Recycling Wastewater to Protect Clean Water Supply

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Gregory Pierce, co-executive director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI), spoke to the Los Angeles Times and LAist’s AirTalk about a new study that assesses Los Angeles’ plan to invest in a $740-million facility to recycle wastewater into clean drinking water. “Any way you slice it, our estimates are that the benefits are going to vastly outweigh the costs,” Pierce said. LCI researchers examined about 100,000 potential scenarios, including shortages caused by droughts or major earthquakes that could rupture aqueducts and cut off outside supplies. “Because climate uncertainty will be the largest driver of the city’s water shortage, the city must adapt by developing more local, reliable supplies,” he said. “It’s worth making that investment even though it’s a high cost up-front.” In a separate AirTalk appearance, Pierce, who also directs LCI’s Human Right to Water Solutions Lab, weighed in on the historical and contemporary importance of the century-old L.A. aqueduct.

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Listen to the AirTalk segment

 

 

Zepeda-Millán on the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall

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Chris Zepeda-Millán, associate professor of public policy at UCLA Luskin, commented in an Independent story on the current status of the U.S.-Mexico border wall eight years after President-elect Donald Trump made it a central part of his 2016 campaign. According to the story, illegal immigration increased during Trump’s major border wall construction push and hit record levels in 2023 during the Biden administration, with the wall “neither preventing nor deterring the things it was designed to stop.” Zepeda-Millán, who has conducted public opinion polling about why people support the wall, said, “Most Americans, even those who support the wall, know that it’s not going to produce the claimed effect, which then leads to the question: Why support it? Why build it?” Zepeda said he sees a parallel with Trump’s promises to deport millions of undocumented people: “The economy would collapse if he actually deported 11 million undocumented people. … Inflation would skyrocket.”

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Turner on How Cities Can Help Shape Responses to Heat

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A Smart Cities Dive brief on heat resilient cities cites V. Kelly Turner, associate professor of urban planning and associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI). The brief provides information from the federally funded Center for Heat Resilient Communities to cities interested in financial and technical assistance for extreme heat planning. Communities are eligible to apply by Jan. 24 for $10,000 and assistance to determine the impact of extreme heat on their area, assess their capacity to respond and design a “locally tailored blueprint for heat resilience,” according to the brief. Up to 10 cities will be selected. The center will “also be able to highlight how the experiences and local knowledge of diverse communities can help shape federal responses on heat,” said Turner, the center’s principal investigator. The Los Angeles-based Center for Heat Resilient Communities is one of two heat resilience research centers established by the Biden administration in May.

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A Cautionary Note on Policies to Curb ‘Vehicle Miles Traveled’

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Research by professor and chair of UCLA Luskin Urban Planning Michael Manville is the focus of Reason Foundation articles on state policies aimed at reducing the growth of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on California’s roads. Manville is among transportation professionals in the U.S. concerned about current state policies enacted to reduce VMT. California has the most ambitious goal of reducing VMT by 20% by 2030, while other states including Washington, Colorado, Minnesota and Massachusetts have set their own reduction targets. Manville’s work on VMT is reviewed in the October issue, and the November review takes a detailed look specifically at California’s VMT-reduction policy. In creating his report, Manville used input from a panel of experts from academia, as well as transportation practitioners to examine current practices for estimating induced travel from freeway expansions, to resolve areas of disagreement and to provide recommendations.

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A Post-COVID Change in How We Live Our Lives

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Media outlets in the United States and around the world have spotlighted new research showing that Americans are spending more time at home since the COVID-19 pandemic. The study by Brian D. Taylor and Sam Speroni of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and Eric A. Morris of Clemson University reveals an overall drop since 2019 of about 51 minutes a day in time spent on out-of-home activities and an almost 12-minute reduction in time spent on daily travel such as driving or taking public transportation. The authors conclude that the trend calls for a rethinking of many planning policies, including repurposing office and retail real estate given the increase in working and shopping from home. News media including Health, Earth.com, Consumer Affairs, ZME Science, Manchester Evening News and National Geographic Germany are among the more than 400 outlets covering the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Planning Association.

