A Publication of the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin School of Public Affairs
su m m e r 2014
BUILDING A BRIGHTER FUTURE
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10 change agents From an innovative online portal connecting families with social services, to a study mining data from LAPD drunk-driving arrests, UCLA Luskin faculty and scholars advance civic life in Los Angeles and around the globe. Going beyond academic inquiry, their work has real-world impact.
18 student research 20 lessons from the road 22 rasing the stakes departments
2 milestones 6 seen & heard 8 by the numbers
24 26 28
all the answers alumni notes lasting image
A publication of Dean Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. editors Alex Boekelheide, Sharon Hong Contributing Writers Max Wynn, Adeney Zo Photography Todd Cheney, Michael Moriatis, Kate O’Neal, Stan Paul, Crista Renee, Gus Ruelas, Rich Schmitt, David Sprague, Jon Yip.
Other photos courtesy Camille Guiriba, Ian Holloway, John Long, Randy Mai, Iczel Santizo Design ETCH Creative
20 from the dean In 2019 UCLA will celebrate its centennial. This spring the campus launched its Centennial Campaign — an ambitious five-year plan to raise the resources necessary to position the university to maintain and advance our commitment to excellence. 2019 also marks 25 years since Social Welfare, Urban Planning and Public Policy came together as a School devoted to scholarship, education and practice in the public interest. At UCLA Luskin, we seek to create a better world —“one person, one project, one place at a time.” We confront the most urgent issues facing our communities today — poverty, health care, transportation, child welfare and the environment, among others — through a unique multidisciplinary approach that turns innovative ideas into creative solutions. Against the backdrop of one of the world’s most culturally diverse and vibrant cities, UCLA Luskin uses Los Angeles as a living laboratory. Our students, scholars, and faculty take their scholarship to the streets, addressing global problems in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities. As active participants in L.A.’s civic life during their time at UCLA Luskin, students gain invaluable knowledge that they use throughout their careers as architects of positive, equitable change around the world.
We are extremely excited about the next five years. We have begun several new initiatives that respond to the complex problems that will define our future. For example, we are in the beginning stages of developing an institute examining the relationship between inequality and democracy, both in the U.S. and across the globe. We are also leading a campus-wide program focusing on the ways in which digital technology influences and is influenced by public decision-making (or as digital pioneer Jaron Lanier asked recently at a UCLA Luskin event, “Who will own the digital future?”). Finally, we have just graduated our first cohort of students receiving a certifi-
At UCLA Luskin, we seek to create a better world—“one person, one project, one place at a time. cate in Global Public Affairs, representing our renewed scholarly effort to provide our students a systematic understanding of the forces of globalization as they play out in governments, NGOs and the private sector. In the pages of this magazine, you’ll learn how one person, one project, one place can empower the lives of many.
milestones
CLEANTECH AND THE CITY A group of UCLA Luskin students from all three departments took a tour of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, a space for startups working in green technology. The trip was part of the 10th annual City Hall Day, during which students brainstormed with officials and agency heads on the question “Can Cleantech Drive the L.A. Economy?” ACCESS MAGAZINE WINS NATIONAL PLANNING AWARD Access Magazine, the publication housed at UCLA Luskin that reports on research funded by the University of California Transportation Center, was named the recipient of a National Planning Excellence Award by the American Planning Association. The award celebrates efforts to increase awareness and understanding about the planning profession, and “tell the planning story.” Urban Planning professor Donald Shoup serves as editor-in-chief of the publication, which aims to translate academic research into readable articles intended for a lay audience. The biannual magazine has more than 8,500 subscribers and 1,000 website visitors per month from more than 60 countries. Its ease of reading and widespread fan base has led to numerous reprint requests and articles being translated by international publications.
FACULTY HONORED
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MARK PETERSON
LAURA ABRAMS
MICHAEL LENS
Professor Peterson is slated to take over as chair of the Public Policy department on July 1. He brings a wealth of scholarly and administrative experience, including previous departmental chairmanship and service as head of the UCLA Luskin Faculty Executive Committee.
The Social Welfare professor’s article on the juvenile justice system was named the best article to be published in 2013 in the academic journal Social Service Review.
An article on the relationship between crime and subsidized housing by the Urban Planning professor was named one of the “Best Papers of 2013” by the Journal of the American Planning Association.
luskin forum / / summer 2014
impact HOLLOWAY EARNS TWO GRANTS FOR HIV PREVENTION STUDIES Social Welfare professor Ian Holloway has been awarded two grants totaling $75,000 to study sexual risk behavior among populations of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in Los Angeles County and the Dominican Republic. In a $25,000 award from the National Institute of Mental Health and administered through UCLA’s Center for HIV Identification, Prevention and Treatment Services, Holloway will lead a team of researchers looking at how mobile apps and social media can be used to deliver HIV prevention and treatment messaging tailored for Black MSM. The second grant of $50,000 over two years from the UCLA Center for AIDS Research/
AIDS Institutes focuses on the social and sexual networks of male sex workers in the Dominican Republic. Holloway and his co-researchers hope to learn more about how tourism economies in the Dominican Republic contribute to substance use and HIV risk through changes in the structure and composition of the social and sexual networks of Dominican male sex workers.
60
Percentage of jobholders in Highland Park that are female, according to a neighborhood profile conducted by students from professor Paul Ong’s Urban Planning 214 class.
$120,307
Average cost to house one youth in a juvenile camp for one year based on a report on Los Angeles County youth probation camp reform by Social Welfare professor Jorja Leap.
4
°
Average rise in Los Angeles region temperatures by the middle of this century, according to a report on economic and environmental value of rooftop solar conducted by J.R. DeShazo and Colleen Callahan of the Luskin Center for Innovation.
