Tilly on Working Conditions in the Retail Sector

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Urban Planning Professor Chris Tilly spoke to Boston Globe Magazine about working conditions in the retail sector, particularly at supercenters that attract consumers with discount prices made possible in part by keeping employee wages low. “In the 1960s into the early 1970s, working in retail really was a decent job,” said Tilly, co-author of “Where Bad Jobs Are Better: Retail Jobs Across Countries and Companies.” That changed due to a number of factors, including the increasing desirability of part-time positions. “Retailers figured out they could offer half the wages and none, or some, of the benefits,” Tilly said. Now, “the dominant model has been a low wage, high turnover, low benefits and increasingly crazy schedules.” Market forces, including pandemic-era labor shortages, have pushed retailers to improve working conditions, but those gains could be reversed if employers regain the advantage.

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Torres-Gil on Plight of California’s Caregivers

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Fernando Torres-Gil, director of UCLA Luskin’s Center for Policy Research on Aging and professor emeritus of social welfare and public policy, commented in a CalMatters article on low wages and lack of benefits and safe working conditions for California’s caregivers. Experts say the need for caregivers is only increasing in the state and across the country. “We don’t, as a society, value or honor persons that do caregiving,” Torres-Gil said, explaining that one reason the field is undervalued is that caregivers are predominantly immigrant women. In the coming decade, with nearly one-fifth of the population age 65 and older, California will face a shortage of more than 3 million caregivers, according to the California Department of Aging. Torres-Gil said that caregivers working in homes or nursing centers earn minimum, or near minimum, pay and lack benefits of regular 9-to-5 jobs, making long-term care as a career “a hard sell for young people.”

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Sharing the American Dream Through Granny Flats and Garage Units

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Urban Planning Professor Vinit Mukhija joined the podcast UCLA Housing Voice in a two-episode appearance focused on how American neighborhoods are being reshaped by the addition of living spaces to existing lots. Often unpermitted, these spaces run the gamut from a fully appointed backyard unit to a storage shed used for shelter. Mukhija’s new book, “Remaking the American Dream,” shows how single-family living has been transformed to meet the growing demand for adequate housing. He delves into the issue with podcast hosts Shane Phillips of the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and Paavo Monkkonen, UCLA Luskin professor of urban planning and public policy. Their expansive conversation includes an assessment of state and local government efforts to bring unregulated housing out of the shadows and encourage the construction of permitted accessory dwelling units. Policies that increase housing density, Mukhija says, allow more people to share the American Dream by “sharing single family lots, … sharing neighborhoods, sharing cities, sharing suburbs.”

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Wasserman on Transit Agency Ambassador Programs

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Jacob Wasserman, a research project manager at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, commented in a Washington Post story about the nationwide growth of transit agency ambassador programs designed to reduce crime and augment security on public transportation. The civilian ambassadors provide additional “eyes and ears” for law enforcement, report maintenance and safety issues, and provide enhanced customer service, according to the article. While transit leaders say the programs have had some successes, the overall effectiveness is not yet clear since the positions are relatively new. The article also cited a 2021 University of California study that found that service referrals made by outreach workers, ambassadors and other aid workers were more effective, for example, at directing homeless people to shelters or treatment programs than referrals by police officers. “This is not what police want to be doing or are trained to be doing,” said Wasserman, co-author of the study.

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Sweltering Temperatures Take Toll on the Most Vulnerable

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V. Kelly Turner, associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, spoke to NBC4 News about the impact of Southern California’s heat wave on groups that are particularly vulnerable due to age, disability, low income and access to transportation. “I think about the sensitive populations who lack the resources or capacity to adapt when it gets really hot,” said Turner, who leads a research group focusing on policy approaches to protect people from extreme heat. “But I also think about people who are spending a lot of their time in settings where they’re exposed to too much heat. So that could be something like taking public transportation and being at a bus stop with no shelter.” In sweltering temperatures, she said, “we know that women are more likely to have preterm births. We know that children’s learning outcomes are degraded. We know that elderly are more likely to fall down.”

