January 18, 2013
From USC Sol Price School of Public Policy Dean Jack H. Knott: Dear Price community, it is with deep sadness that I inform you that our colleague and friend, Ki Suh Park, passed away at his home earlier this week after a long and valiant battle with cancer. Ki Suh was a valued and respected member of our school's Board of Councilors, serving as a trusted advisor and close friend... Los Angeles has lost someone very special. He will be greatly missed by all of us.
January 4, 2013
When it came to the 2012-13 California Planning Foundation scholarships, eight proved to be the lucky number for the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy's master of planning students. "Eight winners is a wonderful achievement," said Professor Marlon Boarnet. "Our graduate students are among the most competitive in the state -- and this is another indication." Established by the APA's California chapter, the foundation provides scholarships and awards to in-state university students who demonstrate talent, motivation and academic excellence.
November 28, 2012
The New York Times quoted Price Associate Professor Lisa Schweitzer about the impact of a light-rail line opening in the Crenshaw area.
November 28, 2012
USC Price School of Public Policy students who took part in the school's China Lab presented their findings to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Port-Cities Programme working group in Paris. The presentation explored the intersection of international trade, public policy and urban planning by comparing the impacts of global goods movement in L.A. with those of China's Zhejiang Province.
November 16, 2012
The New York Times quoted USC Price Senior Associate Dean Genevieve Giuliano about a need for toll roads to alleviate congestion on California roadways.
October 1, 2012
The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed by USC Price Senior Fellow William Fulton about the hidden costs of city sprawl, and how they contribute to city bankruptcies. "Where houses go, where businesses go, where roads go, where sidewalks go, where farms and open space go are all things that collectively affect a community's economic performance and the cost of providing services there," Fulton wrote.
September 17, 2012
Live Science quoted Price Research Professor Hilda Blanco in a story on the rapid expansion of urban development. "Urbanization has been neglected as a factor in deforestation and degradation and their contribution to carbon emissions. The projections are pretty sobering," she said. Blanco directs the Center for Sustainable Cities at USC, the story noted.
August 6, 2012
Voice of San Diego ran a column by Adjunct faculty member Murtaza Baxamusa of the USC Price School on a lack of affordable housing in San Diego. He wrote about changes that were put into place to improve the problem, and how the city is faring a decade later. "With the largest share of the increased cost of living being housing, much leadership is needed in the city to balance the income gap between home and work," Baxamusa wrote.
July 29, 2012
The Fresno Bee quoted Assistant Professor Jenny Schuetz about malls bringing in public assets like community gardens or leasing spaces to churches.
July 27, 2012
The Wall Street Journal highlighted research by USC Price Professor Peter Gordon and a colleague, indicating that there are two types of urban density. "Crude" density refers to the literal density of buildings and living spaces. "Jacobs density" maximizes "potential informal contact of the average person in a given public space at any given time"; it helps residents innovate because they are able to share ideas and cross cultural and ethnic boundaries.
July 27, 2012
The Atlantic quoted Professor Marlon Boarnet of the USC Price School of Public Policy about a study on "smart growth" in South Korea.
July 3, 2012
USC Price planning faculty Marlon Boarnet and Lisa Schweitzer were interviewed by NPR on a story about freeway 'caps.'
June 26, 2012
Curbed L.A. reported that Richard Green, USC Price professor and director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate, will participate in a discussion about development in downtown Los Angeles.
June 23, 2012
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The Los Angeles Daily News quoted Professor Marlon Boarnet of the USC Price School of Public Policy about the Orange Line busway extension.
June 15, 2012
The Sacramento Bee quoted USC Price Senior Associate Dean Genevieve Giuliano about congestion relief and Los Angeles rail projects.
June 5, 2012
The Atlantic quoted USC Price Associate Professor Elizabeth Currid-Halkett on how pet-friendly policies contributed to the revitalization of downtown Los Angeles. Currid-Halkett sees the growth of the canine community downtown as a symptom rather than a cause of revitalization. "Other types of economic development efforts, such as attracting amenities and businesses, revitalizing old lofts, and cleaning up the streets will attract downtown denizens, who will bring their dogs with them," she says. "The accidental spillover effect of these inhabitants, including the small furry ones, does help increase safety just by virtue of the fact that more people increases density and more use of the sidewalk."
May 29, 2012
CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" interviewed Lisa Schweitzer of the USC Price School about California's high-speed rail project.
April 26, 2012
NBC News Los Angeles affiliate KNBC-TV ran an op-ed by Senior Fellow Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the USC Price School about tax plans proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown and Mayor Antonio Villraigosa. Jeffe noted that Villaraigosa's plan has a number of hurdles to clear in the near future, and will face competition from Gov. Brown, who worries that too many tax plans on the ballot will bring down all the proposals. "It remains to be seen whether Mayor Villaraigosa's persistence in pushing his transportation goals will run headlong into Governor Brown's persistence in pursuing his budget goals," Jeffe wrote.
April 18, 2012
The Los Angeles Daily News quoted Associate Professor Lisa Schweitzer of the USC Price School about L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's support for extending Measure R, which involves a tax to support public transit.
April 11, 2012
The Atlantic published an interview with USC Price Professor David Sloane focusing on his new book, Planning Los Angeles. The article states, "Covering everything from early planning documents to the impact of the recession to the challenges of regional transportation development, Planning Los Angeles is a comprehensive look at how the city has been shaped by urban planning. Sloane says the essays paint a more complete picture of where planners have done well in the city, where plans have fallen short and why, despite its reputation as an unplanned city, urban planning continues to mold L.A."
April 11, 2012
LA Streetsblog published a story by David Sloane, professor and director of undergraduate programs at USC Price. In the story, Sloane writes about CicLAvia, "a civic event that brings together people of many ages, races and ethnicities, from many neighborhoods around Los Angeles for a momentary 'ephemeral event' where they walk, ride, talk and laugh together. Such moments are crucial to the public life and culture of any city, but especially our city." Sloane added: "Too often Angelenos see the world through the windshield of their car, not imagining that they can safely move around their neighborhoods by other means, and do it faster and more efficiently." The story mentions that Sloane's newest book, Planning Los Angeles, will be released this week.