SOUNDS OF THE DIGITAL CITY Futurist and technologist Jaron Lanier appeared on stage at an April conference titled “Who Owns the Digital City?” After delivering remarks on the inherent unfairness of ownership structures in the new economy, Lanier played a selection of rare musical instruments, including this khaen, a traditional mouth organ from Laos and Northeastern Thailand.
2.5M
Number of tons of greenhouse gases the Luskin Center for Innovation research team estimates will be displaced from the environment each year as a result of LADWP’s FiT program for renewable energy.
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milestones
Potential reduction in the national incarceration rate if reforms to sentencing guidelines and other polices were implemented, according to research co-authored by Public Policy chair Michael Stoll.
new from the faculty bookshelf
When California slashed state budgets during the Great Recession, funding for HIV/AIDS testing plummeted. Despite a steep drop in state funding, however, newly reported cases of HIV/AIDS declined only slightly in comparison. A study by Public Policy research professor Arleen Leibowitz shows that the gentler decline in identification of new infections was due to the state’s flexible response to the budget crisis.
FUNDING 90k
MY LOS ANGELES: From Urban Restructuring to Regional Urbanization Distinguished Urban Planning professor Edward Soja’s new book analyzes future growth through the lens of Los Angeles’ socioeconomic landscape in the wake of the 1992 civil unrest.
86,931
80k 70k
66,629
60k 50k
30k 20,302
20k 10k
3,239
300
Urban Planning professor Susanna Hecht co-edited this book that examines humanity’s multidimensional relationships with forests and woodlands.
2010
2011
296
346
327
900 1,200 1,500 1,800 2,100
2,434
2,595 2,780
HIV/AIDS-Prone Jurisdictions Other Jurisdictions Total
2,235
2,299
2,400
NEW DIAGNOSES
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2,116
600
2,700
4
55,876
53,760
40k
2009
THE SOCIAL LIVES OF FORESTS
50,021
46,782
2,562
BIG WIN AT HOUSING CHALLENGE Second-year Urban Planning students (from left Daisy Miguel, Gustavo De Haro, Ara Kim, Randy Mai, Dennis Maravilla and Carlos Hernandez) celebrate their win at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Low Income Housing Challenge. The UCLA Luskin team took top honors for
“ It brings in a fresh outside perspective, just from the questions that are asked. I’ ll hear things here and then ask my staff, ‘Hey, why aren’t we doing this?’”
Xipe Totec, a proposed mixed-use development aimed at providing affordable housing for “transition-aged” youth 18-25. Proposed for a site in Boyle Heights, Xipe Totec is inspired by ancient native dwellings in Mexico and would include 58 housing units, an outpatient clinic, office and community space, and a youth center.
“ I knew that as a participant in the marathon this year, I would be a part of something much larger than just a great race.” — Social Welfare student Linnea Koopmans reflecting on her experience running her first Boston Marathon in 2014, one year after a bombing devastated the race
— L.A. Councilmember Mike Bonin on lessons learned from conversations with students during City Hall Day.
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seen & heard
The leaders of today and tomorrow have a chance to examine the options before us, discard what is broken, adapt what can be made to perform better and create new mechanisms where they are needed so that the global system benefits us all.� Madeleine Albright, the first female Secretary of State, at a Luskin Lecture Series event on Jan. 29, 2014
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When we first wrote The Great U-Turn, we began with a simple and fundamental premise: What is essential to the American Dream is the promise of an everimproving standard of living.” Northeastern University professor Barry Bluestone speaking on thirty years of growing inequality in the U.S. as part of the FEC Lecture Series on Feb. 25, 2014
For more than 40 years the black/ white household income ratio has stayed in the … 50 to 60 percent range, hasn’t changed. Another thing that hasn’t changed at all, since 1880, is the black/white per-capita income ratio.” William “Sandy” Darity, a professor at Duke University, giving a talk titled “Race, Ethnicity and Economic Inequality” as part of the FEC Lecture Series on April 29, 2014
If we don’t break up that cradle to prison pipeline, we are going to lose the last 50, 60 years of social progress.” Marian Wright Edelman, a veteran of the Civil Rights movement, discussing the link between social equity and child advocacy at a Luskin Lecture Series event on Dec. 4, 2013
The first approximation of the Internet was money.” Author and tech guru Jaron Lanier during a keynote address at the “Who Owns the Digital City?” conference, April 24, 2014
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by the numbers
Counting Bicycles
standardize public information about bicycle usage.
The Bicycle Data Clearinghouse is an interactive map that aims to Municipalities can add their own data, and the project trains local governments to collect this data consistently. Produced by a team housed at the Lewis Center, the map is available at bikecounts.luskin.ucla.edu.
HOW IT WORKS
Municipal governments collect bicycle usage data
Data is submitted to the Clearinghouse for processing
Clearinghouse produces and updates bicycle maps
Addressing Greenhouse Gases When faced with the prospect of spending limited dollars to reduce greenhouse gases, where will planners get the best bang for their buck? Juan Matute at the Lewis Center compared investments in high-speed rail, bus rapid transit, light rail and bikeway improvements to see which
deliver the most reductions in greenhouse gases for the least amount of investment.
would The projects aren’t substitutes for each other — sure, a bike ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco is carbon-neutral, but it would make for a difficult weekend trip — but the analysis helps planners investing state money accomplish their goals.
USER SAVINGS PER METRIC TON OF GHG EMISSIONS
$335 High-Speed Rail
$676
Planners and the public use the data to inform decisions
Bus Rapid Transit
$1,233 Light Rail
$3,569 Dedicated Bikeways
Water Reuse The average Californian uses 62 gallons of water at home each day. About half of that water is what is known as gray water, or water that can be filtered and reused. According to data from the Luskin Center, if California’s 37 million residents reused their gray water
the state would
save 1.1 billion gallons of potable water each day — enough to completely fill the Rose
Bowl stadium more than 13 times.
