Oren Hadar
@futureis.la
LA has the best bones of any city in the world. It can become a true world capital if we only let it. I write at https://futureis.la
Excited to have been chosen for the Roots of Progress Institute’s Blog-Building Intensive Fellowship! I’m part of a group of 43 amazing bloggers from around the world who write about progressive policy in all kinds of different fields. rootsofprogress.org/fellows/#ore...
The Metro board won't have a MAGA member thanks to elected officials actually doing the right thing instead of just going through the motions. Congratulations to all the folks who advocated for some spine and the officials who found theirs.
Streetsblog L.A.@streetsblogla.bsky.social · 6d agoL.A. County cities reject appointment of pro-freeway Santa Clarita Republican Jason Gibbs to Metro board la.streetsblog.org/2026/07/30/s...
Excited to have been chosen for the Roots of Progress Institute’s Blog-Building Intensive Fellowship! I’m part of a group of 43 amazing bloggers from around the world who write about progressive policy in all kinds of different fields. rootsofprogress.org/fellows/#ore...
This article is hilarious but forgets to ask the most important question: why are cars allowed on Larchmont at all? Pedestrianize it already!
Why is Everybody Parking on the Larchmont Boulevard Median?
“It’s the height of hubris to say 'I’m going to park here and it won’t be a problem for anybody else.'”
lamaterial.com
This is starting to happen in coastal LA and the South Bay, caused by SpaceX instead of the AI companies. The number of millionaires minted by one IPO is going to have a big impact on our tight housing market, none of it good for middle class folks.
California YIMBY@cayimby.bsky.social · 2w agoSF is about to get flooded with AI IPO wealth. The Chronicle warns that w/o more housing, it will price out the middle class again. A transfer tax cut projected to cut $32K per home got shelved. What's left: inclusionary reform, single-stair construction. www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/edit...
TIL everyone's favorite developer villain Geoff Palmer got the courts to declare inclusionary zoning illegal in California in 2009, and it stayed that way until the legislature fixed it in 2017.
Aaron 🏗️🚲🌲🏀@aceckhouse.bsky.social · 3w agohere you go that's for the average (California) IZ policy, many existing policies have even steeper estimated effects on the scale of a 50% reduction bpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.uci.ed...
Los Angeles often feels less like one city than a collection of dozens of cities sharing a freeway system. So, yes. I love it here. But part of loving a place means wanting it to be the best it can be. And I think we do need a lot more civic camaraderie. We're Angelinos and we need to embrace it.
This is a fantastic piece and as a native Angelino, I can absolutely appreciate it. I also agree strongly with the idea behind it. I do think LA needs more civic pride and I think the complacency at City Hall and the NIMBYs can be actually be partly attributed to the fact we *don't* have that.
I’d add a map of hikes in the Angeles National Forest, and a one year bike share subscription.
I’d include: -beach guide -LA County Bike Ways Map -CicLAvia calendar - @lataco.bsky.social neighborhood guide -free admission to the Natural History Museum -50% off coupon for Hollywood Bowl tickets -LA Times Festival of Books schedule
What if every person who moved to LA got a welcome package - a box from the city that connected them to Los Angeles, to their community, and to each other? My proposal for fixing LA's broken civic culture: the Angeleno Box.🧵
The Angeleno Box
What if every person who moved to LA got a welcome package?
futureis.la
The standards Joe is talking about were written for the city by ARG, a *historic preservation* consultant. ARG doesn't design new buildings. Why hire them to come up with the standards new buildings have to follow?
Architectural Portfolio & Services: Architectural Resources Group
ARG engages in architectural design, preservation, conservation, and sustainability to create places with historic meaning adapted to modern needs.
argcreate.com
Joe Cohen@cohenhouse.bsky.social · 4w agoUnder LA's new "Objective Design Standards" for historic districts, the building on the left would be prohibited, and the building on the right would be encouraged
Why are cars still allowed on Larchmont Blvd? Pedestrianize it already.
Car Crashes into Larchmont Shop - Larchmont Buzz - Hancock Park News
A car crashed into the large plate-glass window of Aesop at 128 1/2 N Larchmont Blvd. There were no injuries reported.
larchmontbuzz.com
The most hypocritical part of trying to ban duplexes in Altadena is that ADUs will still be allowed (two if AB 956 passes). The homeowner quoted in the article has an ADU and plans on RENTING IT OUT once his home is rebuilt. But don't call him a "predatory developer" - he's a sainted homeowner.