April 6, 2012
The New York Times ran an op-ed by Senior Fellow William Fulton of the USC Price School on whether Los Angeles should increase its urban density to be more like New York. "While L.A. is still fairly low-rise and auto-oriented over all, it's increasingly a place where you can live a more traditional car-free urban lifestyle," Fulton wrote. "New Yorkers may think that reinventing Hollywood as an urban center is nuts, but the truth is Hollywood already is an urban center."
April 6, 2012
California Watch quoted Professor Richard Little of the USC Price School about a lack of public services in unincorporated communities. The story noted that it received support from the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism, a program of the California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships administered by the USC Annenberg School.
March 30, 2012
Planetizen ran a Q&A with David Sloane, professor and director of undergraduate programs at USC Price, that discussed his new book, Planning Los Angeles. In the interview, Sloane said: "I would argue that planning is everywhere in LA: from the very grid that underlies the vast majority of the basin, to the way that the rivers are controlled, to the residential neighborhoods that are so carefully protected from commerce and from traffic. So, all those things are just classic elements of 20th century planning. The question then becomes, is it well planned? In some sense, that's what the book gets at as well, the successes and failures."
March 14, 2012
U.S. News & World Report featured several USC schools and programs in its 2013 edition of "Best Graduate Schools." The USC Price School was ranked No. 4 for Health Policy and Management; No. 6 in Public Affairs, up from No. 7 last year; No. 6 for Public Management Administration; No. 7 for City Management and Urban Policy; No. 7 for Nonprofit Management; No. 9 in Social Policy; No. 12 for Public Policy Analysis; and No. 21 for Public Finance and Budgeting.
February 29, 2012
NBC News Los Angeles affiliate KNBC-TV interviewed Assistant Professor Jenny Schuetz of the USC Price School about Walmart's labor practices and its similarities to competitor Target.
February 21, 2012
Matthew Kahn proudly calls himself a "free market environmentalist." During his recent talk on "China's Future Green Cities" at Lewis Hall, he explained the moniker as part of the Urban Growth Seminar Series hosted by the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and the USC Center for Sustainable Cities. Kahn, a professor at UCLA, began his talk with the idea that the world's population is urbanizing. China is following this global trend, with half of its denizens now living in cities. This has led to some widely recognized sustainability challenges. According to the World Bank, China has some of the planet's most polluted cities, Kahn noted.
February 16, 2012
Politico ran an op-ed by Associate Professor Lisa Schweitzer of the USC Price School, in which she wrote that the Obama administration has been clueless on transportation policy. The administration has tried to cover urban transport needs with federal funds, which come from suburban and rural taxpayers in addition to urban ones, Schweitzer noted. That creates friction and opens the president up to conservative criticism. She wrote that transit advocates need to start looking for funding at the local, regional and state levels. "Without a change in the federal gas tax, the days of federal largesse to transit are coming to a close," Schweitzer added.
February 13, 2012
The San Diego Union-Tribune ran a Q&A with USC Price Senior Fellow William Fulton about the "smart growth" planning concept, and noted that he was mayor of the city of Ventura.
February 10, 2012
Reuters ran a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that cited research by USC Price School of Public Policy faculty Raphael Bostic, Gary Painter and Jenny Schuetz.
February 1, 2012
KPCC-FM Southern California Public Radio featured a report by assistant professor Jenny Schuetz of the USC Price School that analyzed the availability of retail services in 58 large U.S. metro areas. While the study found that many poor urban neighborhoods have high concentrations of grocery stores, these neighborhoods often lacked the larger chain establishments that often provide lower prices and a larger selection. "It's not a matter of how many there are -- there are lots of small 'mom-and-pop' stores but not many larger chain stores or supermarkets," Schuetz wrote in the report..
January 25, 2012
The San Diego Reader cited a report by USC Price adjunct faculty Murtaza Baxamusa about the number of jobs that could be created by a proposed Convention Center expansion in downtown San Diego.
January 18, 2012
Bloomberg News quoted Senior Fellow Sherry Jeffe of the USC Price School about Gov. Jerry Brown's balancing act between supporting California's proposed high-speed rail network and raising taxes.
January 11, 2012
The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed by USC Price Senior Fellow William Fulton about "the death of redevelopment" in California. Fulton wrote that he supported Gov. Jerry Brown's elimination of redevelopment agencies, having seen the redevelopment system break over time. He added that for redevelopment to work, it needs to be purely about true revitalization; California needs to cap the amount of tax-increment money agencies can collect; and the requirement that an area must be "blighted" to be redeveloped must be eliminated. "Eliminating the blight requirement would make California more consistent with other states, and it would also pave the way for projects that are more consistent with public needs," Fulton wrote.
January 10, 2012
The Atlantic featured research by USC Price Assistant Professor Jenny Schuetz and a New School colleague, who studied gentrification patterns in New York. The study looked at 208 New York City ZIP codes between 1998 and 2007 to see how retail properties, demographics and affluence changed during that time. The study noted that "low-income neighborhoods have lower densities of both establishments and employment, smaller average establishment size, and less diverse retail composition." The story highlighted another study by Schuetz and colleagues showing that the kinds of retail attracted to a neighborhood vary widely in terms of type of service, type of store and quality of goods.
January 9, 2012
The Associated Press quoted USC Price Professor Marlon Boarnet about a Hollywood Community Plan that would allow more skyscrapers along the Hollywood Corridor.
January 7, 2012
The Whittier Daily News quoted USC Price Senior Fellow Senior Fellow Sherry Bebitch Jeffe about voter attitudes toward redevelopment agencies.
January 5, 2012
Leaders from government, business, academia, media and the community recently met at USC to discuss the state's energy future in a forum titled "Powering California." The November forum focused on California's increasing energy needs, the viability of various sources to meet those demands and the impact of energy development on growing the state's economy. The event was a joint effort by the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, The Communications Institute and Sandia National Laboratories.
December 14, 2011
The Center for Sustainable Cities, housed within the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, held its inaugural forum on climate change last month. Mary Nichols, chair of the California Environmental Protection Agency's Air Resources Board, offered the keynote address on the role of cities in mitigating climate change. USC Price professor Dan Mazmanian, director of the Judith and John Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise and a member of the executive committee of the USC Center for Sustainable Cities, and Con Howe, managing director of CityView and a member of the latter center's advisory board, moderated a discussion following the speech.
