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From the Daily Bruin: Profile of UCLA Luskin’s Michelle Dennis

Transforming New Urban Culture

On April 30, 2018, GPA hosted a lecture by Mayor Ridwan Kamil from Bandung, Indonesia. Bandung is Indonesia’s third largest city. As an architect turned mayor, Kamil increased efforts to build a smart city technology to improve government service. Fortune recently included him in its list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders, citing his efforts to use software applications to improve efficiency and sidestep bureaucracy.

Click or swipe below to view a Flickr album of the talk.

Mayor of Bandung, Indonesia

Gross Fellowship Recipients Meet Their Benefactors at Luncheon

Click or swipe below to view a Flickr album of photos of the 2018 fellowship recipients with Cal and Marilyn Gross and UCLA Luskin Director of Development Ricardo Quintero:

2018 Gross Fellowship

Big Data and the Commuter

UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and Global Public Affairs at UCLA Luskin co-hosted a lecture on April 18, 2018, by Antoine Cormount, Cities and Digital Technology chair at the Sciences Po university in Paris. Courmont’s discussion, “Big Data and Re-composition of Urban Governance in the Digital Era: The Case of the Waze App,” focused primarily on the potential for conflict between public and private goals when firms and governments use different data sets. The popular driving app Waze, Courmont explained, relies heavily on real-time crowdsourced data that is applied to help its users shorten commute times. Conversely, government-backed infrastructure like traffic cameras and roadway sensors are often employed to help reduce congestion — rather than short-term drive times. Because Waze will often route drivers through residential streets — clogging roads not designed for commuter traffic, the spillover effect from Waze’s data gathering causes regional traffic problems, governments say. Waze contends that poor urban planning has led to a need for its commute-shortening algorithms. Governments can implement a number of policies that could reduce Waze’ effectiveness, Courmont said. He also noted that Waze and governments have the potential to collaborate, share data and disseminate information on road closures and traffic hazards. — Zev Hurwitz

 

Click or swipe below to view a Flickr album of photos from the presentation:

GPA Talk on Big Data and Waze

Alumni Share Advice with Urban Planning, Public Health Students

The event was organized by students. Pictured, from left to right, are Rae Spriggs (MURP & MPH), Teddy Tollin (undergraduate geography major), Rebecca Ferdman (MURP & MPH), Tsai, Jasneet Bains (MURP & MPH), Diaz, Cristina Valadez (MPH), Simunovic, and Ali Goodyear (MPH). Click or swipe below to view a Flickr album of additional photos:

 

BEPHC alumni event

Documentary Screening Hosted by Social Welfare Alumna

In the wake of the #MeToo movement and the spotlight on societally ingrained sexual violence and abuses, “Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution,” a film highlighting these ills during a college spring break in Florida, was screened at UCLA on April 3, 2018 to a crowd of about 40 students. The film aimed to explain the experience of a young person growing up in today’s hookup culture while diving deeper into the mindset and attitudes of these youth regarding sex and the normalization of sexual violation. Sarah Godoy MSW ‘15, lecturer in social welfare at UCLA Luskin, hosted this event in conjunction with UCLA Luskin Social Welfare, Center for the Study of Women, CARE Program, LGBT Resource Center and Athletes in Action. Following the screening of the film, a panel discussion involving the film’s director, two stars of the film and two local experts, who then opened up the conversation to questions from the audience.  — Aaron Julian

View a Flickr gallery from the event:

SW screening

 

 

