[saybanana]

I lived in a LA City neighborhood that is gentrifying. The area is about even between renters and homeowners. There were a few proposals the past decades for new housing either rentals or townhomes/condos. But many of them have stalled or ended up having less units than initially presented.

There were different sides of opposition, with overlapping reasons. Seems like the main common complaint is fear of traffic congestion and loss of street parking. But traffic is always a complaint to locals and visitors. So even if a building with 20 new units is opposed because people fear major traffic from those 20 units. Another common complaint is that it is too crowded already. LA metro is one of the most dense metro's in the USA. As you go away from the core, the density remains a slow decline rather than a sharp drop. So more housing means more people. The lower income people/renters will likely accept a development, despite the traffic and crowdedness, if it is affordable housing. yet few new projects are affordable housing or just a small percentage devoted to affordable housing. If not, then lower income groups will oppose the project.

Overall, there is a lot of NIMBYism even in mixed income areas. Eventually many projects do get cut down 10-50% less units. Affordable units never pencil in and most new projects are actually townhomes or small lot units selling for $600K+ - recently $800K+. Anyway doesn't seem like anyone is winning.

The area in LA with the least complaints is Downtown LA where probably half of all new units in LA have been built in the recent years. You never hear of affordable housing or traffic concerns in Downtown.