Luskin Forum Spring 2012

22 24 29 32

F aculty Profile Michael Lens on Crime and Subsidized Housing

luskinforum A PUBLICATION OF THE UCLA MEYER AND RENEE LUSKIN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Alumni Profile Sarah MacPherson, Queen of the Alley P eople Faculty, Students and Alumni in the News S upport New Rosenfield Fellowship Program Launches

spring 2012

19

Informal Cities With UCLA Luskin Urban Planning’s Vinit Mukhija

table of contents 2 ON THE COVER

9

Urban Planning Associate Professor Vinit Mukhija

2 Milestones

� Former Dean Barbara Nelson Retires from Luskin Faculty � Faculty Transitions � President Clinton Speaks at UCLA

5 Findings

� Housing Voucher Recipients Moving to Suburbs � L.A. Human Services Nonprofits Struggling in Recession � A Study of Inequality in California � Jorja Leap’s Book Examines L.A. Gangs

9 Recap

11 15

� Eric Avila on Zócalo Public Square Panel � Charles Ogletree Opens UCLA Luskin Lecture Series � The Growing Demand for Water in Southern California � Bringing Solar Energy to L.A. � Complete Streets for California Conference 2012

19 Features

� Cover Story: Exploring Informal Cities with UP’s Vinit Mukhija � Faculty Profile: Michael Lens on Crime and Subsidized Housing � Alumni Profile: Sarah MacPherson, Queen of the Alley � Student Profile: Carter Rubin, Planning is his Passion � Luskin Students Study Tsunami Reconstruction in Japan

29 People

� News, Notes and Accolades From Faculty, Students and Alumni

32 Support

� New Rosenfield Fellowship Program Launches � Luskin Legacy

A publication of

Dean Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr.

EditorS

Genevieve Haines, Bill Parent, Stan Paul

Contributors Bill Parent, Stan Paul, Robin Heffler, Judy Lin, Jessica Nazar, Lindsey Miller, Alison Hewitt, Ayala Ben-Yehuda, Colleen Callahan, Alex Boekelheide Photography Rick Schmitt, Todd Cheney, Reed Hutchinson, Stan Paul, Gary Leonard, , Stefanie Keenan Design Escott Associates

© Copyright 2012 UC Regents

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

BY Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr., Dean

As the 2011-2012 academic year comes to a close, I am struck by how much the work of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs matters.

Earlier this spring, at the one-year anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, I had the honor of traveling to Japan to represent UCLA among a group of select American, European, and Asian universities pledging cooperation in rebuilding efforts and developing best practices for disaster preparedness and mitigation. A little later, 22 UCLA Luskin students spent their spring break in Japan working on disaster resilience efforts in the Sendai region. Our experiences were a testament to what graduate study in public affairs — across our departments of Public Policy, Urban Planning and Social Welfare — is all about: researchers, practitioners and policymakers all coming together to take lessons learned and turn them into new knowledge, better tools and smarter applications. This is where science meets the streets. This is how we play a part in making the world a better place — one thought, one action, one step at a time.

In each issue of LuskinForum, we feature the work of one of our departments, and in this issue the focus is on Urban Planning. Again, I am reminded of the importance and relevance of our work in solving urban problems — housing, crime, transportation, poverty, infrastructure, public funding — that are common to Los Angeles, Tokyo and all the world’s cities. As just a year has passed since the devastation caused by the Japan earthquake and tsunami, and 20 years have passed since central Los Angeles erupted in flames and rage, much of the healing and rebuilding has happened because we have new insights and knowledge about how the economics and politics of cities work, how to quickly rebuild, and how to learn from our mistakes in the past, whether they concern the location of nuclear power plants or corner liquor stores. This is the grist of Urban Planning.

And at UCLA Luskin, it is powerfully complemented by the keen social policy insights gleaned from the study of Social Welfare and the rigorous analysis of policy drawn from Public Policy.

Bringing all of this together more effectively and moving the School forward has been the aim of our major School initiative this past year, the “Defining Our Future Project.”

We began in October with a Thought Leadership Summit

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

dean’s message

of leading political, philanthropic, business and academic leaders by asking the questions: what are the tools, the knowledge base and initiatives that will best position UCLA Luskin to be a leader in public interest research and teaching for the next quarter century?

That conversation has inspired and engaged our faculty, students, alumni and friends in a wonderful year-long series of conversations and plans that are shaping a new intellectual agenda for the School. That agenda will be built on a fresh commitment to: the challenges of civic engagement starting with Los Angeles; global and international affairs; social justice, equity and opportunity; enhancing U.S. competitive capacity; and preparing a new generation for leadership in government and civil society. The final product of this effort, Defining our Future: UCLA Luskin’s Critical Advantage will lay out a 10-year vision for the School focused on strategic goals and initiatives that can be tracked and measured to assess our contribution to knowledge, training and service in the years to come.

As we continue, however, it is important to keep in mind that Defining Our Future is not simply about UCLA Luskin, it is about our responsibilities in the world and at home. It is about dealing with fractures in the earth and imbalances in the atmosphere as well as fractures in society and injustices in communities. I invite you all to visit, engage with us, attend our public programs, learn from the research of our faculty and students, and help make the world a better place — one thought, one action, one step at a time.

1

From left to right, former Dean Barbara Nelson with Vice President Al Gore, and with a group of undergraduate UCLA students

Former Dean Barbara Nelson Retires from Luskin Faculty Public Policy Professor Barbara J. Nelson, the former dean of what is now the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, is retiring from the School faculty. Nelson, with appointments in Social Welfare, Urban Planning and Political Science at UCLA, served as Dean of the School of Public Policy and Social Research, which was renamed the School of Public Affairs, from 1996 until 2008.

During her time as dean, Nelson oversaw the implementation of the merger of the School of Social Work and the Department of Urban Planning with a new Department of Public Policy, creating a single School of Public Affairs. In those 12 years, the School hired 29 tenure-track faculty and nine social work field faculty, the graduate student body across all three departments grew from 380 to 500, and undergraduate minor programs in Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Studies also were established.

Nelson’s initiatives as dean included establishing the Center for Civil Society, endowing the UCLA Canadian Studies program, and creating the Senior Fellows program that connects students to leaders in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, and the Bohnett Fellows program, which places students in year-long internships in the

2

City Los Angeles Mayor’s Office. She also established the School’s first advisory board.

Also during her tenure as dean, Nelson served on the National Commission to Reduce Infant Mortality, and on the boards of trustees of the United Way for Greater Los Angeles and UCLA Hillel.

Professor Nelson also led The Concord Project, an international initiative to strengthen “concord organizations,” which bring together people with fundamentally opposing views or identities for the purpose of promoting civil society. With Linda Kaboolian, and Kathryn A. Carver, she published The Concord Handbook: How to Build Social Capital Across Communities in 2003.

Prior to coming to UCLA, Professor Nelson served as vice president and professor of Public Policy at Radcliffe College, professor and director of the Center on Women in Public Policy at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, and assistant professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Her fields of expertise include conflict mediation in civil society, social and economic policy, organizational theory and behavior, and social movements. She is the author or co-author of six books and more than 60 articles and book chapters. Nelson and co-author Najma Chowdhury won the 1995 Victoria Schuck Award for their book Women and Politics Worldwide, bestowed by the American Political Science Association for the best book in the field of women and politics. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from The Ohio State University. n

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

milestones Faculty Transitions and former Guggenheim fellow

up for 30 years. At UCLA,

has focused his work on indus-

she founded the Community

trialization, urban and regional

Scholars Program within the

growth, and globalization,

Urban Planning department and

and, most recently, he was

with the UCLA Labor Center.

awarded an honorary doctorate

Haas served as founding

from the University of Jena in

executive director of Strategic

Germany for his outstanding

Actions for a Just Economy

work in social science and his

(SAJE), an economic justice and

contributions to urban theory.

development organizationthat is

In addition to his many years

dedicated to building economic

at UCLA, Scott — who earned

power for working-class

Allen J. Scott Public Policy

an undergraduate degree from

people in Los Angeles. SAJE’s

Oxford University and an M.A.

achievements include leading

and Ph.D. from Northwestern —

the effort to negotiate the

ALLEN J. SCOTT retired this

has taught at universities in the

“Staples Agreement” between

Adjunct Professor of Social

academic year following a distin-

U.S., Canada, France, England,

the Figueroa Corridor Coalition

Welfare JOANN DAMRON-

guished three-decade career at

Brazil and Hong Kong. n

for Economic Justice and the

RODRIGUEZ MSW ’88, Ph.D. ’90 is

UCLA. Scott, who holds appoint-

Anschutz Entertainment Group;

retiring after 20 years of teaching

ments in Public Policy and

creating the nation’s first

at UCLA. Capping an impressive

Geography, was instrumental

welfare-to-work bank account;

career, Damron-Rodriguez has

in the early development of the

and organizing the autonomous

been honored with a Lifetime

academic programs (research

Figueroa Corridor Commu-

Achievement Award from the

and teaching) of the School of

nity Land Trust. She is also a

California Council on Gerontology.

Public Affairs and the Depart-

co-founder of the national Right

ment of Public Policy, serving as

to the City Alliance.

