August 10th, 2025 at 3am
I asked La Times readers: Here’s the sampling of their comments:
Use Chicago riverside, apartments, architecture and more as your example. You can have thriving green spaces such as the LA River, bike trails, community parks, gardens and more.
Los Angeles knows how to survive the crisis. Angelenos is taking advantage of its resilience and strives to build a city for everyone.
Go internationally and use Florence or Tokyo as your example. With beautiful, single-storey buildings protected by city budgets, public art, clean sidewalks, streets and reliable automatic trains running every four minutes, you’ll feel like people aren’t trapped in their cars.
Our legislators must enact public policies and change the better cities. Instead, LA City Council can use the literal stained space behind City Hall for random events, instead of new homes or shared protected parks.
– Rachel Smith
I focused on clean air in every public space. Whether the concern is a virus, wildfire smoke, or something else, public spaces should have poor air quality. Air quality levels must be monitored in all public spaces and appropriate air filtration must be performed.
Pacific Palisades House is covered in fiber cement. The roof is made of fire-resistant TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin), and the deck is made of wood specially treated for fire resistance, creating a fire-control system in which fire-control agents sprayed into the vegetation with fire-control agents sprayed into the house.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
– Annette Majerowic
I don’t live there but I would like to retire there. I want a walkable area with maintained sidewalks and shade.
– Cindy Riachi
It’s time for Los Angeles to accumulate in earnest. The city’s sprawl, which has come to define cities, has now become one of its biggest threats. One estimate is that in the US, one in four new homes will be built in areas that are prone to wildfires, with an estimated 95% of California wildfires being “artificial.” This existential issue has been rarely charged in the last 25 years, especially as the region clings further outward to the growing community formula.
Now we find areas that have begun to stagnate as fires continue to knock on doors and their residents are fighting price increases, questioning the future and safety there.
There are many opportunities that come with building up. It has the ability to rebuild cities, alleviate housing crisis and produce high-density, sustainable residential buildings that can reduce traffic volumes, as several studies have shown. A focus on land management and parks allows you to open up urban spaces while protecting against the threat of wildfires.
– Matthew Perez
For God’s love, can we get some bike lanes?
– Evan Gillespie
Landscaping? Yes, but make sure it is geographically appropriate with drought tolerance.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
To transform Los Angeles into a sustainable and equitable city by 2050 requires a holistic approach to addressing climate challenges while promoting community well-being. My vision is rooted in architecture, landscaping, neighborhood planning and comprehensive design practices.
Resilient Architecture and Homes: Buildings should be designed to withstand an increasing threat from wildfires and other climate-related events. This means using fire-resistant materials, integrating the green roof for natural cooling and air quality, and designing an adaptable modular structure that can be reconstructed or repositioned quickly if necessary. The housing is dense, but must be on a human scale, with flexible spaces that cater to changing family structures and community needs.
Sustainable Landscaping and Urban Ecology: 2050 Los Angeles Landscaping embraces native drought-resistant plants that support local biodiversity and moves away from intensive water practice. Urban forests play an important role in reducing heat islands, but community gardens and urban farms become integral to neighborhood identity, providing both food security and green space.
Connected Climate-conscious Regions: To minimize car dependence, neighborhoods are designed as walkable bike-friendly hubs that mix homes, workspaces and recreational areas. Public transport is seamlessly integrated into these communities, promoting aggressive mobility and reducing emissions. Rethink zoning to allow for more live workspaces, eliminate long commutes, and foster the local economy.
Community-centric planning: Planning takes priority over community-driven equity by involving residents in the decision-making process. Each region develops its own identity and purpose. Some focus on water management and treatment, while others focus on urban agriculture and community energy production. This localized approach builds social cohesion while addressing specific climate challenges.
Cozy and Inclusive Urban Fabric: By 2050, Los Angeles will embrace a diverse population by assessing the skills and contributions from all residents, including immigrants. An adapted housing and support system ensures that no one lives on the streets, making public spaces accessible and inclusive
Will AI robots be able to pick up all our trash in the future?
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
– ena(ana)yanchapaxi
Stop catering to developers, big companies, and monopolies. Citizens and businesses need to prioritize them so that people can stay locally.
– Josh Walters
*Use AI robots to pick up and organize all your trash 24/7.
*Double decker light rails for 10 and 405, 105, 101 and 5. Place the light rails in all major East-West arteries.
*Close all oil refineries
*Transports outside of town.
*Make coastal areas into a large wetland/chaparral ecosystem.
*Return Altadena and Pacific Palisades to the Chaparal ecosystem.
*Extends sidewalk/pedestrian access. Create a plaza to improve walking.
*To support other parts of California, reduce water imports and increase resistance to climate change.
*Create more overpasses on the wildlife highway.
*Replace gas stations with national electric charging stations
*Fruit trees in the city
*Crowded communal living options.
Do you want to plant more fruit trees? Why is it not good?
(Janet Martos/Los Angeles Times)
– Matt Cellan
We will abolish and phase out Proposition 13, rezoning most cities to allow for multifamily homes, more walkable communities to be built. Just build more homes and see how much of the city’s problems will decrease or completely disappear. Oh, and plant more trees. I think it’s a tragedy that the world’s most incredible weather cities were so unscathed.
– Michele Medina
Los Angeles needs to rethink the original history of cars first and foremost if they intend to infiltrate towards a more sustainable future. Continuously fighting for better public transport is a simple answer to see Metro working on new projects, but it also requires ultra-local pushes to smart density, defending more walkable neighborhoods, fewer single-family housing developments, and towns and cities are completely redesigned so that people can access what they need without having to drive anywhere.
– Charles Vignola
I think Los Angeles needs to create more space for people and nature and space for cars. Lots of apartments, bicycle and bus lanes, trains and parks everywhere. Many of them are difficult and small jobs that can be seen on a neighborhood scale, but there is one big project I want to see. This will allow more people to access the huge park, reduce car pollution and provide safe passage for mountain lions to cross over to Griffith Park. The views of the valley and basin are spectacular, and it will be a refuge and a reconstruction of the ancient Tonva walkway.
– Jonathan Ebby
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