The Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies

This client project, prepared for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), investigates wayfinding, lighting, and public realm strategies to improve safety and accessibility at bus and rail stations throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The project is built around LADOT’s Integrated Mobility Hubs (IMH) project and leverages concurrent planning efforts for the 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games to advance long-term transportation equity goals. This project centers nighttime transit users, including third-shift travelers, low-income and transit-dependent riders, and women, who disproportionately experience unsafe transit environments.The project relied on a mixed-methods research design consisting of surveys, observation mapping, and case studies with informational interviews to inform policy and design recommendations for IMH sites, including the Pico Station of the Los Angeles Metro rail and bus network. Findings show that riders view cleanliness, lighting, and visible staff presence as key contributors to safe and pleasant transit environments. Although the topic of wayfinding improvements did not strongly resonate with survey respondents, users strongly preferred simple tools such as signage and maps over digital ones such as QR codes.Interviews also highlighted the need for clear station-area planning frameworks as they are key in delivering the safety and accessibility interventions identified by transit riders. Ultimately, mobility hubs should be intentionally planned as safe, well-maintained, and active station environments that are supported by amenities such as lighting, wayfinding mechanisms, public art, and other station-area improvements that serve everyday transit riders, including those who rely on transit in the late night and early morning.

Transit trips can be taxing even for the most adaptable riders. In Los Angeles, many transit users are low-income individuals, youth, senior citizens, and people with disabilities. Together, they represent a large share of the city’s riders and they need support to travel reliably. To meet that need, Integrated Mobility Hubs (IMH) will be implemented by the end of 2027 to be present for the Olympic and Paralympic games. These hubs are designed to support the entire journey of transit riders. Public transportation in Los Angeles frequently requires long, multi-provider trips and extended wait times. Many journeys involve navigating between modes and transitioning outdoors in adverse weather. Each of these challenges erodes reliability and consistency for riders. Well-designed mobility hubs counteract transit obstacles by making journeys safer, more comfortable, and accessible for everyone. The goal is to transform Metro rail stations and their accompanying mobility hubs into approachable public spaces that facilitate seamless transit. Mobility hubs might include, but are not limited to: shade structures, water access, public restrooms, wayfinding signage, and short-term bicycle parking such as racks or lockers. These amenities help reduce the friction of multimodal travel and improve the user experience. The main question is: what are best practices LADOT can leverage from case studies? Using tools like expert interviews, site analysis, case studies, and literature review, the plan will identify where gaps exist in each station’s ridership experience. From there, specific, actionable recommendations can be made to fill those gaps. Whether through shelter, wayfinding, or multimodal connections by 2027, mobility hubs deliver meaningful improvements for all transit users. Each station has unique needs and may require different improvements tailored to its surroundings and ridership.

The City of Los Angeles has two transportation entities responsible for building protected bike lanes—bicycle lanes that are physically separated from motor vehicle traffic lanes. Building protected bike lanes is a goal that Los Angeles established in its mobility plan, Mobility Plan 2035, that the City Council passed 11 years ago. In 2024, city voters passed an initiative, Measure HLA, to prompt quicker implementation of this plan; the initiative’s website noted that the city had only completed five percent of the plan. However, even since Measure HLA’s passage, Los Angeles has not delivered protected bike lanes faster or at scale, nor has it appeared to maintain existing protected bike lanes. For my client, FASTLinkDTLA, I investigated how Los Angeles could improve its management and delivery of protected bike lanes. Through my research, which spanned a literature review, interviews with seven planners in more bike-friendly American cities outside Los Angeles, and interviews with four Los Angeles advocates for walking and cycling, I identified nine best practices for bike infrastructure project management; Six concerned institutional structure and three concerned staff and interpersonal skills. Four best practices—hierarchy, or having one government entity focused on streets; dedicated funding; leadership and culture; and community support strategies—act as a foundation for the other five by creating the context in which staff can develop these practices. I conclude my report by making seven recommendations to improve Los Angeles’ management of protected bike projects so that it can quickly complete bike projects in Mobility Plan 2035 and beyond.

