Diaz on Latina’s Nomination to State’s High Court

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Sonja Diaz, executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at UCLA Luskin, spoke to media outlets including the Sacramento Bee and Associated Press about the first Latina nominated to serve on the California Supreme Court. Gov. Gavin Newsom said his selection for the open seat, Appeals Court Justice Patricia Guerrero, is a “keen legal mind and well-regarded jurist.” The daughter of Mexican immigrants who grew up in the agricultural Imperial Valley has worked as a federal prosecutor, law firm partner and Superior Court judge, and now sits on the 4th District Court of Appeal. Latinas sit on high courts in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New York and Texas, Diaz said, but despite the growing influence of the Latino electorate in California, no Latina has yet served in a statewide constitutional office or as U.S. senator. “Despite the important contributions that Latinas make to power California’s economy, they continue to be underrepresented in positions of power,” she said.

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Monkkonen on a Model for Affordable Housing

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The Los Angeles Times spoke to Paavo Monkkonen, associate professor of urban planning and public policy, about the tenancy-in-common homeownership model, in which residents own a share of an overall lot and have exclusive rights to live in their unit. Some Los Angeles developers are using this model to replace single-family homes with new townhomes, adding to the overall stock of housing. Critics are concerned that investors may displace tenants in cheaper rentals to convert them into tenancy-in-common units. UCLA’s Monkkonen said it’s important to consider that demolished houses are sometimes renovated into high-end homes, which do not ease the affordable housing crunch. Tenancy-in-common units are typically cheaper than many housing options and could provide a quicker way to expand affordability than waiting for more supply to trickle down, he said.

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Anheier on Germany’s Role in Ukraine Crisis

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A Project Syndicate commentary authored by Adjunct Professor of Social Welfare Helmut Anheier took stock of the diplomatic and economic pressures on Germany as it considers its role in defusing the Ukraine crisis. As Russian troops amass on Ukraine’s border and as NATO nations issue warnings, Germany’s response has been tempered by a commitment to pacifism driven by historical guilt as well as the nation’s reliance on imported — mostly Russian — natural gas. Germany must confront the risks inherent in its dependence on Russian energy and examine the sustainability of its business relations with Moscow, Anheier wrote. “It must let both Russia and its NATO allies know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that while it is no champion of hard power, it is willing to bear the high cost of countering aggression against Ukraine,” he concluded.

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Diaz on Caruso’s Entry Into the L.A. Mayor’s Race

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Sonja Diaz, executive director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, spoke to the Los Angeles Times and New York Times about billionaire developer Rick Caruso’s entry into the race for L.A. mayor. Caruso has said that elected politicians have failed voters on issues such as homelessness and crime. His résumé, which includes serving as head of the city’s Police Commission and chairman of the board of trustees of the University of Southern California, evokes an older generation of Los Angeles power brokers. Diaz said the success of any mayoral candidate will depend, at least in part, on the ability to appeal to Latino voters. “Obviously, COVID-19 has had a disparate impact on Latino households in this city,” she told the L.A. Times. “So a mayor is going to have to articulate a policy agenda that centers Latino workers and Latino households in ways that they can remain in the city and not just survive but thrive.”

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Ling on Struggle to Enact Tenant Protections

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A CalMatters article on the California Legislature’s failure to pass tenant protection bills included comments from Joan Ling, urban planning lecturer and policy analyst. The latest bill, AB 854, would have required landlords to keep units for at least five years before using a state law to evict renters. The bill was backed by a broad coalition but opposed by business and real estate interests, and it died in committee before reaching a floor vote in the Democratic-supermajority Assembly. Opponents argued that AB 854 would have devastated mom-and-pop landlords and stalled the demolition of older buildings to make way for additional housing units, which are sorely needed. “I support homeownership, but the question is: ‘How are you getting there?’” Ling said. “Are you going to get there by dislocating renter families that most likely are going to have to move out of the area where they are living? There’s a big public policy question here.”

