Evaluating the Concept of a Jobs- Housing Balance through LA County Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez 3/19/2012

The Concept of Jobs-Housing Balance Jobs-housing balance occurs in areas where people can both live and work Seen as a solution to congestion, commutes and air pollution Jobs-housing ratio= # of jobs in an area/ # of housing units in the area According to Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) ▫An area with more housing then jobs is housing rich with a ratio less than 1 ▫An area in balance has a ratio between 1 and 1.29 ▫An area with more jobs then housing is job rich with a ratio greater than 1.29

Questions How valid is this concept? Can it really be used to reduce congestion, commutes, and pollution?

Map created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Sources: U.S. Census 2009 County Business Patterns Survey, U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey (ACS), and SCAG’s Rtp 2012 growth forecast. Skills: Inset map, geoprocessing (clip, merge), aggregating attribute fields (jobs housing ratio=total number of jobs in a neighborhood / total number of housing units in neighborhood), attribute sub-sets selections (freeways taken out of a larger road file), charts LA County Jobs-Housing Ratio by Neighborhoods

Average Commute Time Comparison Maps Created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Source U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey (ACS) Skills: Aggregated attribute fields (mean commute time =total minutes spent commuting in a neighborhood/ total number of workers in neighborhood)

Comparing Two Different Neighborhoods: Vermont Square and Beverly Hills Vermont Square mean travel time 1.5x longer than Beverly Hills Beverly Hills jobs- housing ratio 10x larger than Vermont Square Maps created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Sources: U.S. Census 2009 County Business Patterns Survey and U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey (ACS) Skills: Inset Map, Graduated Symbols

Why the Difference in Ratio? Comparing BH and VS Land Parcel Use Maps created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Source: LA County Land Assessor Parcel Files Skills: Inset Map, Original Data (Base map layer created using georefrencing) Beverly Hills 90210Vermont Square 90062

Problem #1: Why are Job Rich Residents Commuting Outside Job Rich Areas Map created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Source: U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey and UCLA Mapshare Skills: Network Analysis, Measurement/Analysis Comparing BH and VS Average Commute Distance

% Workers Working Outside their Balanced Neighborhoods Map created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Source: U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey Problem #2: Why are residents of balanced neighborhoods working outside?

Multiple Workers per Household Map created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Source: U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey Skills: Aggregating attribute fields (workers per household=total number of workers in a neighborhood/total housing units in a neighborhood) Problem #3: What does living near work mean for households with more then one worker?

Changing the Geographic Scale to Ideal Commute Area Map created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Source: U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey, U.S. Census 2009 County Business Patterns Survey, and Redmond and Mokhtarian (2001 ) “The Positive Utility of the Commutes Modeling Ideal Commute Time and Relative Desired Commute Amount”, and LA Metro Skills: Buffer, extracting data from a buffer, modeling, measurement/analysis Problem #4: What is the appropriate area at which to calculate the ratio?

Changing the Definition of Balance to 1.5 Map created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Sources: U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey, U.S. Census 2009 County Business Patterns Survey, and Cervero’s (1989) article “Jobs Housing Balancing and Regional Mobility “ Skill: Charts Problem #5: What is the appropriate balance ratio?

Conclusions There does seems to be a connection between a neighborhood’s job-housing ratio and average commute time Nevertheless this concept cannot be used to reduce congestion, commutes, and pollution Problems with the concept ▫Large % of workers in balanced and jobs rich neighborhoods working outside their neighborhood ▫Multiple workers per household ▫Lack of consensus on the appropriate geographic scale to calculate the ratio  Problematic since different scales produce different ratios ▫Lack of consensus on what ratio means balance The issues of congestion, commutes, and pollution should be addressed directly and not indirectly through this concept

List of Skills Used 1. Original Data 2. Measurement/Analysis 3. Modeling 4. Inset Map 5. Geoprocessing 6. Aggregating Attribute Fields 7. Graduated Symbols 8. Network Analyst 9. Extracting Data from a Buffer 10. Buffering 11. Charts and Images 12. Attribute Sub Selections

Model

Sources (2008). Rtp 2012 growth forecast. Los Angeles: Southern California Association of Governments. Retrieved from (2012). Los Angeles County Parcels. Los Angeles: Office of Assessor. Retrieved from Cervero, R. (1989). Jobs-housing balancing and regional mobility. Journal of the American Planning Association, 55(2), Retrieved from Metro. (2012). I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvement Projects. Retrieved February 7, 2012 from Redmond, L. and Mokhtarian, P. (2001 ). The positive utility of the commutes modeling ideal commute time and relative desired commute amount. University of California Transportation Center. Retrieved from U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Aggregate travel time to work (in minutes) of workers by sex. Retrieved February 6, 2012, from 09_5YR_B08013&prodType=table U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Commuting Characteristics by Sex.Retrieved February 6, 2012, from S0801&prodType=table U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). County business patterns: zip code business statistics: total for zip code. Retrieved January 23, 2012, from 09_00CZ1&prodType=table U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Sex of workers by place of work-place level.Retrieved March 14, 2012, from Type=table U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Universe: Housing units. Retrieved January 25, 2012, from 09_5YR_B25001&prodType=table