November 4, 2009

The New York Times quoted SPPD Senior Fellow Richard Little about the new water package that would lead to a sweeping overhaul the state's troubled water system. "This is the most comprehensive water resources action that California has taken since the state water project in the '60s," Little said. "First of all, there is so much in it. And for the first time, they are tying ecosystem enhancement and environmental restoration directly to the infrastructure. Before, we always planned the projects and then mitigated the impacts. Now it is all on co-equal footing." The Riverside Press-Enterprise also quoted Little on the subject.

November 2, 2009

USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development alumna Anupama Mann recently received the Gill-Chin Lim Award for the best dissertation on international planning for her thesis, "A Megaproject Matrix: Ideology, Discourse and Regulation in the Delhi Metro Rail." The award is given by the Global Planners Educators Interest Group at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.

October 28, 2009

The USC Center for Economic Development was awarded a two-year $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration to broaden the scope of the center's applied research and outreach initiatives. The center is housed at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development.

Ed Roski Jr., chairman and CEO of Majestic Realty Co. and president of the USC Board of Trustees, gave a behind-the-scenes look at the proposed NFL stadium during a special event presented by the SPPD Athenian Society at Pacific Palms Resort in the City of Industry. The Athenian Society is the premiere donor group of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development.

September 28, 2009

The New York Times quoted SPPD Senior Fellow Richard Little of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development in an article on recent water main breaks around Los Angeles. "I am one person who thinks there is something odd going on here," Little said, referring to a theory that fluctuations in water pressure related to the city's conservation efforts could be putting added stress on the city's pipelines. Little is director of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy.

September 24, 2009

MSNBC quoted SPPD Senior Fellow Richard Little about water main breaks in Los Angeles. The story cites changes in water use resulting from rationing rules as a possible cause. "Potentially it could cause a surge in flow," Little said. "Couple that together with old brittle pipes and that's not a good recipe." This was an Associated Press story. Little is director of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy.

September 19, 2009

The Los Angeles Times quoted SPPD Senior Fellow Richard Little and Jean-Pierre Bardet of the USC Viterbi School about recent water main breaks around Los Angeles. Little and Bardet theorize that the city's watering restrictions, limiting watering to two specific days a week, may have something to do with the breaks. "As Sherlock Holmes used to say, when you eliminate everything, whatever is left is the reason... . If the pipe wasn't bad, and it [wasn't seismic activity] and it wasn't a funky contractor, well, what you've changed is this twice-a-week surge flow because of watering restrictions," said Little, director of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy. Bardet began informally consulting with Department of Water and Power officials last week on the water main problem, the story reported. Bardet said that rationing should be examined, but questioned why other cities with similar programs haven't seen a surge in blowouts. Fox News Los Angeles affiliate KTTV-TV and ABC News Los Angeles affiliate KABC-TV also covered the story.

September 9, 2009

Richard Callahan, associate dean and director of leadership programs at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, has been appointed to a newly formed advisory board for the California Environmental Protection Agency's Department of Toxic Substances Control.

August 3, 2009

More than 160 leading experts, ranging from USC faculty to government officials and business executives, gathered at USC to address pressing infrastructure challenges facing the Southwest Megaregion, which encompasses Southern California and portions of Nevada and Northern Baja, Mexico. The conference was part of an America 2050 forum, sponsored by the Regional Plan Association, the USC Bedrosian Center and the USC Keston Institute.

July 14, 2009

As the U.S. Congress considers enacting historic "cap and trade" legislation, a new book by research professor Adam Rose provides valuable lessons and reference points in evaluating the economic impacts of climate change policy. Rose is considered to be one of the preeminent scholars in the field, and the book - The Economics of Climate Change Policy: International, National and Regional Mitigation Strategies - represents much of his 20 years of research and involvement in policy design on the many aspects of the subject.

July 9, 2009

Congressional Quarterly quoted Senior Fellow Sherry Bebitch about Sen. Barbara Boxer, who has adopted a conciliatory approach in order to push a climate change initiative. "She cannot do it alone," Jeffe said. "Rightly or wrongly - and there may be some sexism in this - Boxer doesn't always radiate the image of a team player. To be an iconic figure of the left and to be perceived as not being flexible enough to be a team player is not a good thing."

