The single most significant thing the revised budget does is strengthen the City’s compliance with our fiscal policies. This is especially true as LA is about to go to market to finance $2 billion for the convention center. Here’s why: 🧵

More of this please.

The Metro D-line extension cannot open soon enough

This drives me nuts. @cd1losangeles and I recently convened a joint Budget & Public Works Committee meeting to get to the bottom of why we are paying so much. StreetsLA is working on a side-by-side analysis that our committees are waiting for. The bottom line is that if we are going to start delivering the level of infrastructure and services residents reasonably expect, we have to both grow revenue without raising taxes, AND spend the money we do have a lot more efficiently.

Budget season is here! This is your budget, share your thoughts on what we should prioritize. Join me next Tuesday, April 21 at 6 PM for a virtual town hall. Sign up here: tr.ee/xtLBydFU0B

The LA Housing Department just released a major report on affordable housing funding. cityclerk.lacity.org/onlined… Here’s the bottom line: time is money, and we’ve been wasting A LOT of both. That’s true for both market rate and affordable housing. Let’s talk about affordable:

The countdown officially begins. One month from TODAY, the Metro D Line Extension to Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Cienega officially opens 🥳

I introduced legislation last year to allow taller single-stair buildings in LA. It didn’t advance, and the state has since paused changes to the building code. As LA plans for more multifamily housing near transit, this reform would support better design and family-sized homes.

I just voted yes to approve the new K-Line North Metro Line. If you live in West Hollywood and work in Century City, there will be a train for you. If you are a nurse in South Los Angeles commuting to Cedars-Sinai for work, or want to go to the Hollywood Bowl for a show, there will be a train for you. If you want to go see the Kehinde Wiley sculpture coming to Destination Crenshaw and then go to the new David Geffin Galleries at LACMA, there will be a train for you. And if you want to live near that train, there should also be housing that is actually affordable for you. That is the kind of Los Angeles I believe in, and that is the Los Angeles we are building.

Lets go approve a new Metro Line.

Yesterday, I introduced a resolution in support of AB 1903. We need more pathways to first-time homeownership in Los Angeles, and this bill will help us get there. Making it easier to build in Los Angeles is one of the fastest ways to address the housing crisis. We need clear paths to create new middle-class homeownership opportunities, but since 2005, condo and townhome construction has dropped by 90%. We are aggressively pushing changes at the local level through City Planning's "Missing Middle LA" program, but there are key barriers at the state level that we need changed. The City must be a partner with the State to move this forward.

I got a quote a few years ago just to heat the Pan Pacific Park pool so we could keep it open year-round. They said we were better off rebuilding it, but quoted us $30 million. For a pool. The way the city manages capital projects and contracting is completely broken. That’s part of why I created the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee when I took over as Budget chair last year. It brings together experts in municipal finance, real estate, and construction to recommend reforms. The Controller and I are also working to overhaul our contracting process. The status quo is unacceptable and it’s why we can’t have nice things even though we pay out the nose to live here.

Happy St. Patricks Day, and happy 90th to Tom Bergins!! ☘️