Koslov on Social Causes of Climate Vulnerability

Assistant Professor of Urban Planning Liz Koslov was featured in The City discussing a proposed voluntary buyout program for flood-prone houses in New York City. After Hurricane Sandy, many homeowners sold their properties back to the state through the Oakwood Beach buyout program. That successful effort was community-led and the housing stock was mostly single-family homes, Koslov said. Going forward, “a lot of the homes in the places that we now see are most at risk are also the most affordable,” she noted. Koslov pointed to social causes of climate vulnerability, including redlining and disinvestment, that cause people to live in those risky places in the first place. “If you’re just trying to un-build places that seem to be the most at risk, but you’re not addressing the underlying causes of that risk, which go far beyond climate change, it’s never going to satisfactorily or equitably reduce the risk that exists,” she said.


Diaz on Mobilizing Voters Around Padilla

Sonja Diaz, executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, was featured in a Politico article discussing the importance of maximizing voter turnout in the 2022 midterm elections. Democrats are hoping to leverage the popularity of Sen. Alex Padilla, California’s first Latino senator, to increase voter turnout and deliver Democratic wins in districts with high Latino populations. “Sen. Padilla is going to be central in not only ensuring that Latino voters who were mobilized in the ’21 recall election are going to be primed for the ’22 midterms, but getting other voters across the country out, too,” Diaz explained. Nuestro PAC is leading a statewide campaign to elect Padilla and flip five congressional districts by targeting Latino voters. “There’s a need for the Democratic Party to coalesce around Sen. Padilla’s future, ensuring he gets the relevant face-time and exposure to create a national donor base,” Diaz said. “It’s essential to increase enthusiasm in the party.”


Campus Police Presence Not Healthy for Development, Astor Says

Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor was mentioned in a Southern California News Group article about the controversial presence of armed officers on school campuses. Many school districts in Southern California have armed officers on their campuses despite opposition from parents and students. In September, 18-year-old Mona Rodriguez was fatally shot by a school safety officer in an off-campus parking lot in Long Beach. In that school district, non-sworn officers are able to carry guns, batons and pepper spray but do not have arrest powers. Other school districts have their own police departments or have contracts with police and sheriff departments. According to Astor, a heavy police presence can adversely impact the school climate. “Very heavily armed schools prime the kids in those schools to think of the place more like a prison,” Astor explained. “Militarizing and turning schools into things that look like prisons is not healthy for development. It’s not healthy for identity.”


Ong on Consequences of Census Undercount

Paul Ong, director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at UCLA Luskin, spoke to the Associated Press about widespread concerns about gaps in the 2020 U.S. Census data. The U.S. Census is one of the most important surveys about how Americans live, typically receiving information from 3.5 million households about family life, education, income and employment, but the pandemic resulted in fewer responses being recorded. According to Ong, there are two potential problems with the undercount. “The first is not having comparable data to track longitudinal changes over time,” he said. “The second is a far bigger issue — that is, not having the data to examine the pandemic effects.” Many researchers are concerned that there will be a significant gap in data for a momentous year including the pandemic, natural disasters and social justice protests. “For us, it is important to examine which populations and neighborhoods were most hurt,” Ong said.


Manville Explains Equity of Congestion Pricing

Associate Professor of Urban Planning Michael Manville spoke to the Washington Post to help debunk myths about highways and traffic. While some cities have widened their highways in an attempt to decrease traffic, “the iron law of congestion” explains the phenomenon in which widening highways results in a proportional increase in cars on the road. Some economists and urban planning experts, including Manville, have proposed congestion pricing as a solution to traffic congestion by making drivers pay for the space they take up on the highway. Some opponents of congestion pricing have argued that the policy would hurt the poor, but Manville responded, “Free roads are not a good way to help poor people.” Manville explained that affluent people drive more regardless of whether or not congestion pricing exists, so the best way to help low-income residents is actually by improving infrastructure and public transit, which can be funded through congestion pricing revenue.