The January 2025 Eaton and Palisades wildfires destroyed or damaged nearly 18,000 structures across Los Angeles County, displacing thousands of households and exacerbating an already severe affordable housing crisis. This report, prepared for the Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA) as a UCLA Master in Public Policy Applied Policy Project, examines the housing recovery challenges facing low-income and informally housed renters displaced by the fires and evaluates policy options to strengthen LACDA's disaster housing response.Using a mixed-methods approach — including survey data analysis from over 2,300 affected residents, geospatial analysis of parcel-level fire damage, rental market analysis, legal and policy document review, stakeholder interviews, and comparative case studies — the report documents that renters faced substantially worse recovery outcomes than homeowners. An estimated 1,770 to 6,280 informally housed residents were displaced, and post-fire rents across the County increased by roughly 20%, with some neighborhoods experiencing spikes of up to 130%. The fires destroyed an estimated 4,555 renter-occupied units in areas with virtually no government-subsidized affordable housing.Seven policy options were evaluated using a Criteria Alternatives Matrix scored across five criteria — economic feasibility, administrative feasibility, socio-political feasibility, effectiveness, and time efficiency — validated through Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis. The report recommends a sequenced suite of actions: near-term improvements to disaster relief program navigation and a standardized self-attestation template for informally housed FEMA applicants; longer-term investments in affordable housing development and land acquisition in fire-impacted zones; and structural reforms including expanded disaster case management, formal measurement of the informally housed population, and a standing county disaster housing task force.

Los Angeles faces one of the most severe housing affordability crises in the United States, driven in-part by restrictive zoning and land use controls, high construction costs, and design-related expenses. Ward’s “The High Cost of Producing Multifamily Housing in California” determines that architectural and engineering fees in Los Angeles are significantly higher than in comparable California jurisdictions, with prescriptive design requirements cited as a contributing factor. This project seeks to evaluate the role of Los Angeles Housing Department’s (LAHD) Architectural Design Guidelines on the cost and feasibility of affordable housing development. This project investigates why design-related costs appear to be higher for affordable housing developments in the City of Los Angeles than for comparable projects in neighboring cities, and whether the Design Guidelines may contribute to those differences. Through stakeholder interviews, cost analysis, and comparative review of housing funding programs, the project aims to address the following question: What factors are contributing to higher soft costs for affordable housing development in the City of Los Angeles, and to what extent do LAHD’s Design Guidelines contribute to those cost increases?

The Mangrove site is a 4.1-acre city-owned parcel in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and one of the last large publicly owned undeveloped sites in a neighborhood navigating displacement pressure, cultural preservation, and climate vulnerability. This report, developed in partnership with the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), examines how the site's future affordable housing development can advance a sustainability strategy that is both environmentally meaningful and feasible under nonprofit operating conditions.The research draws on semi-structured interviews with LTSC staff and external experts, a food waste survey of local businesses, comparative case studies of heritage district sustainability initiatives, utility consumption data from LTSC-managed properties, and secondary technical data on solar potential and green infrastructure performance.Key findings show that sustainability in this context is most credible when it reduces long-term utility costs, remains operationally manageable for a nonprofit housing operator, and aligns with community cultural values. Utility data from two LTSC-managed properties indicates that a modest 50-kilowatt rooftop solar system would fully offset common-area electricity demand, providing direct financial benefit to the organization. Cultural values including resource stewardship and community responsibility function as practical filters that shape strategy adoption and long-term maintenance.The report proposes a three-tier framework organizing strategies by near-term feasibility, conditional potential, and longer-term district-scale opportunity. The framework can be used by LTSC and future development partners to inform RFP discussions, strengthen grant applications, and guide early design decisions that balance environmental goals with affordability and operational durability. The model offers transferable lessons for nonprofit-led, public-land redevelopment in culturally significant urban districts.

