Recent uclaspa_cnk_rw items

Racial Segregation, Freeways, and Institutional Mechanisms in Pasadena

Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Racial Segregation, Freeways, and Institutional Mechanisms in Pasadena

Racial Segregation in Pasadena: The Role of Freeway Development and Institutional Mechanisms

Thu, 8 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study documents the historical and current patterns of racial/ethnic residential segregation in Pasadena, examining the role of freeways and other mechanisms in shaping these outcomes. Using quantitative data, this project compares racial segregation in Pasadena with that in the rest of Los Angeles County and analyzes demographic changes in the neighborhoods containing Interstate 210 and State Route 710 before and after their construction. Additionally, the study investigates other institutional policies, practices, and projects that contributed to segregation. The findings offer insights to support Pasadena’s efforts to redress the historical impacts of freeway development. Pasadena and the wider Los Angeles County have become more racially diverse over time. Despite these broader changes, neighborhoods along the built and unbuilt freeway corridor have grown increasingly segregated and economically polarized. From 1960 to 1970, tracts affected by freeway construction lost...

The Spatial Dilemma of Sustainable Transportation and Just Affordable Housing: Part II, Low-income Housing Tax Credits

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines the spatial distribution of Low-income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) units to understand whether geographic patterns and trends are consistent with climate change and equity goals. The analysis compares the location of LIHTC units in 2012 and net changes from 2012 to 2019 with a number of transportation, environmental, and racial and economic equity metrics. Unit locations are, at best, somewhat more sustainable than the state overall, with slightly lower-skewing vehicle miles traveled and better walkability, though low transit accessibility. What environmental gains there were, though, come at the cost of higher exposure to pollution. LIHTC units are also concentrated in disproportionately low-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color, with worse access to economic opportunity. The findings reveal an inherent structural dilemma in whether the LIHTC program is able to simultaneously achieve climate and equity goals.

Freeways' Splitting and Cordoning Effects in Neighborhoods of Color: Colton, Fresno, and San Diego

Thu, 6 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Spanning more than six decades between the 1940s and early 2000s, the construction of the U.S. federal Interstate Highway System perpetuated racial inequality, weakened social institutions, disrupted local economies, and physically divided neighborhoods. Systemic racism embedded within housing, educational, and labor systems depressed land values, hindered homeownership, and made neighborhoods of color more vulnerable to selection for freeway routes. Unequal political power in the decision making process also disadvantaged people of color, who often were excluded from participatory planning processes. Additionally, unlike white Americans, people of color had significantly less ability to relocate to rapidly expanding suburbs if displaced by freeway construction. Expanding on prior work conducted by researchers at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, this study incorporates three additional case studies in California: South Colton...

Further Implications of Freeway Siting in California: Freeway Development and Communities of Color in Colton, Fresno, and San Diego

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines the consequences of freeway construction on neighborhoods of color across California, with a focus on socioeconomic changes, route selection, community reactions and resistance, and the disruptions to residents, businesses, and other assets. Expanding on three prior case studies conducted by the research team, this study incorporates three additional case studies: South Colton, West Fresno, and City Heights in San Diego. The construction of freeways was a contributing mechanism to the perpetuation of racial inequality, weakening social institutions, disrupting local economies, and physically dividing neighborhoods. However, the outcomes varied across locations. In South Colton, a freeway was ultimately not built through its community of color, though largely for reasons of construction costs. City Heights, initially a predominantly non-Hispanic white neighborhood, underwent a demographic transformation driven by white flight during a decades-long pause in freeway...

The Widening Divide Revisited: Economic Inequality in Los Angeles

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Widening Divide Revisited: Economic Inequality in Los Angeles

Lessons from California's Historical Alien Land Law: Racial Xenophobia and Home Ownership

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In 2023, Florida enacted a controversial law prohibiting foreigners from purchasing real estate, ostensibly for national-security reasons. However, this legislation disproportionately targets individuals from Asian countries and risks creating a chilling effect on all Asians. Similar laws passed by other states echo this trend, unfortunately mirroring historical patterns of discrimination. The efforts, however, are not the first efforts targeting Asians.

