News
Climate Change Initiative Director Juan Matute Interviewed By UCLA Today
Juan Matute, Director of the UCLA Climate Change Initiative was recently interviewed by UCLA Today. Click here to read more about climate change, transportation, and what we can do about it. Juan Matute is the director of the UCLA Local Climate Change Initiative at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. He studies how to transform notoriously car-dependent cities like Los Angeles into cleaner, greener, but still useable public-transit hubs.
CicLAvia Associated with Increased Sales to Local Businesses
LOS ANGELES, October 1, 2012 — Businesses along the June 2013 CicLAvia route experienced a 10 percent bump in sales on the day of the event, a new study from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs has found. The increase was greater among those businesses that engaged with CicLAvia participants such as with a vending table or music. “Active participant” businesses saw their sales increase 57 percent according to the study, with sales revenue increases of $1,356 on average compared to $407 on average for all businesses. With the eighth iteration of L.A.’s day of car-free streets approaching on October 6, the data gives business owners, residents and CicLAvia participants tips on how to make the most of the unique interactions that happen during the event. Approximately 150,000 people on foot, bikes and skates experienced iconic Wilshire Boulevard as part of the CicLAvia event on June 23, 2013. Researchers at UCLA Luskin’s Complete Streets Initiative and the Luskin Center for Innovation[…]
Juan Matute Addresses California Assembly Committee on Community and Neighborhood Development
Manager of the Local Climate Change Initiative Juan Matute addressed California State Assembly Members about options to finance public improvements. Matute recently wrote a policy brief on the evolution of policy options used to fund or finance local infrastructure improvements in California. A key finding was that though financing needs for infill settings in established communities were more complicated, fewer practical financing options existed in these areas. On Wednesday, August 28th, the California Assembly’s Select Committee on Community and Neighborhood Development held a hearing to explore challenges to funding and financing infrastructure improvements in established communities, especially in light of the dissolution of redevelopment in California two years ago. Matute and UCLA Urban Planning alumnus and City of San Diego Planning Director Bill Fulton gave official testimony about the challenges to infrastructure finance in established communities, where many statewide funding mechanisms are less applicable or more difficult to use. At the hearing, the Assembly Members and witnesses discussed options to institute a more limited form[…]
Study: Downtown L.A. Parklets Improve Community, Quality of Life
In February 2013, City of Los Angeles unveiled its first pair of parklets. Six months forward, UCLA Luskin and affiliated researchers have found the parklets bring an improved quality of life to residents and visitors along the Spring Street corridor. In an evaluation (PDF) completed as a part of the “Reclaiming the Right of Way” project, researchers at UCLA Luskin’s Complete Streets Initiative and the research collaborative Parklet Studies monitored various elements one would find in a thriving urban street setting — including pedestrian and bike traffic, use of public space, and patronage of local businesses — to gauge how the neighborhood has changed since the parklets were installed. Parklets are small public spaces created in urban areas from the conversion of parking spots, alleyways and other underutilized spaces for cars into places for people. Los Angeles joins New York, San Francisco and Vancouver, B.C., in the ranks of cities that have encouraged parklets as innovative solutions to increase access to open space and provide[…]
2013 Lake Arrowhead Symposium Focuses On Smart Technologies, Smart Policies
The 23rd annual UCLA Lake Arrowhead Symposium on the Transportation – Land Use – Environment Connection will explore the implications of recent and foreseeable future technological innovations for transportation, land use, and environmental policy and planning. The Symposium is an annual invitation-only retreat attended by about 125 policy makers and senior policy analysts from around the country. Many of the most prominent thinkers and policy makers from around the globe have spoken in this series. The Symposium is a joint endeavor of ITS and the Lewis Center. For more information and to view the 2013 program, click here.
Housing Lecture Series Recap: Interest Rates and Fundamental Fluctuations In Home Values
Professor Albert Saiz,of MIT visited the Lewis Center in May to discuss his research findings about interest rates and their connection with fluctuations in housing prices. Speaking to an audience of 25, he found that the interest rate-housing prices link has significant consequences for wealth accumulation, labor mobility, consumption, macroeconomic volatility, and financial market stability. However, Prof. Saiz noted that it is difficult to know if housing price movements are due to fundamental factors such as rental prices or “irrational exuberance”. Prof. Saiz shared grounded theoretical expectations about the impact of changes in rental prices on home values. He stated that rental prices and rental expenditures are explained at least in part by interest rates, and that expected changes in home values are a function of the supply elasticity of housing and the initial share of land relative to prices in a city. Prof. Saiz spoke as part of a spring series of lectures focusing on housing.
Annual Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Contest Winners Announced!
The Lewis Center is proud to announce the winners of this year’s annual GIS contest. The three winning projects successfully applied research methods and spatial analysis to produce descriptive and analytical insights into distinct policy questions. The 1st place winner will receive $500, the 2nd place winner $300, and the 3rd place winner $200. In addition, the first place winner’s poster will be featured in the Lewis Center during the 2013-2014 academic year. 1st Place: “Turning Air Rights Right” by Nicolas Zuniga 2nd Place: “Regenerating the Waterfront Industrial Zone” by Wenchong Lai, Arfakhashad Munaim, Hyejeong Yoo, Youngjun Kim 3rd Place: “Transit Dependant Populations in the Valley” by Teresa Whinery
Local Climate Change Initiative Director Juan Matute Quoted in The New York Times
Juan Matute, director of the Local Climate Change Initiative at the Lewis Center was quoted Friday, July 12 in a New York Times article about new ride-sharing programs in Los Angeles that use smartphone apps to connect drivers and passengers. The Local Climate Change Initiative is designed to strengthen local governments’ capacity to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. The Initiative generates and disseminates new knowledge to support the creation of state policies addressing local emissions, assists local governments in meeting these new regulatory demands, and promotes best practices in local government climate action policies.
Norman Wong Joins Amicus Brief in GIS Case; Supreme Court of California Rules Data Are Public Records
The Supreme Court of California ruled on Monday, July 15 in Sierra Club v. County of Orange that digital mapping files, also referred to as geographic information systems (GIS) fall under the state’s public records law. Lewis Center GIS Program Manager Norman Wong participated in an amicus brief in the case. As stated in the brief, [Norman Wong] is directly involved in GIS research across various disciplines (including urban planning, policy, transportation and public health) and the design and development of publicly accessible Internet-based mapping software. Recently, Mr. Wong has determined impediments to fair housing for areas in California (ongoing), conducted a “smart growth inventory” to determine the physical landscape of the areas around the City of Los Angeles’ current and planned transit stations, and analyzed data to estimate the infill potential of industrial properties in Los Angeles County. All of these projects would not be possible without the use of parcel-level data. Mr.Wong has contacted the Orange County Assessor’s office in[…]
Spring 2013 Issue of Access Magazine Now Available
The Spring 2013 issue of Access magazine is now available for online viewing or download here. Access reports on research funded by the University of California Transportation Center (UCTC). Access’s goal is to translate academic research into readable prose that is useful for policymakers and practitioners. Articles in Access are intended to catapult academic research into debates about public policy, and convert knowledge into action. The magazine is published twice yearly by the UCTC, a consortium of transportation research organizations at UC and CSU campuses across the state. It coordinates and promotes research in environmental stability, economic competitiveness, and livability. To sign up for a free subscription, click here.