Report Forward launches
Welcome to the first issue of Report Forward, a project of the LA Forward Institute! We’re doing this because movement groups generate brilliant ideas and research, but frequently their work doesn’t get the attention it deserves. LA Forward Institute is dedicated to changing that with a new publication. The first feature is Report Forward — a monthly newsletter researched and written by journalist Alissa Walker.
Each issue will spotlight one or two policy proposals from LA County movement groups, plus progress updates on the real-world impact of past reports, other local policy happenings, national policy reports, and in-person opportunities to share knowledge, and celebrate big wins.
We hope you find this useful and interesting. Happy reading and learning!
David Levitus, Ph.D.
Founder & Executive Director
LA Forward Institute
The Big Report
Over 100 advocates rallied for “free and frequent transit for all” outside Metro’s headquarters before Mayor Karen Bass’s first full meeting as board chair. Photo by Jun Ampig/SAJE
As transit agencies across the country work to regain riders while confronting a looming fiscal cliff, a new report by the Alliance for Community Transit (ACT-LA) and Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) makes a compelling case for LA to tackle both issues at once by making Metro free. The Road to Equity: The Case for Universal Fareless Transit in Los Angeles is the most comprehensive fare-free argument to date, and it’s one that ACT-LA and SAJE are making along with ongoing demands for more frequent service, says Oscar Zarate, SAJE’s Director of Building Equity and Transit. “Not only do we want our buses to be very fast and reliable, but we also want to make sure that everybody can get on them,” he says. “Someone walking from downtown LA to Watts because they don't have 75 cents is the same issue as someone waiting for a bus for 30 minutes under the hot sun with no shelter.”
The report highlights the stark differences in the way L.A.’s transit system functions compared to other large cities. Metro overwhelmingly serves low-income communities of color yet the system operates with an unusually low farebox recovery ratio, meaning that instead of being forced to rely on fares, LA’s public transit is mostly funded by federal and state funds and sales taxes like Measure M. In fact, fares will make up only 4.8 percent of Metro’s operating costs this fiscal year, and the efforts to collect and enforce fares often end up costing more than the revenue recouped. Unlike other large systems, Metro has also technically piloted this concept: the agency ran its buses fare-free for almost two years as part of its pandemic-era protections, during which time its ridership recovered at a faster rate than any other major city — data corroborated in the report by interviews with frequent riders who said they took more trips more often when the bus was free. (Notably, one-third of Metro’s riders currently pay with cash, meaning they cannot benefit from money-saving policies like low-income discounts or fare-capping.)
The report’s recommendations are also particularly salient as Metro weighs creating its own police force — as the report notes, in 2019, 53 percent of fare evasion citations went to Black riders, even though only 20 percent of riders are Black — and Zarate argues that going fare-free would address other safety concerns, too, pointing to a recent Woodland Hills incident where a bus operator was stabbed over a fare dispute. “What we don’t talk about as much is how much of a safety issue fare enforcement can be for drivers,” he says. As LA City Mayor Karen Bass assumes the role of Metro Board Chair, Zarate hopes the report will remind her of the pledge she made to voters: “What she said during her campaign is that she promised that no Angeleno would ever have to pay to ride a Metro train and bus again.” Bass seemed to confirm as much at Metro’s State of the Agency earlier this month, saying, “That is still a goal.”
Speaking of waiting for a Metro bus for 30 minutes in the sun… did you know that LA City has 6,315 bus stops and only 1,870 bus shelters? Investing in Place compiled the first-ever citywide infrastructure inventory, tallying up the total number of 125 elements in LA’s right-of-way, from street lights (220,735) to public bathrooms (14 — yes, 14). What’s most shocking about the inventory is how much basic information about LA’s streets is missing or unavailable — really, we don’t know the number of billboards as councilmembers approved a new outdoor advertising contract? — or only made available through surveys conducted by institutions outside the city. “We’ve worked closely with City staff who have been just as frustrated as we are with the lack of access to comprehensive, citywide data about the very things the City is charged with maintaining,” says Investing in Place’s Executive Director Jessica Meaney.
But creating a clearinghouse of all LA’s assets is only the first step, the report notes: now LA needs to determine the condition of those assets and decide which fixes should be made first. And to do so, Meaney recommends that the City implement a capital infrastructure plan (CIP), a multi-year, cross-department strategy for funding the city’s streets and sidewalks. Currently, LA is the only major U.S. city without one. Having a CIP would mean creating a citywide project list where investments could be prioritized by existing climate or equity goals — not approved one-by-one by council motion, says Meaney. “City leaders can’t wisely invest in our sidewalks and roads if they can’t see the city as a whole, rather than as a collection of more than 200 neighborhoods pitted against each other to fight for a piece of the pie.”
