Nonprofit leader Perry Goldberg has a big vision to solve LA's pressing problems, starting with water-smart small farms where anyone can live and work

LOS ANGELES, CA, USA, January 10, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- When Los Angeles County released the official ballot for Supervisor in District 5, it included a surprise newcomer. A prominent entrepreneur, lawyer, and nonprofit leader, Perry Goldberg today launched his comprehensive plan to solve LA's problems, beginning with the housing crisis. Goldberg, the only candidate with a degree in economics, has identified the opportunity to use LA's dormant agricultural land to create thousands of water-smart small farms where anyone who needs a job and housing can live and work and pay their own way. Goldberg's plan would rely on putting to use a small portion of the more than 400,000 acres of agricultural land in the Antelope Valley that now sits dormant. Goldberg is the only candidate who has put forward a concrete proposal for solving the nation's worst housing crisis. Currently more than 75,000 people are homeless, a number that has grown year-after-year despite unprecedented levels of government spending.

Goldberg noted that these small farms, rather than costing the County money, would greatly increase the tax revenues available for the County to spend on education, transportation, healthcare, public safety, and all the other County services that are dramatically underfunded on a per capita basis. For example, the live-work small farms would take land worth less than $3,000 per acre and make it worth more than $300,000 per acre, multiplying the associated property taxes by more than 100 times while also boosting LA's economy substantially and making LA's food supply much more resilient.

“One thing is obvious: the politicians who got us into this emergency won’t be the people to solve it. I’m not a politician and I'm the only candidate who has a concrete plan to get to zero homelessness in LA," Goldberg said.

Goldberg condemned the County for refusing to implement meaningful change. The County’s failed policies, he said, have caused the demand for housing to significantly exceed the supply, making rent unaffordable for more than half a million households.

“Rather than grow the supply of housing, the County is playing a tragic game of musical chairs. With each person housed, another becomes unhoused,” said Goldberg. “Housing subsidies backfire by causing rents to increase for everyone. It’s basic economics — supply and demand.” Goldberg explained that the County doesn’t even create projections for future homelessness, and thus is not evaluating new spending through that important lens. “We desperately need someone with a business background in this role — who will crunch the numbers and adopt solutions that are scaled both to the size of the dollars available and to the size of the problem. For example, currently funding gives us approximately $8,000 to spend per homeless person, not $500,000. Good intentions and hard work aren't enough. We need the right strategies, grounded in reality."

For Goldberg, the housing crisis is just one symptom of the County’s “culture of no” that kills the new ideas we need. Goldberg’s plan calls for LA to operate more like a healthy business, which runs on the latest technology and rapidly innovates.

Goldberg's plan would double the speed of Metrolink trains, and add new green hydrogen trains, making them more convenient and cheaper than driving. This will help improve LA's affordability, traffic, and air quality. His plan also would greatly reduce wildfire risk by transforming dry brush into carbon-sequestering biochar.

Goldberg is calling on Angelenos to embrace smart "purple" solutions that cut across party ideology. Neither party has a plan to solve our problems, so we Angelenos need a new path forward.

“I’m running for Supervisor because I love LA and because I refuse to sit back when my neighbors need help,” Goldberg said. “It’s easy to feel hopeless about our problems, but the truth is, our problems are solvable and the Board of Supervisors has the power to solve them. This election is our chance to bring a much-needed new perspective and smart economics to bear on our problems. Friends, I know we can do better. I know we can make LA a place we’re all proud to call home. And when we host the Olympics in 2028, I know we can inspire the world.”

To get involved with the campaign or to request an interview, please visit: PerryForLA.com

Perry Goldberg
Perry Goldberg for Supervisor 2024
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