California and other states enacted alien land laws during the first half of the twentieth century. Rooted in deep-seated anti-Asian sentiments and hostilities, particularly directed at Japanese Americans, these laws combined a toxic blend of racism and xenophobia, further marginalizing Asians socially, politically, and economically. While instigated by the anti-Japanese movement, California’s law broadly applied to all aliens ineligible for citizenship -- a category exclusively encompassing Asians.

A direct consequence...

Chapter 14. Small Ethnic-Owned Businesses Study

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The City of Los Angeles has committed to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2035. In 2021, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), determined the technical feasibility and necessary investments to transition to 100% renewable energy. To ensure that the benefits of 100% renewable energy are equitably distributed, LADWP launched the LA 100 Equity Strategies Study in partnership withNREL and UCLA.

An integral part of that equity effort has been to better understand and document the challenges facing small ethnic-owned businesses (EOBs), which are a vital part of Los Angeles’ business sector and form the backbone of our economy, generating jobs and wealth. To better understand the challenges facing EOBs and to assist LADWP in developing equitable policies, programs, and practices, the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge (CNK) and the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI)...

Stockton’s Crosstown Freeway, Urban Renewal, and Asian Americans: Systemic Causes and Impacts

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This project uses mixed methods to examine the systemic causes and consequences of the construction of Stockton, California’s Crosstown Freeway and of urban redevelopment for Asian Americans communities. Stockton underwent spatial restructuring in the decades after the Second World War, and state and local government contributed and responded to these changes by implementing connected freeway and urban renewal programs. Historical and contemporaneous xenophobia and racism placed Chinatown, Japantown, and Little Manila in their path, with these enclaves deemed blighted and subject to “slum clearance.” The choice of freeway route was racially biased. The neighborhood surrounding an unchosen route was predominantly white, whereas that of the chosen route was predominantly home to people of color. Freeway construction during the 1960s and 1970s directly displaced hundreds of people and housing units downtown— mainly people of color, particularly Asians. The communities most harmed...

Impacts of Freeway Siting on Stockton’s Asian American Community

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Stockton, California, underwent spatial restructuring in the decades following World War II. State and local government contributed and responded to these changes by implementing connected freeway and urban renewal programs. Xenophobia and racism placed Asian American communities in their path. A major economic hub for California’s agricultural sector, Stockton and the surrounding region had a racially and ethnically diverse population in the mid-1900s, with people of color restricted to the lowest rungs of society. Asian Americans played a major role in the city’s development but were socially, economically, and politically marginalized. Since the mid-1800s and into the 1970s, Asian Americans were targets of multiple forms of discrimination, some shared by other people of color and others unique to Asians, including xenophobic immigration restrictions, prohibitions against owning land, and mass internment.

Redlining and Beyond: Development Within and Outside HOLC Spaces in Los Angeles County

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This research project examines the role of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) “redlining” maps in shaping today’s spatial structure along race and economic class lines, compared with the development of places not categorized by HOLC. It is well documented that redlining, the practice of designating marginalized neighborhoods as being risky for mortgage lending, is associated with today’s geography of inequality, but many locations were not ranked by HOLC. Because many parts of contemporary Los Angeles were unranked, this region provides a useful case study of the differences and similarities between the HOLC-graded and - ungraded spaces. The research draws on multiple data sources to compare outcomes along several dimensions. The analysis finds support for the redlining-legacy hypothesis. The comparison of graded and ungraded areas finds noticeable differences in land use and in homeownership, but similarities in racial/ethnic and socioeconomic segregation. The finding that...

