Los Angeles Confronts High Cost of Dismantling Redevelopment Agency

David Zahniser and Jessica Garrison report on the fallout from last month's Supreme Court decision dismantling the state's redevelopment agencies on the City of Los Angeles. Already facing ongoing budget deficits, should the City Council choose to retain all of the current redevelopment agency employees and complete its backlog of projects, the city would incur more than $109 million in new expenses, high-level analysts warned.

As a result, "A committee of the mayor and four council members instructed Santana to begin the process of laying off 192 redevelopment employees....Dozens of projects are now in jeopardy, officials said."

"Everything is in chaos right now," said Councilwoman Jan Perry, who is running for mayor. "We're getting calls from developers every day, saying what's going to happen to my project? We need to answer them and quickly."