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Solar Jobs With more than 47,000 jobs across the state, California’s solar industry does more than installing panels on the roof — much more. The Luskin Center for Innovation and the Los Angeles Business Council has released multiple reports analyzing the bright future for this industry. California’s 47,000 solar jobs by function
California has
one third of the
55 %
nation’s total solar industry employment.
22% 6% 17%
california’s overall job growth
1.7% california’s solar job growth
8.1% 1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
In 2013, California’s job growth in solar outpaced overall job growth
55 % = installation 17 % = sales, distribution,
project management
22 % = manufacturing 6 % = other
Rooftop Solar 10,000 acres of rooftop space accessible for solar generation.
Los Angeles has over That’s more than 15 square miles — or about the size of the cities of Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood combined.
Santa Monica + Beverly Hills +West Hollywood 15 square miles
10,000 acres of rooftop space
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COVER FEATURE
UCLA Luskin operates “where elegant theories meet hard facts,� Dean Gilliam says, actively engaging research with the fabric of the community around Southern California and across the United States. Students develop skills and habits through ongoing problem solving for client partners. Faculty form ties with civic organizations to gain critical perspective on pressing problems facing our society. The result? A School that is at once a member of its community and a thought leader within it, a place of change agents serving the public.
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CHANGE AGENTS The real world can teach a lot of lessons. Ideas get tested, models become standards and theories get put into practice. By Sharon Hong
UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin School of Public Affairs luskin.ucla.edu
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COVER FEATURE
SERVICE DELIVERY “I don’t pick the easy stuff,” jokes Social Welfare professor Bridget Freisthler. She’s just finished explaining her latest project — a monster of a job with a tasklist that seems to grow just as quickly as boxes are checked. The logical response that comes to the hearer’s lips is, “That is a lot!” To which Freisthler answers back with a mischievous look: “I don’t pick the easy stuff, because then I would have time to sleep.” For Freisthler and other talented UCLA Luskin faculty, students and researchers like her, the work they aim to do is tough stuff. The results make waves, inform policy and touch thousands of lives in cities, counties, states and countries everywhere. Yet they aren’t shy about rising to the occasion. Bridget Freisthler Take Freisthler’s “Needs Portal,” for example. For the past year, Freisthler and her team of dedicated doctoral students have worked to
new cases or the ability to serve all the family’s needs. The Needs Portal allows DCFS caseworkers to submit a request via a secure website which then matches the services required with a list of community agencies who then respond if they can provide some or all of those services immediately. Families are provided with that list, and can make their own choices for services based on recommendations and location. It’s an elegant solution, and one that makes you wonder why it hasn’t been done before. Perhaps it’s because of the aforementioned “monster of a job” that it is. So far, Freisthler’s team has trained about 100 community agencies spread over 12 cities that are served by caseworkers in the DCFS Torrance Regional Office. They’re currently working on expanding the Needs Portal to cities in the South County Regional Office, and if everything goes well, hopefully it will make its way across the rest of Los Angeles County, Freisthler says. And while building a program and training caseworkers already sounds like a lot, it gets harder. Many caseworkers Freisthler has met have said they have “intervention fatigue.” “Everyone knows the current method of finding services doesn’t work efficiently and everyone tries to say this is the next best thing,” she says. “So a lot of this is a salesman job, and we try to be really responsive to every need the agencies have while they are using it.” That
“ It’s very rare that the senior community has had a voice in designing some of these spaces,” professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris says. “We are trying to get a lot of clues from the seniors themselves.” create a web-based program for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services that allows caseworkers to find out in real time which community agencies are available to help families that need it. It’s a solution to the age-old dilemma of DCFS workers having to find services a family has been mandated to receive without knowing which agencies have capacity to take in
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means a lot of discussing, evaluating, and working with a programmer to constantly revise the site. On top of it, Freisthler is still working out some bugs — figuring out how to work with the Department of Mental Health and other agencies that are bound by confidentiality requirements, so that they too can participate in the Needs Portal. She’s also working on criteria for screening
Project manager Madeline Brozen (left), Social Welfare professor Lené Levy-Storms and Urban Planning professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris are putting their theories to the test by designing parks for elderly populations. They are working to create a park in Los Angeles’ Westlake neighborhood. agencies — a minimum set of requirements that they’ll need to participate. Based on feedback so far, caseworkers are finding out about agencies they didn’t know existed, agencies are gaining access to people they hope to serve and families are getting real-time access to services that are ready to help and, soon, will be screened for quality. It’s a win all around. At a recent training Freisthler’s doctoral students gave at Teen Line, a telephone helpline for teens in California, the Needs Portal made a big splash. “Is this going to go national?” Teen Line’s Outreach Coordinator Alexandra Ehrlich exclaimed halfway through the
training. Though the hotline was meant to be for callers in California, Ehrlich says that their toll-free number has made its way to other states and even other countries. Not knowing what agencies could serve those teens has been problematic. The Needs Portal, with its searchable database and service-specific filters, would be perfect, Ehrlich says. With Freisthler’s team equipped with a cellphone that receives help requests at any time of day, they’re working as quickly as possible to work out all the Needs Portal’s kinks. They even plan to develop a mobile app for the DCFS workers who are slated to get smartphones this year.
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COVER FEATURE
Once that’s all done? “Let DCFS have it, if it works in linking families to services more quickly,” Freisthler says. “And use it as a model for other places.” Still, the most impressive part of the whole project is that Freisthler and her team are developing the portal from scratch. If something like it is already in use somewhere, she says she hasn’t heard of it. It’s a long, arduous improvisation. But she doesn’t pick the easy stuff.
