Los Angeles voters approve billions to tackle traffic and homelessness

It’s likely that Los Angeles voters approved two ballot questions that would earmark billions to address traffic tie-ups and homelessness, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The measures would provide funds to building many new rail lines and creating new permanent housing for the homeless. In order to become law, the two questions must be approved by a two-thirds majority. Final ballots were expected to take a few days to be counted, but it appears that the measures have been approved, the Times says.

The ambitious housing plan calls for borrowing $1.2 billion to construct homes. The money would be used to speed up construction of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless people. Dedicated bonds would be repaid via a new property tax of about $9.64 for each $100,000 in assessed valuation each year over 29 years.

The transportation measure would raise county sales tax by a half-penny, generating about $120 billion over four decades for new highway projects, and expanded bus and rail lines, including boring rail tunnels through the Sepulveda Pass.

To tell the truth, I didn’t want to write about the terrible events of December 14, 2012, when 20 children and six adults were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. I figured other media would provide ample coverage, and anything we did would look cheap or inappropriate. But two things turned me around.

| Jan 8, 2014

Strengthened sprinkler rules could aid push for mid-rise wood structures in Canada

Strengthened sprinkler regulations proposed for the 2015 National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) could help a movement to allow midrise wood structures.

| Jan 8, 2014

New materials should help boost sustainability in cities by 2020

Newer developments include windows made with nano-crystals that control intense heat penetration while lighting living areas from the outside.

| Jan 8, 2014

Architect sentenced to a year in jail for firefighter's death

Architect Gerhard Becker was sentenced to a year in LA county jail after pleading no contest to the manslaughter of a firefighter who died while trying to contain a fire in a home the architect had designed for himself.