Dear Friends in the City of Los Angeles,

For those of you who are residents and are able to vote, there is a ballot measure to take an important stand against in next week’s local elections: Measure S. L.A. Times, Governor Brown, Mayor Garcetti, and many others have came out against this measure, (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) which will basically prohibit development in the City for the next two years and make it extremely difficult in the years after (to be explained below).

For those of you that don’t know, the City of Los Angeles like the rest of California, is in the midst of a housing crisis. With a vacancy rate hovering around 2%, the supply of housing is extremely tight and housing costs are skyrocketing. What most people don’t realize is that at around $56,000, the median wage in Los Angeles is actually not that high, yet average home sale prices have now soared above half a million. That is lunacy. Renters are also suffering, with many paying more than 30% of their paycheck on rent – this is unsustainable for many and detrimental to long-term wealth outcomes of households. Just as policies are starting to come online to provide more housing for the City, Measure S is proposing to shut it down.

I am sure MANY of you feel that housing crunch.

Though numbers do vary, around 54% of the City is zoned residential, of which 40% of the City is zoned single-family residential and another 10 to 15% low-density. Measure S is aiming to protect this majority of sprawl-like, low-density neighborhoods.

In the City of Los Angeles, some of the biggest reasons for that are myriad zoning regulations, inadequate land use zoning (the dominance of single-family and low density zoning), outdated Community Plans, and anti-development movements. Most of our Community Plans are more than 10 years old, hence two of the ways to deal with outdated land use is general plan amendments and zone changes. Measure S will eliminate these tools permanently, essentially killing all development in the City, as a majority of the development will require some kind of zoning relief.

Despite what the absurd amount of mailers supporters of the measure have sent out, most of them are blatant lies. I have seen one that says Measure S will provide housing for homeless veterans. Let me ask you this, how are you going to house the homeless when you stop development?

Friends, I urge you to do the right thing. For you and the future, vote NO against Measure S.

Lastly, in today’s political climate, it is more important than ever to be active political participants. Next week’s election will allow you to choose the next Mayor and Council members. This is your CIVIC DUTY! This is a chance to keep Los Angeles an attractive city and make it more affordable for not just us, who live here now, but future immigrants.

A city is only great because of its diversity and diversity comes from affordability and immigration.

(Image via L.A. Times)