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Loukaitou-Sideris on Signs of Gentrification in Inglewood

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Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris spoke to USA Today about signs of gentrification in Inglewood since the opening of SoFi Stadium, which will host this year’s Super Bowl. Rent and home prices have surged in recent years, and corporate chains are moving in to the primarily Black and Latino city. While some local business owners are cautiously optimistic the changes will be good for the city, some community activists fear that Inglewood’s culture and character are at stake. Loukaitou-Sideris weighed in on the long-term effects of gentrification. “When you start seeing a sociodemographic group slowly disappearing, when you start seeing mom-and-pop stores that you grew up with being replaced by, let’s say, Starbucks, that is another aspect of what is happening,” she said. “People may no longer look like you — there is no longer a traditional Black or Latino neighborhood — but also the goods, the services and the stores may be different.” 

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Astor on ‘Tsunami of Mental Health Needs’ in Schools

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A Reuters article on signs that the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic are worsening gun violence in American schools included insights from Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor. Since the 2021-22 school year began, campuses have been the site of 141 shootings, more than at any point in the previous decade, gun safety advocates say. Astor said several factors, including the pandemic, overall community violence and breakdowns in family structures, have created a “tsunami of mental health needs” in schools. In many places, burnout, staffing shortages and illness have left teachers and administrators ill-equipped to deal with the challenges. “Kids are walking into a system that has been massively weakened,” Astor said. “We’re going to see a variety of different forms of gun violence and violence in general. We’re in a situation where things are going to get worse.”

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On the Decline and Fall of Parking Requirements

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A StreetsBlog article about the evolution of mandatory parking requirements noted that recommendations put forward long ago by Distinguished Research Professor of Urban Planning Donald Shoup are now gaining wide acceptance. Shoup recommended removing off-street parking requirements, allowing developers and businesses to decide how many parking spaces to provide for their customers. He also recommended pricing on-street parking so that one or two spaces will always be left open in order to avoid parking shortages. Finally, he suggested spending parking revenue on public service projects on the metered streets, which would help increase the popularity of demand-based pricing. Many local governments are taking these recommendations seriously and implementing changes. The article cited Associate Professor of Urban Planning Michael Manville‘s research on San Diego’s 2019 decision to stop requiring parking for housing near transit, which helped make affordable housing projects more economically viable. As Shoup predicted, parking requirements are quickly being eliminated across the United States.

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Goh on Eco-Friendly Ambitions for Indonesia’s New Capital

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Assistant Professor of Urban Planning Kian Goh was mentioned in a Science article about the anticipated environmental burden of Nusantara, the planned new capital of Indonesia. Nusantara will replace the overcrowded and increasingly flood-prone Jakarta, and planners are envisioning an environmental utopia, including green recreational spaces, eco-friendly construction and energy efficiency. “The big question, of course, is how and if they’ll achieve these ambitions,” Goh said. “Planning scholars are by and large skeptical of plans for smart or sustainable cities ‘from scratch.’” The construction of Nusantara could also have a significant impact on the ecology of Borneo, and the residents of the old capital Jakarta will continue to suffer from rising sea levels and flooding due to climate change. “Jakarta will still be the economic center of Indonesia … and still have to take on its social issues and environmental issues,” Goh said.

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Callahan on Defining Objectives of Justice40

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Colleen Callahan, co-executive director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation,  spoke to E&E News about President Biden’s executive order regarding environmental justice in disadvantaged communities. The Justice40 Initiative calls for 40% of federal benefits from climate and energy programs to reach disadvantaged communities. Identifying and prioritizing these communities will be critical, said Callahan, who co-authored a report on implementing Justice40 with an equity lens. “There’s a fear that the states could have a big role in implementing the Justice40 dollars, but without a strong history of equity-centered investments in that type of area — clean energy, climate issues and environmental justice — we’re not actually going to achieve the outcomes that [Biden’s] executive order calls for,” Callahan said. “There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done to really define what our objectives are with Justice 40.”

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