Data and stories inform Coachella land-use planning

Student volunteers have been learning a lot from their work on the Land Use Planning Awareness (LUPA) Project, which uses public data and research to measure the power of land-use planning in Coachella. The effort has made the students more aware of a need for affordable housing in the Eastern Valley. Students interviewed residents to identify the relationship between health, income, and cost of living. "I worked in the fields driving the tractor to harvest the vegetables for  more than twenty years. Before I lived here, I had to live with my boss on a ranch." The stories are on Coachella Unincorporated.