 

Shoup on New York City’s Plan to Make Curbs Smarter

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Distinguished Research Professor of Urban Planning Donald Shoup commented in a Gothamist article on a plan to modernize and better utilize curb space in New York City’s Upper West Side. The “Smart Curbs” program, which is already being implemented, is designed to dramatically change parking rules in the Manhattan neighborhood, reducing double parking, increasing public seating and providing space for bike racks normally used for parking cars. The program is part of a larger effort to control traffic and increase safety, including designated curb space for delivery trucks and for-hire vehicles, according to transportation officials. However, Shoup, an expert on parking, described the plan as only a mild change and argued that the city should be more ambitious. “The curbs could be even smarter,” he said. “On every street there should be loading zones. They should be charged by the minute.” Shoup added, “It’s the most unsophisticated city on earth for curb parking.”

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Anheier on Next Steps for Germany’s Next Government

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Helmut Anheier, adjunct professor of public policy and social welfare at UCLA Luskin, co-authored a Project Syndicate commentary about what Germany must do for its next government to succeed following its recent political collapse. The shake-up, which has precipitated a “snap election” set for February 2025, and the political arguments that have followed — while not desirable — present opportunities for Germany moving forward, according to Anheier. While Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government did propose reforms following years of relative stagnation under former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s leadership, Anheier writes, “some initiatives were introduced too hastily, and others are still awaiting implementation.” Others were derailed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he explains. “The competing pressures to make progress on pre-agreed reforms and achieve a fundamental policy reset — combined with budget constraints and ideological differences — ultimately tore the coalition apart,” Anheier argues, offering four key areas that new German leadership will have to address.

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Yaroslavsky on Expanding the L.A. County Board of Supervisors

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And then there were nine. With the passage of Measure G, L.A. County’s Board of Supervisors will grow by four new members. Former longtime supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky commented in the Los Angeles Times’ coverage of the historic shift in the county government’s makeup. Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, expects that the new seats will attract an army of candidates, and the new position of chief executive position will be “the most powerful elected local government official in the state of California.” The chief executive post could prove alluring to sitting supervisors, he added, which would grant one “lucky politician” what he described as “the biggest bully pulpit in Southern California.” Yaroslavsky, who served on the board for two decades, added that, at nearly 76 years old, he’s not interested. “There might have been a time, but not now.”

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Mixed Results on Housing Initiatives

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An LAist article on local and state ballot measures addressing housing and homelessness called on UCLA Luskin’s Michael Lens and Shane Phillips for perspective. The latest returns show that more than 56% of L.A. County voters supported Measure A, which increases sales taxes to fund homeless services and new affordable housing development. However, Measure H, the initiative that first established the tax back in 2017, drew 69% support, noted Phillips, a researcher with the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. The dip in support may signal fatigue with funding homelessness efforts through the ballot box. Lens, a professor of urban planning and public policy, weighed in on Proposition 5, the state initiative that would have made it easier to pass affordable housing bonds. Angelenos joined other Californians in voting Prop. 5 down, perhaps because they found the initiative confusing. “A lot of times the default, I think, goes to ‘no’ because you’re suspicious if you don’t fully understand something,” Lens said.

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Peterson on Future of the Affordable Care Act

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Mark A. Peterson, professor of public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, commented in a Los Angeles Times article about how the next presidential administration could impact health in California, from food and medicine to medical costs. California lawmakers already have announced steps to block attempts to interfere with the current state agenda. Among areas of concern are former President Trump’s attempt to roll back the Affordable Care Act during his first term, which was ultimately unsuccessful, and his more recent position of replacing the historic legislation only if a better plan is created. “It’s very unlikely that Republicans will want to take on the Affordable Care Act,” Peterson said. “It did not go well for them last time … and now the Affordable Care Act is more popular than ever.” Peterson, a senior fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, has a joint appointment at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

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