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On the Burden and Necessity of Car Ownership

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A Vox article on car ownership as both burden and necessity cited research conducted by two UCLA Luskin urban planning professors, Evelyn Blumenberg and Michael Manville. The way a car unlocks access to almost everything ensures that most people will, despite the costs, do whatever they can to obtain one, the story said. While reducing car use overall has been a priority for policymakers, increasing the availability of vehicles to low-income people is an important step toward reducing economic inequality. The story cited a study by Blumenberg demonstrating the increasing importance of cars for women with limited means, due to the suburbanization of poverty, women’s participation in the workforce and their unique household responsibilities. Research co-authored by Manville documented the falling socioeconomic status of American households without private vehicles and the continuing financial burden that cars present for low-income households that own them.

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Tilly on Worrisome Economic Signals From California

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A Barron’s article about concerns that California’s climbing jobless rate and other economic indicators may be harbingers of a national economic downturn quoted Chris Tilly, UCLA Luskin professor of urban planning and an expert on labor and workplace trends. Tilly said four broad employment sectors in the state are either shrinking or stagnant: construction, particularly residential construction; durable goods; wholesale; and information, which includes media and entertainment jobs. The state economy, the largest in the U.S., grew by an annual rate of 0.4% in 2022, so it’s difficult to call California a “bad economy,” Tilly said. Still, “California is not in a recession at this point, but it is a risk,” and the state “may be a leading indicator for what’s happening elsewhere.”

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Brozen on Increase in L.A.’s Unhoused Living in Vehicles

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Madeline Brozen, deputy director of the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies at UCLA Luskin, spoke to LAist about Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis, specifically the increase in unhoused people living in vehicles. This year’s count of L.A.’s homeless population found a slight decrease in the number of people living in tents but an overall increase that was “disproportionately driven by people living in vehicles,” with more than 14,000 cars, vans, RVs and other vehicles being used for shelter. “It’s not surprising that the population continues to grow, because we’re just doing very little to address it,” said Brozen, lead researcher on a project focused on vehicular homelessness in Los Angeles. She explained that despite being the majority of L.A.’s homeless population for years, people living in vehicles are not as visible to the public as those living in tents on sidewalks and hillsides, and therefore receive less attention from policymakers and are absent in public discussions on homelessness.

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Shoup, Butler on List of Most Influential Urbanists

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Two UCLA Luskin Urban Planning scholars were included on Planetizen’s newly released list of the top 100 most influential urbanists from the past and present. Distinguished Research Professor Donald Shoup, whose writing and research have launched fresh approaches to parking policy, was No. 6 on the list, up from his No. 13 spot on Planetizen’s 2017 compilation. His rise in the rankings can be attributed to a wave of parking reform legislation around the country, inspired by Shoup’s work, the publication said. Urban planning doctoral student Tamika Butler, former executive director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, is No. 57 on the list. Butler achieved national prominence speaking and advocating on the subjects of racial justice and transportation policy. Planetizen said the rankings, based on reader feedback on a list of 200 top urban thinkers, is aimed at broadening the discussion about the leading figures of planning, development and conservation.

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Leap Comments on Violent Arrest

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UCLA Luskin Social Welfare’s Jorja Leap is quoted in a Los Angeles Times story about a recent violent arrest by police in Los Angeles’ Nickerson Gardens. The incident, shared on social media, has threatened the “delicate fabric” of an LAPD initiative known as the Community Safety Partnership (CSP), which has been credited with crime reduction and improved relations in the Watts housing development, according to the article. Leap, an expert on gangs, said the incident highlights decades of distrust of law enforcement, which still runs deep in L.A. communities, despite program gains. “I think most significantly this points to the gap that still exists between the standard LAPD patrol officer and the CSP officer,” said Leap, lead author of a 2019 study of CSP. “There is an underlying fear in Watts in general … that this isn’t going to last, that the old LAPD will sort of rear its head, and things will go back to the brutalities of the past.”

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