December 12, 2011
Bloomberg News quoted Richard Green, USC Price professor and director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate, about Delta Air Lines investing in upgrades at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
December 2, 2011
The Ventura County Star profiled USC Price Senior Fellow William Fulton, an urban planner and mayor of the city of Ventura. Fulton is losing his sight as a result of retinitis pigmentosa. Due to the progression of the disease, he has announced that he will not seek reelection when his term is up this year. He will join a think tank in Washington, D.C., but will continue to teach a course at the Price School.
December 2, 2011
The Los Angeles Timesprofiled William Fulton, senior fellow at the USC Price School of Public Policy, an urban planner and mayor of the city of Ventura. Fulton is losing his sight as a result of retinitis pigmentosa, which limits his peripheral and depth perception. Due to the progression of the disease, he has announced that he will not seek reelection when his term is up this year. Fulton said that Americans with Disabilities Act issues surrounding accessibility are very real to him. "They're not an abstraction," he noted.
November 30, 2011
NPR Boston affiliate WBUR-FM's "On Point" interviewed Associate Professor Lisa Schweitzer of the USC Price School of Public Policy about California's plans for a high-speed rail system and a new estimated cost of nearly $100 billion. "This is a much better cost estimate," Schweitzer said, noting that initial estimates seemed unrealistically low at roughly $30 billion. Schweitzer said in 2008, she had students calculate cost estimates for the plan. They ranged from $85 billion to $110 billion. She said whether the cost is worth it depends on what voters value in terms what the project has to offer, including taking cars off the road and reducing accidents and pollution.
November 17, 2011
The New York Times quoted Associate Professor Lisa Schweitzer of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy about urban development in economically unstable times.
November 15, 2011
The Los Angeles Times quoted USC Price Senior Fellow Richard Little about Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's timeline for a recently proposed street repair plan. Little directs USC's Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy, the story noted.
November 12, 2011
The Huffington Post quoted Genevieve Giuliano, senior associate dean and professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, about how a subway extension under Beverley Hills wouldn't make a significant improvement in traffic congestion.
November 8, 2011
USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development students learned about the latest privately built apartment complex intended for USC students as part of SPPD's Fell Undergraduate Student Conversation series last month. Con Howe, managing director of developer CityView and adjunct faculty member at SPPD, provided the details on the development of West 27th Place, which puts the luxury amenities usually reserved for apartments downtown just a short bike ride down the Figueroa corridor from the University Park campus.
October 30, 2011
The Wichita Eagle cited Professor Genevieve Giuliano of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development about the weak link between urban design and driving patterns.
October 30, 2011
The San Diego Union-Tribune quoted Emeritus Professor Catherine Burke of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development and Henry Koffman of the USC Viterbi School about a San Diego pipeline project whose builders asked for approval without reporting a total cost estimate.
October 15, 2011
The New York Times ran an op-ed by USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development Assistant Professor Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, author of "The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art and Music Drive New York City," about the economic drivers of art districts. The column questions the National Endowment for the Arts' strategy of creating jobs by funding arts projects in blighted areas, stating that successful arts districts develop organically before receiving funding. "Instead of a shotgun approach that assumes every post-industrial zone or blighted district can, with a few million dollars in subsidies, become the next SoHo, we should follow the lead of the metaphorical college that puts down sidewalks only after the students have hewn their own paths," Currid-Halkett wrote.
October 6, 2011
Good quoted USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development Professor David Sloane about "fitness deserts" -- low-income areas that don't provide opportunities for exercise.
September 14, 2011
LA Streetsblog quoted Professor Gary Painter of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development on his role as a member of the Measure R Oversight Committee Advisory Panel.
August 25, 2011
The Orange County Register ran an op-ed by Richard Little, senior fellow at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, about the role infrastructure projects could play in California's economic recovery. "There are currently billions of dollars in bonding authority for infrastructure already approved by voters but as yet uncommitted to projects," Little wrote. "Putting these billions to work now on long-overdue infrastructure projects would not only revitalize construction and related industries but would also ensure that other important sectors of the economy would have the infrastructure in place to support their activities in the future."
July 29, 2011
The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed by SPPD and USC Viterbi School of Engineering Professor James Moore on finishing the 710 Freeway. "In the best case, the political impasse over raising the nation's debt ceiling would lead to a new political reality for evaluating transportation projects: new rules that favor projects with needs and benefits solidly documented, with proven technology, and that do not push funding obligations onto future generations of taxpayers. The poster child for such a scenario would be the long-debated completion of the 710 Freeway," Moore wrote.
July 23, 2011
The Arizona Daily Star cited SPPD Professor Richard Green, who directs the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, regarding a Chicago plan to build what would become America's tallest building.
July 21, 2011
Bloomberg News quoted Richard Green, SPPD professor and director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, about a Chicago plan to build what would become the tallest building in the United States.
July 20, 2011
The Philadelphia Inquirer quoted SPPD Distinguished Fellow Stan Ross about the housing demand that will result from Generation Y reaching adulthood. Ross is the chairman of the board at the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
July 18, 2011
BBC News (U.K.) interviewed SPPD Senior Associate Dean and Professor Genevieve Giuliano about this weekend's partial freeway closure in Los Angeles, dubbed "Carmageddon."
July 15, 2011
ABC News Los Angeles affiliate KABC-TV interviewed Professor Genevieve Giuliano of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development about this weekend's partial freeway closure in Los Angeles, dubbed "Carmageddon."
July 14, 2011
ABC News Los Angeles affiliate KABC-TV interviewed SPPD Senior Associate Dean and Professor Genevieve Giuliano about this weekend's partial freeway closure in Los Angeles, dubbed "Carmageddon."
July 12, 2011
La Opinion quoted Professor James Moore of SPPD and the USC Viterbi School about Los Angeles' hope that adding capacity to the 405 freeway will alleviate congestion in the long run.
July 7, 2011
L.A. Weekly quoted Professor James Moore of SPPD and the USC Viterbi School about the city's hope that adding capacity to the 405 freeway will alleviate congestion in the long run.
July 4, 2011
The Orange County Register covered a USC Lusk Center for Real Estate briefing on Orange County, at which the center's chairman Stan Ross, who is Distinguished Fellow at SPPD, presented findings and led a panel discussion.