Urban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰@urbanlandrent.bsky.social · last mo.It’s ridiculous that initiatives to exempt places that have burned down from state law that allow duplexes is framed as helping “homeowners from being taken advantage of by speculators” as opposed to what it actually does: take away options from homeowners. calmatters.org/housing/2026...
Happy SB 79 day! Anyone know of any fun project filings unveiled in California today?
One simple trick to make your city family-friendly: housing affordability. Median Houston home price - $360k LA - $1M
great write up on E line delays - signal preemption advocacy is one of my favorite projects to emerge organically out of the SFA slack
Oren Hadar@futureis.la · last mo.The E Line takes 47 minutes to go from DTLA to Santa Monica - often slower than driving. Ten years ago, it took 46. This is not an accident - it's a policy failure. A group of volunteers, including me, decided to do something about it. 🧵
Helpful deep dive here on what it takes to speed up at-grade rail transit stuck at red lights on the streets in LA, plus the citizen activists trying to push leaders for reforms.
Oren Hadar@futureis.la · last mo.The E Line takes 47 minutes to go from DTLA to Santa Monica - often slower than driving. Ten years ago, it took 46. This is not an accident - it's a policy failure. A group of volunteers, including me, decided to do something about it. 🧵
There are so many things in this city where you find out the last update was done in the Reagan era and like do the Democrats who’ve become the establishment want to do anything? Like remember when @awalkerinla.bsky.social found out the last Dodger Stadium traffic study was from 1991 lol?
Oren Hadar@futureis.la · last mo.What LADOT can do right now to speed up transit: - Upgrade aging 1984-era signal controllers with modern software written to prioritize transit - Stronger signal priority at minor cross streets - Turn restrictions at key intersections None of this is expensive, but it requires political will.
There are plenty more creative ways to speed up the E Line! What if Exposition Blvd. in front of USC was pedestrianized? What if Flower St. was only for buses and trains? What if we built a ton of curb extensions? And remember, freight trains in the 80's got higher priority than the E Line today!
Oren Hadar@futureis.la · last mo.The E Line takes 47 minutes to go from DTLA to Santa Monica - often slower than driving. Ten years ago, it took 46. This is not an accident - it's a policy failure. A group of volunteers, including me, decided to do something about it. 🧵
This is great stuff! Lots to glean, but I particularly appreciate this: many unpreempted grade crossings not only slows light rail, but makes travel time far more unreliable. Riders have to plan around the worst average trip time, not the best.
Oren Hadar@futureis.la · last mo.The E Line takes 47 minutes to go from DTLA to Santa Monica - often slower than driving. Ten years ago, it took 46. This is not an accident - it's a policy failure. A group of volunteers, including me, decided to do something about it. 🧵
That huge delay at 5th St in Santa Monica is especially painful given you're RIGHT outside the station. Then when you finally get moving for that last 100 ft you fucking lurch into the station.
The E Line takes 47 minutes to go from DTLA to Santa Monica - often slower than driving. Ten years ago, it took 46. This is not an accident - it's a policy failure. A group of volunteers, including me, decided to do something about it. 🧵
The train slower than a cyclist
A grassroots group of volunteers - including me - is working to speed up LA's transit.
futureis.la
On Monday HCD told SCAG they were wrong and the map will be changed to add Eastside E Phase 2 to Whittier, K North, and Sepulveda.
Oren Hadar@futureis.la · 2mo agoSCAG's draft map of where SB 79 applies is out, and it leaves out the stations on two train lines - Sepulveda Line and K Line northern extension. Lots of stops on the Westside and WeHo. SCAG contends those lines haven't finished CEQA so they don't count. SCAG is wrong.
Fantastic Steve Lopez column on San Vicente Park, a proposal to turn San Vicente in Mid-City into a 30-acre linear park, LA's High Line. (1/3)
Commentary: They found a new park hiding in plain sight in the middle of Los Angeles
Hungry for greenery in a city short on parks, residents have reimagined San Vicente Boulevard.
latimes.com
Also a good case study in why the peanut gallery should refrain from pronouncing that any given YIMBY reform has failed—in the real world, it takes two or three years for projects to move forward, even in the best of cases.
One of the first ED 1 projects was recently sold to the LA Housing Authority at a cost of $378,000 per unit, much cheaper than subsidized new construction housing. The authority will lease the property at a mix of low and moderate income levels. therealdeal.com/la/2026/06/0...
HACLA buys one of ED1’s first completed properties in Sawtelle for $17M
The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles is now the owner of an affordable housing project in Sawtelle that broke ground under ED1.
therealdeal.com