Pierce on End to Water, Power Shutoffs for Low-Income Angelenos

/0 Comments/in /by

A Los Angeles Times story on the decision by local utility officials to halt shutoffs of water and power for low-income customers who can’t pay their bills cited Gregory Pierce, co-director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. The story cited research from the center showing that Los Angeles’ communities of color were disproportionately affected by utility debt and shutoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Protection from utility shutoffs for those enrolled in low-income discount programs will help lessen the debt burden for [L.A. Department of Water and Power’s] most vulnerable customers,” said Pierce, who leads UCLA’s Human Right to Water Solutions Lab. Pierce comments frequently on issues of water access and equity, including in a USA Today fact-checking article on false claims that water scarcity is an illusion. Climate change has created weather extremes, he said, but excess water in one place doesn’t help another place that’s parched by drought.

Read the L.A. Times story
Read the USA Today story

Kaplan on High Rate of Suicide Among White Men

/0 Comments/in /by

Mark Kaplan, professor of social welfare, spoke to KERA News about alarmingly high rates of suicide from gun violence in North Texas cities. Over half of the suicides reported in Collin Country, Tarrant County and Dallas County involved a gun. While white men make up about 20% of Collin County’s population, they accounted for 70% of suicides. Kaplan, who researches suicide risk, said men have a higher likelihood of dying by suicide than women. Major life events can serve as a catalyst for a person to commit suicide, he said. Often, suicides are not planned but are the culmination of stressful events paired with mental health issues, leading to a “death of despair.” “The presence of a gun, either in a household or lots of guns in the community, increases the likelihood of a gun death, either homicide, suicide or unintentional,” Kaplan said.

Read the article

 

Anheier on Charitable Giving for 2023

/0 Comments/in /by

Helmut Anheier, adjunct professor of social welfare and public policy, provided insights for a WalletHub feature on charitable giving for 2023. One of the biggest mistakes people make when donating to charity is “not having enough knowledge about the charity, its governance and track record, and assuming that having very low overheads is a good sign in terms of impact,” said Anheier, whose research interests include nonprofits and philanthropy. On red flags to watch out for before donating, Anheier highlighted three: websites that are not transparent, blatant overpromising on results and not having diverse boards. The article cites data showing that while giving in the U.S. increased by 4% from 2020 to 2021, current donation increases are competing with higher inflation. “People donate less during crises, foundations have less to spend, and public budgets are tight,” Anheier said. “Hopefully, charities were able to build up financial reserves to serve as a buffer during hard times.”

Read the article

Yaroslavsky on What’s Next for Los Angeles

/0 Comments/in /by

Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, weighed in on big issues facing greater Los Angeles in the aftermath of recent elections. A Los Angeles Times op-ed asked civic leaders for ideas on how to improve local governance. Yaroslavsky, who served for decades as an L.A. city councilman and county supervisor, recommended appointing a homelessness czar empowered to “cut through the thicket of bureaucracies that too often slows or prevents progress.” He wrote, “The unhoused don’t have time to wait for a complete overhaul of this broken system. … The creation of a homelessness czar would be a departure from the norm, but a radical departure is what we need.” Yaroslavsky was also cited in an L.A. Times article about county Measure A, which would empower the Board of Supervisors to fire an elected sheriff who commits a serious infraction. “It really needs to be a slam-dunk kind of transgression,” Yaroslavsky said.

Read the op-ed
Read the article

 

Diaz on Fair Representation and Latino Voting Power

/0 Comments/in /by

Sonja Diaz, executive director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute, spoke to media outlets following the midterm elections, weighing in on issues including fair representation and the impact of the Latino vote at the local, state and national level. A Los Angeles Times article on the reelection of Sen. Alex Padilla emphasized the significance of a Southern Californian in the powerful position after three decades of Bay Area Democrats holding the state’s Senate seats. Diaz noted that Padilla brings greater urgency to issues facing urban communities of color, including immigration and the environment. She was also cited in an L.A. Times column on Latinos’ party preferences and an editorial calling for an increase in the size of the Los Angeles City Council. On KCRW’s “Press Play,” Diaz described the Latino electorate’s alliance with other diverse voting blocs, harkening back to the broad coalition that propelled Barack Obama into the presidency.