May 27, 2009

Four USC students - including three from the School of Policy, Planning, and Development - have won the Clinton-Orfalea Fellowships. The fellows will head to New York in August to lend their talents to the William J. Clinton Foundation, which addresses issues of global climate change, HIV and AIDS in the developing world as well as childhood obesity, and economic opportunity and development.

May 6, 2009

Reuters noted that SPPD Senior Fellow Richard Little spoke at the Reuters Infrastructure Summit about a possible national infrastructure bond fund. Little's idea for such a fund seemed odd to officials in Washington a year ago, he said. Now they are giving it a second look, in light of the trillions of dollars in infrastructure work the U.S. may require in coming decades, Little added. "Why not create a vehicle where the federal government could issue infrastructure bonds?"

April 23, 2009

More than a decade ago, when sustainability issues were still a specialized curiosity, USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development professor Daniel Mazmanian turned his attention to the emergence of locally-based environmental policies in several communities and regions across the nation.

April 15, 2009

Appearing on a panel at the Financial Times' Asia Infrastructure Summit, Richard Little addressed the question of whether private investment in infrastructure could be Asia's highway to economic growth. Little is a senior fellow at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development and director of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy.

April 6, 2009

Adam Rose, research professor at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development and coordinator for economics at the USC Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE), was appointed in March to the committee on National Earthquake Resilience - Research, Implementation, and Outreach. The committee is part of the National Research Council, which operates under the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

According to the NAS, the committee aims to develop a viable "road map" for earthquake hazard and risk reduction in the United States. The project is sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The road map will be framed around the "objectives for achieving national earthquake resilience in public safety and economic security stated in the ... strategic plan of the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP) submitted to Congress in 2008," the NAS Web site states.

One of the committee's specific goals is to host a national workshop centered on evaluating the basic and applied research, seismic monitoring, knowledge transfer, implementation, education, and outreach activities needed to achieve national earthquake resilience over a 20-year period.

Dr. Rose joins 10 other leading national scholars in the area of natural hazards. His expertise in the area of disasters includes modeling the economic consequence of natural hazards and terrorism, resilience and mitigation.
» Click here for more information on the project.

April 2, 2009

Los Angeles' "transportation transformation" was the subject of a recent panel discussion hosted by the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development. The event took place at the downtown headquarters of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was the third event in the SPPD Dean's Speaker series, which has focused on the revitalization of Los Angeles.

March 18, 2009

With cargo flow down about one-third since last year, port stakeholders packed the 10th METRANS Town Hall meeting on March 11 in Long Beach. More than 1,000 people, including longshore workers, terminal operators, logistics providers and elected officials, attended the event. The topic was how to make the San Pedro Bay ports competitive and protect high-paying local jobs.

March 12, 2009

The Los Angeles Times quoted SPPD Adjunct Professor Michael Woo about how rising sea levels could affect California. "The rising sea level could be California's version of Hurricane Katrina," Woo said. "Taxpayers and insurance ratepayers might question their responsibility to help homeowners and businesses which knowingly build in high-risk coastal areas," he noted. Woo is a Los Angeles planning commissioner, the story reported.

February 9, 2009

The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development and the World Bank signed an agreement designed to merge scholarly research and specific program initiatives to address sustainable development in the East Asia and Pacific Region. The signing ceremony took place during a conference in Washington, D.C., focusing on challenges facing megacities in the developing world.

January 26, 2009

The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development marked its 80th anniversary by hosting a special colloquium Jan. 16 at the Davidson Conference Center. During the conference, Dean Jack H. Knott noted that SPPD remains dedicated to advancing academic theory and making a vital impact in the world.

December 22, 2008

The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development signed a formal agreement to participate in Fellows/USA, the Peace Corps' graduate fellowship program. This agreement will enable former volunteers to pursue a graduate education in public administration, public policy, urban planning, health administration and real estate development.

December 18, 2008

Taught by Professor Daniel Mazmanian, a new class at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development gave graduate students an introductory overview of key sustainability issues along with the chance to meet with environmental policymakers, chat with "green business" entrepreneurs, and measure their own carbon footprints.

