L.A. Needs to Change Its Low-Density Culture

with Robert A. Kleinhenz is an economist and senior research director at Beacon Economics.

LOS ANGELES—There is no stopping it: density is coming to Los Angeles. By most expert forecasts, the city will reach 10 million residents in the next decade, becoming the most populated city in the country. Residents today are pushing back against the development boom with Measure S, which would put a two-year moratorium on zone-exempt development, and Measure JJJ, which passed in November and now requires developers to use union labor and reserve a portion of each development for low-income housing; but economist Richard Kleinhenz says that the real issue is the anti-density culture in Los Angeles. However, to accommodate the growing population—and even just the people already here—he says, we need density.

“A lot of cities in California, not just Southern California, have had an aversion to density, so they don’t like the idea of building large apartment buildings or vertical development. That is a big issue,” Kleinhenz, executive director of research at Beacon Economics, tells GlobeSt.com. “We have to recognize that at some point there is a need to allow for more vertical growth. If we don’t, you will stifle the region in other ways. Fundamentally, Measure S goes in the wrong direction. It stops housing at a time when we need to recognize that there is a huge need for more housing.”