OUR 2026 PLATFORM & PRIORITIES

DTLA Residents Association launched in February 2024 and has engaged 3,500+ residents and stakeholders across 10 Downtown LA neighborhoods since. We are all-volunteer, nonpartisan, and resident-centered. We don’t endorse candidates—we help Downtowners become informed and work to improve residents quality of life by advocating for neighborhood improvements.

Our 2026 priorities are grounded in four years of annual resident surveys. In January 2026, 566 residents from 10 neighborhoods from Chinatown to South Park, and City Center West to the Arts District told us what they love about Downtown and what most needs to improve. Our 2026 policy priorities reflect their answers.

DTLA RA COMMUNITY PLATFORM
DTLA RA focuses our time, effort, and resources on creating a Downtown residential community that is:

  • Economically vibrant, with world-class community and residential amenities from restaurants, to entertainment and cultural venues, to schools and more.

  • Highly active and mobile where pedestrians, cyclists, public transit users and other modes of car-light travel and green spaces are prioritized and implemented to support and incentivize greener living.

  • Urban, dense, and housing rich with a high concentration of mixed-income, multi-residential units where Angelenos of all backgrounds can make DTLA their long-term home.

  • Healthy, clean, and safe so that young children, seniors, and every resident in-between can enjoy the Downtown public realm with peace of mind.

  • Civically engaged so that residents vote, advocate on local issues, and drive the policy decisions that impact their lives.

DTLA RA 2026 POLICY PRIORITIES
DTLA RA will coordinate resident efforts to advocate for the approval and effective implementation of:

  • CARE Court Implementation for Downtown

    • Downtown LA has the city and county’s highest concentration of permanent supportive housing and shelter beds, 90x our proportional share, and worsening acute street level mental health crises. We support CARE Court implementation to provide mandatory care to individuals suffering from mental health and addiction issues who cannot take care of themselves. We’re advocating for county commitments to prioritize treatment referrals and bed capacity serving Downtown to address the community with the most concentrated, acute, and under-resources mental health and addiction needs.

      74% of surveyed residents cited homelessness as a top concern. 59% cited public mental health crises.

  • Safe Sidewalks: Enhanced Enforcement Zones

    • CA H&S Code §11353.1 already mandates enhanced drug-sale penalties within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, and child-serving facilities. We've identified 40+ qualifying facilities that, combined given our density, cover most of Downtown. We plan to install signage and present the facility map to LAPD and the DA to enforce existing law to deter open air drug sales and use on Downtown streets, to make our community walkable, safe, and accessible for children.

      59% of surveyed residents cited street level drug use and sales crises as a top 3 concern.

  • LAPD Foot Beat & Bike Patrols

    • DTLA RA advocated with community partners $4 million in LAPD overtime funding in 2025 for community-based policing; however, so far we have seen some implementation in the Jewelry District and near LA Live. We’re asking for deployment on busy thoroughfares like Broadway, Spring Street, and 7th to prevent crime, create a safe public realm, and anchor a community policing strategy that reflects our unique dense, walkable, urban environment.

      77% of surveyed residents named foot beats as their top preferred public safety solution.

  • Spring Street Park

    • Residents have documented open drug use, sales, assault, and overdose deaths at Spring Street Park — a children's playground whose conditions have worsened since COVID, and are recently being addressed by the City. This is one example of a broader pattern of unfinished commitments to Downtown's public spaces. We’re asking leaders to stand behind the completion of the park and addition of security to activate the space for the entire community, and be a model for public space in our park-poor neighborhood.

      388 residents signed the petition to save Spring Street Park.

  • Vacant to Vibrant: 20 Storefronts in the Historic Core

    • Downtown's commercial vacancy is visible on every block, and is higher than the city of Detroit. We're proposing a pilot modeled on San Francisco's Vacant to Vibrant program: 20 storefronts activated with subsidized rent across key thoroughfares prioritizing locally-owned small businesses, restaurants, and cultural venues.

      Residents cited slow economic recovery as a top 3 concern, increasing over 2 years by 7%.

  • Support the Rainbow District

    • Downtown's queer community has driven cultural vitality and economic recovery decades, and is doubling down on these efforts to help our neighborhood thrive. DTLA Proud is formally launching a Rainbow District initiative centered on 4th & Spring, in addition to drawing 5,000–10,000 people to its annual festival. DTLA RA is an active advocacy partner to formalize this important cultural hub in our community.

  • Downtown Entertainment Zone Designation

    • Downtown's entertainment and hospitality economy has contracted sharply since COVID. We're advocating for the implementation of a Downtown-wide “Entertainment Zone” based on Senate Bill 969, allowing for consumption of alcohol on public streets, sidewalks, and walkways; alongside streamlined permitting for live music, outdoor dining, pop-up events, and cultural programming — reducing barriers for existing venues and attracting new operators ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026 and Olympics.

  • Lights On DTLA: Street Lighting Guarantee

    • DTLA RA secured dedicated street light repair funding in 2025 via Councilmember Jurado. We're pushing to convert that one-time win into a permanent solutions for all of Downtown given that much of our community cannot be served by solar lighting. The Bureau of Street Lighting's current queue averages approximately one year for non-emergency repairs, and 40% of lights Downtown are out.

  • DTLA 2040: Accelerating Housing Production

    • Downtown is one of the only neighborhoods in LA with a growing residential population and we welcome new residents. The DTLA 2040 Specific Plan establishes Downtown as a primary location for that growth. Residents value their dense, walkable, urban neighborhood and want to see it grow — across all income types. Adaptive reuse and repurposing of office buildings will be a critical aspect of Downtown’s recovery.

      76% of residents cited walkability and car-free mobility as what they love most about Downtown.