We all come to housing advocacy from different places, literally and figuratively. As I take on the role of Director of Policy and Research for Abundant Housing LA, I wanted to take some time to introduce myself, in the context of the five neighborhoods where I have lived. This is the second installment of the “Housing Lessons From My Neighborhoods” series. You can read the first post here.
Westwood, Los Angeles, CA
I went off to college straight after high school at UCLA. I remember being driven to campus and seeing the smog over the 405, reflecting, nervously, about whether I was really going to be breathing that for the next four years in the big city. This is one of the first memories I have around the thought that something is amiss with regard to the environment.
I lived in dorms for the first two years, and for the first time ever, I didn’t have a parking spot or the use of a car. But as it turned out, that wasn’t a problem. My classes were a short walk away. I could reach groceries, restaurants, and movie theaters (even an archaic retail concept from ye olden days called a video store) on foot in Westwood Village. It was all so big, new and exciting. I was living in an urban place for the first time in my life, and I loved it.
Westwood Village in 2018. Source: Westside Today
But what about getting out of the neighborhood? Well, it turns out Westwood has really good bus services. Not like that suburban bus service back home where you have to wait a long time for the bus to come, but frequent, convenient service, and it was cheap. I could get to the beach, Downtown LA, and even travel back home on transit (although that last one was a three-hour trip!). I found out that LA has a rail system, and that I loved that too, and why didn’t it go to Westwood? Turns out we’re still working on that one.
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At UCLA I got my first introduction to climate change and urban planning, through an amazing year-long series of courses on the global environment. I had no idea about the climate crisis before then, but that knowledge has disturbed me deeply and shaped my life in profound ways ever since. Part of that course was my first introduction to the California Environmental Quality Act. The first Environmental Impact Report I ever saw was for a parking garage on campus, and in print, it almost looked like it weighed more than the garage itself. I also got introduced to the concepts of Smart Growth and New Urbanism, and got to take field trips to Playa Vista and some sprawling new development around Santa Clarita to think about the environmental impacts of each. However, for the most part, I stuck to my favorite subject in high school, history, majored in that, and minored in Spanish.
Living in those dorms, and later apartments near campus, and going to college in general was not cheap, and I am privileged to have parents who helped me out with that. But that raised lots of questions in my mind. What about all the people who don’t have that kind of help? Why is my on-campus housing so expensive anyway, even though I’m tripled up in a tiny dorm room? Why isn’t the university or society in general doing more to deal with this?
I didn’t really have the answers then, so these questions lingered as I learned about an opportunity to study abroad in Mexico City. It seemed like a great way to finish out my degree, learn about history, practice my Spanish, and explore a new city, so I decided to go for it. Stay tuned for the next post in this series to see how that went!
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