Taylor on Catering Bus Services to Transit Riders

/1 Comment/in /by

A New York Times article about improving bus service cited a research report by Brian Taylor, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA Luskin. Bus systems across the country are underfunded, resulting in slow, inconvenient and unreliable service. Proper investment could transform city buses into a cheap, accessible and sustainable form of public transportation. However, many transit agencies do not identify serving the poor or minorities as a goal, and instead cater to more affluent voters who are less likely to actually ride public transit. Taylor’s report suggests that public policy goals are often not aligned with “the needs of transit riders themselves, particularly the poor and transit dependent,” who wield little political or economic clout. The article suggests that transit agencies have been given a valuable opportunity to invest in bus systems because of the way the COVID-19 pandemic has altered Americans’ commuting habits.

Read the article
Read the full report

Akee on COVID-19 Outreach to Native American Communities

/0 Comments/in /by

Associate Professor of Public Policy Randall Akee spoke with Marketplace about the importance of prioritizing Native American communities in public health initiatives. The new COVID-19 relief law will give $15 billion in grants to enhance vaccine distribution, with special consideration for underserved populations including Native Americans. The death rate from COVID-19 among Native Americans is nearly twice as high as it is for white Americans, and Native Americans are three times as likely to get the virus as white people. According to Akee, a lot of the public health funding will go beyond vaccines into areas like infrastructure. “One really important aspect is almost a billion dollars in funding that’s allocated for broadband access, which again, in the age of COVID, is incredibly important for education and the access to public health information,” Akee explained. “The vaccine is important, but mitigating the spread of COVID-19 will take more than just two shots to the arm.”

Listen to the podcast

Lens on Expanding Middle-Income Housing

/0 Comments/in /by

Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy Michael Lens spoke to the Long Beach Post about increasing the availability of middle-income housing. While many tax breaks and credits are available to developers building low-income housing, there aren’t many incentives to build homes for middle-income earners. A new state program will issue bonds to investors who buy existing market-rate buildings and transform them into units that are affordable for middle-income households. Lens said creating new housing for any tier is a good thing. The need for lower-income housing remains great, but the housing market has become so unaffordable that a program like this may have been necessary, he said. “It only happens when you’re so worried about the affordability of housing driving those kinds of people out of the state,” Lens said. “I think we’re there, but whether or not we’ll find a bunch of money to do something about it, it remains to be seen.”

Read the article

Wolff Accuses Grocery Stores of Manipulative Behavior

/0 Comments/in /by

Urban Planning lecturer Goetz Wolff spoke to People’s World about Kroger’s decision to close three of its grocery stores in response to the Los Angeles City Council’s vote to require large grocery and drug store chains to offer front-line workers an additional $5 per hour for the next 120 days. “Let’s not forget the history of Ralph’s in our community during the last big labor dispute,” Wolff said. “They were found guilty by the federal government [in 2003] and forced to pay $70 million in restitution for using fake Social Security numbers, illegally hiring strikebreakers and stealing employees’ money.” He added, “We shouldn’t be surprised they’re still acting like bullies in our community.” Kroger, the parent company of Ralph’s and Food 4 Less, made $2.6 billion in profits last year, and this closure will eliminate more than 250 jobs. “They’re trying to intimidate workers and community members again,” he said. “The community should call out this kind of behavior as manipulative and unacceptable.”

Read the article

Luskin Center for Innovation on Combating Plastic Waste

/0 Comments/in /by

The Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles magazine cited findings from a recent report by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI) on the devastating impact of single-use plastics. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issue of single-use plastic as many restaurants have transitioned to takeout and delivery services, which often include utensils, napkins and condiment packets. In 2019, L.A. County commissioned LCI to investigate the impact of single-use plastic on waste streams. The report, released in February, showed a significant presence, indicating that this type of plastic is not being recycled. Reusable L.A. is a coalition of local organizations that recently launched the #SkiptheStuff campaign, which aims to create legislation requiring restaurants and delivery services to provide plastic straws, utensils and napkins only upon request instead of including them automatically. This week, the city of Los Angeles set this type of ordinance in motion with the aim of putting it into effect by Earth Day, April 22.