FINDING SAFETY IN NUMBERS Neither does Brad Rowe MPP ’13, who with a team of researchers has spent months looking through drunk driving records provided by the Los Angeles Police Department. Rowe, working with Public Policy professor Mark Kleiman, has taken on this new project to find out whether aggressive people are more likely to cause death or injury in drunk driving accidents than people who are non-aggressive.
Does a driver’s criminal history predict his behavior behind the wheel? Brad Rowe MPP ’13 (center), Robin Jeffries and Greg Midgette MPP ’09 are working with the LAPD to find policy solutions that could help keep dangerous drivers off the streets.
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The research relies on drunk driving records in Los Angeles over the span of five years, which are then sorted by offender and cross-referenced to see if an arrestee had been charged with any violent acts in the past. The team is looking at a group of drunk-driving arrests to see whether DUI arrestees with violent priors were more likely to have caused an injury in the incident leading to the arrest. Then they will look at a past set of DUI arrests without injury to see if arrestees with violent priors are more likely to cause injury in the future. They will also analyze fatal accidents to examine the criminal histories of the responsible drivers. The preliminary research proposal submitted by the team lays out a plan to collect a sample of several cases from a universe of hundreds of thousands of DUI records. Greg Midgette MPP ’09 provided key analytical tools to guide the acquisition, sorting and analysis of the large volumes of data. Robin Jeffries, another UCLA
researchers, who are compelled to find solutions to questions or needs regardless of what’s come before. OPEN SPACES FOR ALL Which is where we find Urban Planning professor and associate dean Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Social Welfare professor Lené Levy-Storms and their project to provide parks for senior citizens — it all began with an unmet need. While working on a well-received toolkit for implementing “parklets” — unused or underutilized parking spaces in urban areas that convert into small public parks — Loukaitou-Sideris, along with Complete Streets Initiative program manager Madeline Brozen, noticed that seniors are one of the most underrepresented groups using public parks. “There is a good reason for that, because neighborhood parks are typically not considered spaces for
“ The policy implication, if a strong correlation is confirmed, is the level of sanction” for drunk drivers who cause death or injury in an accident, says Brad Rowe MPP ’13. graduate, brought her expertise in statistical modeling to the group, helping with criminal code and government data analysis. Jeremy Ziskind MPP ’11 provided critical analytical support as well, and Public Policy professor Manisha Shah is also on the team. “The policy implication, if a strong correlation is confirmed, is the level of intervention or sanction given to a DUI offender,” Rowe says. Ramifications for an agency like LAPD could include measures that help mitigate future drunk driving injury or death in Los Angeles. Part of the difficulty in working with the case data is that there isn’t a standard practice for writing arrest reports. An officer can choose to put multiple charges on one report or write separate reports for one incident. In the latter case, researchers have to seek out all reports for one arrestee and check to see if they are related to the same drunk driving arrest. It’s a large undertaking, but one that has never been done before, which makes it all the more worthwhile to Rowe, Kleiman, and the
seniors,” Loukaitou-Sideris explains. While other countries, especially in Europe and Asia, have recognized a need to build parks that cater to the needs of an aging population, the U.S. has been late, focusing instead on playgrounds for children or recreational parks for youth and young adults. Loukaitou-Sideris, Levy-Storms and Brozen are stepping in. They have a multi-faceted plan. “What we are trying to do with this project is, first of all, find knowledge from different fields about what an open space or public park for seniors should look like, how it should be different for different groups of seniors, incorporate some of the voices of senior citizens, create guidelines for future such spaces, and hopefully even apply this knowledge towards the creation of a park,” Loukaitou-Sideris says. Even more specifically, their research is geared toward developing parks for lower income urban seniors, who might not have access to open areas and the recreational, social and health benefits these spaces have proven to
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Cover feature
By working on a Needs Portal for the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services, Social Welfare doctoral candidates Kristina Lovato-Hermann (center left) and Marquitta Dorsey (center right) are connecting practitioners, like these staff members at Teen Line, to families that need help. provide. Levy-Storms has been collaborating with Los Angeles’ St. Barnabas Senior Services, an agency over 100 years old, in getting feedback on what seniors need and want in parks. “It’s very rare that the senior community has had a voice in designing some of these spaces,” LoukaitouSideris says. “We are trying to get a lot of clues from the seniors themselves.” Currently, a debate exists in research about parks for seniors concerning the best type of space. Some recom-
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mend intergenerational playgrounds, in which seniors can interact with all age groups and not feel isolated. Others say there should be exclusive “seniors-only” settings in order for seniors to have a safe outdoor public space that they consider as their own. Still others recommend “parallel play,” distinct but adjacent facilities for seniors and the general public. Loukaitou-Sideris notes that there isn’t really a right or wrong — the spaces, she says, should take into account what a community needs and wants in terms of their specific values and cultural
“But seniors are not only diverse in terms of their ages, but also in terms of their functional, psychological and social needs.” According to Brozen, a park for seniors might not look very different from a typical park, but little changes in detail make big differences to an older population. Walkways would be designed with seniors in mind (level pavement, gentle slopes), materials used to build the space might be different, more shady spaces should be included, and seating should have back support and be in plentiful supply. The fieldwork, focus groups with seniors, interviews with agencies serving them, and review of relevant research from public health, design and gerontology are complete. Now the team is ready to start writing a guide for how cities can build parks for the elderly. Funding for the research and guide comes from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, which also supported the successful parklets project. The team has also collaborated with the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, which is raising the $1 million necessary to build a park near the St. Barnabas senior center. Incidentally, St. Barnabas is just a stone’s throw from famed MacArthur Park, but the groups of seniors have said it doesn’t work very well for their needs. The research team’s goal is to meet those needs, and to do it beautifully. In most senior-specific parks the team has seen, there are no real design considerations. “In the photos it’s just a cluster of equipment fallen into space,” Loukaitou-Sideris says. “My design side rebels against that.”