December 16, 2008

The New York Times published a statement on infrastructure stimulus spending, signed by SPPD's Richard Little and Mark Pisano and 24 other infrastructure experts. "A new approach is needed that establishes a new level of accountability, transparency, and economic and environmental performance for how this country invests in infrastructure projects," the experts wrote. "We should only invest in projects that achieve job creation in the short run while creating the foundation for long-term economic success and energy independence." Little is director of the USC Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy, and Pisano is a senior fellow at SPPD.

December 8, 2008

The California Real Estate Journal quoted Associate Professor Gary Painter about a new report warning of a $2.5 trillion risk to real estate posed by global warming. Rising losses from damage and destruction of buildings and land presumably will lead to higher insurance premiums, the story stated. "What's clearly going to happen is, as various places in California experience greater risk over time, you'd expect that to be reflected in higher prices," Painter said.

November 30, 2008

The San Diego Union-Tribune quoted SPPD Senior Fellow Sherry Bebitch Jeffe about how Barack Obama's election affects Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's legacy. Obama's election "really saves Arnold's legacy," Jeffe said. "He can now focus on the environmental issues that are so dear to him and he'll have a much better chance of a positive response from the feds," she explained. "He's got a buddy in the White House who's not about to tell California to drop dead if they want to tighten their own standards."

November 20, 2008

The impact of Hurricane Katrina continues to be felt in the New Orleans region and beyond as researchers and policymakers examine what went wrong and how to deal with the effects of a similar disaster in the future. The latest contribution comes from a team of professors at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, who edited and wrote chapters for Natural Disaster Analysis After Hurricane Katrina: Risk Assessment, Economic Impacts and Social Implications.

November 6, 2008

Dr. Louise Nelson Dyble, associate director for research at the USC Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy, recently received the American Public Works Association (APWA) Michael Robinson Award for her article, "Revolt Against Sprawl: Transportation and the Origins of the Marin County Growth-Control Regime."

October 22, 2008

METRANS celebrates 10 years of research and education on metropolitan transportation. For the past decade, the center has aimed at "generating the highest quality basic and applied research," according to METRANS Director Genevieve Giuliano, professor and senior associate dean at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development.

This past summer, more than 40 master's students representing all programs of study with the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development took part in the school's international lab program, doing research in Foshan, China, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

September 8, 2008

SPPD Associate Professor Catherine Burke wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times about improving mass transit with "podcars." These personal rapid transit vehicles would provide on-demand, private, nonstop travel on small, overhead guideways above existing roads, Burke wrote. "Podcars offer a new kind of service, providing the convenience of an auto without the negatives for the individual - costly to purchase plus high costs for gasoline, insurance, maintenance and parking. For society, podcars would reduce the use of petroleum as well as pollution, congestion, accidents, injuries and deaths," she noted. "With governments in Europe and South Korea already supporting this development, the U.S. needs to get onboard and begin test runs on the podcar designs being created in this country."

August 15, 2008

Richard Little is among panelists at a conference on sustainability at Arizona State University, a story in the Arizona Republic reported. Little directs the USC Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy, the story noted.

August 12, 2008

SPPD Assistant Professor Lisa Schweitzer was quoted in the Los Angeles Times about transportation policy and the presidential election. "I think both sides of the political spectrum agree that Americans' consumption patterns have to change," Schweitzer said in a story on USC's Election 2008 Web site, cited by the Times. "For example, we had President Bush's 'addicted to oil' comments in his State of the Union address a few years ago. Barack Obama has transit in his platform, and John McCain's platform includes advanced transportation technologies to deal with both energy and climate change. Everybody sees the writing on the wall clearly enough; the devil is in the implementation."

July 31, 2008

Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, senior fellow at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, was quoted in the Congressional Quarterly about congressional efforts to permit offshore oil drilling. Relentless Republican attacks on Democrats regarding the issue have hurt Democrats, who have been slow to counter them, Jeffe said. "It's interesting to me that it's taken so long [for Democrats] to figure out how to come back on this without giving in on offshore drilling," she said.