The Implications of Freeway Siting in California: Four Case Studies on the Effects of Freeways on Neighborhoods of Color

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

California's freeways have come under increasing scrutiny for their disproportionately adverse impacts on lowincome populations and populations of color. This study uses empirical research to not only understand but also quantify and describe in detail the historical impacts of freeways on communities of color in four California cities and areas: Pasadena, Pacoima, Sacramento, and San José. In these neighborhoods, freeways displaced many residents, significantly harmed those that remained, and left communities divided and depleted. The four cases differ in notable ways, but they share a disproportionate impact of freeway construction on communities of color. In Pasadena and Pacoima, decision-makers chose routes that displaced a greater share of households of color than proposed alternatives.

Demolition and displacement were the most visible and immediate effects of the freeways, but toxic pollution, noise, economic decline, and stigmatization remained long after. In suburban...

Four Case Studies on the Effects of Freeway Siting on Neighborhoods of Color

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Four Case Studies on the Effects of Freeway Siting on Neighborhoods of Color

Sustainable Transportation and Just Affordable Housing

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

California’s intense affordable housing crisis has highlighted the fundamental linkage between land use, transportation, climate policy, and equity. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the main contributor to climate change, is a priority policy goal for the state of California, and cutting vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is a key mechanism for achieving this goal. In order to equitably achieve this reduction, it is critical that affordable housing options be situated in areas that facilitate less driving, through reliable access to public transit, walkability, and proximity to employment. These elements, among others, can combine to create more sustainable communities.

The Spatial Dilemma of Sustainable Transportation and Just Affordable Housing: Part I, Housing Choice Vouchers

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines the spatial distribution of tenant-based Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) units to understand whether geographic patterns and trends are consistent with climate change and equity goals. The analysis compares the location of HCV units in 2012 and net changes from 2012 to 2019 with a number of transportation, environmental, and racial and economic equity metrics. While the change in units from 2012 to 2019 shows promising trends for reducing vehicle miles traveled and increasing walkability and transit accessibility, there is a cost: higher exposure to pollution and a higher rate of vehicle collisions. HCV units are further concentrated in disproportionately low income neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color, with worsened access to economic opportunity. The findings reveal an inherent structural dilemma in whether the HCV program is able to simultaneously achieve climate and equity goals.

Mobility, Accessibility and Disadvantaged Neighborhoods: Assessing Diversity in Transportation-Related Needs and Opportunities

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This project examines commonalities and differences among disadvantaged neighborhoods in mobility and access to opportunities. Our approach is based on the concept of spatial-transportation mismatch (STM), which asserts that spatial distance and poor transportation resources and accessibility to employment, quality elementary schools, and health care. The study compares two regions in California, one highly urbanized (Los Angeles County) and one more agriculture-based (San Joaquin County). This allows us to compare disadvantaged neighborhoods with nondisadvantaged neighborhoods within each region, and to compare disadvantaged neighborhoods in one county versus another. The project uses policy-based definitions of disadvantaged neighborhoods and bivariate tabulations. The project's empirical findings are partially consistent with the existing literature: residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods suffer from some STM in multiple arenas, especially those in rural areas. The analysis...

Keeping the Stove On: COVID-19 and Utility Debt

Thu, 5 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

New research from UCLA Luskin collaborators finds that gas bill debt—unpaid bills for heating and cooking gas—is unevenly distributed among many Californians. The report, coauthored by the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge in partnership with the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (LPPI) and the Luskin Center for Innovation, highlights the extent and consequences of this debt.

The study reveals clear patterns of inequity: neighborhoods with high gas bill debt rates also have higher poverty rates, lower incomes, more renters than homeowners, and higher proportions of Black and Latinx residents than the average neighborhood served by SoCalGas.

“When higher-income households stop using gas, lower-income households may be saddled...

