Industrious Neighborhood: A Model for Equitable Growth in the Age of Industrial Evolution

Abstract

In rapidly densifying cities with evolving economies, housing instability and labor market mismatch are fundamental socioeconomic challenges. Contemporary urban growth needs to increase housing affordability and create new means to activate the under-skilled workforce. At the confluence of these issues lie dormant lands full of potential. Light-industrial zones, serviced by robust infrastructure, have the capacity to harness emerging industries and forge new synergies for mixed-income housing and middle-skill job training. Rejuvenating derelict industrial buildings into adaptable urban models can stimulate economic growth and create a new precedent for upward mobility.

By zooming in on the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, a rapidly gentrifying community surrounded by light-industrial land across the Los Angeles River and downtown L.A., this thesis challenges market-driven development through strategic urban design intervention. This proposal for the Industrious Neighborhood gives new agency to forgotten lands and offers policymakers an actionable pathway for socioeconomic growth and equitable development on prime land.