“ We try to be really responsive to every need the agencies have while they are using it,” says professor Bridget Freisthler. characteristics. For the group at St. Barnabas, that means taking into account the age of the seniors, their ethnic backgrounds (of which there are many) and the culture of their specific Los Angeles neighborhood. “One of the things people mistakenly think is that everybody over 65 is the same,” Levy-Storms says.
This is the challenge that the team has taken on — providing a safe space where a group of seniors in downtown Los Angeles get to experience more than just a patch of grass or a driveway. Eventually, their comprehensive guide will help other cities learn how to build parks for seniors, turning their research into action in Los Angeles and across the U.S.
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Student Research
UCLA Luskin faculty and alumni are not the only ones doing important and influential things. Students are also impacting their communities with their coursework. The Applied Planning Research Project that Urban Planning students complete as part of their degree program involves taking on community agencies as clients and conducting research that the agency can then apply to their field — sometimes with huge results. In 2013, a group of urban planning graduate students created the first comprehensive picture of urban agriculture in Los Angeles County on behalf of the University of California Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County. The research report, which mapped urban agriculture locations throughout the county and also indexed zoning laws, was widely covered by the media for its groundbreaking work. In May 2014, the project received the American Planning Association Los Angeles Chapter Award of Excellence. Here’s some of what they found: 761 active school gardens
WHAT’S GROWING ON OUT THERE?
1,261
The Urban Planning students verified urban agriculture sites in Los Angeles County, which they categorized as school gardens, nurseries, farms, and community gardens. [As of the report publication in June 2013]
211 nurseries
17% 60%
171 farms
14% 9%
LOCAL VS. URBAN
118 community gardens
The price of purchasing from urban farmers is inflated compared to rural counterparts.
=
Urban organic eggs might be $1 each
= Typical price in grocery store is $1.50 – 3.50 /dozen But even some farmers’ market vendors aren’t as “local” as consumers might think. The biggest farmers markets in Los Angeles are mostly comprised of vendors from rural farms located 100s of miles from the city.
No Gills Allowed Gardena is the only city in the county that expressly prohibits fish or fish-keeping. Urban farmers travel 13.9 avg miles for distribution
Educating: The top five jurisdictions for school garden indices are located in Southern LA County.
Farmers’ Market vendors travel 46.8 avg miles for distribution
15 CATEGORIES OF URBAN AGRICULTURE ACTIVITIES WITHIN LOS ANGELES COUNTY
bees
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fowl
agricultural waste
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aquaculture
fish
fruits/ vegetables
heavy livestock
horticulture
goats
pigs
horses
CONFUSING REGULATIONS According to the research, even though urban agriculture is taking place on various scales in all 88 cities in the county, it is not effectively managed by city planners. Of the county’s 88 cities and unincorporated areas, only 29 specifically designated an agriculture zone. That means most urban agriculture is taking place on parcels of land not specifically zoned for agricultural activities.
Farm Friendly Little Rock community in Antelope Valley is home to seven farms. It is among the top five jurisdictions for farms in the county.
87% of the cities regulate animal farming 25% regulate fruits, vegetables, flora
MOST & LEAST REGULATORY > Beverly Hills has the fewest regulations, only prohibiting bees and fowl (Avalon, Bell, Maywood, West Hollywood also fail to regulate 13 out of the 15) > The City of Gardena prohibits more agricultural activities than any other city, outlawing seven areas of urban agriculture (Carson and Inglewood each prohibit six of the 15)
’’ Fowl
also has a wide range of interpretation between cities’’ Of the 38 vendors at the Altadena Farmers’ Market, 13 are fresh food vendors, 12 are artisanal food vendors, 11 are prepared food vendors and 3 are non-food vendors.
Flowering 41% of cities with specifically designated agricultural zones are located within the San Gabriel Valley.
PLOWING ON Inspired by CultivateLA, Urban Planning student Jes McBride conducted her capstone research project on clarifying regulations and even easing restrictions in order to nurture urban agriculture in the city. Green Thumb: Long Beach contains 19 community gardens, about 1/6th of the total amount in the county.
Her recommendations based on research of regulations in the Los Angeles municipal code, zoning code, and other local government agencies, plus investigation of advocacy and practice history related to agricultural activities: Short term goals: > Allow any domestic animal where equines are allowed > Redefine “truck gardening” and allow a modest amount of sales on-site > Publish a citywide user-friendly guide to urban agriculture regulations in Los Angeles.
Long term goals: farms
garden
nurseries
> Create an urban agriculture chapter of the municipal code that consolidates pertinent egulations > Reconsider lot size requirements and other restrictions based on best practices of the current iteration of urban agriculture in the United States
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feature
At UCLA Luskin, we refer to Los Angeles as a “living laboratory” — an extension of the classroom in which we hope our students will walk, discover, learn and grow. This year during spring break, nearly 50 students across all three departments took the laboratory beyond L.A. and traveled to different cities and countries to enhance their education.
One group of 28 students encompassing all three UCLA Luskin departments brought the classroom to Mexico City to learn new ideas in social justice, equity and community empowerment. Led by Urban Planning professor Brian Taylor, the students followed a rigorous five-day schedule, meeting with city and nonprofit workers on topics such as bikesharing, parking management, women’s needs, sustainable development and public space programming. The trip was intended to inspire the students to think about applying what they learned there to their cities at home, and to establish connections with important organizations. Second year Public Policy student Dustin Foster, who is a recipient of a fellowship from the Institute of Transportation Studies, was one of those students.