Housing Insecurity Persists For Renters of Color Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Thu, 5 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened California’s chronic economic and housing inequalities for low-income and people-of-color households. This brief uses data from the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey (HPS) and California’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) to analyze the experience of renters and their participation in critical emergency rental assistance programs. The authors find significant disparities linked to income class and race/ethnicity among California renters who are experiencing financial distress and who have participated in rental relief programs. Low-income renters and renters of color were more likely to struggle to keep up with rent payments than their white counterparts. Further, although more than 534,000 California renters had applied for the rent relief program, Asians Americans and Latinos were less likely to receive assistance even after accounting for income, age, and metropolitan area of residence.

Asian American Businesses: The Impacts of Anti-Asian Racism, 2021

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has had enormous economic and social impacts. The pandemic also created social problems, particularly the rise of anti-Asian hate. Restaurants and shops in Chinatown were among the first to feel the effects, with owners witnessing a decline as early as February 2020. The origins of the pandemic and anti-Asian racism were very much centered around false beliefs that Chinese American businesses, particularly those in Chinatowns, were a source for the spread of the disease. Given continuing anti-Asian incidents, it is critically important that we have effective strategies and policies to ensure that Asian American businesses are safe places.

This brief is organized into three parts: (1) Prevalence, Causes and Nature of Anti-Asian Racism; (2) Commonalities Among Impacted Asian American Businesses; and (3) Intersection with Personal and Family Anti-Asian Impacts. The brief also includes a preliminary analysis of findings from the ABA Pandemic Survey...

Patterns of Corporate Ownership of Single Family Home Rentals: San Joaquin County

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In this brief, CNK researchers analyze the trends, ownership patterns, and geographic distribution of single-family home (SFH) rentals in San Joaquin County and Stockton. The rise of SFH rentals since the foreclosure crisis (approximately from late 2007 to 2014) has been a major concern to many community groups in low-income neighborhoods because of the loss of the opportunity to homeownership and the inability for families to build wealth through home equity.

Our analysis finds that there are both national and local large-scale corporate investors operating in San Joaquin County, but that a large majority of single-family rentals are owned by smaller entities, including mom-and-pop owners. Many single-family rentals are located in Stockton and in particular, South Stockton, which on average tend to be poorer and majority communities of color. Given the potential dangers, it is critical to diligently monitor foreclosures and the purchasers of distressed properties.

Screening Method and Map for Evaluating Transportation Access Disparities and Other Built Environment-Related Determinants of Health

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This report documents UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge’s development of a statewide database and data/mapping portal that displays census-tract level information related to transportation disparities. The selected indicators are based on the existing literature and previous research on the causes, characteristics, and consequences of transportation inequality. The project covers vehicle ownership, public transit, active transportation, and transportation networks. The information is designed for decision makers, public agencies, and community groups that are working to address systematic disparities in transportation access, including their root causes and outcomes.

Access the Transportation Disparities data/mapping tool here.

Asian American Businesses: Identifying Gaps and Supporting Recovery 2021

Wed, 8 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

It is critically important that we have effective strategies and policies to ensure that Asian American businesses are able to thrive in the recovery era. To better understand how the pandemic affected Asian American businesses and their needs during the economic recovery, the Asian Business Association of Los Angeles surveyed businesses across the Southern California region. The survey collected information on business characteristics, owner characteristics, pandemic impacts, applying for and receiving assistance, and needs for recovery. This brief is a preliminary analysis of survey findings as of August 2021. A report with policy recommendations is forthcoming.

Potential Differential Undercount in 2020 Census Redistricting Data: Los Angeles County, California

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This Factsheet summarizes the findings from a comparison of population counts for Los Angeles County from the 2020 data for political redistricting (P.L. 94-171 Redistricting Data or PL94) and the 2015-19 American Community Survey (ACS). The Census Bureau conducts an enumeration of the population every decade and compiles the information to assist local officials to redraw political boundaries in response to population changes to ensure that electoral districts are equal in population size. While the goal for every decennial census is a complete and accurate count, it has never been perfect, both missing some individuals and double counting others.2 One serious problem with miscounting is a differential undercount, where the enumeration systematically undercounts some populations and overcounts other populations. That is, the inaccuracies are not proportionately the same across groups. This problem has profound implications within the redistricting process, essentially disenfranchising...