JoAnn Damron-Rodriguez Social Welfare

Damron-Rodriguez spearheaded the creation of UCLA’s

the School’s first associate dean

Gilda Haas was recently

of academic affairs. His awards

awarded two fellowships. The

in Human Aging: Biomedical,

include the Anders Retzius Gold

first is the Durfee Stanton

Social, and Policy Perspectives,”

Medal from the Swedish Society

Fellowship which will supports

was instrumental in bringing the

for Anthropology and Geog-

a two-year effort to turn her

undergraduate minor in geron-

signature popular education

tology to UCLA Luskin’s Depart-

Bruce Mallen Lifetime Achieve-

Gilda Haas Urban Planning

programs and other popular

ment of Social Welfare, and was

ment Award for Scholarly Contri-

Urban Planning lecturer GILDA

economics into accessible and

awarded the UCLA Distinguished

butions to the Motion Picture

HAAS has announced her retire-

interactive Web 2.0 format,

Teaching Award in 2006. She’s

Industry (2008). He received the

ment, after more than 25 years

now available at drpop.org. The

been a core faculty member for

2006 Meridian Book Prize for

of teaching at UCLA. Haas is

second is the Synergos Senior

the California Geriatric Educa-

his book On Hollywood: The

an organizer, educator and

Fellows Program, an interna-

tion Center (funded by the U.S.

Place, the Industry, and the 2003

economic development profes-

tional learning network of

Bureau of Health Professions)

Vautrin Lud International Award

sional who has been helping

people who have been working

since 1992, and was named

for Geography.

grassroots organizations build

on issues related to inequality

a Fellow of the Gerontology

economies from the ground

for more than a decade. n

Society of America in 2005. n

raphy (2009) and the Carol and

The British Academy Fellow

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

Honors Cluster class “Frontiers

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milestones

President Bill Clinton with Carol and Gene Block, left, and Meyer and Renee Luskin at Royce Hall.

President Bill Clinton delivers first Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership at UCLA President Bill Clinton spoke to a packed house at Royce Hall in May, delivering the keynote speech for the inaugural Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership.

President Clinton’s speech touched on the link between solving the country’s economic crisis and solving entrenched problems in developing countries around the globe. Both, he said, depend on turning our growing interconnectedness to our advantage. Between technology, trade, the global economy and other factors, globalization means we all affect each other more than ever, for good or ill, he explained.

“The good news, if you are an undergraduate or a graduate student at UCLA, is that you are coming into the full use of your powers at the most interdependent time in human history,” he said. “Our futures are bound together ... You’ve got to build a world of positive interdependence. And you can do it.”

Creating networks to ease inequality, instability and climate change can help reform what’s wrong with American politics and build lasting infrastructure in the developing world, he said. Following his speech, President Clinton sat down for a wide-ranging question-and-answer session.

Luskins Honored The annual Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership gives the College of Letters and Science an unprecedented opportunity to promote dialogue among scholars, leaders and the greater Los Angeles community on pressing national and global issues. The series was established in 2011 by longtime UCLA supporters Meyer and Renee Luskin as part of a transformative $100 million gift to UCLA, including $50 million to the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. The Luskins’ extraordinary service to UCLA was recognized at the event with UCLA’s first Fiat Lux Award.

More than 1,800 people filled Royce Hall at the sold-out event, including 500 students who received free tickets and another 371 students received complimentary tickets to view the speech via a live feed.

Call to action President Clinton told the audience his expectations for the country were optimistic — as long as Americans remember to persevere thoughtfully, not lash out, he said.

“Everything that’s wrong with us is fixable,” he said. “We’re going to be fine. But denial is not an option. We have to embrace this moment, beat down the negative forces and build up the positive ones.”

“I never met a person who was entirely self-made. We live in an interconnected world.” —PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON

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LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

findings header “While HUD has made the voucher program more flexible, there is more to do. The idea was to help get people out of urban poverty pockets, but we don’t want to simply plunk them down into new poverty pockets in the suburbs.” —Professor Michael Stoll

SHIFT Americans who use housing choice vouchers are increasingly choosing to live in the suburbs, and as that trend proceeds, metropolitan areas across the country need to work to make sure housing opportunities connect with employment, according to a new report co-authored by UCLA Luskin researchers and published by the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

The housing choice voucher program assists very low-income families, the disabled and the elderly with paying for housing. The program provides payments to landlords to make up the difference between rents and what the renters can afford. In certain circumstances, vouchers can be used to purchase a home.

Housing Voucher Recipients Moving to America’s Suburbs

“While vouchers are giving people the chance to move where the opportunities are, voucher recipients are not moving into highopportunity neighborhoods as often as they might.”

The report notes lowerincome suburbs saw faster population growth, but slower employment growth over the last decade. Voucher

over the decade, but were

data from the Department

part of it.

of Housing and Urban Development and the

Recommendations for planning and policy

American Community Survey.

“The old lines that

multi-family housing, re-

distinguished cities and

evaluating local zoning

suburbs are blurring,

regulations, improving

which presents us with a

enforcement of fair housing

new geography that will

laws and facilitating the

require changes in planning

use of housing vouchers in

and policy,” said KENYA

higher-income suburban

recipients, according to the

COVINGTON, visiting faculty

neighborhoods are among the

report, did not drive the rapid

at UCLA and a co-author of

report’s recommendations. n

growth of suburban poverty

the report, which analyzes

Greater incentives for

Nearly half of all housing choice voucher (HCV) recipients lived in suburban areas in 2008.

Black HCV recipients

Between 2000 and 2008, metro

Within metro areas, HCV

suburbanized fastest over

areas in the West and those

recipients moved further

the 2000 to 2008 period,

experiencing large increases

toward higher-income,

though white HCV recipients

in suburban poverty exhibited

jobs-rich suburbs between

were still more suburbanized

the biggest shifts in HCV

2000 and 2008

than their black or Latino

recipients to the suburbs

counterparts by 2008

Connecting housing with jobs “Jobs moved to the suburbs, and people followed,” said MICHAEL STOLL, a non-resident senior fellow at Brookings, chair of the department of public policy and one of the authors of the report.

Read the report: bit.ly/J8rFZa

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

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findings

“The safety net as we know it is smaller and weaker, particularly for those most in need.”

—Bill Parent, Center for Civil Society

Half of L.A. Human Services Nonprofits Struggling Roughly half of Los Angeles County’s 6,300 human services nonprofits — which provide such services as emergency shelter, food, hospice care, and support for foster children, at-risk youth and the elderly — are struggling in the wake of the deep recession, according to a new study by the Center for Civil Society at UCLA Luskin.

“Stressed and Stretched: The Recession, Poverty, and Human Services Nonprofits in Los Angeles 2002–2012” reveals that nonprofits’ capacity has been significantly diminished by cutbacks in government funding, delays in reimbursement, decreases in private giving and a corresponding increase in demand that came with rising unemployment and poverty during the economic downturn. Nonprofits serving the lowest income neighborhoods, and those serving African Americans in particular, have been hardest hit.

Of the human services non-

Region called to action

profits first surveyed in 2002...

Programs cut and doors shut

41% had cut programs

The report recommends better data collection and tracking of the work and value of human services nonprofits, a call for increased private charitable giving in the region, greater focus on nonprofits’ work with low-income families and families in poverty and strengthening the capacity of nonprofits for advocacy. In April, Parent provided an impetus for the Weingart Foundation, the Parsons Foundation and the California Community Foundation to hold a conference to allow vulnerable nonprofits to explore collaborations and mergers. n

“This report shines a light on the new face of poverty,” said lead author ZEKE HASENFELD, professor of social welfare. “We are starting to see inner-city nonprofits that provide basic services cutting programs and closing their doors.”

The report, which was supported by the James Irvine Foundation, follows up on the Center’s 2002 survey of Los Angeles human services nonprofits. By returning to the participants in

the first survey, researchers have been able to better gauge the effects of the recession on the nonprofit community.

“There is a deep and persistent weakening of the nonprofit sector, which in terms of employment numbers, is almost as large as the entertainment industry in Los Angeles County,” said BILL PARENT, acting director of the center.

15% no longer exist 81% reported significant staff turnover in the past three years

10-20% of surviving nonprofits were so understaffed and stressed that they had trouble finding the time and the data needed to complete the current survey

Read the full report at ucla.in/zr0tac

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LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

header

A Portrait of Inequality in California: How Should Nonprofits and Philanthropy Respond?

A recent independent study of Californians’ overall well-being — one that presents troubling disparities in the Golden State and ideas to narrow the gap — was discussed by representatives of the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors before students at UCLA Luskin.

Presented by the Center for Civil Society and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the forum kicked off with a review of findings from the American Human Development Project’s study, “A Portrait of California, California Human Development Report 2011.”

The study assessed the wellbeing and access to opportunity of people statewide by using a “human development

index,” a composite measure of health, education and income. It also introduced the concept of “Five Californias” to highlight differences among the population.

Five Californias For the 1% at the top of the index, in “Silicon Valley Shangri-La,” the study found that life expectancy is 85.3 years, 70.1 percent have a bachelor’s degree and median earnings are $63,106. Among “The Forsaken Five Percent,” at the bottom of the index, which included areas of Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley, life expectancy is 76.1 years, 8.3 percent have a bachelor’s degree and median earnings are $18,343.

In between are: the largely affluent 18 percent who reside in the “MetroCoastal Enclave California”; the 38 percent in “Main Street California” with an increasingly tenuous grip on middle-class life; and “Struggling California,” another 38 percent who find it nearly impossible to improve their lives despite hard work.

Informing the debate The report recommends investing in public health campaigns and food subsidies for fruits and vegetables, investing in preschools and targeting the worstperforming high schools with the highest dropout rates, and taking steps to address gender

Human Development Index Gap For the 1% at top of the human development index — in “Silicon Valley Shangri-La” — the study found that life expectancy is 85.3 years, 70.1 percent have a bachelor’s degree and median earnings are $63,106. Among “The Forsaken Five Percent,” at the bottom of the index, which included areas of Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley, life expectancy is 76.1 years, 8.3 percent have a bachelor’s

inequality and wage discrimination in the workplace.

Edmund J. Cain, vice president of the Hilton Foundation, highlighted the report’s role in informing the grantmaking process and political debate. “We want to see politicians asking, ‘why is this group at the bottom of the human development index?’” he said, “and citizens asking, ‘why aren’t you doing in our state what others are doing in theirs?’”

