SCAG’s 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment Last week the Southern California Association of Governments, a group that represents half the state’s population, hosted its regional council to debate their draft 6th cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocation Plan which calls for the development of 1.3 million new units of housing, a Governor Newsom…
Economic Updates
Getting Closer, But Still So Far Away from Basic Proficiency in K-12
Ideally, all students attending our K-12 system attain the requisite skills in Math and English Language Arts (ELA) to advance to higher education or technical schools, or secure an entry level job upon graduation. Looking at the latest results from the 2019 Smarter Balanced assessments, progress is being made in…
Los Angeles Needs More Housing Units, Not Cars on the Road
Last week California Governor Gavin Newsom doubled down on his $1.75 billion state budget (2019-2020) investment in new housing by signing 18 bills to accelerate housing development throughout the state. The most significant bill, Senate Bill 330 (“Housing Crisis Act of 2019”), will accelerate housing production in CA’s “urbanized” areas by streamlining permitting…
NGSS Teacher Training Grant Win & Impact Assessment
We are pleased to announce that the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Teacher Training Program has been awarded $50,000 from the Community Investment Act (CRA) grant program at City National Bank. This additional funding will enable us to train up to 25 teachers in the Crenshaw neighborhood, to be rolled…
Why Does the City of L.A. Need a Municipal Development Corporation to Manage its Properties?
25 Vacant Properties in the City of L.A.
It’s Time to Invest in the People of Los Angeles. They are the Future of Los Angeles.
Earl Warren, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Governor of California, once said “I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.” Decades later nothing has changed. News headlines continue to highlight our society’s collective inability to provide enough…
City of L.A. Procurement Reform – New Online Certification System
Last week the City of LA went live with the new online certification system, developed in partnership with Sky Kelley, the Founder of a local company Avisare, and Michael Owl, the Chief Procurement Officer of the City of L.A. and his team. What is it? Here is a quick video tutorial: The City…
2019 Update: Creating Apprenticeships at the State and Federal Level
As Los Angeles continues to be an expensive place to live, the cost of workforce training can serve as a significant barrier to attaining high skill jobs. Apprenticeships help individuals overcome that challenge by providing a “learn and earn” path to get paid while getting hands on experience. Approximately 91…
Is L.A. (and California) Becoming a Land of Economic Mobility for Some and Outward and Limited Mobility for Many?
The U.S. Census Bureau recently created new tools to track domestic migration at regional, state and county levels throughout the United States. This data is critical to gaining a better understanding around the growing concern that population sorting, whereby migration patterns are increasingly concentrating skilled-talent and high-income earners in coastal…
Looking Within, Beyond, and Across the Pond for Options to House the Homeless
The homeless crisis in Los Angeles and across the state is by no means unique to California. Leaders across the country and around the world have struggled to address it as factors such as high housing costs have intensified it. In Europe, for example, the rate of homelessness has risen…