Pavement is undermining LA’s future

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OPINION – For much of the 20th century, Los Angeles—like many other American cities—measured progress in miles of pavement. Pavement had a starring role in the California dream, palm trees swaying above wide boulevards, and sun glinting off the open road. That seduction helped build a metropolis, but in sealing over the soil and shade, we buried the very resilience the city now needs. As Los Angeles endures intense rainstorms this week, overrunning neighborhoods and turning streets into rivers, the costs of that vision are impossible to ignore. Today, those same hard surfaces trap heat, worsen flooding, and strain our communities, which means we have to rethink what counts as progress. The goal isn’t to erase pavement; it’s to make our communities more livable.

Pavement created many problems for Los Angeles, damaging ecosystems and neighborhoods. But removing it where it no longer serves a purpose offers a rare chance to ease several pressures at once. By making pavement’s hidden costs visible, Los Angeles can begin to depave its way toward becoming a more sustainable, regenerative, and livable region.

First, it’s worth understanding the scale of pavement’s presence in Los Angeles County. If we were to consolidate the roughly 488 square miles of pavement in Los Angeles County, it would form a city larger than any other in California. That staggering image shows how much possibility lies in rethinking it. A new report, DepaveLA, maps this pavement problem, showing how areas with too much pavement also endure higher temperatures, more flooding, and have far fewer trees.

Extreme heat radiates from all that pavement, and flooding worsens when rain has nowhere to soak in. Local water supplies shrink as runoff rushes away instead of refilling groundwater, and we lose what nature would otherwise provide: cooler air, shade, and the social connection that thrives in healthier places. The very surfaces that once defined L.A.’s progress now shape its vulnerabilities—and the opportunity is greatest where the need is most urgent. Almost 80 percent of communities in the top quartile for the most heat, flooding, pavement, and lack of tree canopy combined are Disadvantaged Communities as defined by state law. These neighborhoods that have endured decades of disinvestment now once again disproportionately pay the price for the region’s pavement addiction.

Yet the DepaveLA report also reveals enormous potential. It finds that more than 40 percent of existing pavement in Los Angeles County may be suitable for removal after closer review. Many people associate pavement with sidewalks and roadways, but the vast majority of this potentially excess pavement sits on public and private properties, meaning homeowners, businesses, governments, and community institutions all have a role to play.​

When pavement comes up, life returns. Soil captures rain, refilling aquifers and reducing flood risk. Trees take root, lowering temperatures and cleaning the air. Pollinators and birds come back to neighborhoods once stripped bare. The opportunity is to replace hard surfaces with living infrastructure—landscapes that capture rainfall instead of shedding it, generate shade instead of heat, and create habitat instead of harm. Beyond these ecological gains, depaving creates economic opportunity through local jobs in landscape design, planting, and maintenance, while improving public health by reducing heat-related illness and creating safer spaces for physical activity.

The data now exist to guide this work. Through the DepaveLA Data Viewer, Angelenos can explore where depaving makes sense, then collaborate with community groups to decide together where pavement should come out and what should replace it. Imagine schoolyards transformed from sweltering pavement into green spaces where students can learn and play among trees and gardens. Or bus stops where riders wait in the shade of trees instead of on heat-radiating pavement.

For most of the last century, Los Angeles paved its way forward, connecting places and fueling prosperity. Now, the path ahead requires pulling some of that pavement back up—not to undo progress, but to uncover what lies beneath it. Soil that can breathe. Trees that can grow. Communities that can thrive. In a city built on reinvention, depaving may be the most forward-thinking move we make.

Deborah Bloome is Senior Policy Director at Accelerate Resilience L.A.