Research Areas
Selected Projects
GIS / Mapping
Fair Housing in California
We evaluated 199 California Housing plans, finding that most cities concentrated their planned new development disproportionately in lower-income, more polluted, and transit accessible neighborhoods. However, sites rezoned to meet state law were in comparatively higher-opportunity neighborhoods than other sites.
Housing Policy
Los Angeles Rezone Evaluation
I led an independent audit of Los Angeles’ Housing Element rezone program. We estimated the added capacity across each program, finding that the city planned for new housing mostly in higher-income neighborhoods. We also found that the rezone was unlikely to facilitate production on the scale that is necessary to meet the city’s housing goals.
Housing Affordability
Mapping California’s Super Density Bonus
In collaboration with ITS, we mapped and evaluated the spatial extent of California’s Unlimited Density Bonus for affordable housing near high quality transit. We mapped qualifying transit stops at three points in time and did a parcel level analysis, showing that the state has gained major transit stops between 2015 and 2025.
Land Use Policy
Fair Housing Case Study
We conducted a detailed case study of eight housing elements in Southern California. We found that cities created new policies and programs to respond to California’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, but that many of these were unlikely to be impactful because they were unambitious or ambiguous.
Ongoing Projects
- Understanding the factors driving infill redevelopment in Los Angeles.
- Identifying the cost drivers of LIHTC projects across California.
- Evaluating the projected impact of SB 79 across 99 California cities.
- Comparing different metrics of housing construction.
Methods & Tools
Quantitative
- R (tidyverse, sf, ggplot2)
- Python (pandas, geopandas)
- Regression & spatial modeling
- Census & ACS data analysis
Spatial
- ArcGIS Pro & ArcGIS Online
- QGIS
- Web mapping (Leaflet / Mapbox)
- Remote sensing basics