Caltrans District 7 freeway corridors require evaluation to determine their capacity to support effective, high-capacity regional bus-based trunk service. While freeways serve as the region’s mobility backbone, transit performance remains uneven due to institutional fragmentation and infrastructure constraints. This analysis identifies the conditions required for reliable, all-day service and applies them to a regional screening framework.The study uses a comparative case study approach, examining U.S. freeway corridors and international high-capacity busway systems using a consistent unit of comparison: Type 1 all-day trunk services. Quantitative performance indicators, including ridership, reliability, and cost efficiency, are paired with agency documentation and practitioner input to identify recurring drivers of performance.Five core factors govern corridor outcomes: right-of-way continuity, trunk consolidation, station interface and throughput, governance coordination, and terminal capacity. Right-of-way continuity defines the operating baseline, while station interface often becomes the primary constraint as demand increases.These findings are applied through a District 7 screening framework that evaluates segments based on Market Potential and Implementation Feasibility. The framework can be used to prioritize corridors for deeper technical study. Implementation requires coordinated governance across operators and early corridor-level branding to maintain service clarity and network legibility.

Community land trusts are gaining momentum, emerging as an innovative place-based model that is contributing to Southern California's affordable housing landscape. This report, prepared for the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), analyzes established and emerging community land trusts in the region and examines how this model increases housing supply, produces lasting affordability, and empowers residents to engage in shared governance.Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, this report provides an in-depth analysis of two established community land trusts. Key personnel from the case study organizations and other partners were interviewed, accompanied by an analysis of their development strategy, financing mechanisms and demographic data. Results from the comparative analysis highlight publicly-initiated and grassroots models as significant implementation pathways in Southern California. These models, however, diverge in their outcomes, reflecting differences in organizational formation, development strategy, financing, and governance. These distinct approaches shed light on the broad spectrum of community land trust models that are prevalent in the region. Findings from this report are intended to inform regional housing policy discussions and provide recommendations for SCAG and local jurisdictions considering community land trusts as a tool to meet state-mandate housing goals and address housing affordability. This report concludes with three recommendations to support regional development of community land trusts, including: establishing a regional CLT Pilot Program that supports land acquisition and capacity building for emerging organizations, facilitating a regional community land trust or social housing network to strengthen coordination, and developing a policy toolkit based on the Southern California policy and regulatory context.

Traditional urban planning approaches to social infrastructure center formal institutions such as libraries and parks (Klinenberg 2018). Expanding this notion to include every day, community-rooted informal third places reveal how these spaces provide support, a sense of belonging, and resilience in marginalized communities. This thesis investigates how Vanessa’s Barber and Beauty Salon, a queer and trans-led business in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, acts as a site of social infrastructure for low-income, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ communities. Through eight months of participant observation and 15 semi-structured interviews with salon workers, owner, clients, and community members, this thesis reveals how Vanessa’s salon provides resources such as housing, employment, emotional support, and social connectivity through extensive neighborhood ties. Workers engage in brokering to meet community needs and, together, create a welcoming and inclusive space that extends into the public sphere. The salon becomes a community hub of belonging for a community facing exclusion and discrimination throughout the city. This study calls for planners to recognize and protect community social infrastructure as essential to urban life and the livelihoods of marginalized residents.

This report conducted in partnership with the City of Long Beach Office of Digital Equity and Inclusion (ODEI), aims to identify and address persistent gaps in internet access across the City of Long Beach. Despite significant progress many Long Beach residents, particularly in low-income communities, still face challenges to reliable, affordable internet access. These barriers contribute to broader inequities in education, employment, healthcare, and civic participation.To inform policy recommendations, we employed a mixed-methods approach that included community surveys (digital and print), focus groups, expert interviews, and analysis of public park Wi-Fi login data. This data collection revealed eight key findings: (1) Internet is essential; (2) affordability is a key barrier; (3) one in four households are disconnected or at risk of losing connectivity; (4) bill discounts are effective; (5) public Wi-Fi has limited effectiveness; (6) ISP competition benefits consumers; (7) there is a need for more community trust and engagement; and (8) ongoing data collection is necessary.Based on these findings, the report recommends three core actions: promoting ISP competition in multi-family housing through an Internet Choice Ordinance; supporting statewide affordability legislation like AB 355; and expanding community outreach to raise awareness of digital inclusion resources. Additional recommendations include improving public Wi-Fi infrastructure and continuing to gather connectivity data.These findings and recommendations offer a model for other municipalities looking to implement community-informed, equity-focused broadband expansion strategies.