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Car Culture and Public Transportation
The rise of car culture in L.A. started with the Federal Road Act of 1916, when road construction and maintenance was given funding. Since then, cars have become almost a necessity for living in L.A.
This has led to public pushback against the development of public transportation.
Many lower income communities, especially transient dependent workers, have to rely solely on their car, which limits opportunities for jobs and disconnects them from areas such as downtown, or amenities they may need. For most areas in LA, many people consider it unlivable without a car, due to the disconnect between areas, including lack of amenities and lack of job opportunities.
Despite the public pushback towards public transportation, once some railway lines were developed, the communities directly impacted changed their stance, as the beneficial transportation changed opportunities and commuting times for many. In my interview with Melissa Honigstein, a former resident of View Park, she stated that the introduction of a rail line in her area allowed the residents to travel downtown for recreation, or for whatever reason, and it further brought the community together with other parts of the city.
However, the development of public transportation isn’t always beneficial, and can contribute to gentrification of low income neighborhoods. Reliable public transportation, especially in Los Angeles, is considered a luxury to have easily accessible in your neighborhood. With younger generations seeking out areas livable without a car, developers are flocking to areas with access to public transportation, changing low income areas into hotspots for the more affluent.
The surge of affluent residents searching for public transportation and a cheap area leads to the displacement of the less affluent residents, and while homeowners aren’t as affected, renters are, often because there isn’t enough protection in place to keep low-income housing low income. It leads to the area becoming unaffordable for low income families and communities to sustain themselves in. One of the concerns in View Park, when a rail line was being developed in the area, was that the public transportation would garner the neighborhood unwanted attention from affluent white residents, although the community has since welcomed the railway.
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Overall, development of public transport is mostly detrimental when it comes to low income neighborhoods in LA, where car culture is so entrenched in the city that public transportation and their stations end up surrounded by wealthy housing areas, displacing the previous residents, and continuing to prevent job opportunities and access to amenities.
The way to prevent this detrimental impact is to provide affordable housing protection, and work to prevent displacement of the current residents. In View Park, for example, the newest condominiums and high rises have implemented a system for maintaining the status of low income housing, by having residents reapply every year or so, protecting against the housing becoming unaffordable due to the income status of residents growing and in turn raising the rent prices.
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