June 26, 2011
The Los Angeles Times featured SPPD Professor Richard Green noting that in addition to directing the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, he is co-author of the book "A Primer on U.S. Housing Markets and Housing Policy," which is used in universities across the country. "A lot of my work has been about trying to figure out how people behave, observing humans via data, and how they actually behave, rather than how economics dictates they should behave," Green said. Asked about his job at USC, he added: "This is it for me. I love the school, I love the city, I don't see any reason why I would go anywhere else."
June 23, 2011
The Dallas Observer quoted SPPD Professor Lisa Schweitzer on whether streetcars actually improve transit conditions.
May 13, 2011
The Wisconsin State Journal reported that Richard Green, SPPD professor and director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate will speak at the University of Wisconsin-Madison conference "New Partnerships: Government and Real Estate."
May 12, 2011
The Los Angeles Times quoted Richard Green, SPPD professor and director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, about the foreclosure rate and the necessary steps for the real estate market to return to normalcy.
May 11, 2011
USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development professor Martin Krieger peered at the screen and saw 20 to 30 images of his heart from all different angles. It was three years ago during an echocardiogram. And it was the technology of medical tomography -- imaging multiple slices of an organ from various points of view -- that gave him the idea of how to tie together the photographic and aural documentation he had been doing of Los Angeles since 1997. The result is his new book, Urban Tomographies.
May 7, 2011
CW News Los Angeles affiliate KTLA-TV interviewed SPPD Adjunct Professor Errol Southers about al Qaeda plans to target train systems in the United States. Southers is the associate director of the USC CREATE Homeland Security Center.
April 29, 2011
The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development gave new meaning to the words "travel planning" during the recent international planning studios in India and Argentina. Led by Tridib Banerjee, SPPD professor and director of graduate programs in urban planning, the two studios gave students an opportunity to put theory into practice, collaborating to address real-world planning challenges in international settings.
April 26, 2011
Seventy-nine students from the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development spent their spring break working with government agencies, nonprofits or consulting firms through the school's Externship Program. SPPD's Office of Career Services matches students with host organizations nationwide based on their skills and interests. They work on substantive projects and gaining real-world exposure to jobs relevant to their studies.
April 25, 2011
The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed by USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development and USC Viterbi School of Engineering Professor James Moore about the drying up of funds for California's high-speed rail project. "California officials, lawmakers and citizens now have the opportunity to step back and reconsider the inflated promises that pervade the high-speed rail program," Moore wrote. "Railroads are a crucial component of the U.S. freight management and distribution system, but we do not need and cannot afford a high-speed rail system for passengers."
April 9, 2011
The Washington Post cited a study by SPPD Professor Richard Green on the history of the American mortgage. Green is director and chair of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
April 1, 2011
The Daily Trojan featured a Q&A with SPPD alumnus and transportation planner, Alan Hyun. Hyun took courses with SPPD Adjunct Associate Professor Michael Kodama. After graduating in 2010, he joined Kodama's urban planning consulting group.
March 23, 2011
The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development (SPPD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the State of Gujarat and the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University in India to establish a long-term institutional partnership in education and research.
March 17, 2011
The National Journal quoted SPPD Professor Peter Gordon about suburbanization as an international phenomenon.
March 14, 2011
The Huffington Post featured work by USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development doctoral student Imran Farooq, who for his doctoral thesis worked to rehabilitate an underserved San Bernardino neighborhood, utilizing local community vendors and integrating environmentally sustainable building principles. "My goal is to create a model of neighborhood rehabilitation, anchored around private partnerships that can be used to stabilize neighborhoods affected by foreclosures," Farooq said.
March 10, 2011
KCET-TV's "SoCal Connected" interviewed SPPD and USC Viterbi School of Engineering Professor James Moore about increased traffic congestion that might result from the addition of a new NFL stadium to the Los Angeles area.
February 14, 2011
Los Angeles Downtown News highlighted a USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development event on the importance of public parks.
February 14, 2011
With the help of Keith Hwang MS '83, Ph.D '92, the Cheonggye stream -- buried for more than a half-century beneath six kilometers of elevated highway -- is flowing again in downtown Seoul. Hwang, president of the Korean Transport Institute, recently visited USC to give a presentation on the stream restoration and sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Jack H. Knott, the C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Dean and professor at the School of Policy, Planning, and Development.
January 31, 2011
Not many dissertations become PBS documentaries, but that hasn't stopped doctoral candidate Imran Farooq from the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development. The media component of Farooq's dissertation has been made into SOS: Sustaining Our Society, a documentary to be broadcast on the PBS affiliate KVCR in April.
January 22, 2011
The Fresno Bee quoted Professor James Moore of SPPD and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering about California's high-speed rail project.
January 20, 2011
Investor's Business Daily quoted SPPD Associate Professor Gary Painter
about the practice of converting office buildings for other uses. Painter is director of
research at the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
December 8, 2010
RedOrbit featured an upcoming USC Center for Sustainable Cities event, at which Daniel Mazmanian of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development will present a report on climate change adaptation.
December 5, 2010
The Hartford Courant mentioned a research project by USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development graduate students, on economic development policies in Hartford, Conn.
December 1, 2010
Miller-McCune featured research by SPPD Associate Professor Gary Painter and a colleague at the University of Utah on the links between geographic location and home-buying trends among immigrants. The researchers identified a steady drift of new immigrants away from major gateway cities toward midsize cities and urban areas. "Our data suggest that immigrants are attracted to homes near active support networks of fellow immigrants and in places with lower rates of immigrant growth resulting in less competition for entry-level jobs," said Painter, director of research at the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
November 29, 2010
The State of California's advisory panel on climate change adaptation, led by USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development professor Daniel Mazmanian, recently released the report "Preparing for the Effects of Climate Change - A Strategy for California." Mazmanian, the holder of SPPD's Bedrosian Chair in Governance, whose research and teaching focus largely on environmental policy, served as co-director for the Pacific Council on International Policy's Task Force on Adaptation to Climate Change and helped draft the council's 71-page report.
October 27, 2010
The Fresno Bee quoted SPPD Senior Fellow Sherry Bebitch Jeffe about the timing of high-speed rail funds, mostly by Democratic lawmakers, to coincide with the upcoming election.
October 18, 2010
USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development faculty members Richard Little and Mark Pisano spoke at a "Funding and Financing Solutions for Surface Transportation in the Coming Decade" conference at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. The conference, held last month, was co-sponsored by the USC Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy.
