Things to read from the past week:

  • G Line Bus Electrification Now Expected by End of 2020: "The six-month G Line delay, among other developments, does not bode well for Metro's approved 2030 full bus fleet electrification" (Streetsblog LA)
  • As an uncertain future looms, Los Angeles’ swap meet vendors live in the moment: "I’ve been thinking a lot about swap meets lately, because as we confront deep economic uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, swap meets live in the moment. They are a flexible, agile form of commerce that creates public space and economic opportunity out of thin air and unused real estate, and they enable poor families to get what they need at a price they can afford and in a language they can understand." (LA Times)
  • The Pandemic Has Pushed Aside City Planning Rules. But to Whose Benefit?: "As bike lanes and cafes sprout on streets, marginalized residents wonder when their priorities will get attention." (New York Times)
  • Amid the coronavirus pandemic, a Black housing crisis gets worse: "Although many factors contribute to those outcomes, multiple experts say the disparities are driven by racism, both past and present, that has systematically starved Black households of access to higher-paying jobs and the ability to build wealth through homeownership, the primary way that families are able to pass money along to the next generation." (LA Times)
  • L.A. getting National Women’s Soccer League team in 2022: The official name of the Los Angeles club, and where it will play, are expected to be announced later this year. (KTLA)
  • ‘Strong’ evidence quake fault runs along site of Hollywood skyscrapers, state says: "A letter from the California Geological Survey to Los Angeles city planners, obtained through a public records act request, raises new questions about the Hollywood Center development. The project calls for 46- and 35-story skyscrapers that flank the famed Capitol Records Tower, along with two buildings for low-income senior residents that would each stand 11 stories tall." (LA Times)
  • Residents want to put Hermon Avenue back on the map, settling a 42-year-old grievance: The Hermon Neighborhood Council allocated up to $5,000 at its last meeting to try changing the name of Via Marisol back to Hermon Avenue, at least along the half-mile stretch that runs within the neighborhood (Via Marisol continues into the adjacent Monterey Hills neighborhood). The money would cover all application costs, if there are any, said Lee Turner, the new Chair of the Hermon Neighborhood Council. (The Eastsider)
  • Los Angeles County real estate jobs at 97% of pre-coronavirus peak: "My trusty spreadsheet crunched local employment data that shows 'essential' industries such as building, selling, renting, financing and maintaining properties are faring much better than the rest of the region’s economy. Why? These businesses are operating under less-restrictive 'stay at home' orders. Plus, housing got several generous slices of pandemic-fighting stimulus, including historically low mortgage rates." (Daily News)
  • Trump repeals rule meant to integrate neighborhoods, further stoking racial divisions in campaign: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would scrap a regulation known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, which was implemented by President Obama in an attempt to promote more integrated communities. Under the rule, cities receiving some federal housing aid had to develop plans to address patterns of segregation or risk losing money. (LA Times)
  • Elon Musk’s Dodger Stadium Tunnel Was Supposed to Be Ready By Opening Day: "Two years ago, Los Angeles Dodgers Chief Financial Officer Tucker Kain talked up a plan to whisk baseball fans to the team’s stadium in minutes using an electric-car filled tunnel, built by Elon Musk’s Boring Co. It would be ready, he said, in time for the 2020 baseball season."(Bloomberg)
  • 27 U.S. mayors: Want to address systemic racism? Start with housing: "Even before the covid-19 pandemic, housing has always been the primary contributor to this country’s massive racial wealth gap. The creation of the Federal Housing Administration in 1934 led to discriminatory redlining policies that secured loans for white-only, often suburban subdivisions that mandated the exclusion of African Americans. It also furthered segregation efforts by refusing to insure mortgages in and near African American neighborhoods. These policies created the segregated communities we still live in today and persist through federal disinvestment in affordable housing programs." (Washington Post)
  • The apartment was ready in February. Four months later, the homeless man moved in: His four-month wait, while the apartment lay vacant, reflects a persistent failing of the countywide system to get homeless people into housing. Even before the novel coronavirus made every step of the process more difficult, apartments routinely remained vacant for 90 days or more, officials with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority acknowledge. (LA Times)