Making a difference Southern California Grantmakers President Sushma Raman suggested four ways foundations can make a difference: 1. Focus on countering disparities, such as those involving race and gender; 2. Call for greater government accountability; 3. Use their flexibility to take more risk in spending their endowments; and 4. Call for more civil public discourse and inclusion of voices left out. n

degree and median earnings are $18,343.

—Robin Heffler

Read the full report: www.measureofamerica.org/california/

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

7

header findings

“These are just people who got caught up, as the homies say. They got caught up, and it could be you or me. I am utterly convinced of that.”

— JORGA LEAP

Getting Schooled By the Gangs of L.A. Jorja Leap could write a book on her work as a gang expert extraordinaire, citing statistics from her longitudinal studies of Homeboy Industries and other gang-intervention programs aimed at giving the 80,000 members of L.A.’s estimated 1,200 gangs a new start.

She could write about her posts as a gang policy adviser to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca and the National Institute of Justice. An adjunct professor of social welfare since 1992, she could write a scholarly book.

Leap has written a book, but Jumped In: What Gangs Taught Me About Violence, Drugs, Love, and Redemption (Beacon Press) sprints way past scholarly, aiming for the outright transformational. And it’s not gang members she is looking to transform as much as the rest of us, far removed from a world where a child or teenager is killed by gunfire every three hours and homicide is the leading cause of death for young black males.

Immersion in L.A.’s toughest neighborhoods Her book is an action-packed trek through 10 years as a gang anthropologist on the streets of L.A.’s toughest neighborhoods, where Leap introduces us to people she has come to know and even love, like Mike Cummings. Now reformed, “Big Mike” was a notorious gangster in Watts during the late 1980s and early 1990s — the “Decade of Death,” said Leap. “We saw homicides of 1,000 per year in Los Angeles. It was a nightmare, a war zone.” Big Mike, at 6 feet tall and 300 pounds, took Leap under his wing when she first hit the streets.

Michael “Big Mike” Cummings joins Jorja Leap at a launch event for her new book Jumped In: What Gangs Taught Me About Violence, Drugs, Love, and Redemption, held at UCLA.

Her affiliation with UCLA, she said, boosted her safety.

“UCLA has this tremendous relationship with the community.”

When introducing herself to people on the streets, she said, “I’m never ‘Jorja Leap’ but ‘Jorja Leap from UCLA.’ Once I say I’m from UCLA, they feel I’m not a snitch.”

Progress and hope Gang conflict has declined over the past decade, Leap said, thanks to a push by law enforcement to contain gangs in limited “hotspots,” coupled with groundbreaking work by gang-intervention groups. The mayor’s office also played a role, said Leap, who gives special credit to Deputy Mayor Guillermo Cespedes, director of the Gang Reduction and Youth Development program and a senior fellow at the Luskin School.

“These are our brothers and sisters,” said Leap of the gang members she met through her research. “They’re not the ‘super-predators,’ not horrible, evil people. People who are caught up with gangs are just like us. Truly.” n — Judy Lin for UCLA Today

Read an excerpt of the book: huff.to/xKjSDN

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LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

recap

Second Chance for Juvenile Offenders The UCLA Juvenile Justice & Reentry Project has released a policy brief on California Senate Bill 9, the California Fair Sentencing for Youth Act. SB9 would give juvenile offenders in California who are sentenced to life without the possibility of parole the opportunity to request a new sentencing hearing.

“We believe that SB9 constitutes a modest proposal that upholds public accountability, while also providing a chance for those who committed crimes when they were young to show personal growth and change, and for the State of California to assert itself as a responsible steward of its future,” writes Associate

How Los Angeles Created the Good Life

Professor and Project Director LAURA ABRAMS and ALEA BELL MSW ’13, a volunteer with the Project. n

Read the brief at ucla.in/GTCajq

From Probation to Education and Employment An interdisciplinary UCLA research team led by TODD FRANKE, associate professor of social welfare, has been awarded $500,000 by the California Community Foundation to evaluate the impact of the BLOOM project (Building a Lifetime of Options and Opportunities for Men).

The goal of BLOOM is to redirect Black male youth (ages 14-18) involved with the Los Angeles County probation system toward a path that produces improved education and employment opportunities.

Franke’s team includes JORJA LEAP, adjunct associate professor of social welfare, and Tyrone Howard and Tina Christie from the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSEIS). Dr. Howard also is the director of the Black Male Institute in GSEIS and Dr. Christie is one of the foremost evaluation experts in the country.

The five-year award will “provide both quantitative and qualitative data to support an in-depth analysis of the progress nonprofit partners are making in improving opportunities for system-involved Black male youth at the individual, community and society levels,” said Franke. n

Urban Planner Eric Avila on Zócalo Public Square Panel From beaches to convertibles to pop music, Los Angeles has popularized many of the enduring symbols of the quintessentially American laid-back life of leisure. Movies and television shows beamed images of teenagers lying on the sand or joy-riding down the Pacific Coast Highway. And although surfing originated in Hawaii, it quickly became associated with the laid-back beach culture of the L.A. region.

ERIC AVILA, associate professor of Chicana/o studies, history and urban planning, recently appeared on Zócalo Public Square as a panelist to discuss the topic “How Los Angeles Created the Good Life.” The panel was part of Zócalo Public Square’s half-day conference “exploring how Los Angeles’ unique culture was built and how it spread to the rest of the world.”

Moderated by Tom Crow of the Institute of Fine Arts and an art historian at New York University, the panel included Kirse Granat May, author of Golden State, Golden Youth: The California Image in Popular Culture, and Jennifer Watts, curator of photographs at The Associate Professor Eric Avila

Huntington Library. n

Watch the video: bit.ly/GGypJI

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

9

recap

“Martin Luther King had a dream.

Now we must have a plan.”

Harvard Law Professor and Obama Mentor Charles Ogletree Opens UCLA Luskin Lecture Series with Call to Social Justice Harvard Law School Professor Charles J. Ogletree launched the UCLA Luskin Lecture Series with a stirring address that wove personal, political and historical themes of the African American civil rights movement before an audience of more than 250 people at the California African American Museum.

Ogletree set the tone for his remarks by recognizing UCLA Luskin professor MICHAEL DUKAKIS in the audience, whose 1988 presidential campaign was hampered by the infamous Willie Horton commercial that created a genre of political advertising exploiting “race as the dividing line,” Ogletree said.

Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree speaks at the UCLA Luskin Lecture Series

Mentoring a President Among the lighter moments in the talk, Ogletree revealed insights on his former law-school students Barack and Michelle Obama, offering a dead-on imitation of Barack Obama taking over the facilitation of class discussions. He spoke with admiration of Michelle Obama’s commitment to volunteer work in a legal aid office when she was a student.

He also offered a fresh telling of the arrest of fellow Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates in 2009, the topic of Ogletree’s book Presumption of Guilt. He used the case to analyze race, class and crime in the U.S., but amused the audience with the insight that in the heat of the moment, Gates, a university professor in his own kitchen, “forgot he was a black man” as he challenged the white officer by shouting, “Do you know who I am?”

“Race trumps class” is the lesson of the incident, Olgetree said.

Luskin

Lecture Series

10

A challenge to pursue social justice “Martin Luther King had a dream,” Ogletree said. “Now we must have a plan.” He pointed out that the achievement of the nine students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., was not their enrollment in the school, but their graduation and matriculation to college. (One of the nine, Terrence James Roberts, earned his MSW from UCLA in 1970 and went on to earn a Ph.D.) “The next time you go through the door, leave it open for somebody else to follow,” he said. n

The UCLA Luskin Lecture Series is designed to enhance public discourse on topics relevant to today’s societal needs. The Series brings together scholars and renowned thought leaders to engage in conversation on our country’s most pressing problems.

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

“It was a great micro view of the messy but fruitful process that is local politics.”

—Brad Rowe MPP ’13

Luskin Students Study L.A. Unemployment Rate at Annual City Hall Day City Controller Wendy Greuel ’93 hosted graduate students representing public policy, social welfare and urban planning at

Event spotlights Pacific Islander Studies

the eighth annual UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Day at Los Angeles City Hall. This year’s topic was “What can City Hall do to

More than 400 people converged

generate jobs in Los Angeles?”

on the Pacific Island Ethnic Art

“The challenge was that the unemployment problem is broad in

Museum in Long Beach for

scope, and that local actors, up to and including the city govern-

“Teaching the Pacific,” a daylong

ment, have very limited tools for turning it around,” said Urban

event highlighting the living

Planning professor CHRIS TILLY, who served as faculty adviser.

arts of the Pacific Islands. Spon-

“Given the severity of that challenge, I was very pleased that we

sored in part by the Department

got a great mix of decision-makers from the private sector, elected

of Urban Planning, the event

and appointed officials, nonprofits and organized labor to share

featured talks by UCLA faculty,

their knowledge and ideas with Luskin students.” n

hands-on demonstrations by carvers and weavers, and refreshments from authentic Pacific Islander food vendors.

The event spotlighted the emerging field of Pacific Islander Studies and marked the launch of the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum’s educational programs and the publication of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center’s latest issue of the Amerasia Journal, “Transoceanic Flows: Pacific Islander Interventions Across the American Empire.”

Learn more about the journal at www.amerasiajournal.org/ blog/ n

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

11

recap

­The Future of Water in Southern California “A growing population, climate change and the rising cost of transporting water is increasing the need for a more self-sufficient water future for Southern California.”

