About

Our mission is to align policies and public dollars to support transportation investments that strengthen communities.

We focus our work on partnership with community champions and support them with transportation policy analysis. We help build shared understanding of Metro and Los Angeles City processes, and provide budgetary strategy. We are working to build a Los Angeles transportation advocacy platform that prioritizes funding based on need, safety and access in a time of scarcity. See our 2020-2022 strategic plan here.

Started in 2015, Investing in Place, has cultivated a range of public, foundation, and individual funding to support our work on transportation policy and the public investment landscape of Greater Los Angeles. We have successfully raised over $2 million over our first six years. This has helped support our sustainability and success, notably the following highlights:

• (2016) Measure M was approved by Los Angeles County voters and is the first Metro ballot measure that sets aside funding for sidewalks, crosswalks, improved access to transit, safe routes to school and more. Investing in Place was a pivotal leader in ensuring the ballot measure dedicated 6-8% of its $122 billion expenditure plan to active transportation.
• (2018 to present) Investing in Place has influenced allocations in the City of Los Angeles’s $1.4 billion sidewalk repair program, $72 million street furniture program, and the City’s first-ever comprehensive Complete Streets projects, which to date totals over $80 million in safety and mobility improvements. 
• (2019) Investing in Place has been a leading voice in advocating for Los Angeles County Metro to adopt an  agency-wide definition of equity.  When they did in 2019, it was based on the recommendations of the Investing in Place Transportation Equity Work Group and the policy paper published by the work group in 2016.  Metro’s definition identifies two demographic factors that have historically been determinants of disinvestment and disenfranchisement: (1) race/ethnicity and (2) household income. And Metro added a third factor to the mix: households with low vehicle ownership. Using these three factors to create a map of high need neighborhoods and communities in Los Angeles County, Metro can now apply this definition to evaluate planning efforts and resource allocations.
• (2020) In the summer of 2020, Investing in Place was a leading advocacy voice producing research and analysis on the impacts of budget shortfalls due to COVID-19, and the Metro Board’s positioning to lock in 20% bus service cuts through June 2021.  With coalition partners at ACT-LA and other leaders, Investing in Place has supported mobilizing attention and amplifying voices about the impacts of these bus service cuts.  

Investing in Place is a project of Community Partners.