October 15, 2010
The Wall Street Journal quoted SPPD Senior Fellow Richard Little about the difficulties of construction projects that lead to increased costs. Little is director of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy at USC, the story noted.
September 27, 2010
The Laist cited USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development and USC Viterbi School of Engineering Professor James Moore about an environmental impact report which found that the Subway to the Sea project would not relieve congestion in Los Angeles' Westside.
September 6, 2010
National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" interviewed SPPD Senior Fellow Richard Little about public-private partnerships in city parking systems. Little directs the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure at USC.
September 5, 2010
Interplan, a publication of the international division of the American Planning Association, featured an article (pp. 6-7) written by SPPD master of planning student Joy Kwong on the recent planning studio in Berlin. Fifteen SPPD graduate students collaborated with eight master of urban design students from Berlin's Technical University "in a planning studio to re-imagine the potential of the gray field sites surrounding Berlin's newest mega-project, Hauptbahnof," Kwong wrote.
August 23, 2010
When the World Bank needed two summer interns to serve in its Beijing office, it turned to USC's School of Policy, Planning, and Development. MPA students Muge Wang and Jingjie Li proved to be the ideal candidates, thanks to their fluency in Mandarin and English, previous experience working on urban development issues in China during SPPD's international lab in Foshan and high academic standing. The students spent the summer working on an urban-rural integration project and creating a PowerPoint about the project for use by World Bank staff at global conferences.
August 2, 2010
The San Francisco Chronicle quoted SPPD Professor Genevieve Giuliano about reform of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Giuliano is director of the METRANS transportation research center.
July 31, 2010
The Fresno Bee quoted SPPD Senior Fellow Richard Little about private investment in high-speed rail. Little is director of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy at USC, the story noted.
July 29, 2010
This summer, four USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development students are applying their expertise to some of the complex challenges faced by China, a country with approximately 100 cities with populations over a million. The students are participating in three-month internships hosted by the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning and Development, China's leading urban planning agency. The goal is to foster a long and productive relationship between the professional and academic planning communities of the U.S. and China.
July 1, 2010
A study in the latest issue of the Journal of American Planning Association concludes that contrary to current thinking, exposure to poor air quality is higher in compact U.S. regions than in sprawled locations. The study is authored by Lisa Schweitzer, associate professor at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development.
June 30, 2010
The Riverside Press-Enterprise quoted SPPD Professor Dowell Myers about rising demand for luxury apartments as people who would normally buy opt to rent.
June 24, 2010
Fifteen senior-ranking officials from Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment met with faculty from the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development in May to discuss prospective collaborations in education and research. "They are seeking partnerships for developing courses and programs in public administration, public finance, project management and other topics related to regional economic development in Vietnam," said SPPD Senior Associate Dean Genevieve Giuliano.
June 12, 2010
The Los Angeles Times quoted SPPD Assistant Professor Elizabeth Currid-Halkett about wealthy people buying adjacent properties to their homes to create compounds and ensure privacy.
June 7, 2010
The Financial Times (U.K.) quoted Richard Little, senior fellow at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, about infrastructure spending included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Little is director of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy at USC, the story noted.
May 24, 2010
Eleven graduate students representing the various master's programs in the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development launched the school's first student-adjudicated academic journal. The USC Policy, Planning, and Development Review, an online publication, aims to promote discourse among students of SPPD's professional degree programs by encouraging them to produce work that addresses important social topics.
May 16, 2010
The Modesto Bee cited research by USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development graduate student Tiffany Chao, who produced a study with two colleagues on suburban infill development that included a case study on Modesto. The study recommends incentives for infill development as opposed to sprawl, the story noted.
May 12, 2010
The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development won an award from the American Planning Association's technology division for its "Multimedia Boot Camp" class, taught by professor Martin Krieger. The award recognizes the most effective use of teaching with technology in preparing future planners for professional work.
May 7, 2010
During spring semester, 15 graduate students from the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development collaborated with students from the Technical University of Berlin on a comparative study of transit-adjacent urban redevelopment. "The overall focus of the Berlin planning studio was the large-scale redevelopment of inner-city rail station sites," said Deike Peters, a SPPD adjunct and director of the planning studio.
April 18, 2010
KPCC-FM's "Town Hall Journal" interviewed SPPD Professor Richard Green about development in Los Angeles' downtown. Green is director and chair of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
April 15, 2010
Yin Wang, a doctoral student at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, won the ninth annual paper award competition of the American Society for Public Administration's Section on Transportation Policy and Administration. She won the honor for her essay "Determinants of Utilization of Private Finance in Toll Road Development: Evidence From the United States."
April 8, 2010
Curbed L.A. featured the forthcoming book "Starstruck: The Business of Celebrity" by SPPD Assistant Professor Elizabeth Currid. In the book, Currid analyzes Getty Images' celebrity photo database to find out where celebrities hang out and with whom, and how that relates to city planning. Currid recently gave a talk about the concept in Massachusetts, the story noted.
April 1, 2010
SPPD adjunct associate professor Michael Kodama scribbles on the board at USC's Von KleinSmid Center, trying to keep pace with a dozen students who are calling out transportation-related news headlines during his "Transportation Planning" class. "The first part of the class is led by the students," Kodama said. "They can talk about anything they want and put me on the spot for an hour." It's a fitting way for Kodama to kick off each session, since he's been making news himself as the new executive director of the Orangeline Development Authority.
March 25, 2010
A new study by researchers at USC's Lusk Center for Real Estate shows that an increasing number of new Americans are choosing to settle down in mid-size cities across the U.S., lured by less competition for jobs and growing neighborhoods of fellow immigrants. The study was co-authored by USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development associate professor Gary Painter and Zhou Yu, assistant professor at the University of Utah.
March 16, 2010
The Trojan League of Los Angeles showcased the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development on Feb. 27 at its annual benefit, which featured the theme "Creating Ideas That Shape the World." Each year, the alumnae group selects a distinguished USC department, school or individual to honor.
March 10, 2010
The Center for Sustainable Cities and its affiliated Sustainable Cities Graduate Certificate Program have been transferred from USC College to the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, where it will continue to engage in multidisciplinary research and education on one of the most pressing issues of our time: the environmental, social and economic sustainability challenges facing metropolitan regions.