Water Summit Highlights n A look at the current use of local water sources

n The promise and challenges of emerging technologies — including ocean desalination and indirect and direct potable reuse of wastewater and contaminated groundwater — as well as improvements in water conservation programs

n Communicating the social benefits of new technologies

n Forming public-private partnerships to assist agencies in developing new water sources

n New coalitions and organizational strategies around water source development

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—J.R. DeShazo

Southern California’s growing population, climate change and projected gaps in imported water supplies will increase the need for local water source development in coming years.

This need brought more than 250 leaders from water agencies, universities, the private sector, government and nonprofits to a summit hosted by the Luskin Center for Innovation, the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and UCLA’s Water Technology Research (WaTeR) Center. California Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg provided the keynote address.

Cross-disciplinary approach Attendees reviewed the latest research, technologies and policies in water source development and explored options for replacing more imported water supplies with local alter-

natives. Recycled wastewater for potable and non-potable reuse, cleaned-up groundwater, desalinated ocean water and more effective conservation measures were discussed.

The summit comes at a critical time for the region, according to Robert Lempert of RAND Corporation.

“Southern California’s demand for water could increase by as much as 50 percent by 2060.

By that time, almost half of the region’s water supply will need to come from new local sources and conservation to meet that potential demand.”

Real-world issues Cost will affect the future of local water source development. Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said that the utility’s water rates have effectively tripled since 1990. Adding to the equation, James McDaniel of the Los

Angeles Department of Water and Power estimated that by 2035, the cost of importing water will begin to exceed that of delivering nonpotable reclaimed water.

The Luskin Center’s J.R. DeSHAZO offered an encouraging analysis, pointing to how the science, policy and public acceptance challenges of sourcing more water from local alternatives may have turned a corner. “Local source development promises greater reliability, water security and progressively more cost-effective sources of water.” n — Reporting by Ayala Ben-Yehuda and Colleen Callahan

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

Luskin Center Analysis Fuels New L.A. Renewable Energy Policy Following the Mayoral Summit, the L.A. City Council approved a pilot program that would make it easier for businesses and residents to install rooftop solar panels and sell surplus energy to the L.A. Department of Water & Power. J.R. DeSHAZO’s UCLA Luskin Senior Fellow Jim Newton moderates a panel with Henry Cisneros, executive chairman, CityView, and former secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti, L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel and L.A. City Council Member Jan Perry.

research helped guide the city in developing a blueprint for such a program, called a solar feed-in tariff program.

UCLA Hosts Mayoral Summit

Read the report, “Empowering L.A.’s Solar Workforce: New Policies that Deliver Investments and Jobs,” at bit.ly/

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and mayoral hopefuls

K3FB3c

City Council President Eric Garcetti, City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Councilwoman Jan Perry spoke at the Los Angeles Business Council’s annual Mayoral Housing, Transportation and Jobs Summit held at UCLA. At the event, J.R. DeSHAZO, professor of public policy and director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, and USC professor Manuel Pastor presented their research for an L.A. Business Council report. Their research teams found that thousands of workers are trained and ready to create a solarpanel revolution in Los Angeles, if only city policies would give them a boost.

UCLA Luskin Senior Fellow and Los Angeles Times editor-at-large JIM NEWTON also moderated a panel on housing, jobs and the workforce featuring Garcetti, Greuel and Perry.

J.R. DeShazo

n

Read the report: bit.ly/K3FB3c

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

13

artwork TK

Conference highlights L.A.’s progress: A student perspective The idea of “complete streets” — that is, streets designed with all users, not just cars, in mind — isn’t a new one, but it hasn’t caught on everywhere yet. The planners, engineers, advocates and students who convened at the second annual UCLA Complete Streets for California hoped a widespread focus on complete streets in California could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging more walking and biking, and also promote healthier lifestyles.

The head advocate was keynote speaker Gil Penalosa MBA ’84, executive director of the nonprofit 8-80 Cities and former commissioner of parks, sport and recreation for the City of Bogotá, Colombia. In Bogotá, Penalosa opened 50-plus miles of car-free city roads for more than 1.3 million people to use on Sundays for walking, running, skating and biking; it is the model for Los

14

Angeles’ CicLAvia.

Penalosa made a case for designing cities where people age 8 to age 80 would feel safe and able to move around. “Mobility is a human right,” he said.

He reminded attendees that Californians aren’t unique in their attachment to automobiles, and that some of their attachment may be a myth — one-third of L.A. residents do not drive.

Challenges facing Los Angeles In L.A. there’s a unique combination of challenges, not the least of which is a minimum of four different agencies own the streets, said Tim Papandreou MA UP ’02,

deputy director at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

Still, Papandreou believes a change in favor of more pedestrian and bicycle-oriented streets is possible. “The political environment will change.

In San Francisco, you were crazy to run on a complete streets platform 10 years ago.

Now, you’re crazy not to.”

Progress reported Despite the constraints, some progress has been made in the city since last year’s conference. A Complete Streets program was made official with the Model Design Manual for Living Streets (see sidebar).

The Sunset Triangle pedestrian plaza, the first of its kind in

L.A., opened at Sunset and Griffith Park boulevards and plans are underway for three new “parklets” downtown (see sidebar).

The complete streets initiative, though, is still getting started. BRIAN TAYLOR, professor of urban planning and director of UCLA’s Lewis Center, noted that the idea has generated a lot of excitement and that we may well be in a transition period from an era of street design focused on cars to an era of street design focused on people. n —Lindsey Miller MURP ‘12.

A version of this story originally appeared in Los Angeles Streetsblog.

The Complete Streets Initiative is a joint effort among UCLA’s Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, Institute of Transportation Studies, Luskin Center for Innovation and UCLA Luskin. The initiative uses research, education and community engagement to create streets that provide mobility, improve environmental sustainability and form healthy, economically vibrant communities.

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

header recap

New Project to Explore “Parklets” The “Parklets for Los Angeles” project received a big boost from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation with an award of a $75,000 research and implementation grant to UCLA Luskin’s Complete Streets Initiative. ‘Parklet’ is a term describing a parking space, or spaces, re-purposed to use as open, public space for people. Parklets are beginning to appear in San Francisco, New York and Philadelphia.

In the first phase of the project, led by Associate Dean ANASTASIA LOUKAITOU-SIDERIS, the Complete Streets Initiative will create a “Parklet Toolkit” to assist cities, including Los Angeles, with practical guidance for developing small-scale parks. A second phase, conducted in collaboration with the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, will construct a demonstration parklet. n

The Complete Streets Conference included discussion about CicLAvia, the temporary opening of Los Angeles streets to create a web of temporary public space free of car traffic.

—Jessica Nazar for UCLA Today

New manual to expand biking, walking on city streets

PHOTO: gary leonard

Cities are getting guidance on expanding opportunities for people to bicycle and walk, thanks to a new manual from Ryan Snyder and Associates, the Luskin Center for Innovation and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s RENEW LA County program.

The “Model Design Manual for Living Streets” provides guidance for cities seeking to update their existing road standard manuals with new techniques to reflect a greater emphasis on active transportation.

Written by a team of national, regional and local experts in traffic engineering, transportation planning, land-use planning, architecture, public health and other fields, the manual can be adapted or adopted in full by cities across the nation free of charge. The Luskin Center, led

by J.R. DeShazo and Colleen Callahan, coordinated the Streetscape Ecosystems chapter with support from MURP ’12 students Julia Campbell and Grace Phillips. This chapter provides tools for cities to create streetscapes that sustainably enhance the local environment, its resources, the community and the local economy. n

Read the manual: www.modelstreetdesignmanual.com

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

15

recap

Gerontology minor added The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs’ Department of Social Welfare, in collaboration with the UCLA School of Medicine Division of Geriatrics and the

“You don’t really understand [elder care] until you begin to go through it. Then you know how it takes over your life.” —Steve Lopez

Los Angeles Times’ Steve Lopez shares what’s on his mind

UCLA School of Public Health, has added the Gerontology Interdisciplinary Minor (GIM) to the School’s offerings. As of the Winter 2012 quarter, UCLA’s undergraduate students may enroll in the interdisciplinary program, enhancing the academic experience on issues of aging.

The restructured GIM is designed to offer an understanding of the current state of the science related to the biopsychosocial aspects of human aging.

“We are excited to have UCLA’s Gerontology minor

With a 30-plus year career in journalism, Steve Lopez has been around the world and seen much. And for more than a decade he has shared what has been on his mind informatively, respectfully, indignantly, passionately and publicly in his column in the Los Angeles Times.

And he has had a lot on his mind. Recently Lopez has focused on issues including the pending

associated with our Department of Social Welfare and I commend the efforts our faculty and campus partners, especially Lené Levy-Storms and JoAnn Damron-Rodriguez, put into restructuring and re-instating this minor. This is a valuable addition to undergraduate education in this important field as well as a great opportunity for UCLA’s undergrads to enhance their UCLA experience and learn about issues of aging,” said Fernando Torres-Gil, chair of the Department of Social Welfare. n

16

Los Angeles Times writer Steve Lopez speaking at the Luskin School

closure of adult day health care facilities serving older adults, end-of-life care, working conditions of hotel housekeepers and the Occupy L.A. movement.

He shared his thoughts this spring as part of a speaker series presented by the Department of Social Welfare.

Elder care has not been an abstract policy issue for him, but based on personal experience in the last months of his father’s life.

He shared this journey with his readers, chronicling the challenges and frustrations as well as the many other issues that confront families and the dying when a life is coming to an end.

“You don’t really understand until you begin to go through it. Then you know how it takes over your life,” said Lopez, whose father Tony passed away not long after Lopez gave his talk.

Just writing about Medicare costs and finding ways to support Medicare coverage of palliative care does not attract the attention of readers, he said.

However, “If you’ve got a person that you can stick in that story — that anyone who is dealing with this can identify with — then you’ve got a chance. So I’ve thought that to be as brutally honest as I can be about my family might draw more people into that.”

