entry code for smartlock,
Owner provided Wi-Fi and high speed Spectrum Internet,
InHouse washer and dryer,
Maid service,
Enhance your stay add-ons,
Desk with chair and lamp,
Guest parking,
A full maintenance team, who can deal with most repairs with in 24 hour,
A fully loaded kitchen,
Bedding and towels,
Air purifier,
a shower water filter,
anti-allergic mattress encasement
& disposable slippers with your wellness in mind
Functioning intercom
Access to tandem parking
(Source: https://justbringyourtoothbrush.com/faq/ )
Geary Juan Johnson
1522 Hi Point St 9
Los Angeles CA 90035
Phone ( )
(Editor references:
Aging and Civil Rights Commission – Feb 16, 2023
I wonder does Mayor Karen Bass know what an intercom is? Does Mayor Karen Bass know what a tandem parking stall is? Does Mayor Karen Bass know what a Black person is? Is it true that Mayor Karen Bass does not believe that all Black tenants are entitled to full and equal housing services on the city of Los Angeles?
Aging and Civil Rights Commission – Feb 16, 2023
In the city of Los Angeles, I ask you: what are the qualifications to receiving a working intercom in this rent controlled building; what are the qualifications to receiving a tandem parking stall in this rent controlled building? Is there are an application process where I can apply? Also see attached “2023-2-1 Scanned Real Estate Complaint w/o Exhibits” against Power Property Management Inc. asking for revocation of real estate license. DRE #01866167 and DRE #01443898.
LA Rent Control (RAC) and Permits (LADBS) 