California APA Conference Returns to Los Angeles after 10 Years
This year's edition of the conference of the California Chapter of the American Planning Association arrives in a subdued version of Los Angeles. In the past 20 months, it has faced devastating wildfires, contraction of the entertainment industry, immigration raids, a bruising (and ongoing) mayoral race, population stagnation, the closure of bars and restaurants, jitters about the 2028 Olympics, and, most recently, the threat of coastal erosion from El Nino. Through it all, development has slowed and planning remains... complicated. Los Angeles is not the supernova it once was--but it has yet to figure out how to make its comeback.
The state's planners will convene against this backdrop, to discuss the future of Los Angeles and many of the state's other jurisdictions. Under the Hollywood-esque theme "Crafting Our Narrative: Planning as Storytelling," the conference runs from Saturday, Oct. 3 through Tuesday, Oct. 6 in downtown Los Angeles. CP&DR's Josh Stephens spoke with Los Angeles APA Section Director and conference co-chair Roderick Hall (also an analyst with the Los Angeles Housing Department) about what the estimated 2,100 attendees can expect.
CP&DR is a media sponsor of the California APA Conference and will be present in the exhibit hall. We welcome readers to connect with us.
The last time the APA conference was in the Los Angeles area was 2016 (in Pasadena). If you were around back then, do you feel like anything has changed in the ten years since planners last officially convened in L.A.?
I got to LA in February 2020. So I can't necessarily speak to what has changed since the last conference, but I can talk about what has changed since I moved to Los Angeles.
A lot of what was shared with me by people is that certainly the Los Angeles before COVID and the Los Angeles after COVID are not the same Los Angeles. In part, the city and the region are thinking about natural disasters, particularly fires. There's been a significant shift in how we think about housing in this region and across the state. There's now a huge need to rethink what the narrative is, not only of Los Angeles but of California, and how that takes into account a lot of the new changes coming into the region.
I'm especially interested in getting planners to understand that not only is part of our role to think about and craft the narratives around people and places, but also a core part of our role is bringing the pages to life. That's why the logo has a city coming out of a book. Because as much as you can put on paper that you need (roughly) 450,000 units for the city, you need not only planners who can plan for it, but also planners who implement and make it happen. A lot of the sessions we've chosen are about helping people have the conversations and think about the tools and the resources and the approaches to actually developing, not just planning, the community.
What are some sessions you're excited about? Which ones capture the moment?
I don't want people to think I have a favorite session, so to speak. We were very intentional about making sure we covered all kinds of themes, from housing to transportation to climate and disaster to economic development. We did so in a way that takes into account what the profession needs, but also takes into account and how Los Angeles thinks about some of these topics.
There are a few sessions on cultural districts and on recognizing a variety of cultures in a community. That excites me because I think so core to California's narrative is the fact that we have so many different ethnicities here that all contribute to the community and the economy. Myself and my fellow section directors have our own session that we will be focusing collaboration across the state, about helping people understand resiliency and showing up for work and navigating that.
The diversity plenary, which we are calling “The Summit,” brings together three different community-based organizations in Los Angeles, as well as someone from APA National, to talk about what it means to develop communities, specifically communities that are viewed as marginalized, in a time of funding cuts and various perspectives on community development across different levels of government. A lot of planners right now, especially in California, are wrestling with the question: how do we continue to live out California values when some of the funding we receive, or the stipulations around the funding, may not align with those values?
The opening and closing plenaries both excite me because they're fireside chats with an individual person. One is Los Angeles Planning Director Vince Bertoni, one is Brian Ulaszewski, executive director of City Fabrik. I think both of those conversations are going to be fruitful because they approach this from different perspectives: public sector and private sector.
We're doing an activation this year, and this activation has so many moving components. We're going to have video games on site, and we're going to have some podcast interviews, and the ability to do some tactile workshops to think about place. There's also going to be a working room where people can just go and work.I don't want people to just come and be talked to. I want people to have an experience with this conference where they leave feeling they were able to learn, work, and play, all in one setting, because when we come out of the conference, we want to feel replenished.
How would you describe the mood in your section these days? As you've collaborated with counterparts around the state to put the conference together, what sort of mood have you perceived from them?
I would say the overall mood, both in the section and across the state, is eagerness. Not happy or sad, just that there's this eagerness to figure it out, whatever “it” is. People really want to understand: we live in California, we espouse certain values, and we go about planning in a very Californian way, so to speak.
I think people are wrestling with staff retention or hiring. People are wrestling with how to provide services to their community, either because funding is cut or because the people who are allowed to benefit from programs, those eligibility [requirements], have changed. Even though that has changed, it does not mean that the need has changed. So there's this eagerness to figure out workarounds and solutions to continue to provide services at an adequate level.
A lot of what we've heard is people trying to navigate the impact of ICE raids, not just on the people but also on the economy. People are also trying to understand: "I work in this community, but when there is a fire or another natural disaster, I'm also impacted, and I'm also having to get up and go to work and address it." There's a huge need to help planners develop resiliency and the tools needed for self-care to still get up and do the work.
It's easy, especially for a lot of people to maybe not feel as happy or excited about the work, or even to be burned out about the work. I'm sure there are individuals who fall into their respective camps, but I would say the overall theme is eagerness to problem-solve and innovate.
You're a veteran of housing in California. What do you expect from the housing discussions at the conference?
For the most part, there seems to be an appetite for people to plan for more housing. At this point, those arguments are kind of moot. We all have to plan for it.
I actually think the conversations around housing at the conference are going to start to advance toward, “well, I've done the planning. Unless someone is planning to take the market rate and use zoning or inclusionary zoning, whatever you want to call that program, there's not going to be a way in which the market alone is going to provide.” A lot of people are asking me, How do you think about finding an affordable housing developer, how do you work with them, how do you help them get financing? What's the role of local government in helping a project pencil? Or how do you work with them to think about impact fees? What is a NOFA? What does it mean to talk about a capital stack?
I've always wanted to be at a point where I saw more planners thinking about funding and financing and not just, "Oh, okay, well, we made this plan." That's great, but it can't get developed if there is no funding and financing to develop it. That's partially in housing, but I've, shockingly, seen this come up in a lot of other topical areas as well, including transportation and climate readiness planning. Financing and funding conversations across the board seem to be what I hear a lot of people talking about, and that's partially due to federal funding cuts. At the local level, different cities are facing their own deficits that may or may not be driven by funding cuts from the federal government or even from the state government.
You mention the federal government. Certain members of the federal government like to dismiss or demean California these days. Is there an opportunity to be a pep rally or to assert California's vibrancy? What role can planners play in supporting the state as an entity on the national level?
APA National has done a great job not only of taking California into account but of taking into account the broader states at the national level, and having their policy and advocacy team really work to enshrine the values not just of California but of the planning profession. Planning in general tends to be a much more inclusive profession, at least in today's time, where people are all trying to think about making communities work for all members.
I say that to say, the whole point of this conference is exactly that. California has a narrative as a state, and jurisdictions within California have their own unique narratives. This conference is the opportunity for people to get together and ask: in this new era of work we find ourselves in, or this new era of the profession, how can we still do the work that's needed? Some of that, yeah, maybe that's federal, but I don't think all of it is. Some issues are specific to a local jurisdiction and are separate from what's happening at the federal level, even if they're happening concurrently.