Lopez said, “I think there is a great opportunity in this country for us to switch more to palliative care and hospice. I can’t figure it out but those of you who are in this school and who will become policymakers — I hope that you can figure that sort of thing out.” n —Stan Paul

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

Social Welfare students selected to present at Legislative Lobby Days

From left: Hristo Marakov MPP ‘12, Sara Pilgreen MSW Ph.D. ‘13, World Bank analyst John Garrison and Brandy Barta MSW ‘12

Senior Fellows host students in the nation’s capital A private meeting with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. An afternoon at The World Bank. A morning sit-down at The Urban Institute. These are just a few of the inside-the-Beltway experiences Senior Fellows Dr. Derick W. Brinkerhoff, distinguished fellow with International Public Management at RTI International, and Therese W. McMillan, deputy administrator at the Federal Transit Administration, arranged for seven UCLA Luskin students this spring.

The Senior Fellows program invites a distinguished group of leaders from the public, private and nonprofit sectors to bring the school’s problem-solving academic departments to the real-world challenges being faced by civic leaders at the local, regional and national levels. n

In one of the largest groups ever to attend from UCLA, nearly 60 students converged on Sacramento in April to participate in the annual Legislative Lobby Days sponsored by the California Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).

The social welfare students represented one of only two California social work programs selected to give a special presentation based on their program proposal, “The Mental Well-Being of Undocumented Youth.”

“This is indeed an honor for our students and our program,” said MARY KAY OLIVERI, social welfare field faculty member and president of the California Chapter of the NASW. The proposal was developed in field education faculty TOBY HUR’s Social Welfare 240 course by first-year MSW students Betsy Estudillo Sevlian, Jenny Williams, Eun Ha Suh and Elizabeth Luna, and was put forth by secondyear student liaisons Emily Blake and Jennifer Vallejo. n

First-year MSW student presenters Jenny Williams, Eun Ha Suh, Betsy Estudillo Sevlian, and Elizabeth Luna

“The Senior Fellows D.C. trip was incredible. I think it has been the most influential experience to impact my future career.” —Sara Pilgreen MSW Ph.D. ’13

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

17

recap

Time’s Role in Transportation and Health Topic of Annual Martin Wachs Distinguished Lecture in Transportation Mei-Po Kwan, distinguished professor of social and behavior sciences at The Ohio State University, delivered this year’s Martin Wachs Distinguished Lecture in Transportation on May 10 at the Luskin School.

Kwan discussed the notion of time and its implications for transportation in her lecture “What About Time in Transportation and Health Research?”

Her talk suggested that time is at least as important as space for understanding how individuals of different social groups experience

UCLA Luskin Urban Planning sponsors American Planning Association’s national conference Urban Planning alumni from around the world joined a UCLA Luskin reception held in conjunction with the American Planning Association’s National Planning Conference in Los Angeles in April.

access to facilities and exposure to contextual or environmental influences. Time and behavior go hand in hand, she argued, as a person’s experience of an environment depends on what he is doing within it.

The annual lecture honors Dr. Martin Wachs, who previously served three terms as chairman of the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA, by bringing innovative scholars and policymakers who share their research in transportation and urban planning issues. n

18

Clockwise from upper left: Mr. Luskin and first-year MURP student Chloe Green; Barbara Kaplan MA ’79, Peter Valk MA ‘79 and Catherine Tyrrell MA ‘79; Juan Matute MA MBA ‘09, Diego Cardoso MA ‘87 and Judy Silva MA ‘10; Viviana Franco MA ‘95 and Urban Planning’s Vinit Mukhija; Ramon Mendez MA ‘92, Lara Regus MA ‘96, Mr. Luskin, Sara Tsay MA ‘96 and Russell Horning MA ‘92

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

cover story

Life in the Informal City It’s a Saturday afternoon in West Los Angeles. A bartender leaves the afternoon shift with $80 in tip money in her pocket. She stops at a food truck parked just off Santa Monica Boulevard where it often idles between construction site stops. It has an A rating in the window and two cops are having a cup of coffee and chatting with the owner, who is joking that he keeps all of his accounting in his head. She buys a taco and continues down the street passing a young man sitting on the sidewalk playing a copyrighted Beatles song beautifully on his guitar.

She drops a dollar in his case. She swings into the community garden, a reclaimed vacant lot, where she has been taking care of a friend’s plot, to pick up a ripe eggplant. She stops to admire a lively graffiti mural three high schoolers are completing on the outside fence. Continuing by a hardware store, she sees two familiar day laborers and asks if they will come by the next day to move a couch and put up a window treatment. When she gets to her address, she greets one of the other unit owners who is starting to clean up from the yard sale that takes place every week on the grassy stretch between the sidewalk and the street. This week it is a rack of homemade dresses and skirts. She buys a skirt and heads up the walk to her apartment in the back. It is a converted garage the owner’s handyman son made into a very nice in-law apartment, or granny flat, on the sly 20 years ago. She checks the message on her phone. It’s her landlord. The safety light shorted out and he wants to know if that licensed electrician she knows from the bar could come by and fix it. The landlord will be happy to pay in cash.

And, of course, they’ll get a good deal because, after all, the electrician is a regular and gets his share of free pints. Just another day of getting by on the formal and informal margins of the city.

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

19

cover story

Urban Unplanning:

Vinit Mukhija Urban Planning is usually concerned with the formal structure of cities—the built environment, infrastructure and transportation, housing, economic development and land use regulation. But Vinit Mukhija, in his 11th year on the UCLA Luskin Urban Planning faculty, is drawn to the “informalities” of urban life — the networks of barter and cash and social capital, the loose attention to rules and regulations, and the novel uses of public and private space that define life and survival for millions of city dwellers on the margins all over the world — from impoverished slum dwellers in Mumbai and Caracas, to the West L.A. bartender described on the preceding page.

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LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

“Even in the most destitute places, you start to see how modest enhancements like painted doors and flowerpots can contribute to the beauty and identity of the public and private realms.” —Vinit Mukhija

Explores The Informal City Mukhija, who concentrates on housing and poverty, first noticed the ubiquitous power of informality in his work studying slum redevelopment in Mumbai, India, which was the topic of his doctoral dissertation at MIT. “While the word ‘slum’ evokes a completely disorganized, crime-ridden place,” he said, “informality recognizes a richness, the hidden things like generational and social networks and norms that hold a community together.”

“Even in the most destitute places, you start to see how modest enhancements like painted doors and flowerpots can contribute to the beauty and identity of the public and private realms,” he said.

In California and elsewhere in the U.S., he has studied “colonias,” a broad term for unregulated, unincorporated settlements often found along the U.S.–Mexico border with varying degrees of functional infrastructure. Four years ago, Mukhija was an adviser for UCLA Luskin’s annual Los Angeles City Hall day, where teams of students worked with city officials to get a handle on unregulated but tolerated “granny flats.” In those conversations Mukhija recognized patterns of the informality phenomenon as it plays out in a modern, post-industrial city region. He deepened his research on the topic, developing an Urban Planning course called “Informal City: Research and Regulation.”

“There is just a small body of literature on informality,” Mukhija said. The idea first came out of the work of Caribbean economist and Nobel Laureate William Arthur Lewis on “subsistence sectors” in developing countries in the 1950s. The term “informal sector” was coined by British anthropologist Keith Hart in the 1970s. Elusive in its definition, the informality has evolved from merely meaning the opposite of formal structure, or shadow economies, to encompass its separateness as well as its overlaps and linkages with the systems, structures, rules and economies of everyday life.

In a 2011 essay, “Urban Design for a Planet of Informal Cities,” Mukhija laid claim to the term “Informal City” and argued that urban designers need to pay more attention to the concept. “The Informal City can benefit from the engagement

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

of urban designers and urban design can renew itself through such a commitment,” he wrote.

In the past year, he put together a UCLA Luskin Urban Planning speakers series on informal cities and began work with Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris on an edited volume on informal cities in the U.S. “Informal urbanism in the United States is understudied and often misunderstood,” they wrote in their proposal, which was accepted by MIT Press. “Planners and policy makers usually see informal activities at best as marginal enterprises that should be ignored, and at worst as criminal activities that should be stopped and prosecuted.

“Similarly, the physical settings that host such activities — the sidewalks, front lawns, garage apartments, parking lots, community gardens, and taco trucks—are equally understudied, though they have become an increasingly relevant part of the city for a number of social groups.”

Through the Informal Cities Speaker Series, co-sponsored by the Lewis Center and the Social Justice Initiative, the Luskin School community has had the opportunity to see the intellectual form of the book take shape. continued on next page

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faculty profile

Vinit Mukhija and Informal Cities continued FROM the pRevious page

Launched by a talk by the eminent sociologist Richard Sennett on “The Rituals, Pleasures, and Politics of Cooperation,” the series included topics as wide ranging as day laborers, street food, urban farming and food production, garage sales, the claiming of public space by marginalized minority groups, for cultural and artistic use (placemaking), social networks among homeless men and women, and the informal housing patterns in New Orleans pre- and post-hurricane Katrina.

One intriguing session was led by Gregg Kettles, deputy counsel to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who, also drawing on his experience in New York City, discussed his deep interest in the culture and regulation of L.A.’s street food vendors. Kettles defines informality of “law enforcement of the impossible,” and views food cart issues though regulatory lenses of “crystal rules,” which in the case of vendors, are clear, often spatially defined, (e.g. the distance requirements from a bus stop and entryways as well as requirements for health permits) and “mud rules,” like keeping clear records for taxes and employee protections, which call for a high degree of street-level discretion on the part of police and enforcement agencies. Kettles’ preference is for less reliance on crystal rules and more discretion in the enforcement of mud rules in order to encourage a more vibrant urban economy.