A Focus on Front-Line Communities in the Fight for Climate Justice

An ABC7 News report on President Joe Biden’s pledge to prioritize environmental justice in disadvantaged communities highlighted an action plan put forward by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. Known as the Justice40 Initiative, Biden’s executive action ordered that 40% of the federal government’s investments in climate and clean infrastructure be used to benefit people in historically marginalized communities. The UCLA report provides guidance on steps needed to design and implement the initiative to be effective and equitable. “Southern Californians breathe some of the dirtiest air in the country. These are the types of communities that should be at the front lines of receiving the benefits of investments that are meant to reduce air pollution and fight the effects of climate change,” said Colleen Callahan, deputy director of the Center for Innovation and co-author of the report. Other media outlets covering the Justice40 report include La Opinión, Black Voice News and Asian Journal.

Umemoto on Acknowledging Painful History

Urban Planning Professor Karen Umemoto spoke to NBC News about the importance of facilitating discussions about racial tensions to incorporate the histories of communities that have long been made invisible. In 1871, about 20 Chinese Americans were murdered in a race riot in Los Angeles, now regarded by many as a forgotten history. Umemoto said that we can be critical of the things that have taken place in history without necessarily blaming the ancestors of those who may have perpetrated injustices. “Remembering both the accomplishments and achievements of different groups in society is as important as remembering the tragedies,” said Umemoto, director of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center. In ethnic studies, Umemoto aims to “teach about the full lives of people of color in this country and Indigenous peoples in this country so that we could develop that historical empathy for one another.”


Shah on COVID-19 Vaccination Incentives That Backfire

Media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Marketplace and San Francisco Chronicle reported on research co-authored by Public Policy Professor Manisha Shah that found that incentive programs — including the offer of money — have little impact on COVID-19 vaccination rates. The researchers randomly offered study participants, all members of the Medicaid program in Contra Costa County, various incentives: public health messages, vaccination appointments and either $10 or $50. Vaccination rates did not rise, and in some cases the offer of cash may have made some vaccine-hesitant people more distrustful. Shah, director of the Global Lab for Research in Action at UCLA Luskin, told the Chronicle that the financial incentive may have sent a negative signal, leading participants to think, “ ‘If I should trust the vaccine and get it, why do you have to pay me for it?’ ” The findings by the research team from UCLA, USC and Contra Costa’s Health Services agency were published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.


 

Senior Fellows Leadership Program Launches 25th Year

The Senior Fellows Leadership Program at UCLA Luskin kicked off its 25th year with a welcome breakfast that brought graduate students together with their new mentors — all leaders in the public, private and nonprofit arenas. The Oct. 21 gathering featured remarks from Ken Bernstein, principal city planner for the city of Los Angeles, and public policy student Steven King, who also participated in the Senior Fellows program last year. Bernstein, a national advocate for historic preservation, spoke of the region’s rich architectural resources, highlighted in his new book “Preserving Los Angeles: How Historic Places Can Transform America’s Cities.” Each attendee at the breakfast received a copy, and Bernstein encouraged both students and Senior Fellows to seek out unexplored corners of Los Angeles to understand that it is more than “just a bunch of bright lights and undifferentiated sprawl.” “Historical preservation has been a driving engine for change in Los Angeles, whether you are working in public policy or planning or social welfare,” Bernstein said. “There’s so much rich work that’s happening at the grassroots level, at the local level, and there are few places more interesting than Los Angeles in terms of really making a difference.” King described last year’s rewarding experience with a mentor who was willing to answer any question, discuss current legislation, provide access to meetings between policymakers and advocates, and offer advice about choosing classes and pursuing internships. He said the Senior Fellows program is helping him to “gain valuable lifelong skills to help me become a successful advocate and leader in the world.”