Luskin MPP Teams Take on Crisis Management Case Challenge

Two teams of Master of Public Policy (MPP) students from UCLA Luskin were among the top three winners in a recent crisis management challenge. Taking second place at the final presentation stage were second-year MPP student Wenzheng Li and first-year teammates Lin Jia and Jiayu Hu. They also took home a $700 cash prize. The team of Christophe LaBelle, a second-year student, and Brian Harris, a first-year student, won third place, netting $300 in prize money. “This case challenge opportunity demanded that we apply critical thinking, memo writing and presentation skills to a very real-world policy problem facing L.A.,” LaBelle said. “And we enjoyed learning more about resilience, crisis management and the grocery food supply chain in the company of other graduate students and professionals in the field.” Experts from the resilience and emergency management fields evaluated proposals and asked in-depth questions during the Los Angeles Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC)/Target Foundation Crisis Management Case Challenge held March 9, 2018, at the University of Southern California. HSAC is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that focuses on preparedness and resilience in the face of natural and human-caused disasters and crises. — Stan Paul

The two teams from UCLA Luskin Public Policy.

Riverside Mayor Shares Insights on Public Service During Visit to UCLA

“Experience… there’s nothing like experience and getting out there,” said Riverside Mayor William “Rusty” Bailey MPP ’99, speaking during a recent visit to UCLA Luskin about the most important thing for someone seeking a career in public service. The “Meet the Mayor” event on March 1, 2018, involved a talk about Bailey’s career as a prelude to a Q&A discussion about California economic policy that took place in the California Policy Issues class taught by Michael Dukakis, visiting professor of public policy and former governor of Massachusetts, and Daniel Mitchell, professor emeritus of management and public policy. The mayor and Dukakis talked about issues that included pension and criminal justice reform, as well as the competitive relationship between policy and politics. “When you don’t use your power, people forget that you have it,” Bailey said about his recent move to veto a contract brought before him by the Riverside City Council — a break in tradition from his predecessor, who never used this power. Public service, the mayor added, is not a career sector for applicants solely seeking greater wealth, but instead must remain a path for qualified employees who actively pursue what is best for the communities they serve. Bailey even offered his own office as a location for interested students to seek an internship to acquire more experience in politics and policy. The next morning, Bailey joined other UCLA Luskin alumni and students at the monthly First Fridays coffee mixer in downtown Los Angeles. — Aaron Julian

View a Flickr gallery from the classroom visit:

Riverside Mayor William “Rusty” Bailey

Postcard from Sacramento

UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Initiative (LPPI) has wasted little time in getting its message to the public and elected officials who serve California since it officially launched in December. Part of that process was a trip to Sacramento Feb. 8-9, 2018, during which over half a dozen members of the LPPI team visited legislators and their staffs, and presented applied policy research before the California Latino Legislative Caucus. Under the guidance of  UCLA Luskin Dean Gary Segura, UCLA Government and Community Relations and LPPI have embarked on a collaborative effort to promote faculty research and innovations. “LPPI was created to close this gap in both research and attention to the needs of ethnic minorities and low-income Californians,” said Sonja Diaz, LPPI executive director. “That being said, there are very important policy considerations, challenges and opportunities taking place nationally, so LPPI at this point is focused on state and local government innovation.” LPPI’s inaugural Sacramento legislative briefing included research on three policy areas: the Latino Gross Domestic Product; Criminal Justice and Bail Reform; and the impact of Social Science Research on DACA litigationDavid Hayes-Bautista, director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the Geffen School of Medicine, presented on the Latino Gross Domestic Product, which established that U.S. Latinos are the seventh largest GDP in the world, if they comprised their own country. Otto Santa Ana and his team focused on the way that social science research can impact American legal jurisprudence in the two Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) cases in New York and California. Kelly Lytle-Hernandez, interim director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, presented on criminal justice issues, with the help of UCLA Luskin students Sofia Espinoza and Isaac Bryan. “As researchers, we can provide them with cutting-edge research relevant to the most pressing issues of our time. At Million Dollar Hoods, for example, we are researching disparities in the criminal justice system, providing an unprecedented look at the staggering costs of hyper-policing and over-incarceration in low-income, Black, and Latino communities,” Lytle-Hernandez said.

Read the full story.

View a Flickr album from the trip:

LPPI in Sacramento