February 23, 2010
The Los Angeles Times quoted SPPD Senior Fellow William Fulton about Southern California cities considering new uses for vacant car lots including retail and office space or housing.
January 29, 2010
The Wall Street Journal quoted SPPD Senior Fellow Richard Little on California receiving stimulus funding to seed high-speed rail plans. "There's a huge push for electric systems in the state to get emission-free transportation," said Little, who directs the USC Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy. Little also said it was "dicey" that California would be able to garner all the funding through conventional means; he expects other sources to be tapped, including more user fees, the story noted.
January 11, 2009
Peter Robertson was one of three USC professors who have been selected as Fulbright Scholars for 2009-10. Robertson spent four months in Brazil, where his research focused on the development of a network of people and organizations interested in promoting the sustainable development of tourism in Rio de Janeiro.
January 3, 2010
The Contra Costa Times quoted SPPD Associate Dean and Professor Genevieve Giuliano in an article about construction on the 405 freeway that will add a carpool lane through the Sepulveda Pass. Giuliano, who directs the METRANS Transportation Center, said that the new carpool lane will absorb about 15 percent to 25 percent of vehicles on the road today. "If those cars move into the carpool lane, the traffic will be more evenly distributed across the lanes," she explained.
January 2010
Michael J. Donovan, III, a graduate of SPPD's Master of Real Estate Development program, was featured in Urban LAndscape, the newsletter of the Urban Land Institute of Los Angeles. Donovan, principal of MD3 Consultant Group, "has mastered the art and science of architecture, urban planning, real estate development, contracting, project management and community building -- while still finding time to volunteer thousands of hours to various non-profit organizations," the story states.
December 11, 2009
This fall, leaders from the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development headed to Foshan, China, to foster dialogue and advance the school's longstanding commitment to global outreach. SPPD cooperated with the World Bank to create an "Urban River Transformation" forum hosted by the Pacific Rim Council on Urban Development and Foshan Municipality in China's Guangdong province.
November 30, 2009
Bucking the trend of the recent economic downturn, the Career Services Office at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development drew a record-high attendance among employers and students alike for its Fall Networking Night. More than 100 graduate and undergraduate students packed the Radisson Hotel Ballroom Oct. 13 to meet and interact with nearly 80 employers representing the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
November 30, 2009
USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development Assistant Professor Lisa Schweitzer is among a team of USC researchers to receive a $505,000 award from the National Institutes of Health for a new project, "Access to Scientific Information and Services for Latino Families with Autistic Children."
November 4, 2009
More than 200 experts from the world of goods movement converged on the National Urban Freight Conference, which was organized by the METRANS Transportation Center, to discuss critical issues ranging from traffic to logistics to pollution. METRANS, a research partnership between USC and Cal State Long Beach, is directed by USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development professor Genevieve Giuliano.
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 17, 2009
The New Planner, an online publication for and by student members of the American Planning Association, featured an article in its Fall 2009 issue written by Alan Huynh, a senior in the urban planning program at SPPD. His article is titled "The Importance of Transportation Demand Management."
October 14, 2009
KPCC-FM interviewed SPPD Senior Fellow Richard Little in a story on the feasibility of a tunnel for the 710 freeway through Mt. Washington. "The tunnel is feasible from an engineering and financial standpoint, and if by taking the surface route off the table you could make that move forward, it seems to me to be a good thing to do," said Little, who directs the USC Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy. "I think tunnel-boring has come a long way. This isn't the old excavation method. It's a very elaborate but well established process."
September 27, 2009
New York quoted SPPD Assistant Professor Jenny Schuetz about street-level commerce in the Union Square area of New York City. Schuetz said that the Greenmarket, a weekly farmers market, acts as a destination that attracts people who are likely to make a day of it, shopping for shoes or clothes, having coffee or lunch, maybe going to the movies beforehand. "Once you have the stalls set up for this type of open-air shopping, people are more likely to see the little businesses on the periphery as extensions of a larger market," Schuetz explained.
September 16, 2009
The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development hosted members of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce this summer in the first stop of the Texas delegation's three-day Los Angeles tour aimed at exchanging information with local civic leaders and experts.
August 3, 2009
In his new role as assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, USC's Raphael Bostic will face a huge task: helping policymakers come up with ways to bring stability back to the nation's housing market. Bostic, a professor at the School of Policy, Planning, and Development, was sworn into his new government position on July 16.
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.
June 15, 2009
The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed by Professor Peter Gordon about congestion pricing. "The fairest and most cost-effective option in urban transportation is rational pricing of highway space," Gordon wrote. "[P]eople in all walks of life value the time they save if and when they choose to pay the toll."
May 7, 2009
The San Diego Union-Tribune quoted Professor Chet Newland about best practices in city contracting. Cities should thoroughly check applicants for such positions, Newland said. "You have to go beyond the mere listed references and investigate," he noted. "Contracting is one of the most crucially important and sensitive parts of government. It's essential to have utmost integrity in contracting."
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 29, 2009
Elizabeth Currid, assistant professor at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, presented her paper, "The Geography of Buzz: Art, Culture and the Social Milieu in Los Angeles and New York," during a recent research seminar at Lewis Hall. The paper was co-authored by Sarah Williams, director of the Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University.
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 7, 2009
The New York Times featured "The Geography of Buzz," a study co-authored by Assistant Professor Elizabeth Currid of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development. The study delineates cultural hot spots based on geo-markers of events such as film and television screenings, concerts, fashion shows, gallery and theater openings. Currid and colleague found that "buzziest" areas in New York were around Lincoln Center and Rockefeller Center, and along Broadway from Times Square into SoHo. In Los Angeles, the "buzziest" areas were in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, along the Sunset Strip. The story included a multimedia graphic of the study's findings.
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 13, 2009
The Wall Street Journal quoted Professor Raphael Bostic about how the redevelopment of downtown Los Angeles is faring in the current economy. While troubles facing downtown may reflect economic headwinds that have battered real estate nationally, some experts believe that downtown has also suffered from too many high-priced developments, the story stated. "The price points that were projected aren't sustainable," Bostic said. "The prices you have to charge now make the returns relatively unattractive."
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.
February 4, 2009
Faculty and students at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development took part in a leadership training conference to help local government officials find solutions for public problems afflicting cities nationwide.