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Foster said his studies at UCLA Luskin have given him a solid background in transportation finance, policy and planning. Coupled with his research in sustainability and environmental planning, he found himself able to fully engage with the people he met and join in the discussion. The trip also had an unexpected bonus for Foster, who was inspired by the innovation displayed by the Mexico City government workers. “The trip has made me realize the importance of becoming a global citizen and fostering connections with people from other countries, to learn from each other and share success stories,” Foster said. “Considering my future work, exploring the city has helped me see the importance of public space, public transportation
and bicycle and pedestrian planning. I hope to continue learning from other innovative cities around the world in these areas, and I hope to one day bring this knowledge back to Los Angeles.” As a Social Welfare student Skye Allmang wasn’t as familiar with topics like planning and infrastructure, but she said the preparation before the trip helped her to listen to conversations with Mexican officials through the filter of gender and socioeconomic status. “All week I was thinking, ‘Who is benefiting from this planning and these policies? Who is being left out?’” Allmang said, adding that the trip highlighted “how people from the fields of social welfare, public policy and urban planning can work together on social justice issues.”
That kind of collaborative and compassionate thinking was definitely needed for the students who traveled to Japan to visit areas affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. First-year policy student Jonathan Slakey signed up for the trip to learn a new approach to policy and see coordination of efforts in action. When he graduates, he hopes to use his degree to be a bridge between
Urban Planning student Lucia Fischer saw the significance of that unity on her spring break trip to Detroit. Fischer said prior to the trip she expected to see the misery of a dying American city, but she was surprised by its vibrancy and the commitment that Detroit’s citizens and public servants have made to rebuilding it. A particularly memorable part of the trip for Fischer was attending a
hometown is brought up in almost every class she’s had at UCLA. “It’s the canonical example of a city that can’t seem to figure out what to do with its mounting issues. At the same time, images of the city’s decay are going viral. These images portray a hollowedout core of a city, wrought with abandonment. And these images wouldn’t be far from the truth. But they don’t capture
international fundraising agencies and local nonprofits in developing countries. One of the most memorable moments of the trip, Slakey said, was seeing the ruins of a town and hearing how a brave government employee sacrificed her life to continue warning villagers over the PA system to flee. And while his courses in statistics and political institutions and processes were key for him to evaluate and understand discussions with Japanese officials, the trip also taught him a valuable lesson in the preciousness of life. “Feeling the force of that message in Japan signifies to me the increasing importance of an international sense of community. We have to stand beside our fellow humans when hardship strikes,” he said.
neighborhood meeting led by Mayor Mike Duggan. While she expected the meeting to be hostile, she found it to be orderly, reasonable and efficiently handled. She was struck by the “cohesive spirit” and hope. Yet, having been focused on the importance of regional connectivity for economic development in her studies, Fischer noticed the inadequate regional transportation systems that both lowerincome citizens and economic growth depend upon. She also came to truly understand the importance of economic diversification in sustaining a city when one industry goes south. Classmate Lilly O’Brien brought a unique perspective to the trip as a native of Detroit. O’Brien explained that her
the humanity in Detroit,” O’Brien said. “They don’t portray the people in the city who have stayed, willingly or unwillingly. They don’t capture the people who are dedicated to getting it right for once.” Still, she said this home visit was different, because she was now seeing it through the lens of the urban planning curriculum. This helped her relate to her classmates’ perspectives, and she was able to fully appreciate the challenges of Detroit’s stakeholders, and engage in dialogue with the city’s leaders that critically explored strategies and issues. And the biggest takeaway she had from this trip, which sums up all three UCLA Luskin spring break trips very nicely: “We got work to do.”
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FEATURE
RAISING THE STAKES
UCLA Luskin would not be able to carry on its work — on- or off-campus — without a robust network of dedicated supporters. These close friends of the School provide crucial funding for research, scholarship and service programs in a number of ways. As UCLA launches its Centennial Campaign this year, we pay tribute to these donors with impact. UCLA Luskin creates a collaborative atmosphere that encourages public activism in the larger community. It is a family I’m proud to be part of.” Michael Mahdesian MA UP ’83, Chairman, Servicon Systems
Today’s world requires a generation of problem solvers trained to develop programs aimed at improving the lives of those living in the 21st century.” Jeff Seymour, President, Seymour Counsulting Group
STUDENT FELLOWSHIPS In the face of tuition costs that climb higher every year, UCLA Luskin students receive a boost from a small but growing group of graduate fellowships, including a new one funded by Social Welfare alumna Antonia Tu. Tu, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and 1973 MSW graduate, is one of many friends of the School who provide annual support to students pursuing their graduate degrees. By helping lower the cost of attending UCLA Luskin, fellowship donors enable students to pursue areas of inquiry that may have otherwise gone unexplored, taking calculated risks in the name of social innovation. In helping propel these young leaders to the next stages of their careers, supporters like Antonia Tu are weaving the threads of our civic fabric for the next generation.
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With the challenges our society is facing today, it is critical that all voices are free to contribute solutions. UCLA Luskin is a source of fresh ideas and an inclusive approach that aims to give everyone in the city the power to create a bright future.” Cynthia McClain-Hill, Managing Director, Strategic Counsel PLC
I think one of the most valuable qualities of UCLA Luskin is its ability to build a bridge between policies and practice. Long gone are the days where academics and government could operate at full throttle without partnering with the other.” Michael Fleming Executive Director, David Bohnett Foundation
UCLA Luskin brings an evidence-based view of Southern California. Whether the topic is the state of education, regional policies or economic impacts, the School is viewed as a credible source of knowledge. By combining UCLA Luskin’s efforts with those of civic leaders, both can have a dramatic impact on the quality of life in Los Angeles and throughout the region.” Noel Massie President, Southern California District, United Parcel Service
ENDOWED FACULTY SUPPORT What’s the best way to spark new ideas? Break people out of their silos and give them a chance to work together. That’s the thinking behind the new endowed Archie Kleingartner Fund for Faculty Excellence, made possible by a generous $500,000 gift from the Long Family Foundation. Foundation chief John S. Long, a UCLA alumnus and president of the real estate investment firm Highridge Partners, wanted to help professors be more free to cross disciplinary boundaries and uncover new areas of impact. Of special interest: projects aimed at understanding the economic relationships between the U.S. and China. “Researchers can’t just focus on their own areas anymore,” Long says. “There’s got to be a global orientation.” The endowment will be directed by a faculty committee charged with identifying exchanges between UCLA and Chinese universities. As the Centennial Campaign for UCLA gets underway, the Long Family Foundation gift has firmly established UCLA Luskin as a global research hub.
