Could Your Rent Pay For More Transit?

An acquaintance of mine is trying to decide whether to move to Los Angeles or New York. Having spent most of her life in the Northeast, New York is a familiar city where she has good friends and job connections. However, she can’t help but feel the draw of the West Coast, and on a recent visit to Los Angeles, she was rather keen on settling down in Southern California, especially when she was comparing the rents in L.A. to those in New York. While rents in New York are increasingly stratospheric, L.A.’s are just exorbitantly high.

2 minute read

June 18, 2007, 5:04 PM PDT

By Christian Madera @cpmadera


An acquaintance of mine is trying to decide whether to move to Los Angeles or New York. Having spent most of her life in the Northeast, New York is a familiar city where she has good friends and job connections. However, she can't help but feel the draw of the West Coast, and on a recent visit to Los Angeles, she was rather keen on settling down in Southern California, especially when she was comparing the rents in L.A. to those in New York. While rents in New York are increasingly stratospheric, L.A.'s are just exorbitantly high.

However, several friends pointed out that since most people in Los Angeles consider a car a necessity, she would need to factor that into her cost of living. Once she did, she realized that living in Los Angeles would actually be more expensive than living in New York. Certainly, it is possible to live in Los Angeles without a car (and many do, including myself). However, as someone who's also lived in a very transit-friendly city (Hong Kong), I'll also be the first to admit living in L.A. without a car is not easy. In New York, the question is sometimes even asked in reverse – why would you want to deal with the hassle of owning a car?

All this got me thinking – how much are the higher rents in New York connected to the fact that you don't need to pay for a private vehicle? And are L.A.'s property owners and landlords losing out on income potential because they and their tenants feel the need to own cars? If so, there seems like a good economic argument for convincing property owners to pay for more transit.

Of course, the idea of financing transit improvements using tax increment financing on property within easy access of improved transit service isn't new. Los Angeles tried this itself when the first stretches of the city's subway were built – establishing benefit assessment districts in and around its downtown. However, these were limited to commercial properties, which stunted their potential. Carefully applied to residential properties, either through property taxes or rents, this concept might be able to capture some of the value that likely is created when investments in transit are made.


Christian Madera

Christian Madera was managing editor of Planetizen from 2006 to 2008. He currently lives and works in Hong Kong.

Christian has written about urban planning, policy and technology issues for the Los Angeles Times, Planning Magazine, The Southern Sierran, and Next City Magazine, where he was a 2010 Urban Leaders Fellow. His past experience includes working as a community planner and the web and new media manager for the National Capital Planning Commission in Washington, DC, as well as a policy analyst for a non-profit housing developer in Los Angeles.

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Cover CM Credits, Earn Certificates, Push Your Career Forward

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

July 16, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Green vintage Chicago streetcar from the 1940s parked at the Illinois Railroad Museum in 1988.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails

Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

July 13, 2025 - WTTV

Blue and silver Amtrak train with vibrant green and yellow foliage in background.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail

The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

July 14, 2025 - Smart Cities Dive

Worker in yellow safety vest and hard hat looks up at servers in data center.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power

Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

July 18 - Inside Climate News

Former MARTA CEO Collie Greenwood standing in front of MARTA HQ with blurred MARTA sign visible in background.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns

MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

July 18 - WABE

Rendering of proposed protected bikeway in Santa Clara, California.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant

A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.

July 17 - San José Spotlight