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 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 17, 2008
L.A. Weekly quoted Adjunct Professor Michael Woo about the resignation of Los Angeles Planning Commission President Jane Usher. Usher was widely viewed as independent of the city's powerful developer sector, the story stated. "There has never been such a proactive commission," Woo said. Woo is a commissioner and a former Los Angeles city councilman, the article noted.
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 29, 2008
During an Oct. 21 panel hosted by the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry said that the goal of downtown's revitalization effort is to restore "the excitement of an earlier time." The changing downtown landscape was the focus of the panel discussion, which took place inside City Hall. The event was part of the SPPD Dean's Speaker Series.
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.
July 29, 2008
In a Los Angeles Times story, Prof. Gary Painter was quoted about the penalty for delays with Los Angeles' Grand Avenue project. The board overseeing the project approved a measure stipulating that if the project is delayed beyond February, the developer will be fined $250,000 a month. Financial penalties like this can sometimes help get projects moving, Painter said. He added that $250,000 per month seemed not a large sum of money relative to the scale of the project.
July 14, 2008
Prof. Dowell Myers of was quoted in the San Diego Union Tribune about how different communities will be affected by high gas prices. Developments in more far-flung communities will experience the biggest hit first, Myers said. "Geriatric villages" replete with health clubs and art galleries will flourish in closer-in neighborhoods, as aging baby boomers demand more amenities to entice them to leave the suburbs, he said. "Firms will locate where they can recruit workers better," he added. "That's why they've already moved to the suburbs, and they may still stay out there."
March 24, 2008
Prof. Raphael Bostic was interviewed on NBC Nightly News about the condominium market. Wider problems in the housing market have forced many new developments to halt construction or go on the auction block, the story reported. "The difficult part is that real estate is cyclical," said Bostic, associate director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. "For most of these cities, unfortunately, their condo product came online at a time when the housing market really was weak, and condos have been really ground zero for that weakness," he explained.
Jack H. Knott, dean of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, called his recent trip to Asia "one of the most exciting I've ever undertaken." Between Nov. 19 and Dec. 4, he visited China, India and Hong Kong to advance the school's mission of shaping -- and being shaped by -- the world. "These are very important countries to Los Angeles, to USC and to the Price School," he said. "I was really impressed by the range of people that we were able to meet and the relationships that we solidified, as well as initiated."
Genevieve Giuliano, senior associate dean at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and director of the METRANS Transportation Center, discussed changes in federal transportation policy during the Eno Center for Transportation's 15th annual policy forum in Denver. The Eno Center is a nonpartisan, Washington, D.C.-based think tank that promotes policy innovation and provides professional development opportunities in the transportation field. "The federal role is changing in really fundamental ways, and I'm not sure this is being done in any deliberate way," Giuliano said.
A great attitude will get you far in life -- and it will also get you far on the Expo Line, according to research presented at a recent USC Sol Price School of Public Policy's METRANS seminar. "Which Matters More for Transit Use: Access or Attitudes? Insights from Data from the Exposition Light Rail Corridor" featured new research by Professor Marlon Boarnet and two colleagues from UC Irvine, Doug Houston and Steve Spears. The researchers took advantage of the opening of the Expo Line to conduct the first quasi-experimental before-after study of a major rail transportation project in California.
Imran Farooq DPPD '11 proved that he was ready for his close-up during the Oct. 24 broadcast of SOS: Sustaining Our Society, a PBS documentary based on his USC Sol Price School of Public Policy dissertation. The documentary -- available for 
The University of Southern California is pleased to announce a $10 million gift from David Dollinger to endow the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy's Master of Real Estate Development degree. The program will be renamed the Dollinger Master of Real Estate Development Program, permanently linking one of the nation's most well-respected graduate degrees in real estate with one of the program's most distinguished alumni.
USC Sol Price School of Public Policy Professor Marlon Boarnet spoke at a recent informational hearing of the California State Assembly Select Committee on Rail Transportation, sharing his expertise on rail transit in Los Angeles. The purpose of the hearing was to discuss the Los Angeles Metro Rail transit plans, as well as to provide the committee an opportunity to hear and address local concerns about these plans.
Over the summer, dozens of students from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy went the extra mile through internships and international lab experiences across the globe. Price students took part in
International labs in Brazil and China; worked with key organizations like the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Hong Kong-America Center, Shanghai Center for Sustainability; and interned at the U.S. State Department in Armenia.
A contingent of professors, researchers and alumni from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy visited Sao Paulo in August to participate in a two-day workshop on metropolitan development. The group from USC Price shared experiences and research regarding land use, transportation planning, housing, economic development and infrastructure with local academics and officials from the state government. The workshop was an outgrowth of Dean Jack H. Knott's visit to Brazil in December, when he met with Edson Aparecido, secretary of metropolitan development for the State of San Paulo.
The USC Sol Price School of Public Policy's first two social innovation interns blurred the lines between local and global arenas by serving refugees and other residents of San Diego's City Heights neighborhood. The internships were organized and funded by the Sol Price Center for Social Innovation, which promotes sustainable community development in City Heights and underserved urban areas.
Los Angeles has a reputation of being an unplanned city, a sprawling metropolis that evolved spontaneously. Urban planners, of course, know better. USC Sol Price School of Public Policy professor David Sloane discussed his book Planning Los Angeles during a recent panel hosted by the Los Angeles chapter of the American Planning Association. For the book, Sloane enlisted more than 40 prominent essayists to detail the history, contemporary issues and current policy questions regarding planning in L.A. Two of those contributors -- Elizabeth Currid-Halkett and Ken Bernstein -- joined him on the panel to discuss their chapters and address economic development.
With the opening of the Metro Expo Line, Los Angeles' ambitious program of rail transit construction has made USC transit accessible. Appropriately, USC hosted the Los Angeles Urban Land Institute's third annual Transit-Oriented Development -- co-sponsored by the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy -- on June 7, bringing expertise from across the region and the campus to spotlight the opportunities and challenges involved in building transit developments in what was once the nation's prototypical auto metropolis.
Three members of the USC Price School of Public Policy's class of 2012 will put theory into practice in new positions at departments within the federal government. Raabia Budhwani MPA/MPL '12, Steven Shepherd MPL '12, and Robert Trombley MPP '12 have accepted high-level positions through the Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) program designed to groom future government leaders and administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Shepherd will serve as a housing program policy specialist the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Trombley accepted an offer as a budget policy analyst at the U.S. Department of Education. And, Budhwani will work as a foreign affairs officer at the Department of State.
