Ong on Nuances of U.S. Census Count

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Paul Ong, director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at UCLA Luskin, spoke to the Associated Press about the U.S. Census Bureau’s report that the nation’s Asian population was overcounted by 2.6% in 2020. Overcounts occur when people are counted twice, such as college students being counted on campus and at their parents’ homes. Another explanation is that biracial and multiracial residents may have identified as Asian in larger numbers than in the past. Some multiracial people who previously indicated on the census form that they were white, Black or another race may have selected Asian in 2020 amid a rise in anti-Asian attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ong said. “When that happens, people who are multiracial go in two directions: They reject their minority identity or they embrace it,” he said. “With the rise of anti-Asian hostility, it forced some multiracial Asians to select a single identity.”

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Diaz on Mobilizing Latino Vote in L.A. Mayor’s Race

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A Los Angeles Times story about a poll showing Karen Bass and Rick Caruso in a dead heat in the L.A. mayor’s race looked to Sonja Diaz, executive director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, for context. If the June 7 primary leads to a contest between U.S. Congresswoman Bass and billionaire developer Caruso, the election would be marked by stark divides of ideology, race and geography. Caruso has already spent millions on television and digital advertising, including on Spanish-language TV and radio stations and on websites such as YouTube. Still, more than half of Latino poll respondents said they didn’t know Bass or Caruso well enough to form an opinion of the candidates. “Latinos are going to be late deciders,” Diaz said. “The fact that they’re undecided, in order to change that, there’s really going to have to be money and tailored messaging.”

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Roy on Lessons From the Echo Park Lake Eviction

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Ananya Roy, director of the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy (II&D), co-authored a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed on lessons from the clearing of Los Angeles’ Echo Park Lake encampment a year ago. “The ruse of forcing people off the streets and into so-called housing is becoming a blueprint for displacement in California cities,” the authors wrote, cautioning San Francisco’s leaders to learn from grave mistakes made in Los Angeles. The op-ed is part of widespread media coverage of a recent II&D report on the aftermath of the mass eviction at Echo Park Lake. On Spectrum News’ “Inside the Issues,” Roy spoke about how to work toward solutions to L.A.’s crisis of homelessness. “We can move forward by recognizing that the criminalization of poverty does not help,” she said, adding that building permanent housing and keeping people in their homes after pandemic-era renter protections expire are also crucial.

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Ong on Long-Term Consequences of L.A.’s Demographic Shifts

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UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge Director Paul Ong spoke to the Riverside Press-Enterprise about demographic shifts in Southern California as a result of the pandemic and the affordable housing crisis. The population of Los Angeles County has been declining for years as part of a statewide mass migration from coastal to inland counties and into other states. The pandemic exacerbated this trend, allowing many people to leave areas with high housing costs but keep their jobs with work-from-home freedom. While there could be some short-term positives, “in the long run it’s going to hurt our economy” if housing costs stay so high that they put artificial constraints on the population, Ong said. “We’re robbing ourselves from growing in a positive way. It’s not a desirable outcome.” He added, “Patterns we’ve seen are a warning to us, highlighting structural problems that existed in California before the pandemic — deep problems we need to solve.”

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L.A. Metro’s Struggle with Homelessness Is ‘Big Dilemma,’ Loukaitou-Sideris Says

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Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris was featured in a Los Angeles Times article about Metro’s attempts to grapple with homelessness. Unhoused residents have long found shelter in the transit agency’s stations, trains and buses, but their numbers have grown as the L.A. homelessness crisis has deepened. Metro counted 5,700 homeless riders on its system last August. A study by the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies found an increase in the number of homeless people on the Metro during the pandemic as shelters closed and commuters stayed home. “It’s a big dilemma,” explained Loukaitou-Sideris, lead author of the study. As Metro aims to revive transit ridership, many commuters are concerned about the issues of homelessness and rising crime. “The agencies to a certain extent, and rightly so, feel that they are in a transportation business, and they have to deal with a challenge that is not of their own making,” Loukaitou-Sideris said.