PLANNED GIVING With a planned gift, friends of UCLA Luskin can make an impact that lasts generations into the future. Board of Advisors chair Susan Rice and her husband, Donald, have elected to honor UCLA Luskin with a planned gift supporting the School’s general fund. As time goes on, she believes that School administrators should have the flexibility to respond to challenges as they arise. Two issues she sees looming on the horizon: the increased availability of “big data” to address society’s problems and the responsibility of civic leaders to ensure services align with
needs. “UCLA Luskin’s training for using big data and data analytics will be essential for projecting future needs,” Rice says. Effective service delivery cannot happen without the proper combination of political skills and knowledge of the political process.” George and June Pollak have also planned their giving. George, a 1952 graduate of the Master of Public Administration program, the predecessor to today’s Master of Public Policy, have ensured that their legacy will support original faculty
work. “It is very challenging for faculty members to find support for original research,” they say, particularly with younger faculty members still nurturing their research agenda. George is pleased that his involvement with UCLA will continue in perpetuity. “I have a lifelong connection to UCLA, and I treasure that,” George says. “I look back fondly upon being among the first MPA graduates of UCLA.”
These names are a representative sample of students for whom Martin Wachs served as a dissertation advisor during his time at UCLA.
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All the Answers
Miriam Aroni Krinsky, Lecturer, Social Welfare
As executive director of the Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence, Miriam Aroni Krinsky helped draw attention to mismanagement of county jails by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. In the 18 months since the commission’s highly critical report, troubles at the department have deepened further — Sheriff Lee Baca resigned before the end of his term in the wake of the report’s release, and nearly two dozen deputies are currently facing federal prosecution for corruption and civil rights violations. As County voters prepare to select a new sheriff, Krinsky shared her experience on the commission.
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By the fall of 2011 when the commission was created, there was both a moment of crisis and a perfect storm of mounting concerns in regard to the Sheriff’s Department. There had been literally decades of past reports and recommendations for reform, but the Sheriff ’s Department had been through somewhat of a cycle of “Groundhog’s Day.” Problems and concerns were identified, fixes and reforms
The culture of the department can’t possibly be changed in 18 months or even a couple years. I think that’s really going to be the heavy lift for the new sheriff. What tone does he set? What kind of people does he hire and promote? How does the sheriff address codes of silence? How do they punish false statements by deputies? Coverups? That’s still work to be done.
were proposed, issues were resolved in part, and then the very same problems resurfaced. So I think there was an increasing feeling of frustration that serious institutional concerns existed, and they had persisted for too long. There was also a growing public focus on what was going on at the Department and accounts of excessive use of force by deputies, especially in the jails. And then, on top of all of that, everyone was aware that the federal Department of Justice had come in and was looking at the Sheriff ’s Department — and the County jails in particular — with an eye on both possible criminal indictments as well as litigation regarding civil rights violations. So in my mind, I really felt that our commission was created in the midst of a “now or never” moment. And if we didn’t seize the moment it was going to pass, and things would continue into the future operating the way they had for decades past. We really were able, in some ways beyond what we had expected, to see huge changes come about. But I still firmly believe that there’s unfinished business. If you look at the period of time since our commission’s report was issued, really every top manager in that department whom we identified as having contributed to the problems that we saw has since either retired, resigned or in some other fashion left the department. Given the fact that our report fundamentally attributed the problems to a failure of leadership, I think that’s been huge. We expressed concern regarding the nature and amount of force in the jails. In the intervening year and a half there’s been a dramatic reduction in the use of significant force. We have also seen an increased reporting of less significant force, the kind of force that’s easy to sweep under the rug. These changes are a good thing. They show that force, when used, doesn’t escalate and is limited to what might be needed to contain the situation. They also reflect that more minor force incidents are coming to light and that the reporting system is capturing a more accurate picture of what’s happening in the jails.
And a key component of these ongoing efforts, in my mind, is rebuilding and regaining the trust of the community. I’ve been in a number of meetings where I’ve heard community groups talk about the fact that they simply don’t trust the Sheriff ’s Department — that there is a black cloud over it. It’s almost like a fractured marriage. And I think a new sheriff needs to come in and glue that relationship back together. Our commission was the empowering voice that was able to be the champion for those who too often aren’t otherwise going to be listened to, and are particularly disempowered in our communities. We had the ability to lift up those concerns and credibly come forward, to call it like it was when we were troubled by what was going on. One of the most moving moments for me was at the end of our process, when a member of the public, a young man, came forward during the public comment part of our hearing. He said that in his mind, even if none of our recommendations actually got implemented — not a single one — just the fact that we had existed for the year that we were in place meant that there were people that otherwise would have been beaten or mistreated in the jails who were spared abuse. Simply our existence and the spotlight that we put on these issues meant that individuals from our community had walked out of the jails without having been subject to emotional, mental or physical harm. I walked away from that and knew that for all the long hours, for all the challenges of the work, it had been worth it. Whatever happened to our report, it had been worth it. It’s not often that you can look back and feel that you’ve been able to be part of making something — especially a large institution that’s part of the fabric of our community — better. I feel like we were able to do that.
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Alumni notes
BRUINS DOING GOOD
Iczel Santizo MPP ’10 (left) is the co-founder of Kishé Foods, a U.S.-based social enterprise created with the goal of gaining support for fair trade coffee as well as self-sufficiency for small-scale farmers and, in particular, women in the industry. Santizo grew up in Guatemala at a time of civil war, and she became involved in Kishé to help fulfill a lifelong desire to empower underserved people in Central America.