Progress Report
LA is one step closer to creating a public bank as the council voted to allocate $460,000 to a feasibility study — thanks in part to a landmark report which brought the possibilities of municipal banking to life. After a local ballot measure failed in 2018 that would have allowed the city to explore the concept, a new state law passed in 2019 cleared the way for California cities to form municipal banks without changing their charters. Working with longtime Public Bank Los Angeles organizers, researchers from the Jain Family Institute and the Berggruen Institute assembled a five-part report that envisions a hypothetical Municipal Bank of Los Angeles structured around three focus areas: financing affordable housing production, providing loans for worker-owned small businesses, and funding renewable energy like community solar projects. The report even includes a nifty balance sheet simulator, and using these real-world examples to highlight the benefits of municipally financing the city’s existing goals particularly resonated with councilmembers.
The interactive balance sheet simulator allows anyone to tinker with proposed LA public bank investments.
”It’s burdensome and expensive to get loans from private banks to build out critical projects in our city like affordable housing, infrastructure improvements, and solutions to climate change,” said Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez in an explainer sent to CD 13 constituents. “But with a public bank, these projects would not only be cheaper and more efficient, but actually grow our public funds!” Some critics who are supportive of the concept overall still hold reservations that maybe the city shouldn’t be creating a public bank until we resolve some of our own local corruption — these are valid concerns — but if you think LA’s corrupt, wait until you hear about big banks!
Local report
126 City-owned properties could house at least 1,000 people within six months, according to a report by the Center for Pacific Urbanism and the Committee for Greater LA, which includes a plan to quickly build units on those sites. Bass responded with an open letter pointing to her own executive directive to expedite the use of city land for housing. Which is why it’s important for Bass to use her powers to override City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s effort to stop progress on an affordable housing project on City-owned property in Venice which has already been approved by Council twice.
The number of cars being used as shelters rose 16 percent, and vans as shelters rose 44 percent from 2022 to 2023 per point-in-time LA County homeless count data. Even though the number of tents being used as shelters is slightly down from 2022, LAHSA’s report shows the most significant increase has been in vehicle dwellings, with 14,000 cars and vans being used as homes.
90 percent of the state’s homeless residents lost their homes in California, and 75 percent were previously housed in the county in which they currently experience homelessness, say UCSF researchers, who soundly debunk a persistent and pernicious myth with the most comprehensive statewide homelessness survey in California history.
One person in Compton, population 93,500, is killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies each year, according to a sweeping new investigation by Knock LA’s Cerise Castle that tracks the neighborhood-level impacts of police shootings. The report, conducted with support from USC’s Center for Health Journalism and the International Women’s Media Foundation, includes the first-ever searchable database of LASD shootings along with an interactive map. Nearly three-quarters of Compton residents surveyed said that interactions with LASD had negatively impacted their mental health.
National Report
TOO DAMN HIGH: Even as housing production sluggishly increases, the number of low-cost rentals have decreased in every state. This disparity is especially apparent in California, where 677,000 units renting for $1,000-1,399 vanished over the last decade, the largest decline of any state.
A COUNTRY DIVIDED: Smart Growth America’s Divided by Design report shows how highways and freeways continue to sever Black and brown communities and what can be done to knit them back together. (A reminder that we are still widening freeways here in LA.)
FOSSIL-FUELED LOBBYING: A shocking number of “double agent” lobbyists — including many in California — are representing municipalities working to phase out fossil fuels while simultaneously representing those fossil fuel companies.
Field Report
Reception attendees at Inclusive Action for the City’s Anti-Displacement Forum, which included two days of talks and site visits around the city. Photo by Farah Sosa/Inclusive Action for the City
Inclusive Action for the City’s Anti-Displacement Forum convened 150 local leaders and a cohort of fellows from the national Small Business Anti-Displacement Network to share best practices for fighting displacement and creating new land-ownership models. “During the multi-day forum, we learned about community land trusts and land bank pilots here in Los Angeles, and dug into the nuts and bolts of real estate and where we as a field still need to innovate,” says Rudy Espinoza, Executive Director of Inclusive Action. “We have a lot of work to do, but we can get it done if we stick together.”
Coming up next…
LA Forward turns five! Celebrating a half-decade of building progressive political power, LA Forward’s Summer Party is Sunday, August 6 in a beautiful shaded backyard, with ice cream sundaes and lots of cold drinks to keep you cool. Get your free tickets TODAY at https://www.laforward.org/party
LA Forward Institute is re-launching its Housing Justice Reading Group which has read and discussed books including Race for Profit, The Color of Law, and Evicted. If you’re interested in participating, sign up here for details.
Report in
Hi, this is Alissa Walker and I’ll be compiling Report Forward every month. Please send reports, studies, white papers, and big policy wins to me at reports@laf.institute — and forward this to someone working to make LA a better place.
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