Read the L.A. Times article
Read the Los Angeles magazine article
Read the full report

Millard-Ball on Twin Concerns of Fire Safety and Housing Access

/0 Comments/in /by

Associate Professor of Urban Planning Adam Millard-Ball spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle about housing developments planned for parts of California that are prone to wildfire. The state Attorney General’s Office has opposed some of these developments, arguing that they pose grave danger in an era when uncontrolled wildfires threaten the state. The article notes that devastation in places like Santa Rosa, Paradise and Redding, in the so-called wildland-urban interface, has underscored how suburban sprawl is not only a target of fire but fodder for it, hastening the speed and intensity of blazes. Limiting development, however, can frustrate growth plans of small towns and cities and undermine progress on the state’s housing crunch. “There are really these twin concerns coming into conflict now,” Millard-Ball said. “The state’s housing crisis makes it an imperative to make it easy to build housing. At the same time, there’s the threat and tragedy of wildfires.”

Read the article

Turner on Promise of Tree Planting to Cool Cities

/0 Comments/in /by

Assistant Professor of Urban Planning V. Kelly Turner spoke to Popular Science about local government campaigns to plant trees to mitigate rising urban temperatures. In Los Angeles, for example, Mayor Eric Garcetti’s “Green New Deal” from 2019 calls for the planting and maintenance of 90,000 trees by this year. Turner said the effectiveness of this type of climate intervention depends on many factors. “I think that there’s typically this sort of blind faith that we place in trees, that they will provide all of these wonderful social benefits,” she said. “But the environmental benefits that trees provide are entirely context-dependent.” It takes years for trees to mature into full-fledged shade-providers, so there is much to learn about the success of this type of  initiative. In the future, Turner said, cities will need to ask not only if they hit a numerical goal for planting trees but how well those trees brought about the cooling benefits that the community needs.

Read the article

Wealth Work Industry Is Unsustainable, Tilly Says

/0 Comments/in /by

Urban Planning Chair Chris Tilly spoke to Spectrum News about the inequity of the wealth work industry, which has grown exponentially during the pandemic. Many individuals who lost their jobs during the pandemic turned to gig work, which often revolves around making the lives of the upper classes more comfortable. Most gig workers are independent contractors and do not have health care or retirement plans. According to Tilly, this model is unsustainable and is accelerating the inequality gap. “There is something wrong about that business model,” he said. “We don’t want businesses that only make money because they’re not paying people enough to live on.” Tilly explained that a floor must be set on the wealth work industry through advocacy, unions or regulation. “If these jobs are going to be with us, great, but let’s make them sustainable, living-wage jobs,” he said.

Read the article

Diaz on Ensuring Equitable Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccines

/0 Comments/in /by

Director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative Sonja Diaz was featured in the Sacramento Bee, CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle discussing the importance of prioritizing Latino and other disadvantaged communities’ access to vaccines. Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced a new plan to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines reach California’s most disadvantaged communities by targeting neighborhoods in the bottom quartile of the “Healthy Places Index.” Diaz explained that minority communities have been hit the hardest by the pandemic and that California has a responsibility to get them help first and fast. “Communities of color are keeping the economy afloat, and prioritizing them is not only the right thing to do, but an economic imperative,” she said. “The state’s new approach is the right step to stop the bleeding and affirm that Californians of color are not collateral damage but the catalysts to recovery.”

Read the Sacramento Bee article
Read the CNN transcript
Read the San Francisco Chronicle article

Mukhija on New Backyard Homes Project

/0 Comments/in /by

Professor of Urban Planning Vinit Mukhija spoke to the Los Angeles Times about the launch of the Backyard Homes Project, a new initiative that aims to address the affordable housing crisis in Los Angeles. Accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, are becoming more popular since state regulations have eased. The Backyard Homes Project, led by the nonprofit LA Más, aims to provide homeowners with affordable design and construction of ADUs if they agree to rent the units to Section 8 voucher holders for at least five years. The goal of the program is to confront high housing prices by making ADU rentals affordable and helping low- and moderate-income homeowners become landlords. “We are nowhere near running out of space for housing in most American cities, including L.A.,” said Mukhija, who also serves as a board member at LA Más. He welcomed the incubation of new ideas in a city that’s long been known for advances in residential design. 

Read the article