View photos from the event

Senior Fellows Breakfast 2021

State Can Do More to Protect Californians From Extreme Heat, Report Finds Top environmental policy experts say a comprehensive approach is needed to deal with state’s deadliest global-warming side effect

A comprehensive statewide approach would better protect Californians from the Golden State’s deadliest climate change side effect: extreme heat. That’s according to “Adapting to Extreme Heat in California: Assessing Gaps in State-Level Policies and Funding Opportunities,” a new study by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation

“We analyzed California’s current patchwork quilt of regulations and funding sources that have developed in various agencies of the state government. We found that when it comes to protecting people and communities from the risks of extreme heat, there are a lot of policy gaps, and many risks that could be mitigated have slipped between the cracks,” said JR DeShazo, the study’s co-author and founding director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation who recently joined the University of Texas at Austin as dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs.   

The authors note that California is planning to spend $800 million over the next two years to address extreme heat and is also developing a framework for heat preparedness. The scholars hope the report can help Sacramento identify and fill gaps in the state’s heat-protective strategies. 

California’s average temperatures are rising because of climate change. This summer was the hottest in state history, and Californians can expect more frequent and severe heat waves in the coming decades.

Death certificates show that heat exposure caused 599 deaths in California between 2010 and 2019, while a recent Los Angeles Times investigation analyzed the number of excess deaths during periods of extreme heat, and put that number at about 3,900. In addition to damaging physical and mental health, extreme heat makes it harder for students to learn, and harder for workers to do their jobs safely and maximize their earning potential. Extreme heat also forces families to pay more to cool their homes; especially for low-income Californians, this makes electricity shutoffs more likely.

“Adapting to Extreme Heat in California” details existing policies and programs addressing extreme heat exposure in seven “priority settings” — places where exposure to heat can be especially consequential.

“For example, our report assesses policies connected to extreme heat exposure at home and at workplaces, because that’s where most people spend most of their time. And because kids and elderly adults are especially vulnerable to heat-induced health impacts, we looked at schools, child-care facilities and assisted living facilities for seniors,” said Gregory Pierce, co-director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. Other priority settings analyzed in the report include transit stops, public outdoor spaces, prisons and other correctional facilities.

The report’s authors point out that there is no centrally responsible state authority to provide technical assistance, strategic funding or coordination to sister agencies to address the issue of heat, and that is a problem.

“We probably don’t want to put all statutory authority for heat risk regulation and resiliency into the hands of one agency — we’re not envisioning Homeland Security for heat. But Californians would benefit from a single authority that plays a robust coordinating and supporting role,” DeShazo said.

The researchers note that a central heat authority could conduct, commission and share research; coordinate development of statewide heat-risk-reduction policies; organize interagency cooperative efforts; promote public education; and fill in funding gaps.

The report’s other key findings include the following:

  • Most existing California heat-exposure standards are inadequate, or have limited compliance. And for some priority settings, there are no standards at all. For example, there are no rules about keeping kids in school or people at home safe from extreme heat. And while building codes require all residences to be equipped to keep occupants warm, there is no equivalent rule requiring that they keep residents sufficiently cool.
  • Most existing state programs do not make investments that explicitly target heat-vulnerable places or quantify heat risk-reduction benefits. The report’s authors reviewed over 20 programs overseen by 10 different state agencies that fund heat-relevant measures, such as the Urban Greening Program and the Low-Income Weatherization Program. None have heat-risk reduction as their primary objective.
  • Local planning efforts may not prepare cities adequately for extreme heat. For example, state laws (SB 379, SB 1035) require local governments to update their general plans to address climate adaptation and resiliency by 2022. But implementing effective heat-reduction strategies will require additional investments for training, staff capacity and funding.
  • Improving thermal comfort in public spaces and reducing urban heat island effects rely largely on voluntary state guidance. For example, California Building Energy Efficiency Standards require cool roofing materials, but only for newly constructed buildings, retrofits or building additions. And the CalGreenCode includes measures to reduce the urban heat island effect that results in city temperatures being higher than rural temperatures, but these measures are voluntary and lack readily accessible state financing assistance.

A growing body of research finds low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately affected by extreme heat, due to structural discrimination and social inequities.

“Historically neglected communities have endured more than their fair share of harm from extreme heat and other effects of climate change, and must be front and center as California works on protecting its people as the world continues to warm,” Pierce said. “As the state considers a framework for heat preparedness and community resilience, equity must be a guiding principle.”