Los Angeles – One LA-IAF leaders from Temple Beth Am won a huge victory when the Los Angeles Planning Commission rejected a redevelopment project that would eliminate 12 units of affordable housing in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, a desert for subsidized housing units. Before the Thanksgiving holiday the Los Angeles Planning Commission unanimously rejected a plan to demolish 6 commercial properties and 12 units of rent stabilized housing to construct a 7-story hotel in their place. It was an unusual move prompted by local community leaders from One LA who were working with city officials to mitigate the loss of precious affordable housing. The community leaders are not opposed to the redevelopment of the area, but they are concerned about losing housing in a neighborhood where the local city council district office had confirmed that it did not have any housing units that could benefit from the city’s linkage fee program. Nancy Goldstone, a leader with One LA and resident of Pico-Robertson said, “This hotel project was going to eliminate affordable housing in an area where there is very little to none. As a One LA leader it was important for me and our team to organize and have conversations with city officials to let them know that this project did not serve the interests or general good of the neighborhood.”

Addressing community issues by working closely with government officials is part of the mission of One LA. It takes a partnership between elected officials and an organized citizenry to make democracy work and to build the kind of Los Angeles that allows ordinary families to thrive.