Note: In many cases, these responses are possible, rather than actual, a direction that many of us are moving toward.
Affordable housing is a problem in L.A., where 300,000 households pay more than 50% of their income for housing. Overpriced housing promotes overcrowding. Overcrowding is further blighted by inadequate open space and services.
Create permanently affordable cooperative ownership. Create demonstration community land trust in which ownership of the land is separated from ownership of the buildings. In co-op housing, people often provide themselves with a variety of other services such as childcare, education, voluntary common dining facilities, car co-op, loan fund, community gardens, workshops spaces, etc. Eco-retrofit buildings to maximize savings in energy and water and reduce pollution.
Our dependence on autos is the major cause of air pollution locally, which threatens health. Traffic related deaths and maiming are also major health problems. Roads and hardscape to support cars deplete open space, contribute to ethnic and economic segregation, and urban sprawl. (85% of the land in L.A. is devoted to the car.) Many people work far from home and after the daily commute find little quality time left for their family, friends and community connections. A large part of average incomes goes to support a car. Global warming, soil and water pollution are major byproducts of over dependence on autos.
Find ways to live without private auto ownership, engage in home based businesses, work nearby (within comfortable commute by foot, bike or public transit). Develop an auto co-op (especially to share electric vehicles). Provide traffic calming to slow traffic down and make streets safer and friendlier. Reclaim some of the land now allotted to the car in the central city for parks, gardens and open space.
Utility bills make up as much as 25% of housing costs. Many rental apartments in the neighborhood have centrally metered water and utilities (the landlord pays, and tenants have no idea of their individual consumption). Our electric supply comes primarily from petroleum-burning plants (which pollute the air) and nuclear plants (which create wastes so hazardous that no one knows how to render them harmless). Most of L.A.'s water is diverted from ecosystems hundreds of miles away (the Colorado River and the Sierra Nevada Mountains). Many of the landscapes planted in our city need twice as much water as we receive in rainfall. Even new water saving toilets take 1 to 3 gallons per flush. Most of our water is used once and released with sewage, a major waste problem which regularly pollutes the ocean.
Retrofit buildings for energy and water efficiency and create incentives for reducing consumption. Install compact fluorescent light bulbs, which cut costs by as much as 85% because they use far less energy than incandescent bulbs and last up to 13 times longer. Install water saving toilets and faucets. Create a grey and black water reclamation demonstration system in which water is re-used and returned to the water table rather than sent to the ocean through the City's costly sewage system. Create drought tolerant and edible landscapes. Provide on-going information and training in how to conserve energy and water and create and care for neighborhood water reclamation systems.
Polluting trucks come into our neighborhood each week to haul trash away to overstuffed landfills. (L.A. County's last landfills are almost full; where will we send our trash next?) Residents are paying for the waste many times over, for example when they purchase it (often as unnecessary packaging), when the waste hauler picks it up, when the city leverages taxes to maintain the landfill, and when taxes are used to clean up the pollution which results from the waste.
Reduce waste by more careful purchases. Bulk buy with other neighbors when feasible. Re-use things whenever possible. Recycle those things which cannot be re-used, including glass, paper, cardboard, metals of all kinds, plastics, styrofoam, kitchen scraps, and organic wastes such as yard trimmings and kitchen scraps.
On average our food has traveled 1500 miles to get to our tables, leaving a trail of waste and pollution in its wake--from the chemical fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics and hormones which contaminate air, soil, water and our bodies to the oil dependent packaging and transportation. In this neighborhood, most of us buy our food from two chain supermarkets drains money from the community. Most food is grown and harvested by underpaid laborers working in unhealthy conditions. Factory farming of animals is inhumane; animal based diets require many times the water and land area that plant-based diets do, and pose more health risks.
Reclaim and rebuild soil in and near our neighborhood to grow organic food for local consumption. Return organic wastes to the soil in and near the neighborhood for composting, completing the local cycles of nature. Create small worker owned organic farms using nearby lawns and other open spaces, including rooftops. Eat plant based diets to enhance health and conserve land.
Many jobs are unhealthful and contribute overall to waste, pollution, and stress. Many are engaged in employment that does not feel meaningful and contributes to the degradation of society overall.
Encourage people who live in the neighborhood to find or create work in the neighborhood, and to support businesses which meet basic local needs in healthy ways.
Many in our cities are frightened of crime and isolated from one another. For many, the need for human connectedness is not met by TV, shopping and other substitutes for community recreation. Parent effectiveness for supporting healthy human development diminishes without community support. Racial and ethnic prejudice are common. The over use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco is common. Many feel powerless to influence the direction of the neighborhood, and/or to make informed decisions for creating a healthy neighborhood.
Have regular voluntary community dinners, dialogue and problem solving groups, special educational events, neighborhood work parties, opportunities for recreation. Engage children in positive earth stewarding activities, and provide many friendship opportunities for them. Encourage neighbors from all ethnic groups to get training in dispute resolution techniques and to practice helping others in dispute. Encourage mentoring of children and adults of all ages to emphasize life-long learning about how to care for one another and the neighborhood.