Ultimately, Mukhija’s goal is to bring the study of informal cities closer to the mainstream of urban planning research by taking a more comprehensive empirical approach to the topic, elaborating on its nature and underlying logic, and, in terms of the built environment, developing a spatial understanding of how informality works so that planners and policy makers can respond better to the challenges and opportunities that it offers to cities and their citizens. This summer, he is headed to Vancouver under a small grant from the UCLA Canadian Studies Program to study an innovative regulatory structure in effect to accommodate granny-flats there.

While the informal city encompasses a wide range of activities and participants, Mukhija says his focus remains on alleviating poverty. “My primary concern and strategy is to explore the conditions where the poor are more likely to benefit from informality, and what kinds of policy actions in response to informality privilege the poor,” he said. n

22

UCLA Luskin Urban Planning’s Newest Faculty Member Michael C. Lens on

Crime, Subsidized Housing and the City in research that has carried him through the study of crime and juvenile justice, to public housing benefits, to employment and back again.

As a Ph.D. student at NYU, he began to focus on housing and neighborhoods. “I saw that housing represented a huge government investment specifically aimed at lifting people out of poverty. That investment raises questions about localized neighborhood effects on crime, Michael C. Lens, the newest

employment and education,

addition to the UCLA Luskin

Lens said. “Over time, I devel-

Urban Planning faculty, has

oped a crime-shaped interest

had an idealistic streak for as

in housing.”

long as he can remember. As

Lens’s academic pursuits

an undergraduate at Macal-

in the area, combining, in his

ester College, he took a course

words, “street-level curiosity

from an extraordinary political

with my wonky analytic side”

science teacher, Chuck Green,

occurred in the wake of a shift

that set him on a policy analysis

federal housing policy away

path, with additional help

from building dense, concen-

from William Julius Wilson’s

trated housing projects in the

When Work Disappears and

city to greater use of federally

Earl Babbie’s The Practice of

subsidized housing vouchers to

Social Research (the latter which

allow families more choice and

he will be using in a research

geographical range.

methods course he is teaching

His dissertation at NYU

this spring quarter). These early

made the case that people

experiences began an interest

who use vouchers to find

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

rental housing live in much

housing projects, and dispersed

mental health overall. The

holds. High public service usage

safer neighborhoods than

it to the close suburbs where

outliers, however, tend to be

and low tax input would be the

those who live in housing

crime rates were rapidly, and

young adult males, whose

bottom lines here.”

built with government subsi-

less visibly, rising.

quality of life and mental

Looking ahead, Lens’s

health seem to deteriorate

UCLA Luskin Urban Planning

slightly.

research agenda is ambitious.

dies, such as the Low-Income

The Atlantic article was so

Housing Tax Credit program.

powerful that Lens joined his

This is surprising given the

NYU faculty advisers Ingrid

fact that voucher and Tax

Gould Ellen and Katherine

Los Angeles, Lens is looking

on the two primary ways that

Credit households live in

O’Regan to look at the trends

forward to exploring the city’s

you can improve neighbor-

neighborhoods with similar

using a longer timeline. The

neighborhoods and observing

hood conditions for low-income

poverty rates. This suggests

product of their research,

and researching local housing,

households,” he said.

that the greater choice that

bluntly titled: “Memphis

crime, employment and

the voucher program affords

Murder Revisited: Do Housing

health issues. Asked what he

opportunities to locate in

is being used to select safer

Vouchers Cause Crime?” was

believes his academic research

higher-opportunity neighbor-

neighborhoods rather than

published last year by the U.S.

offers to the leaders of cities

hoods. And second is to invest

neighborhoods where poverty

Department of Housing and

like Palmdale and Lancaster,

in distressed neighborhoods.

rates are lower. In other work

Urban Development (HUD) and

Calif., where neighborhood

Mobility versus revitalization

Now that he has moved to

“My research is largely centered

“First is offering families

“My research is largely centered on the two primary ways that you can improve neighborhood conditions for low-income households. First, is offering families opportunities to locate in higher-opportunity neighborhoods.

And second is to invest in distressed neighborhoods.” —Michael C. Lens in his dissertation, he finds

is forthcoming in the journal

tensions have risen in the

would be the simplest way to

that investments in subsidized

Housing Policy Debate. It

wake of an influx of voucher-

put it.”

housing may lead to neighbor-

concluded that there was “little

holding families, he answered,

hood crime declines.

evidence that the number of

“The research on vouchers

at the employment conditions

As Lens was writing his

His projects include looking

voucher holders in a tract leads

and smaller-scale subsidized

of neighborhoods where subsi-

dissertation, much of the public

to more crime.” Conversely,

housing is pretty clear — there

dized households live, whether

debate on the issues was

their evidence suggested a

is no evidence at all that

crime reduces commercial

framed by a bleak, powerful

reverse causal effect: that

crime increases or property

property values in neighbor-

2008 essay in the Atlantic

voucher holders tend to move

values decrease as a result of

hoods, and the effect of

Monthly titled “American

into areas where crime is

increased presence of subsi-

income inequality on concen-

Murder Mystery” by Hannah

already rising.

dized housing vouchers.”

trated poverty.

Rosin, which, citing the work

Subsequent research on the

“However,” he added, “if

“I am hoping to expand our

of University of Memphis

effects of vouchers has shown

you’re the city manager of

knowledge about how effec-

researchers Richard Janikowski

that most voucher holders

Lancaster or Palmdale, even if

tive different policies have been

and Phyllis Betts, argued that

tend to live in areas with

your constituencies were fully

at these two basic goals, and

the use of housing vouchers

lower poverty, with better

on board with housing subsi-

whether we can find ways to

had merely shifted crime from

homes, in safer neighborhoods

dies in the area, you still have

reliably address both problems

the inner city, where it had

with stronger social bonds,

a lot of reasons for not actively

in certain situations, so it is not

been concentrated close to

and report better physical and

seeking out subsidized house-

an either/or choice,” he said. n

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

23

alumni profile

BY Genevieve Haines

Queen Today the alley on the east side of Cahuenga between Selma and Hollywood Boulevard is a thriving pedestrian walkway filled with café tables. Only a year ago, however, the alley was packed with trash and strewn with hypodermic needles left by patrons of the nearby methadone clinic.

The transformation was sparked by the master’s thesis of SARAH MacPHERSON BA ’98 MAUP ’07, which she wrote while serving as associate executive director of the Hollywood Property Owners Alliance. Putting her theory into action, MacPherson brought together the Alliance, the (now dissolved) Community Redevelopment Association and L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti’s office to establish the city’s first pedestrian thoroughfare.

The effort prompted Garcetti to dub MacPherson ”Queen of the Alley” in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. We sat down to talk with her about the project, called EaCa Alley (for East Cahuenga).

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NewsForum | SPRING 2012

“It is very satisfying to know I don’t have a thesis that is sitting on a shelf somewhere. I wish everyone had the opportunity to see their vision realized because it is a really satisfying and joyful feeling.”

of the Alley

Sarah MacPherson, BA ’98, MAUP ’07

shared with businesses that are able to expand into the right of way with a permit.

It allows both businesses and the public to benefit.

Before Why pedestrian thoroughfares in Hollywood?

Hollywood is ripe for this type of pedestrian use because it is a historic district. We have 26 alleys throughout the district.

The alleys are underutilized and play host to lots of unsavory activities. The idea was to put the alleys to a higher, better use.

What’s changed in Hollywood to make this possible?

I’ve worked in Hollywood for 13 years and I’ve seen the community become more pedestrian-friendly with lofts, residential opportunities, more mixed-use. With an increased reliance on walking, it becomes even more important to have linkages between residential

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

After units, businesses and areas where people park.

Not many people get to see ideas from their master’s thesis take hold.

It is very satisfying to know I don’t have a thesis that is sitting on a shelf somewhere.

I wish everyone had the opportunity to see their vision realized because it is a really satisfying and joyful feeling.

We’re sitting at one of the tables in the alley. Talk us through what we’re seeing.

What you are seeing first and foremost is the foundation of the alley with pavers designed with state-of-the-art drainage. What is so lovely is that this is a city-owned alley.

It is open to the public and

What’s been the reaction?

Out of all the projects I’ve worked on 13 years in Hollywood, nothing has had as much attention as this alley. I guess in Hollywood, we’d call it a celebrity.

Where did you find help in making this happen?

I have to say, UCLA. My advisers Vinit Mukhija and Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris

gave me an academic perspective that was helpful in allowing me to see beyond the pure pragmatic logistics. I was able to bring a more idealistic perspective and a much more critical perspective to building a piece of infrastructure that people are going to use for years to come.

What role do you think UCLA should play in planning for the city and region?

I think urban planning is an interdisciplinary subject that

requires and needs some practical implementation. We can’t be talking about how cities work without seeing how cities actually work. The EaCa Alley is a great practical example.

Any “lessons learned” to share with others working to effect change?

I didn’t fully appreciate how complex the relationship-building is and how important it is to obtain a consensus within a community and build group ownership because that’s the only way the project will sustain itself over the long term. As much as we love the physical details, the community development is really what’s driving the long-term sustainability.

What’s next for you?

I’d like to graduate from the alley to a sidewalk or street!

A lot of lessons we’ve learned from this as far as civil engineering and utilization of sustainable materials can be adapted to sidewalks and other non-permeable surfaces that are causing run-off into the storm-drains and oceans. n

25

student profile

Planning is his passion Catching up with Carter Rubin, first-year student and 2012-13 Bohnett Fellow A third-generation Bruin, first-year urban planning graduate student and self-described “transit nerd,” Carter Rubin has been selected as a 2012-13 Bohnett Fellow. The fellowship program trains the next generation of public servants by bringing graduate-level policy research fellows onto the Los Angeles mayor’s staff.

