Wachs on the Future of California’s Bullet Train

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Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning Martin Wachs spoke to the Los Angeles Times about California’s beleaguered plan to build a high-speed rail line that had initially sought to link San Francisco and Los Angeles. Concerns about the time required and cost of the rail’s construction continue to be raised following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s State of the State speech. “There’s an enormous amount of uncertainty,” said Wachs, a member of the peer review committee monitoring the business plans of the high-speed rail project. “You can’t be completely sure of what it will cost,” he added. “The technology changes as it’s being built, the demand pattern changes as it’s being built.”

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Manville Comments on Link Union Station Project

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Associate Professor of Urban Planning Michael Manville’s comments on the progress of the Link Union Station project were featured in a Los Angeles Downtown News article. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has designed the Link Union Station project to transform the outdated Downtown Union Station into a modern transit hub with the addition of up to 10 run-through tracks. Manville explained, “With run-through tracks, the basic logic is right in the name. It allows for some vehicles like express routes to pass through without having to stop or turn around.” The project is designed to increase rider capacity, reduce wait time on the tracks, and offer shorter and more efficient rides. After five years of planning, Metro has released a draft environmental impact report and is currently accepting public feedback on the plan. According to Manville, “[The Link Union Station] project is needed if Metro intends to make the facility the hub of a growing and more connected system linking both local lines and regional light rail.”

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Loukaitou-Sideris on Challenges Facing California’s High-Speed Rail

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Professor of Urban Planning Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris spoke with the Your Call’s One Planet Series podcast about the challenges facing California’s high-speed rail project. Litigation and the lack of regional planning in California contributed to the project’s delay, said Loukaitou-Sideris, who added that it is a mistake that the private sector is not more involved. Loukaitou-Sideris argued that bringing in more local and municipal actors to gauge their interest in developing the land surrounding the rail could lead to economic development for the cities the rail travels through. She also advised looking at European countries for inspiration for the high-speed rail. “With good planning, with good involvement and good management, things can happen,” said Loukaitou-Sideris, who is also UCLA’s associate provost for academic planning.

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Koslov on ‘Climate-Change Gentrification’

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Assistant Professor of Urban Planning Liz Koslov spoke to The Daily Beast about “climate-change gentrification,” which occurs when the effects of climate change cause residents to relocate to another area, driving up property prices. In Los Angeles, Koslov said, people are likely to move only small distances due to climate change-related issues in order to stay near their social and professional networks. She noted that the complexity of climate change makes predicting where Americans will go extremely difficult. For example, some may try to escape extreme heat and find themselves in a flood zone. “Governments, policymakers and city planners are increasingly anticipating climate change in the projects that they take on and are building protective infrastructure or deciding not to fund the protection of certain areas,” Koslov said. “Their actions in anticipation of climate impacts and in response to disasters … have the potential to displace a lot of people or make places more habitable.”

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Lens Weighs In on ‘Upzoning’ Bill

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The Sacramento Bee spoke with Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy Michael Lens about a California bill on “upzoning” in light of a recently released report. The bill, SB 50, would let developers bypass certain zoning restrictions when building multifamily housing in “transit-rich” and “job-rich” areas, a process known as upzoning. After an Urban Affairs Review study concluded that upzoning policies in Chicago resulted in higher housing prices and no increase in housing supply after five years, some began to question SB 50, although many noted that Chicago is not necessarily a good comparison for California. Lens stressed the need for more information. “We need to hear from tenants. We need to hear from and listen to developers. … We need to read carefully the text of these bills that outline various protections that are pretty robust in terms of communities vulnerable to gentrification and displacement,” he said. Lens continued the conversation on CALmatters’ Gimme Shelter podcast.

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Orfield on Role of Magnet Schools in Los Angeles

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The recent teacher’s strike in Los Angeles stoked a discussion of the role of “magnet schools” in L.A.’s school district. In an article from Next City, Urban Planning Professor Gary Orfield, also the co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, said, “A good magnet requires a commitment to invest and train people to offer distinctive programs, and of course magnet schools that are run under good civil rights policies have to offer transportation.” Magnet schools, which were originally opened as part of a desegregation plan to increase diversity, are based around a specialized academic focus that attracts students across school district lines and zones. Due to their rising popularity, these schools have also been magnetizing much of the funding that has been allocated to regular L.A. schools. Many school administrators have been considering transforming their schools into magnets, much to the concern of various teachers’ unions.

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‘Affordable Housing Development Isn’t Rocket Science,’ Ling Declares

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Urban Planning lecturer Joan Ling shared her expertise in housing development with the first class of the Howard and Irene Levine Affordable Housing Development Program, featured in the Blau Journal and the Architect’s Newspaper. The UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate hosted the training program for entry-level professionals to illuminate the constraints and opportunities of housing development in Los Angeles. The training was led by Ling, co-director of the Levine program, and other UCLA faculty and housing experts. On the first day of training, Ling declared, “Affordable housing development isn’t rocket science. It needs two things, land and money. Since there isn’t enough land, it’s land-use policy that needs expanding.” The success of the program in its first year has led the Ziman Center to increase the class size for 2019 and make it an annual program, the first of its kind among top U.S. universities.

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Akee Organizes Sweeping Symposium on Indian Gaming

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Associate Professor of Public Policy Randall Akee was featured in an article in Indian Country Today for his role in the organization of a far-reaching symposium on Indian gaming and self-determination. The event, “The Future of American Indian Gaming: The Next 30 Years,” took place at the Brookings Institution and highlighted the importance of tribal regulation of Indian gaming, as opposed to state control. Akee opened the event with a prayer in the native Hawaiian language. The symposium brought together regulators, tribal officials, researchers and federal agency officials who discussed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and the importance of self-determination in Indian gaming. “I see this as the beginning of a broad discussion on the American Indian gaming industry, identifying ways in which we can support better research that informs policymaking at all levels of government whether it be tribal, state or federal,” said Akee, who is currently a fellow at Brookings. 

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Villasenor on ‘Deepfakes’ and the Uncertainty of Truth

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Public Policy Professor John Villasenor wrote a piece for the Brookings Institution on “deepfakes” and the uncertainty of truth as a result. Villasenor defined deepfakes as intentionally manipulated videos that make a person appear to say or do something they, in fact, did not. He suggested three strategies to address this issue: deepfake detection technology, legal and legislative remedies, and an increase in public awareness. Artificial intelligence would detect image inconsistencies due to video manipulation, he said, adding that legal and legislative actions must strike a balance to protect people from deepfakes without overstepping. He said viewers can combat deepfakes by refusing to believe questionable videos are real. “That knowledge won’t stop deepfakes, but it can certainly help blunt their impact,” he said. Villasenor is currently a nonresident senior fellow in Governance Studies and the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.

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Roy on Decolonizing the University

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Ananya Roy, director of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin, spoke to Next City about the institute’s efforts to link the university’s research and resources with social movements and racial justice activism. “We call this decolonizing the university. Turning the university inside out,” said Roy, a professor of urban planning and social welfare. Roy said the institute is not a movement itself but stands in solidarity with community residents and organizers. “They’re telling us where the gaps in knowledge are and how our research should address those gaps,” Roy said. The article mentioned the Housing Justice in Unequal Cities network launched by the institute and the Activist-in-Residence program, which creates space for activists, artists and public intellectuals.

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