5 signs your neighborhhood is gentrifying

Ornamental grasses, exterior subtrim, horsetail plantings, artists and gelato cafes are surefire signs that your neighborhood is moving upscale. Great for property values if your a owner, but not so great if your a low income renter. David Zahniser expounds upon those little signs that your neighborhoods about to qualify for another Starbucks.

Toll Lanes extending into Riverside County

Riverside County rejected the extension of the 91 Freeway toll lanes (wikipedia) from Orange County into Riverside County years ago. Now they are reconsidering as a means to alleviate traffic at the I-15 interchange in Corona as more and more families leave LA and Orange Counties for more affordable housing in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties (affectionately nicknamed the "Inland Empire").

My main beef with toll lanes isn't based on the usual "Lexus Lanes for the rich" argument, but on the non-compete clause that Cal Trans initially entered into with toll operators without oversight of our elected leaders in the State Legislature. Basically, if Cal Trans tries to expand the non-toll lanes or any entity builds new mass transit near the toll roads, then the toll roads operator can sue for damages based on a loss of profitability. This basically handcuffs a lot of needed road and light rail improvements from going forward. Every toll road built in the State, with the exception of Bay Area Bridges are supposed to revert back to the public after 35 years.

"The whole concept of noncompete clauses has put a stranglehold on the state's ability to make improvements to highways," said Orange County supervisor and OCTA board chairman Todd Spitzer, who has led the effort to buy the toll lanes. "Government should not abdicate its responsibility to provide infrastructure."

It remains to be seen if Riverside County will learn from some of the past mistakes associated with public-private partnerships. I wouldn't be surprised if a major Chinese or Spanish firm express investment interest.

Vertical living in the City of Angels

The LA Weekly gives a great rundown of new mixed use, adaptive reuse, and high rise living going up in the City of LA. Adaptive re-use projects often involve the conversion of a building such as a historic 1940's era department store into lofts or condos. A bonus of adaptive re-use projects is that they don't take existing apartments out of stock which has forced out many low income families during the recent condo conversion craze.