Qualified Opportunity: "The Me Decade" Never Ended

Presented as part of artist Harrison Kinnane Smith's LAND commission Qualified Opportunity, "The Me Decade" Never Ended is a lecture by researcher and architect Masha Hupalo.

Today’s dynamic environment of real estate profit capture in Los Angeles was long in the making, but some of its most important foundations were laid in the 1970s, “the Me Decade,” linked to the rights revolution, Watergate, and oil shortages.

More obscure in public memory are Richard Nixon’s suspension of all federal housing subsidy programs and announcement that foreign-held U.S. dollars would no longer be convertible to gold, turning them into fiat money with no intrinsic value. Locally, Californians started a tax revolt, and Los Angeles moved toward anti-growth policies to preserve the residential character of the city and property prices.

For this lecture, Hupalo draws attention to the different scales, situations, and moods of the commonly perceived pessimistic seventies, and to how they brought us to the speculative present of housing.

Masha Hupalo is a researcher and architect who writes and teaches in Los Angeles. Her current work focuses on the way policy and high-frequency data inform planning and design, the legal construct of territory and borders, and new forms of governance and ownership.

Commissioned by LAND, Harrison Kinnane Smith: Qualified Opportunity examines how the federal Opportunity Zone program, which grants private investors tax deferral and exemption incentives, shapes real estate use and ownership in the West Adams neighborhood of South Los Angeles.

The project, comprised of a new publication and three public programs, focuses on Fundrise, one of the world's largest real estate private equity investors and platforms, and its instrumentalization of Qualified Opportunity Zones. The artist’s book, titled Qualified Opportunity: Fundrise Commercial Investments in West Adams, Los Angeles (2017-2026), features photographs and real estate data detailing every commercial property purchased by Fundrise in the Jefferson Boulevard corridor of central Los Angeles since the Opportunity Zone program began in 2017.

Alongside the publication, Harrison Kinnane Smith: Qualified Opportunity presents three public programs: a book launch conversation with artist Cauleen Smith, a walking tour of historic West Adams sites with artist Hunter Baoengstrum, and a lecture from researcher and architect Masha Hupalo, whose work explores how financial technology has impacted urban planning and reshaped systems of real estate ownership in the 21st century.

Qualified Opportunity is commissioned by Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) and organized by Christopher Mangum-James, LAND deputy director, with Astrid Kayembe, LAND operations coordinator.

This project is funded through the Mohn LAND Grants established by Pamela and Jarl Mohn. The initiative provides Los Angeles-based artists resources and support to present site-responsive, transdisciplinary work across Los Angeles County.

LAND’s 2026 projects are supported by the LAND Artist Fund with lead support from Karyn Kohl, Offield Family Foundation, and Perenchio Foundation. Generous support is provided by the Fran and Ray Stark Foundation, Ruth Arts, Ben Weyerhaeuser, and the Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Goodman Family Foundation, the Los Angeles Visual Arts (LAVA) Coalition, Berry Stein, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture, Brenda Potter, the San Francisco Foundation, and LAND’s Nomadic Council.

LAND is a member-supported organization. Keep LAND programs free for all by becoming a member today at nomadicdivision.org.

Feature image by Harrison Kinnane Smith.