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 30, 2008
The Los Angeles Times quoted Assistant Professor Lisa Schweitzer about the light rail extension set to join Union Station with East Los Angeles. Rail lines mean access, which is valuable, Schweitzer said. Rail means a bump in property values, with land around the line becoming "perpetually valuable," she added.
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.
August 14, 2008
Professors Peter Gordon and James, along with consultant Thomas Rubin, wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Daily News about rail lines in L.A. County. "[T]here is no way the Los Angeles rail system can ever be cost-effective," they wrote. "Adding new rail lines is going to make a bad deal even worse, and paying for more rails with regressive sales taxes ensures that the poor will carry the largest share of this burden."
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."
June 1, 2008
William Fulton wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times about developer Robert Maguire III's legacy in downtown Los Angeles. "The next time you're descending the stairs between McCormick & Schmick's and Starbucks in U.S. Bank Tower and gazing at the expanded Central Library, think of Robert Maguire," Fulton wrote. "His office building will probably go condo sooner than later, but the Bunker Hill Steps and the Central Library will forever be monuments to his deal-making genius. Even though he's now in his 70s, Maguire will probably be back in some form. After all, wily developers have at least nine lives -- and they usually go bankrupt between each one."
May 12, 2008
Prof. Raphael Bostic was quoted in the Los Angeles Downtown News about the impact of the housing market slump on planned downtown L.A. developments. "The softening market means that all developers are having to re-evaluate their plans," Bostic said. "Many of these projects were originally conceived with very aggressive rents both for the residential and the commercial," he explained. "Part of the difficulty in doing real estate development is that you have to be a forecaster, and for many projects the forecasts just aren't matching up with what's actually happening," he said.
May 1, 2008
Prof. Peter Gordon wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times about city planning and traffic congestion in Los Angeles. "Lifestyle choices and the demographic composition of our population are ever-changing," Gordon wrote. "It is the job of builders to figure out how to respond, and those who get it right make sales and money. Those who get it wrong suffer losses and end up in another line of work. The only thing that stands in the way is politics. When politicians get involved, as they increasingly want to do, the process favors large and well-connected developers."
April 29, 2008
Prof. Peter Gordon wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times stating that building more subways in Los Angeles won't decrease traffic congestion. Some predict that higher gas prices will lead to more people riding transit, Gordon wrote. "I disagree because I remember the oil shocks of the 1970s. If you look at only the annual transit data over those years, you cannot find the shocks. People coped by demanding (and getting) smaller and more fuel-efficient cars. This is beginning to happen again."
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.
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.