There’s tons of new development in downtown. But that’s all expensive new construction that sits half empty.

Zoning laws in LA are extremely complex and designed to favor home owners who don’t want to see new construction. Also, Michael Weinstein, who runs the dubiously named AIDS Healthcare Foundation is a notorious asshole and hated around town for trying to get crappy new laws passed and opposing any new construction in Hollywood, where the problems are exceptionally bad. There’s major projects that sit half completed because of his opposition.

He’s the guy who got the condoms in porn mandate passed in the county and tried to get a state law forcing porn stars to wear goggles!!!

Meanwhile, San Diego has their A-Game on and is growing left and right. Give it a year or two and we’ll be able to look back and dissect everything LA did wrong and SD did right. The way the city and county governments of LA are structured, you need a strong willed mayor, which we haven’t had since Riordan. Instead each council member gets their own little fiefdom and only seeks to please their local constituency — which in most of the city in NIMBY’s. Meanwhile the police conduct monthly sweeps kicking out homeless encampments only for them to reappear the next week. It’s a joke and the mayor needs to go.