We caught up with Rubin between his studies, his work with the UCLA Lewis Center where is helping develop a Statewide Transit Strategic Plan for Caltrans, his service on the board of directors of the Southern California Streets Initiative, and his job writing for the official blog of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

26

On how he got interested in urban planning “I grew up on the westside of L.A. and experienced what it was like when I couldn’t get anywhere without a car. Then I lived in Strasbourg, France, where everything is connected by buses and trams. It gave me a sense of what’s possible.

“My hope is that by improving our transportation system — better public transit, less-polluting vehicles, safer routes for bikes and pedestrians, etc. — we can improve quality of life, the environment and public health. I can’t really think of any field that would let me tackle so many pressing problems at once, while letting me embrace my inner transit nerd.”

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

BY Genevieve Haines

“I can’t really think of any field that would let me tackle so many pressing problems at once, while letting me embrace my inner transit nerd.”

On writing for The Source, the official blog of the Los Angeles County MTA at thesource.metro.net/ “With the blog, Metro wanted to help explain the urban planning process to the general public. I’ve tried to make it my goal to translate the language of urban planning into something people can understand, so they can get involved in the process.”

What interests him about the Bohnett Fellowship “Mayor Villaraigosa deserves a lot of credit for moving forward projects in Los Angeles like the bike plan. I’m looking forward to being a part of the actual decision-making process.”

The David Bohnett Fellowship Program offers hands-on working experience in the Office of the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles to exceptionally promising graduate students in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. This competitive program selects outstanding students to collaborate with UCLA faculty and senior executives in the mayor’s office, transforming scholarship into real-world experience at the heart of one of the most diverse cities in the world. The program is made possible by the generous support of the David Bohnett Foundation.

On what he’s learned at UCLA “I really enjoy thinking about urban planning through the lens of geography and through demographics, sociology and statistics. I think the city requires it, because it is so complicated.

“Professor Brian Taylor has been great about getting me and all the students to challenge some of the preconceived notions we may have about how cities work. Like the conventional narrative about Los Angeles — this sort of sprawling, cardependent metropolis. He forced us to look at the data and how it looks on the ground.

“You find that actually it is one of the best cities for public transit in the county in terms of ridership and the quality of the facilities. That has interesting and important implications for the opportunities for biking and walking and transit now.”

About finding his passion advocating for safer and more dignified environments for pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users through the Complete Streets movement “With Complete Streets, I’m most excited about the energy and enthusiasm throughout L.A. to experiment with a new way of experiencing the city. People are much more open to walking around our neighborhoods and engaging with neighbors and local businesses.

“It is important for economic and social reasons that we prepare for a world with scarce and expensive gas. The resiliency of our cities is going to depend on that — in the next generation and beyond.”

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

Build a Legacy that Moves Society Forward At the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, we are dedicated to building the future of social welfare, urban planning and public policy. We are preparing the kind of leaders and thinkers who will shape, empower and improve society for many years to come.

Through your support, you too, can have an impact on the future of society. A simple, flexible way to build a legacy and express what you believe in and wish for is to include the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in your estate plans. Such a bequest can be of any size and made with a variety of assets.

For sample bequest language and for more information on bequests and other gift planning arrangements, please contact the UCLA’s Office of Planned and Major Gifts: Write us at: 10920 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1400, Los Angeles, CA 90024 Call us at: 800-737-UCLA (8252) Email us at: giftplanning@support.ucla.edu Visit: www.legacy.ucla.edu

27

PHOTO: KOICHI SAKATA

student profile

Spring Break in Japan Students volunteer, study reconstruction following 2011 tsunami NOBUKO GOTO MPP ‘13 will never forget the obliteration of towns and villages in northeastern Japan when the earthquake and tsunami of 2011 changed lives forever. Back then, as a section chief for the Housing Department for the national government of Japan, she scrambled to find emergency housing for survivors suddenly left Nobuko Goto homeless.

This year, Goto, a Japanese national, left campus over spring break to return to a nation in recovery — and brought along 21 of her peers from UCLA Luskin. Graduate students

in public policy, urban planning and social welfare spent their spring break doing volunteer work with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the Sendai area.

Goto hoped the Japan trip gave her Luskin peers a greater understanding of her country, its people and its policies. Her fellow graduate students “will be the leaders of the future. I want them to be a bridge between Japan and America,” she said.

Students met with Yoshimasa Nakajima MPP ’08, a government staffer who is assisting in the reconstruction of the airport in Sendai. They volunteered with NGOs to deliver aid to people still in need and shared their college-going experiences with children living in temporary housing. The trip was made possible with the support of Dr. Paul Terasaki, UCLA professor emeritus of surgery and a generous supporter of the university. n —Cynthia Lee, UCLA Today

Watch a KTLA News segment featuring trip participant Lindsay Miracle MPP ‘13: bit.ly/w3sqxw

28

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

people

served as a program manager

change, opposing poverty and

on the Africa team of the U.S.

racism as factors in society,

Agency for International Devel-

and seeking ways to reduce

opment’s Office of Transition

disparities between rich and

Initiatives. She also served as

poor; white and black; men

a policy analyst on the inter-

and women. In Seeking Spatial

national affairs and trade team

Justice, Soja argues that justice

of the Government Account-

has a geography and that

ability Office. Read the article,

the equitable distribution of

“Famine Ravages Somalia in a

resources, services and access

World Less Likely to Intervene,”

is a basic human right. Building

at nyti.ms/qedpSk. Find her CFR

on current concerns in critical

essay at on.cfr.org/qqVkaV.

geography and the new spatial consciousness, Soja interweaves

BRONWYN BRUTON MPP

theory and practice, offering

’02 was quoted in a Sept. 15

new ways of understanding

New York Times article that

and changing the unjust geog-

also cited her 2010 Council on

raphies in which we live.

Foreign Relations (CFR) report

Doctoral candidate MEGAN HOLMES MSW ‘08 has been selected to receive the 2012 Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Doctoral

“Somalia: A New Approach.”

SUSAN FITZGERALD RICE

Fellows Award for her disserta-

The democracy and governance

MPA ’76 will be honored by St.

tion proposal research, “Effects

expert’s report discusses the

Mary’s College’s in Notre Dame,

of Maternal Parenting Quality

situation in Somalia and alter-

Indiana, with the prestigious

on the Development of Social

natives to intervention policies.

President’s Medal, presented

Behavior for Children Exposed

While hundreds of thousands

rarely and exclusively to those

to Domestic Violence.” SSWR

of Somalis suffer from a

who have offered exceptional

established the award “to

drought-caused famine, most

contributions to the life of the

recognize and support doctoral

aid from agencies continues

College and society. A resident

students whose proposed

to be blocked by militants

Seeking Spatial Justice by

of Los Angeles, Rice gradu-

dissertation research reflects

in that country. However,

Urban Planning distinguished

ated from Saint Mary’s and

innovative ideas and rigorous

unlike the 1990s, international

professor emeritus EDWARD

went on to earn an MPA from

methodologies related to social

military intervention doesn’t

SOJA has been awarded one of

UCLA and a doctor of educa-

work research, policy, or prac-

work and does not have much

the three Honorable Mentions

tion degree from Pepperdine

tice.” The award committee

support, according to experts.

for the Paul Davidoff prize,

University. Previously, she

commended Holmes’ research

“I don’t think there’s a case

one of the most prestigious

served as the president/chief

for the “significance of the

to be made that the famine

honors in the academic plan-

executive officer of the Greater

problem, the rigor of the

can be mitigated through

ning field. The Paul Davidoff

Los Angeles Zoo Association,

analysis and the contribution to

military intervention,” Bruton

award is presented by the Asso-

as director of development at

knowledge in social work and

said in the article. A 2008-09

ciation of Collegiate Schools

UCLA’s Anderson School, and as

social welfare,” said LAURA

international affairs fellow at

of Planning in recognition of

a board member for the UCLA

ABRAMS, associate professor

the CFR, the Swaziland native

an outstanding book publica-

Foundation and the League of

of social welfare and doctoral

has worked at the National

tion promoting participatory

Women Voters of Los Angeles

program chair. Conferred to

Endowment for Democracy and

planning and positive social

Education Fund.

Holmes at the SSWR annual >>

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

29

people

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

BRAD ROWE MPP ‘13 is a

will intern in the office of Rep.

writer for The Generation,

Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.). Students

a new online foreign affairs

in the program serve 10-week

journal produced for students

internships in Senate and House

by a team of undergraduate

offices, committees, Cabinet

and graduate students. Initi-

departments or the White

ated by UCLA’s Burkle Center

House. The Udall Foundation is

for International Relations,

an independent federal agency

which fosters research on and

established by Congress in 1992

promotes discussion of inter-

to provide federally funded

national relations, U.S. foreign

scholarships for college students

policy, and complex issues of

intending to pursue careers

global cooperation and conflict,

related to the environment,

MADELINE WANDER MURP ’12

The Generation offers student

as well as to American Indian

has been selected by the Board

perspectives on a wide variety

students pursuing tribal public

of Regents of the Eno Center

of international issues and

policy or health care careers.

for Transportation to participate

topics. “We’re not trying to be

in the 20th annual Eno Leader-

blindly provocative, but we’re

MICHELE PRICHARD MURP ’89,

ship Development Conference

trying to get people to think

director of Common Agenda at

in Washington, D.C. The Eno

about things in new ways,”

Liberty Hill, was honored with

Professor of Public Policy

Transportation Foundation is a

said Rowe. Read the journal at

a 2012 Distinguished Service

MARK KLEIMAN has been

neutral, non-partisan think tank

the-generation.net/.

Award, the Council on Founda-

appointed to the Committee

that promotes policy innova-

tions’ highest honor. Prichard

on Law and Justice, a standing

tion. The conference will provide

began working with the founda-

committee within the National

Wander with a firsthand look

tion as a volunteer in 1982. As

Research Council. An expert

at how transportation policy is

executive director from 1989 to

on crime policy, Kleiman was

developed and implemented.

