For the first time in its history, the City of Los Angeles’s population has topped the 4 million mark after having gained more than 50,000 people since last year alone — a growth rate of 1.3 percent.
The new data was reported by the California Department of Finance also found that California’s overall population grew by 0.9 percent in 2015, adding 348,000 residents bringing the Golden State’s total to 39,256,000 as of January 1 of this year.
San Francisco also experienced 1.1 percent growt,h and now has 866,583 people living in the city. In the face of skyrocketing rents and unbearable traffic conditions, a recent survey conducted by the Bay Area Council found that 34 percent of Bay Area residents, most of whom have lived there for five or fewer years, are considering leaving the region.
Economically, California reportedly added 450,000 new jobs to its workforce last year and is the eighth-fastest growing state in the nation. But California’s most densely populated areas, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, are also the most space-starved, and are suffering a housing crisis.
“What should be alarming to leaders is that our housing is not keeping up with the growth,” Hasan Ikhrata, executive director for the Southern California Association of Governments, told the Los Angeles Daily News. “We have one of the worst housing affordability rates in the country.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the San Francisco Bay Area Renter’s Federation, known as SFBarf, is waging a “Sue the Suburbs” campaign and suing the city of Lafayette, demanding that it resurrect a scrapped plan to build high-density housing on a 22-acre knoll of Deer Hill Road.
SFBarf is being financed in large part by Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, 38, who reportedly donated $100,000 to the group this year alone.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz
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