With more than half of the world's population now living in cities, the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy believed it was time to address the challenges of urbanization. To that end, USC Price dean Jack H. Knott moderated the discussion "Cities of the Future: Community, Creativity, Culture and Technology" on April 23. The panel featured Michael Antonovich, Los Angeles County supervisor; Hilda Blanco, USC Price research professor and interim director of the Center for Sustainable Cities; Hsi-Wei Chou, former governor of Taipei County, Taiwan; and Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, USC Price associate professor.
For many local elected officials, political office means solving complex problems with tight budgets while cultivating trust with constituents who increasingly are wary of those in power. With these challenges in mind, the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy this week will launch its Executive Education Program for local leaders to help elected city officials develop a vision for their cities. The first class of elected officials includes 18 mayors, mayors pro tem and council members from cities across Southern California.
The Athenian Society, the premier philanthropic support group for the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, discussed the need for sound policy solutions to address the political and economic challenges facing California in the school's third Dean's Speaker Series event of the year titled "How Can California Prepare for a Future That's Already Here?" on April 23. The event featured University Professor Kevin Starr, a longtime California historian, and Dowell Myers, USC Price professor of demography and urban planning.
The USC Sol Price School of Public Policy was well represented at the American Planning Association's national planning conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center on April 14-17. To coincide with the conference, David Sloane, professor and director of undergraduate programs for USC Price, edited the book Planning Los Angeles, published by the American Planning Association, using contributions from many USC Price faculty and alumni to catalog the history and trends that impact planning in the city.
Rapid urbanization has created a need for sustainable funding and financial strategy for infrastructure renewal in China, said Richard Little, a senior fellow at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, in a seminar offered on March 7 by USC Price and the METRANS Transportation Center. In 1980, China's population was just 20 percent urbanized. Today, that number has reached about 50 percent. To support this unprecedented growth, the country has invested enormous sums to provide transportation, power, communications, sanitation and other basic infrastructure.
The USC Sol Price School of Public Policy was among several USC schools and programs that ascended in the latest national rankings released by U.S. News & World Report . The Price School climbed to sixth place (from seventh in 2008) in the newest edition of "America's Best Graduate Schools" for public affairs.
USC Sol Price School of Public Policy professor Peter Gordon formally began his one-year term as president of the Western Regional Science Association last month during the association's 51st annual meeting in Kauai, Hawaii. Founded in 1961, the WRSA is an international multidisciplinary group of university scholars and government and private-sector practitioners dedicated to the scientific analysis of regions. At the annual banquet luncheon, Gordon delivered his presidential address titled "Thinking About Economic Growth."
The Athenian Society, the premier philanthropic support group of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, tackled one of the most pertinent policy issues facing the state of California -- the recent elimination of redevelopment agencies -- during a recent panel featuring leading public and private sector experts. About 300 people attended the event at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel -- the largest turnout in the four-year history of the society's Dean's Speaker Series.
Genevieve Giuliano, professor and transportation researcher at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, has been chosen to receive the Distinguished Researcher Award, an honor that includes two Nobel Prize winners among its past recipients, from the Transportation Research Forum. Giuliano, senior associate dean of research and technology at USC Price, is the first woman to receive the award in its 35-year history.
As the nation suffers a burgeoning obesity crisis, health advocates and policymakers have zoned in on poor neighborhoods they've termed "food deserts" -- areas with few grocery stores and other access to healthy food. But a new USC study finds that many poor urban neighborhoods have high concentrations of grocery and other retail food outlets. More doesn't translate to better, the researchers said, as residents in poor neighborhoods are more likely to be living next to small mom-and-pop food stores instead of large supermarkets. USC Sol Price School of Public Policy assistant professor Jenny Schuetz was the study's lead author.
City planners long have debated how to get people on their feet and cars off the road. But encouraging urban dwellers to go pedestrian could require different strategies depending on their attitudes toward walking, according to USC Sol Price School of Public Policy professor Marlon Boarnet. The research comes at a time when scholars from multiple disciplines tout the value of walking for health and environmental benefits as much as to alleviate congestion.
The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development brought its international expertise to the table at the 2011 USC Global Conference, held Oct. 13-15 in Hong Kong. SPPD faculty joined business experts to discuss issues of worldwide significance at the three-day event. "Most of the issues we deal with -- from health care to urban development to the environment -- don't occur just in the United States but around the world," said SPPD Jack Knott. "We incorporate that global perspective as an integral fabric into everything we do at the school."
The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development (SPPD) has a mission to "shape the world," and more than 60 students spent their summers putting these words into action in Brazil, China, Bolivia and Australia.
USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development professor Richard Green testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the future of government enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Green, who is director and chair of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, was among four expert panelists. The panel was split on whether a government guarantee should exist, with Green on the side saying they should stick around. 
How can an online game educate Californians about carbon emissions? What's the best way for the California government to prepare for the baby boomer retirement? Can private canine companies provide an effective and reasonably priced screening method to enhance airline security? These are a few of the real-world issues that USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development MPP students tackled during the 2011 Policy Analysis Practicum.
The nation's biggest employer - the federal government - already has snapped up four members of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development's Class of 2011. Master of public administration graduates Kristina McBoyle, Marie Mazwi and Yuliya Zingertal and MPA/master of social work graduate Juliet Bui have been selected to participate in the Presidential Management Fellowship program administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and designed to groom future government leaders.
Clara Suh, a cheerful and driven undergraduate student at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, brought home many valuable lessons - both professional and personal - from her internship in Asia. Suh, a senior graduating in May with a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy, Management, and Planning and a minor in German, spent the summer after her sophomore year working in Hong Kong as part of the USC Global Fellows Internship Program.
Meredith Drake-Reitan, a planning doctoral student, has been selected to receive the University-wide outstanding teaching assistant award given by USC and the Center for Excellence in Teaching. She is one of the three recipients chosen from a select group of teaching assistants nominated by various departments as their outstanding teaching assistants. She will be presented with the award at the Academic Honors Convocation ceremony in April.
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.
Raphael Bostic, a professor at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, and Elizabeth Garrett, USC's vice president for academic planning and budget and a professor at the USC Gould School of Law, have been asked to join President Obama's administration in Washington, D.C.