1997, she helped create new

appointed to a two-year term

A research assistant for Profes-

grant programs addressing

and is among six new members

sors EVELYN BLUMENBERG

poverty, racial justice and envi-

of the board approved for

and BRIAN TAYLOR and a

ronmental health. Today, Liberty

membership by Ralph J. Cice-

graduate researcher at USC’s

Hill is considered one of the most

rone, chair of the national

Program for Environmental and

innovative public foundations in

Research Council. Professor

Regional Equity (PERE), Wander

the country. Prichard serves on

Kleiman also was recently

is focusing on transit equity,

the board of the Venice Commu-

named a National Institute of

environmental justice and travel

nity Housing Corporation and the

Justice Visiting Fellow. The

behavior. After graduation, she

Committee on Law and Justice

plans to conduct community-

ADELINE ARANAYDO MSW ‘13

L.A. Coalition. Los Angeles Mayor

was formed to increase scien-

based research around issues

is one of 12 students nationwide

Antonio Villaraigosa appointed

tific understanding of crime and

of environmental and economic

selected as 2012 Native American

her to the Harbor Community

justice issues and to provide

justice in low-income and disen-

Congressional interns through

Benefit Foundation in 2011. She

assistance to the National Insti-

franchised neighborhoods in

the Udall Foundation. Aranaydo,

has served as a senior fellow at

tute of Justice.

Los Angeles.

of the Tohono O’odham Nation,

UCLA Luskin since 2007.

meeting in Washington, D.C., the award is accompanied by $3,000 to support the completion of dissertation research, data analysis and preparation of the final dissertation document.

30

steering committee of the Green

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

design for a planet of informal

impact and opportunities

cities,” explores the concept of

from the new health care law.

the informal city (read more

Kitchen coordinated (with

on page 19), whereas Taka-

Sarah Starnes) more than 35

hashi’s essay, written with

presentations on the Afford-

Marlon Boarnet of UC Irvine,

able Care Act reaching from

argues for building a stronger

10 to 90 individuals in each

link between public health

setting. These ACA educa-

and urban design. Soja makes

tion sessions were targeted

the case that cities are going

to seniors, women’s groups,

through an unprecedented

churches, trade groups, small

spatial “postmetropolitan tran-

businesses and health profes-

sition” with the spread into

sionals. Kitchen also connected

what he terms the “exopolis.”

local health care advocacy

MARSHALL WONG MSW ‘86

Associate Dean Anastasia

received the 2012 Social Worker

Loukaitou-Sideris has

groups to the public library

of the Year award from the

teamed with USC professor

system, television, radio and

National Association of Social

Tridib Banerjee to edit a

news organizations.

Workers. This honor follows his

volume in which 58 of the

recognition as Social Worker of

leading international urban

SUSANNA HECHT, professor

the Year for California. Wong,

planning thinkers in the field

of political ecology at UCLA

who currently provides field

contribute reflective essays

Luskin and the UCLA Insti-

instruction for UCLA Luskin

that capture the “core, foun-

tute of the Environment and

MSW students, is the hate crime

dational, and pioneering ideas

Sustainability, co-authored an

coordinator for the Los Angeles

and concepts,” in current plan-

article for National Geographic

County Commission on Human

ning for the built environment.

with science writer Charles C.

Relations and established the

Companion to Urban Design

Mann, a correspondent for The

Hate Crime Victim Assistance

(Routledge, 2011) includes

Atlantic Monthly and Wired.

and Community Advocacy Initia-

entries by UCLA Luskin’s

tive in Los Angeles. Wong serves

Vinit Mukhija, Edward

ALICE (LAUGHLIN) KITCHEN

ronmentalists’ concerns that

as co-chair of API Equality-L.A.,

Soja, Lois Takahashi and

MSW ’72, volunteer co-chair

Brazil’s quilombos, century-old

a coalition of organizations that

Loukaitou-Sideris. In their

of the Affordable Care Act

settlements in the Amazon

focuses on the fair treatment

essay, Loukaitou-Sideris and

Public Education Committee

rainforest, could thwart efforts

of the Asian and Pacific Islander

Banarjee reflect on “Down-

for the Metropolitan Kansas

to preserve the rainforest.

LGBT community within the

town urban design,” writing,

City MO/KS area, was

Hecht argues that the villagers

greater Los Angeles area, and

“There are ample indications

honored by the White House

are actually vital caretakers

provides advocacy and commu-

that we are at the threshold

as one of 10 “Champions of

of the forest. The argument is

nity education. He also works to

of a new era of imaginative

Change” who are dedicated

ramping up as a 1988 Brazilian

ensure that students from immi-

urban design based strictly

to improving access to health

law helps more and more

grant families can continue their

on sustainability goals rather

care. According to the White

quilombos obtain ownership

education in the U.S. Watch a

than continuing with glam-

House, Champions of Change

of the land. Read the article at

video with Wong at youtu.be/

orous corporate complexes.”

are helping others in their

bit.ly/GElwza n

XPAotCc2ZWc.

Mukhija’s chapter, “Urban

community understand the

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

The article explores envi-

31

support header New fellowship program launches

Four UCLA Luskin students to work on critical, high-level issues as Rosenfield Fellows

In a program to kick off this summer, four UCLA Luskin students will tackle critical projects in high-profile organizations through the new Ann C. Rosenfield Public Affairs Fellowship Program. Thanks to the generosity of the Rosenfield Fund, Fellows receive fee remission for the 2012-2013 academic year and a paid full-time summer position that will continue as part-time to the end of the academic year.

Improving middle schools

Brad Rowe, MPP ’13 m Organization: United Way of Greater Los Angeles m Project: Rowe will research and create policy recommendations on a ground-breaking new

Tracking the progress of the Mayor’s policy areas

Encouraging a sustainable Southern California

Cody Reneau,

Leah Murphy,

Brandon Dowling,

MPP ’13

MURP ’13

m Organization: County of

m Organization: Office of

m Organization: Southern

the Mayor of Los Angeles m Project: As part of the

California Association of Governments (SCAG)

agreement between United

assignment, Reneau will

Teachers Los Angeles

redesign the Mayor’s

SCAG Regional Council

and Los Angeles Unified

Agenda Tracking System.

vote marked the first time

School District, with a

One of the office’s broadest

Southern California has

focus on middle school

and far-reaching manage-

adopted a Sustainable

improvements and how the

ment tools, the system

Communities Strategy.

agreement relates to the

establishes the office-wide

Monitoring implementation

United Way’s Leadership

fiscal year goals in each

and measuring success will

Matters and Diplomas Now

of the Mayor’s five policy

be key Agency priorities;

programs.

areas.

Murphy will assist in the

m Project: An April 2012

m Of note: Reneau will work

refinement of SCAG’s Perfor-

ment provides K-12 teachers

with Office of Finance &

mance Assessment Program.

and principals more oppor-

Performance Management

tunities to innovate with

senior staff member GREG

nation’s largest metropolitan

school-based reforms than

SPOTTS MPP ’08.

planning organization.

m Of note: The new agree-

m Of note: SCAG is the

Communicating with 10 million residents MPP ’13

Los Angeles Chief Executive Office m Project: The Board of Supervisors recently updated the Countywide Strategic Plan to include, for the first time, external communications as one of four critical focus areas for the entire organization. Dowling will work with County leaders and departments on methods to accomplish plan goals. m Of note: L.A. County is the nation’s largest municipal government.

ever before.

“The Rosenfield Fellowships will enable some of UCLA Luskin’s most promising students to get valuable real-world experience and develop a network of contacts that will help them in their professional careers.”

—David Leveton, Director of the Ann C. Rosenfield Fund

32

LUSKIN Forum | SPRING 2012

Renee and Meyer Luskin receive UCLA’s first Fiat Lux award from Chancellor Block.

The online professional networking site for UCLA Luskin graduates Luskin Online is a website exclusively for Luskin alumni.

You can locate your Urban Planning, Public Policy and Social Welfare friends as well as have access to

Luskin

UCLA Luskin CareerView.

Legacy The Luskin Legacy Campaign–

$30 Makes a Difference!

Last year alumni and friends answered the call— give a gift of just $30 to help current students through fellowship support. Thank you to all who helped raise nearly $15,000 in scholarship funding in just two months.

But why $30, you ask? In 1943 Meyer Luskin received a $30 scholarship to pursue his dreams at UCLA (when tuition was just $29). We asked alumni and friends to honor the Luskins’ Legacy with their own gifts of just $30. The message was simple and the results profound, proving that small gifts really do make a big difference.

Help to continue the Luskin Legacy by making your gift by June 30, 2012 to ensure our newest classes have the support they need.

Learn more about how you can give back at

luskinlegacy.ucla.edu.

www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

Exclusive access to: Online Alumni Directory Alumni Class Notes UCLA Luskin Photo Gallery Events Calendar Résumé Posting

and CareerView Job and Internship Database Search jobs and post opportunities!

Hire Luskin alumni and graduates!

To register, go to LuskinOnline.ucla.edu and enter your alumni or student identification number.

To receive your alumni ID#, contact Luskin Alumni Relations at AlumniRelations@publicaffairs.ucla.edu or call (310) 206-8034.

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE 405 Hilgard Avenue

PAID UCLA

Los Angeles, CA 90095 www.publicaffairs.ucla.edu

events

Career Center Hosts Fair for Alumni and Students Sherry Dodge, director of career services at UCLA Luskin

More than 50 top employers from the public, private and non-profit sectors recruited UCLA Luskin students and alumni at a career fair on campus in March.

Stanley R. Hoffman of Stanley R. Hoffman Associates (second from right)