Latino New Urbanism 10/17/03 Conference Summary Notes

On Friday, October 17, 2003, the Transportation and Land Use Collaborative of Southern California’s (TLUC) Latino New Urbanism (LNU) conference took place at USC's Town and Gown Center with nearly 250 people attending. The program explored how Latino culture and history can interact with New Urbanist concepts to create a new mix of development options in the Southern California real estate market.

Featured speakers included: State Treasurer Phil Angelides and Los Angeles City Councilmembers Antonio Villaraigosa and Ed P. Reyes, as well as USC demographics expert Dowell Myers. Featured as panelists were Assemblymember Cindy Montañez, L.A. City Councilmember Eric Garcetti, Pasadena Councilman Victor Gordo, architect Stefanos Polyzoides, housing experts Steve PonTell and Javier Mariscal, the Hispanic National Mortgage Association's Luis Maizel, Azusa City Manager Rick Cole, National Latina Health Network's Elena Alvarado, Latino Issues Forum's Paola Ramos, the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's James de la Loza, the Pat Brown Institute's Dr. Jaime Regalado and USC Keston Infrastructure Institute’s new Director Julie Bornstein, former Director of State of California’s Housing and Community Development Department, as well as other prominent speakers.

In the first public presentation of his work, Michael Mendez discussed his thesis findings from his graduate work completed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology titled, “Latino Lifestyle and the New Urbanism: Synergy Against Sprawl.” Mr. Mendez argued that there are significant public policy considerations that need to be made if what he termed, “Latino sprawl” were to emerge as the only choice for future development.

A number of speakers at the event addressed planning issues that are affecting or will affect residents of Southern California, particularly the Latino community. Some of the issues that were covered included affordable housing, health care, water reclamation, public transportation, transit oriented development, homeownership, and density myths.

Katherine Perez, Executive Director of TLUC, opened the program with a welcome and introduction to her organization, which sponsored the LNU conference.

State Treasurer Phil Angelides kicked off the morning with his address. During his five years in office, Mr. Angelides has been a driving force for using state resources and policy to promote community revitalization and smarter growth in California. He discussed the relevance of compact infill development in implementing such ideas. Mr Angelides has promoted Smart Growth in his own real estate ventures as a developer/businessman. When asked his thoughts on the impending change of leadership in the Capitol, he responded cautiously, noting that governor-elect Schwarzenegger had campaigned on a platform that was not fiscally realistic at the moment.

At the first panel entitled, “Latino New Urbanism- What is it?”, Stephanos Polyzoides discussed development patterns of a typical housing type in Mexico or Latin America compared to American communities more influenced by Northern European historical patterns. He suggested that New Urbanism is more influenced by Hispanic culture and that American auto-oriented community design has negatively impacted design, even in Hispanic countries. Polyzoides illustrated in a detailed slide show that with just a few extra steps in architectural design, a more walkable, community feel can be achieved. He went on to describe a tract project he is currently working on in Mexico that employs walkability as a key design element. Polyzoides also discussed his large-scale, mixed-use development project at the Del Mar Station of the Metro Gold Line light rail project in Pasadena, California. Polyzoides is a member of the Founder’s Group of the Congress for New Urbanism.

Michael Mendez, author of the paper that inspired the LNU conference and series is a senior aide to Assemblymember Cindy Montañez. Following Polyzoides, Mendez presented an outline of his thesis’ findings, focused on the demographic trends and the impact that Latino population growth will have on Southern California’s sprawl, traffic congestion and air pollution if development patterns do not change. Mendez introduced a possible trend of development called, “Latino sprawl”, which he explained serves to decentralize Latino families into low density living. Based on his analysis, Mendez determined that if Latino families assimilated from compact family lifestyles into sprawl lifestyles, the region would require an additional three million detached, single-family homes to support that new growth. In addition, the Southern California basin would suffer from diminishing air quality as more Latinos became single occupancy drivers, would exacerbate the pollution problem if those Latinos trade in their compact commuting habits for SUV’s.

Professor Dowell Myers, of the USC School of Public Policy, Planning and Development is a national expert on demographics and housing trends. His brief presentation on “Changing Demographics and Latino Lifestyles” underscored the impact that the growing Latino population could have on those trends. He presented figures indicating that Latinos are becoming the largest minority group in the nation and will be 50% of the U.S. population by the year 2040. He also stressed that the housing market must evolve to better accommodate the needs of aging baby-boomers, empty-nesters, the aged, and others with changing lifestyle tastes. All of these needs fit into the LNU development patterns. He also mentioned that assimilation of Latinos into the dominant population development patterns could also be looked at in the reverse- where the white population can adapt elements from Latino lifestyles; assimilation can go both ways and different populations can learn from each other. Myers contends that the real estate market tends to replicate what has worked in the past, which may not be what is called for in the future.

