Ong on the Exodus Out of California

Paul Ong, director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at UCLA Luskin, spoke to the Los Angeles Times and NBC4’s NewsConference about California’s steep population decline. Between April 2020 and July 2022, the population dropped by more than 500,000 people. The number of residents leaving surpassed those moving in by nearly 700,000. Ong pointed to several economic, health and sociopolitical factors driving the exodus, with housing affordability at the top of the list. “California now has the highest housing burden — that is, the proportion of income that is going to pay for housing. Roughly between a fifth to a quarter of those who are financing a home or paying rent are spending more than half of their income on housing,” Ong told NewsConference. Los Angeles in particular saw a “fast, clear and sharp spike during the pandemic,” as remote work allowed people to move away from dense urban cores, he told the L.A. Times.


 

Kaplan Calls for More Resources for Survivors of School Shootings

Mark Kaplan, professor of social welfare, co-wrote an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times about the effects of repeat exposure to school shootings on youth and ways to help them. In K-12 schools alone, 338,000 children have been exposed to gun violence since 1999, the authors write. These adverse childhood experiences can increase the likelihood of mental health issues, chronic diseases, addiction and suicidal thoughts. The authors stressed the importance of providing support to communities, noting that implementing gun reform is a very slow process. They suggested providing schoolwide services for post-traumatic stress disorder after shootings; access to primary care, family therapy and grief support; and more trauma-informed practices. Writing days after a deadly shooting at Michigan State University, the authors concluded that students “deserve a comprehensive, science-informed, thoughtful gun violence prevention plan that puts them first and works to change the structures that can lead to shootings like the one at MSU.”


 

Manville on Feasibility of San Jose’s New Parking Plan

Michael Manville, associate professor of urban planning, was cited in a Mercury News article about an initiative to deprioritize parking in San Jose to accommodate more housing. San Jose, known for its suburban sprawl, is very car dependent. In an effort to increase retail spaces and housing, transportation advocates are pushing for scaled-down parking garages and more street parking restrictions. Manville said the impact of these measures may not be immediate or dramatic, though over time the city may see a little less parking paired with more housing. He added that investors may be hesitant to finance projects with less parking in a region that has been so reliant on cars. “The key is, do you have a market in mind of people who are willing to walk a block or two to get their car?” Manville said.


 

Umemoto on Wide Scope of AAPI Issues Aired at Summit

Karen Umemoto, professor of urban planning and director of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center, spoke to ABC7 News about the work of lawmakers, researchers and community leaders who attended the Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Summit at UCLA on Feb. 10. The summit focused on policy issues pertaining to Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations, including their unique experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic as well as safety concerns regarding the elderly population. Umemoto said that over 18 UCLA faculty members presented policy briefs based on their research. The Asian American and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus was a partner in the summit, where a major goal was to address issues including gun violence and other hate crimes, economic challenges, mental health and public health.


 

Mukhija on the Complex Challenges of Easing the Housing Crunch

“Can subdividing the American dream fix the problem of unaffordability?” That question is posed in a New Republic review of the latest book by urban planning professor Vinit Mukhija, which focuses on the informal, un-permitted units that have proliferated on single-family home lots, providing needed shelter amid an intractable affordable housing crisis. Los Angeles alone has about 50,000 of these un-permitted second units, Mukhija estimates in “Remaking the American Dream: The Informal and Formal Transformation of Single-Family Housing Cities.” Unless more housing is built, we will see more un-permitted units, some of them unsafe, the book argues. It also emphasizes that we must invest in and upgrade existing informal housing units, which play a vital role in expanding affordable options for shelter. As the review notes, “A quiet housing revolution is taking place. But if policymakers don’t adapt to the new construction, the changing market is likely to reproduce the same instability and abuse that poor tenants currently suffer.”


 

Anheier on Challenge Ahead for Germany’s Leaders

Helmut Anheier, adjunct professor of social welfare and public policy, wrote a Project Syndicate article on the debate in Germany about the nation’s place in a changing geopolitical landscape. The decision to furnish Ukraine with powerful tanks in its war with Russia is part of a broader national reorientation that would make Germany one of Europe’s largest military powers — yet German society remains basically pacifist. Many citizens are grappling with how to uphold the values they hold dear while becoming more assertive on the international stage. Some good can come from a divided society if a country’s leaders can provide pragmatic fresh thinking, Anheier writes. “Some tensions are good for society, because they can provide the impetus for innovation and progress. But for that to happen, political leaders need to understand the nature of the problem and offer a clear and coherent vision for ameliorating it.”


 

Phillips on Benefits of Taking 12th-Grade Math

Meredith Phillips, director of the Los Angeles Education Research Institute at UCLA Luskin, spoke to EdSource about a study she co-authored on the benefits of taking math in the senior year of high school. Researchers who followed the educational journey of Los Angeles Unified School District students over several years found that those who took 12th-grade math were better positioned to enroll and stay in college than those who didn’t. “Some may be approaching senior year math as ‘I don’t enjoy math and I will take other things in my senior year.’ I can relate to that,” Phillips said. “But what the research suggests is that it probably makes sense to take that math class in senior year because it will be helpful in opening doors.” LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told EdSource that the district plans to “explode the information” on social media and look closely at where to expand and diversify math courses among high schools.


 

Astor on Helping Military-Connected Schools With Bullying

Ron Avi Astor, professor of social welfare, appeared on the Practicing Connection podcast to discuss methods for military-connected schools to approach bullying issues. Astor has been doing school safety work since the 1980s, implementing programs that have been used in schools across the world. “It’s really listening to the voices of the ground-level people who are there. What that does is it captures the variation in region around issues of culture, so every school is a little bit different,” he said. This holds true in different countries and also in the unique culture of military families, he said. “You really need to have that whole-school, whole-community approach. … Each school needs its own data to get its own voice. Each school needs a way to interpret it. Each school needs a way to connect with all these partnerships, each school needs a way to exchange good ideas with each other, back and forth.”


 

Shoup Explains the Hidden High Cost of Free Parking

Donald Shoup, distinguished research professor of urban planning, appeared on the podcast The War on Cars to discuss issues that arise as a result of providing free parking. Author of the book “The High Cost of Free Parking,” Shoup explained that cars are parked 95% of the time so a major concern becomes finding places to put these cars. Prioritizing cars has detrimental effects on housing costs, congestion and climate change, he argues. One of the policy solutions Shoup proposes is having more parking meters on the street and using revenues to improve the neighborhood. “All the meter money has to go for services on the metered block so that people and businesses on that block see that if there are meters, they get clean sidewalks, they get healthy street trees,” he said. This type of change can garner political support because residents will see a direct benefit in their communities, he said. 


 

Turner on Alternatives to School Police

David C. Turner III, assistant professor of social welfare, spoke to the San Fernando Valley Sun about the Police Free LAUSD Coalition, which calls for redirecting funds away from school police and toward expanded mental health and academic counseling programs. Turner is co-author of a report released by the coalition that includes a five-point plan to invest in the holistic well-being of all students. “We wanted to make sure that we were able to uplift the community’s voice and also uplift some alternatives to policing that people can adopt today,” Turner said. The new report reflects the LAUSD community’s wants and needs, including the position that policing in schools prevents people from feeling safe and puts the community in danger, he said. Reallocation of funds to support students of different races is a priority, as well as community development, holistic academic achievement and the well-being of students.