Improved Air Quality Tempered by Human Costs, DeShazo Says

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JR DeShazo, director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, spoke to LAist about the complicated effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on vehicle emissions and air pollution in Los Angeles. Emptier roads have decreased vehicle emissions and nitrogen dioxide levels, yet experts have noted that smog levels are staying high later in the evening. While air pollution due to transportation-related emissions is decreasing, researchers can’t yet say with scientific certainty by how much — or what the lasting effects of that drop in emissions will be. Furthermore, DeShazo warns against compartmentalizing only the benefits of improved air quality while ignoring the huge human costs of the unprecedented global health crisis. “We’re seeing how important travel is to producing employment opportunities and educational opportunities and access to health care,” he explained. “I think we have to be very cautious in how we interpret this impact.”

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Gilens Highlights Moneyed Interests in Democratic Party

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Public Policy Professor Martin Gilens was featured in a New York Times column on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ decision to drop out of the presidential race. The column asserted that the Democratic Party is made up of 60% centrist “establishment” voters, 20% progressive leftists and 20% neoliberals. Gilens argued that “Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other progressive Democrats are fully justified in believing many of the policies they endorse are opposed by a Democratic Party establishment beholden to moneyed interests.” He added, “The Democratic Party aligns itself rhetorically with the middle class, but when push comes to shove, its policies reflect the influence of the well-off.” Gilens and co-author Benjamin Page describe what they believe are the consequences of a Democratic Party dominated by the affluent in their book “Democracy in America: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It.”

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Holloway on Lingering Effects of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy

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An article in the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies’ Trauma Blog featured research by Associate Professor of Social Welfare Ian Holloway on sexual harassment among LGBT service members. The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy formerly in place in the U.S. military was intended to protect these service members by allowing them to serve and keep their sexual identity confidential, but it likely encouraged discrimination instead. Although the policy was repealed in 2011, new research by Holloway shows the lingering effects of the environment it created. A survey of over 500 active duty service members in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps found that experiences of sexual assault during military service were roughly twice as common among LGB and transgender service members compared to non-LGBT service members. Holloway and his team concluded that “LGBT members remain at elevated risk of sexual and stalking victimization experiences in the post-DADT military environment.”

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Gilens Recommends Voting Reform Strategies

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An excerpt from Public Policy Professor Martin Gilens’ book “Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It” was featured on the Chicago Blog. In the book, Gilens and co-author Benjamin Page examine trends in voter turnout and recommend reforms to facilitate voting. Gilens outlines various policy recommendations to increase voter turnout, including universal, government-administered registration; making Election Day a holiday; more polling places and voter machines; and allowing same-day registration. However, he points out that reforms must also aim to decrease biases in participation. “When it comes to our central objective — making government policy more responsive to average citizens — the number of Americans participating in politics is actually less important than the representativeness of those who participate,” Gilens writes. “We want elections to be decided by an ‘unbiased sample’ of Americans, not by a sample that is biased toward the affluent or any other particular group.”

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Loukaitou-Sideris Studies Sexual Harassment on Public Transit

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An article in Progressive Railroading highlighted the findings of a study on sexual harassment co-authored by Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris. Conducted at San Jose State University, the study found that sexual harassment experienced by riders on buses and trains leads to reduced use of public transportation. Of the 891 student transit riders surveyed, 63% indicated that they had experienced some form of sexual harassment while riding the train or bus over the past three years. According to Loukaitou-Sideris, “the findings from San Jose State University are comparable to those found when the same survey was administered at 18 other universities located across six continents.” The report included recommendations to combat sexual harassment, including educating the public, making it easier for riders and bystanders to report incidents of harassment to the police, and keeping transit environments well-lighted.

