I got to live in LA as a marginally-employed skateboard photographer for 10 years because I slept on a couch for the first 2 years, split a 5br house with 7 roommates for the next 5, then moved in with my now-husband. Thanks to the housing shortage, that isn’t possible anymore. We have to build.
My most personal essay yet. Creative people need slack - time and space to try things and fail for a while. LA used to be cheap enough to give us that, but no more. All the tax credits and other efforts to save Hollywood will be for naught if there are no creative people left here to hire.