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Taylor Reimagines California Dream With Fewer Cars

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Brian Taylor, director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, authored an opinion piece for the Southern California News Group about the urban landscape of California. “California’s reliance on low-density, sprawling development, with its wide streets and freeways and ubiquitous free parking, requires most Californians to travel by car for almost all of their trips, whether or not they own a car or want to drive that much,” wrote Taylor, a professor of urban planning and public policy. This emphasis on driving is expensive, takes up a lot of land and is harmful to the environment. Residents without access to personal cars, who are disproportionately Black and Latino, are increasingly left behind. Taylor proposed making metropolitan and transportation planning more urban-focused. Increasing housing density, eliminating parking mandates and improving public transit would help improve housing affordability and meet climate goals, he argued. “De-centering cars in central cities can make cities more sustainable, accessible and lively places,” Taylor wrote.

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Loukaitou-Sideris on Gentrification Near Transit

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Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris was featured in a Smart Cities Dive article about the growth of transit-oriented development in cities across the country. As transit ridership has declined and housing costs increase, cities have looked to mixed-use projects near bus and rail stations. This type of transit-oriented development aims to provide more housing and retail while making it easier for people to take trips on public transportation instead of by car. However, Loukaitou-Sideris pointed out that such developments sometimes replace affordable housing with luxury units where residents don’t use transit. According to her research, neighborhoods with transit stations are more likely to be gentrified than neighborhoods without. “What we are arguing is not to stop transit-oriented development because it can bring along the positives, but finding ways through policy to protect existing residents of these neighborhoods from displacement,” Loukaitou-Sideris said. She suggested anti-displacement measures such as rent control and eviction assistance for tenants.

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Fight for Housing Continues a Year After Sweep of Echo Park Lake

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A new report from the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy (II&D) on the continued fight for housing a year after the sweep of a homeless encampment at Los Angeles’ Echo Park Lake has garnered widespread media coverage. The report found that, of the 183 people removed from the encampment, only 17 are currently confirmed to be in long-term housing. “Politicians very loudly claimed that all displaced residents would be in stable permanent housing within a year,” II&D Director Ananya Roy said at a news conference. “Echo Park Lake has become both the exemplar and blueprint of this kind of displacement.” The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, KCRW, KQED, CBS Los Angeles and LAist are among the outlets that covered the report. Roy told the Guardian that, when sweeps are the driving force of policy, outreach efforts are doomed to fail. “The few times we’ve seen success is when people get housing through their own community networks.”

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Loukaitou-Sideris on Saving Sundance Square

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Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris spoke to WFAA News about the future of Sundance Square in Fort Worth, Texas. Once the heart of entertainment in the city’s downtown, Sundance Square was the site of fine restaurants and retail, but many businesses have recently left, prompting concerns about the future of the district. Many current and former tenants of Sundance Square cited concerns about changes in property management, including the standard of maintenance and upkeep. According to Loukaitou-Sideris, “There needs to be much better collaboration and coordination between the city and the private management.” She added that Sundance’s struggles could impact all of downtown Fort Worth. Loukaitou-Sideris recommended large weekly concerts and restaurant open houses to provide a much-needed spark that Sundance Square is currently lacking. “You really need to think of how to attract people to create this buzz,” she said.

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Ong on Factors Behind California’s Declining Population

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UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge Director Paul Ong spoke to the Los Angeles Times about the decline in California’s population, largely driven by lower immigration, fewer births and pandemic deaths. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, California experienced a net loss of 262,000 residents between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021, mostly from Los Angeles County. Ong pointed out that while the COVID-19 pandemic probably played a role in less immigration, the number of international migrants has been steadily declining for several years. “It’s a combination of those things, but certainly it was happening before the pandemic,” Ong said. “In some ways, it’s part of what we see historically in terms of immigrants — that they do settle and cluster in a few areas and cities, but over time they move away.” Ong said that a shrinking population can have a negative effect on the local economy and result in a decrease in the number of skilled workers in a region.

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