AI in Urban Planning ⁽²⁾

In 2013, I was starting my graduate studies at UCLA, and the City of Los Angeles launched one of the most ambitious urban planning initiatives in modern history - re:code LA. The goal was clear and desperately needed. Los Angeles was operating on a bloated, Frankensteined zoning code originally written in 1946. It had thousands of pages of overlays, conditions, and contradictory amendments. It was a bureaucratic nightmare that choked housing production and confused everyone but the most expensive land-use lawyers. The promise of re:code LA was a complete, citywide rewrite. A modern, simplified code for the 21st century. Everyone…

It started in a classroom at UCLA in 2014. I was working on my Master’s in Urban Planning, when I decided to take a business plan development course jointly offered by the business school. The assignment was to build a business plan for a startup idea, and so my mind went to a recurring problem I had come across during my graduate studies. I was frustrated. As I learned about the major role local governments have played in shaping our built environment, I saw a stark contrast. Private organizations were constantly upgrading their tech stacks, streamlining operations, and becoming more…