On Wednesday, May 4th, METRANS Director Dr. Genevieve Giuliano introduced Phillip Washington, CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) at “Transit Trends: LA’s Transit Renaissance,” a breakfast attended by 75 USC alumni. The event, organized by USC Alumni Association’s Real Estate Network, provides professionals the opportunity to expand their network by connecting them with fellow Trojans from a variety of real estate fields through social, educational, and career-related programing. This particular session was an opportunity for attendees to learn about the transit renaissance in Los Angeles and the significant impact it is having on housing, commercial developments, and cultural hubs throughout Los Angeles County.

Washington oversees an agency that transports 1.4 million passengers on an average weekday, riding on a fleet of 2,000 clean-air buses and six rail lines. Following Giuliano's introduction, Washington’s discussion focused on government financing, the changing demographics in the Los Angeles region, the changing travel behaviors of residents, and how the government can manage its assets. Washington also spoke on the dynamic nature of how people work, including how the spread of work has transitioned across days, nights, and weekends, as well as how travel is changing with new options like Uber and Lyft. His discussion on asset management challenged professionals to think about how governments need to not only think about building new infrastructure systems, but also about reserving funds to maintain them once they have been completed.

Giuliano reflects, “This is an exciting time to be in Los Angeles, because I don’t know where else people are really planning on investing on a 50- to 100-year time horizon. It’s very clear that these major infrastructure decisions are increasingly being made at the local level, not at the federal or the state level.”

Arpita Sharma

Arpita Sharma is a dual Master of Public Policy and Master of Planning Candidate at the USC Price School. She is interested in issues of health inequities, sustainable land use development and active transportation. She expects to complete her degrees in May 2017. She can be reached at arpitasharma.net or at [email protected].