“Latino Communities and New Urbanism,” moderated by Julie Bornstein, former Director of Housing for the State of California and now Director of the new USC Keston Infrastructure Institute, took on the challenge of tying infrastructure, public health and the environment into the day’s discussion. Elena Alvarado of the National Latina Health Network described efforts being made to improve health in Latino communities, including educational outreach efforts on such issues as diabetes, AIDS and physical fitness. James de la Loza, Planning Director of the MTA presented an overview of his agency’s ambitious plans to expand public transit throughout the region, noting how a disproportionate number of Latinos are part of the transit-dependent population.

Several of the MTA’s upcoming rail and “rapid bus” projects will directly serve Latino communities and provide additional potential for New Urbanist Transit-Oriented Development. Paula Ramos of the Latino Issues Forum focused on environmental issues affecting Latino communities, including water and air quality. She also noted how brownfields provide considerable New Urbanist opportunities in many Latino communities, since those sites tend to be among the largest available for new development.

Azusa City Manager Rick Cole, former mayor of Pasadena, introduced the “Barriers to Lending and Building for Latinos” panel by briefly providing a perspective on the challenges facing smaller cities. Panelist Steve Pontell of De Oro Financial argued for more housing development of all types. Contrary to common belief, he noted, new housing isn’t automatically a drain on local government budgets but it actually elevates property values (and property taxes) which aren’t necessarily reflected in local revenues due to state fiscal policies.

Luis Maizel, founder and director of the newly formed Hispanic National Mortgage Association (HNMA), described his effort to start up an important new source of financial lending for prospective Latino homebuyers. Javier Mariscal of John Laing Homes spoke about density myths and infill development, noting that winning community support remains an important challenge for New Urbanist developers. He added that John Laing Homes was willing to sit down and talk about ways to encourage and develop infill projects with any interested parties.

The lunchtime keynote speaker on “Building Homes – Building Communities” was Los Angeles City Councilmember Antonio Villaraigosa. Former Speaker of the California State Assembly, Villaraigosa has become a national figure since running for mayor of Los Angeles in 2001. He talked about the challenges of applying New Urbanist concepts to the largely built-out communities he represents on the east side of L.A. He noted how negative community perceptions about density, the lingering reluctance of developers to do sufficient community outreach, and site constraints can conspire to impede New Urbanism. He pointed to the area around the future Utah Street light rail station in Boyle Heights as a potential New Urbanist showplace on the eastside. Also, Villaraigosa mentioned the development of the MTA-owned property at the key intersection of Cesar Chavez Boulevard and Soto Avenue in Boyle Heights as another possible New Urbanism opportunity. Responding to a question from the audience, he predicted that the City Council will eventually adopt some form of an “inclusionary zoning” ordinance to mandate the production of more affordable housing.

The Pat Brown Institute’s Director, Dr. Jaime A. Regalado introduced the final panel on “The Politics of Latino New Urbanism” featuring three emerging leaders representing urban neighborhoods in Southern California, Assemblymember Cindy Montañez, Los Angeles City Councilmember Eric Garcetti, and Pasadena Councilman Victor Gordo. They talked, respectively, about recent history and politics in their districts. Assemblymember Montañez, also the former mayor of San Fernando, told of her effort to change the institutional thinking of leaders in her suburban-oriented home town toward a more livable philosophy. She added that, among her large, politically active family - some of whose members have been known to tie themselves to trees in order to save them – she was the first to attempt to work within the system in such a direct manner. She was elected to City Council of San Fernando at the age of 24.

Councilman Garcetti told of his efforts to introduce more environmental thinking to the densely populated neighborhoods in his district and the changing political dynamic on the Los Angeles City Council on housing and other urban issues. His focus is to encourage sustainable building practices and expand pocket parks and community gardens wherever possible throughout his district. Victor Gordo, Pasadena District Five Councilmember, discussed his heavily Latino district and how dense development corridors are being designated throughout Pasadena in the general plan. Gordo mentioned specifically that regarding New Urbanism, “Latino issues are no different than that of any other population,” referring to overall quality of life factors for the residents of his district.

Closing speaker was Los Angeles City Councilmember Ed P. Reyes. As a professional planner and prime mover in his city’s effort to revitalize the Los Angeles River, Reyes has brought new energy to urban planning issues in L.A. City Hall. He described his vision for revitalizing largely Latino inner-city neighborhoods with a combination of expanding park space, new housing and expanded economic development. He mentioned several new projects near the Lincoln Heights light rail station as examples of how this vision could be compatible with Latino New Urbanism.

TLUC Executive Director Katherine Perez closed the program by thanking everyone involved.

The conference launched a dialogue series of TLUC-organized events set for 2004 that will explore in more depth various aspects of how the growing Latino influence in the American Southwest impacts different aspects of urban design and infrastructure development.