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Cohen on Relaxation of Liquor Laws During Coronavirus Outbreak

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Social Welfare Professor David Cohen spoke to the Hill about the temporary relaxation of laws on alcohol purchases during the coronavirus outbreak. Some states are now permitting takeout and delivery of alcoholic beverages to provide relief for restaurants and small businesses. Cohen said it was common to rethink regulations during emergencies but also cited the influence of the beer, wine and spirits lobby. “Regulations result from balancing many interests, but the weight of manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors of alcoholic beverages in influencing policy through lobbying is notable,” he said. Alcohol laws exist for a reason and relaxing them could be dangerous, he added. “Alcohol used excessively can lead to serious problems in people and in communities in the short and the longer term. If changes in access to alcohol occur, consequences must be monitored so we can understand more clearly the impact — desirable, undesirable and unanticipated — of our regulations,” he said.

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Accuracy Is Crucial in Census Count, Ong Says

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Paul Ong, director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at UCLA Luskin, spoke about the importance of accurate census data in guiding how we build cities and communities on the new podcast 2020 Counts. “The census allows us to understand who we are, how we live, where we live,” Ong said. A reliable count is key to understanding issues and inequities that shape policies, interventions and funding priorities — including new investments in public transit and infrastructure that will be in place decades into the future, he said. Ong cautioned that several groups are at risk of being undercounted. “If you are a renter, if you don’t speak English, if you are overly burdened with other aspects of life so you don’t have time or opportunity to fill out that census form, or you feel alienated from the government and society, or are fearful — all these are factors that lead to a lower probability of participating that has a rippling effect,” he said. Ong’s comments begin at the 23:30-minute mark.

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Diaz on Health Risks for Communities of Color

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Sonja Diaz, executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at UCLA Luskin, wrote an opinion piece for the Sacramento Bee arguing that the enormous demands placed on California’s health care system as it grapples with COVID-19 will magnify longstanding racial and ethnic health disparities. Diaz cited research showing that access to health care among California’s Latinos continues to lag behind other groups, and that the state’s physician pool is not diverse enough to adequately serve its population. As the coronavirus crisis continues, the number of uninsured is likely to rise as businesses shut down or lay off workers, possibly cutting off employer-provided health insurance. Diaz argued that the state must act quickly to protect the health of communities of color and those living in poverty. “Put plainly, our state’s most vulnerable will wait until they are at their absolute worst to seek care, which will likely result in unnecessary loss of life during this pandemic,” Diaz wrote.

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LPPI-Affiliated Professor Co-Authors Op-Ed for CNN

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Cecilia Menjívar, a UCLA professor of sociology who is one of the faculty experts affiliated with the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at UCLA Luskin, is a co-author of a recent opinion piece for CNN that contends that society would be better served by using the phrase “physical distancing” instead of “social distancing.” In the effort to combat the spread of COVID-19, “what health experts are really promoting are practices that temporarily increase our physical distance from one another in order to slow the spread of the virus. They are not recommending social disconnection, social exclusion or rampant individualism,” wrote Menjívar and co-authors Jacob G. Foster and Jennie E. Brand, who are also sociology faculty members at UCLA. “We must be physically distant now — our health depends on it. But we should redouble our efforts to be socially close. Our health depends on that, too.”

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ITS Experts Assess Massive Hit to Transit Agencies

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Experts from the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at UCLA Luskin are weighing in on the financial burden that the COVID-19 health crisis is placing on public transit agencies. “The virtues of public transit are precisely at odds with coping with the pandemic. … We now have essentially a mandate to not move, to not have a lot of people together anywhere,” ITS Director Brian Taylor told the Hill. The article also quoted Emeritus Professor Martin Wachs, who leads research into transportation finance at ITS. Both ridership and sales tax revenues are down, Wachs said, but transit is “a public service that we must keep operating during the crisis because people who have no option other than transit need to shop for food and get to doctors’ offices and hospitals.” On Curbed LA, ITS Deputy Director Juan Matute said Los Angeles’ Metro system may be forced to cut service dramatically or delay work on key projects. He also noted that, once the health crisis has lifted, “if there’s a severe recession, people who are out of work but still need to get around will become reliant on Metro.”

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