The social prescription for most veterans facing challenges in civilian life should be the same: find them a social network to replace the one they lost. Mike Stajura MPP ’05 writing in TIME Magazine in an article titled “What Ails Vets Today.” Stajura graduated from West Point before serving in the Army from 1995-2002.
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IN MEMORIAM: MARJORIE CRUMP MSW ’46 Marjorie Eloise Lund Crump, who did significant work in public service and entrepreneurship and who, together with her husband Ralph, was a major supporter of UCLA, died of natural causes on April 1 at her home in Trumbull, Conn. She was 89. Marjorie and Ralph, who was also a UCLA Alumnus, supported UCLA Luskin through the Crump Chair in Social Welfare, which they established in 1988. It was the first faculty chair in Social Welfare to be established at UCLA. In addition, the Crumps created and funded the UCLA Crump Institute of Medical Engineering, now called the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging; the William D. Van Vorst Chair in Chemical Engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science; and the Crump Chair in Medical Engineering at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine. Marjorie Crump worked as a social welfare case manager for Los Angeles County before the family moved to Connecticut in 1962. In both California and Connecticut, she was deeply involved with charitable causes and community groups. She co-wrote history books with her husband, served as a substitute teacher, and exhibited a profound appreciation for the arts and the outdoors. Marjorie Crump is survived by her husband of 66 years, her three children and their families.
ON THE (BIKE) PATH TO MAKING A DIFFERENCE The bridge between the academic and the working world can be a difficult one to navigate, and for 2011 Urban Planning alumnus Omari Fuller, graduation entailed a bit of self-discovery before he found his current career. “The Urban Planning program was challenging, but it ultimately gave me the preparation and skills to enter the work world. It also led me on a route of trying out different things and finding out what really inter-
ests me,” Fuller recalls. Ultimately, one aspect of Fuller’s days as a commuter student sparked his interest in returning to the urban planning field. “When I was a student, I made an 8-mile bike commute, several times a week, to go from East Hollywood to UCLA,” explains Fuller. “Very quickly, it became a matter of putting my life on the line just to get to school each week.” Fuller now works for the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition, a non-
profit “advocacy and resource organization” that aims to improve road safety and provide resources for local bikers. “So many fatalities happen with cars, but these are preventable through proper integration with other modes of transportation,” says Fuller. “My main goal in my work is to make it safe for everyone to go to the city — whenever, wherever and however they’re going.”
TELLING THE TRUTH ON TRANSPORTATION According to three of the nation’s leading transportation scholars, the United States’ transportation system is in trouble. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, the three professors — David King of Columbia University (left), Michael Manville of Cornell University and Michael Smart of Rutgers University — laid out the obstacles that the troubled system is facing. The three professors, all of whom earned Ph.D.’s from UCLA Luskin’s Urban Planning program, wrote in response to a report published by the American Public Transportation Association, in which that organization claims that public transit use had reached an all time high. King, Manville and Smart believed that the APTA’s numbers were deceptive, and that they obscured the real issue. To start with, the APTA’s report included an important caveat, “’all time’ means ‘after 1956.’” They then point out that public transit usage rates have remained both low and stagnant since that year.
The UCLA Luskin graduates made it clear that they are “strong supporters of public transportation, but misguided optimism about transit’s resurgence helps neither transit users nor the larger traveling public.” The professors went on to explain that the real problem is that drivers do not pay the true cost of driving. “Drivers impose costs on society — in delay, in pollution, in carbon, in wear and tear on our roads — that they don’t pay for.” “Increased subsidies for public transportation have neither reduced driving nor increased transit use” they wrote. “But ending subsidies to driving probably would do both.”
alumni honored Nathalie Rayes MPP ’99 was honored as Alumna of the Year by the Department of Public Policy. She is currently the U.S. National Public Relations Director for Grupo Salinas and Executive Director of their philanthropic arm, Fundación Azteca America.
Joan Ling MA UP ’82 has been named Alumna of the Year by the Department of Urban Planning. She currently works as a real estate advisor and policy analyst and teaches real estate, housing and planning courses at UCLA Luskin.
Melinda Morgan MSW ’89 Ph.D. ’98 has been named the Joseph A. Nunn Alumna of the Year by the Department of Social Welfare for her commitment to helping military families through the Camp Pendleton FOCUS Program.
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lasting image
“Paseo de Todos” means “Everyone’s Ride.” It’s a citywide bicycle festival, and the version in Mexico City takes place on the last Thursday night of every month. A group of UCLA Luskin students visiting Mexico over Spring Break rode along, joining more than 4,000 cyclists of all ages from across the city. Like a monthly version of Los Angeles’ CicLAvia, “Paseo” lets residents experience the city at a human level, under the stars. Photo by Urban Planning student Camille Guiriba
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GIVE BACK TO THE NEXT GENERATION Join the Dean’s Associates! Friends of UCLA Luskin who contribute annually with gifts totaling $2,500 or more are enrolled in the Dean’s Associates, an exclusive group of the School’s closest allies supporting student fellowships and other critical needs. Dean’s Associates members receive: >>> Invitations to special events and networking opportunities >>> Recognition in School publications >>> Personal assistance with campus needs >>> Complimentary parking for select campus events >>> Additional benefits available through the UCLA Fund For more information, contact the development department at (310) 206-7949.
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Every summer, UCLA Luskin students live and work around the globe as part of the International Practice Pathway program. Read how our students are spending their #GlobalLuskin summer on our UCLA Luskin Abroad blog: uclaluskinabroad.wordpress.com. Learn more about Global Public Affairs at UCLA Luskin at global.luskin.ucla.edu.