Read the L.A. Times article

 

Anheier on Long Road Back to a Stable Democracy

/0 Comments/in /by

A front-page New York Times story on international allies’ concern that the United States is sliding away from its core democratic values cited Helmut Anheier, adjunct professor of social welfare and public policy. Scholars, officials and voters from both longstanding and emerging democracies expressed alarm about America’s direction, pointing to some citizens’ rejection of a peaceful transfer of power, attempts to block access to the ballot box and a Supreme Court that appears to be swayed by party politics. “It’s like watching a family member, for whom you have enormous affection, engage in self-harm,” one foreign leader said. Anheier, a principal investigator for the Berggruen Governance Index, a study of 134 countries in which America sits below Poland in quality of life, noted, “The United States did not get into the position where it is now overnight. It took a while to get there, and it will take a while to get out.”

Read the article

 

Pierce on Misconceptions About Prop. 30

/0 Comments/in /by

Gregory Pierce, co-director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, spoke to Vice about Proposition 30, the measure to fight climate change by taxing the rich, which was defeated at the polls. The California initiative, which would have added a 1.75% tax to income over $2 million to fund the transition to electric vehicles and fight wildfires, was opposed by a coalition that called Prop. 30 a scheme by the ride-hailing company Lyft to secure a huge taxpayer subsidy. Pierce said that characterization was inaccurate. “There’s nothing about Lyft drivers or Lyft, or anything in particular benefiting them except that Lyft drivers have vehicles like other folks who might benefit from a lot more money for EVs,” he said. Pierce noted, however, that the measure’s lack of clarity on how revenues would be spent was a legitimate concern. The need to reduce emissions is urgent, but money spent on the wrong programs would not help the crisis.

Read the article

Turner on Combating Crime With Racial Justice

/0 Comments/in /by

A Los Angeles Times column arguing that Democrats have failed to convincingly address voters’ concerns about crime cited David C. Turner III, assistant professor of social welfare. The GOP’s midterm messaging casting Democrats as soft on crime is largely aimed at a white audience, but many people of color also fear that they or their families will be the victims of violence. The column noted that 81% of Black voters and about 65% of Latino voters cite crime as a top issue. Rather than a militarized response, these communities seek proposals for preventing violent crime, such as after-school programs and job opportunities for young people, said Turner, whose scholarship focuses on Black life and racial justice. “We don’t want increased police presence, because what the research has shown is that regardless of socioeconomic status, increased police presence is not good for any Black community,” he said.

Read the column

Yaroslavsky on L.A.’s ‘Confounding Election’

/0 Comments/in /by

Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, spoke to media outlets including Governing and the Financial Times about the contest between Karen Bass and Rick Caruso to become L.A.’s next mayor. While housing, homelessness and public safety have been central issues in the campaign, the leaked audio of City Council members using racist language has become a wild-card factor. The recording contributed to “a sense that the city is broken,” Yaroslavsky said, but he added that it’s not clear whether voters will be motivated to “kick out the bums” or stay home out of cynicism. “You have a city that has changed and a population that is willing to elect people that don’t necessarily look like them — and then this happens, and the danger is that people revert back to their camps,” he said. “It’s really one of the most confounding elections I can remember.” Yaroslavsky also spoke with CBS Los Angeles about the impact rainy weather could have on voter turnout.

Read the Governing article
Read the Financial Times article

Monkkonen on Newsom’s Housing Pledge

/0 Comments/in /by

Paavo Monkkonen, professor of urban planning and public policy, was cited in a CalMatters article about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious plans to build housing in California and his struggle to bring them to fruition. In 2017, the governor made a campaign promise to build 3.5 million homes by 2025 but has since revised the goal with a proposal to build 2.5 million homes by 2030. To date, only about 452,000 homes have been issued permits. The governor’s goal of including 1 million affordable units in the new construction has also faced setbacks. Building affordable homes puts enormous pressure on cities because of a lack of state subsidies and tax credits to fund the projects. “We’re funding a quarter of that, at best. So that’s an interesting conundrum, where their own goal is unattainable,” Monkonnen said. While Newsom’s administration has struggled to fulfill the pledges, the number of affordable homes built in recent years has nonetheless significantly increased.

Read the article