Costco is dipping toes into the realm of residential real estate development. As a way of making a dent in the affordable housing crisis - Costco intends to develop a combo retail-housing project in LA.

What does this have to do with public spaces? The pressure to provide more affordable housing is exponentially increasing, in the US and globally. Unless housing is combined with a corresponding increase in public spaces that can offset the pressure on land and resources, building out more residential is adding to problems down the road, instead of fixing them.  With Costco's approach, self serving as it may be - brings a new scale of mixed use development combined with transit oriented development. What was once homes over mom and pop stores, could soon be homes over big box retail.