Désirée Martin lives in Hyde Park and commutes to her office near Pershing Square every day. “It’s exhausting,” said the 32-year-old community organizer, who spends nearly 10 hours a week commuting to and from work. But for residents like Désirée, an ambitious plan by L.A.’s Metro Agency will connect communities without access to light rail to Los Angeles’s growing public transit network.

“They’re expanding the Metro line to Hyde Park?” asked Ms. Martin. “Shit, I’m going to have to move.”

Los Angeles’s Metro Rail is undergoing an unprecedented expansion with new routes currently under construction and even more in the design phase. The new rail services are being funded through the “Measure M” permanent sales tax that was approved by voters in 2016.

“We believe Los Angeles should have a world-class, commuter-friendly public transit system,” said Metro CEO Phillip Washington, who expects his ambitious slate of new transit projects to be completed shortly after the residents currently living along the expanded service areas get priced out.

The Avocado spoke to Devin Duplass, a 28-year-old software engineer renting a studio in Santa Monica for $3,800 a month who was excited about the metro expansion. “I would not live in Hyde Park now, but once the new Metro project is completed and they build an Archstone and a few Veggie Grills it may be a more affordable option for guys like me who are rich, but aren’t like super villain rich, which is really what you need to be to live on the West Side. It’s so unfair.”

But for Désirée Martin, who has lived in Hyde Park her entire life, these improvements to her community are bittersweet. “On the one hand, it’s nice to see Hyde Park finally get some much-needed infrastructure improvements. But for those of us who don’t own a home, we’re going to have to move out to like Commerce to afford anything in L.A. County. And Commerce fuckin’ sucks.”

Proposed Map of LA Transit in 2028