To the editor: As Professor Richard Inexperienced so precisely noticed, in Los Angeles, “we simply don’t construct stuff” (“How to save $2,000 a month in L.A.: Rent,” Aug. 19). A long time of exclusionary zoning have utterly priced the following era out of homeownership — besides these backed by substantial generational wealth. Insurance policies that hinder homebuilding push households into the exurbs or out of California altogether. That separation could have lasting penalties for elder care as householders age in place whereas their youngsters and grandchildren are compelled away.
Our important group heroes — specifically, our academics, nurses, law enforcement officials, firefighters and others — can now not afford the communities they serve. They commute from farther and farther out, weakening the civic cloth Los Angeles relies upon upon.
How for much longer will metropolis leaders battle to protect the ossifying Los Angeles of yesterday, with 74% of its residential land zoned for single-family houses, earlier than we lastly name this a failed experiment?
Lisa Ansell, Beverly Hills