The COVID-19 Pandemic Housing Crisis: Identifying Owner-Vulnerable Neighborhoods in California

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has had enormous economic impacts, including creating financial difficulties for many homeowners. While foreclosures have been lower during the public health crisis, primarily due to the current moratorium in place, many homeowners are still receiving pre-foreclosure notices with a disproportionate share going to disadvantaged communities. Many analysts and housing advocates fear that there will be a new wave of home losses once temporary protections.

This brief outlines the development of an Owner Vulnerability Index (OVI) to assist public agencies and community organizations in implementing homeowner protection policies and any COVID-19 mortgage relief programs and to help identify those neighborhoods with the most at-risk homeowners. The OVI is a useful analytical and policy tool for identifying and prioritizing neighborhoods at higher risk of foreclosure to preserve homeownership and promote neighborhood stabilization.

The project developed...

The Lens: HIV Prevalence and COVID-19 Vulnerabilities: A Data Mapping Tool

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed concerns about social and structural factors related to health disparities, including those related to HIV. As a partial response to an urgent need to understand whether elevated risk of COVID-19 disease and mortality among persons living with HIV (PLWH) results from related risk behaviors, a higher burden of comorbidities, and/or social determinants of health, the Lens was created by the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge in partnership with the Southern California HIV/AIDS Policy Research Center.

The Lens: HIV Prevalence and COVID-19 Vulnerabilities data-mapping tool (Lens) can help decision-makers, community-based organizations and other stakeholders to access critical neighborhood-level information about the intersection of socio-economic and health vulnerabilities and HIV. The Lens portal also contains information on COVID-19 case rates...

Keeping the Lights and Heat On: COVID-19 Utility Debt

Thu, 1 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In this brief, we study household utility debt burden as another measure of the economic pressure facing low-income neighborhoods, with an emphasis on the impacts on racial equity. We define utility debt burden in this brief as the share of households in arrears (i.e., with past-due utility bills) within a zip code. Our findings highlight the reproduction of racial and economic inequality during the pandemic. We use data from Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), an investor-owned utility that provides electricity and gas service to much of the population in Northern and Central California, about 40% of the state’s residents, to examine the prevalence and degree of residential past-due accounts and debt. Utility debt levels serve as a useful proxy to track households that are facing difficulties paying their rent or mortgage, because these two types of debt are likely to be highly correlated during economic crises.

Overall, our focus on neighborhoods enables elected...

COVID-19 Death and Vaccination Rates for Latinos in New York City

Mon, 17 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Done in collaboration with the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, this report compares the overall Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) death and vaccination rates of Latinos and non-Hispanic whites (NH Whites) and describes the geographic pattern of these rates across neighborhoods in New York City (NYC). As the first major epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, NYC is an important case study. During the initial three months of the pandemic, there were 203,000 confirmed cases with a crude fatality rate of 9.2 percent overall and 32.1 percent among those hospitalized. NYC is home to 2.6 percent of the nation’s population, but 5.7 percent of the nation’s COVID-related deaths occurred there.

The available data on the pandemic reveal that Latinos were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 infections, hospitalization, and deaths. Given this disparity, prioritizing this population for vaccination...

Keeping the Lights and Water On: COVID-19 and Utility Debt in Los Angeles’ Communities of Color

Tue, 4 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A new report authored by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and Center for Neighborhood Knowledge measures the extent of utility debt accumulation among customers served by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Disparities in unpaid bills predate COVID-19 but have deepened since the pandemic’s outbreak. Using data from a November 2020 California State Water Resources Control Board survey, the researchers found one-quarter to one-third of all Los Angeles households faced financial difficulties paying for their utilities.

“We didn’t expect the magnitude to be this big,” said Silvia R. González, co-author of the study and a senior researcher at the Luskin Center for Innovation. “For many families, this means choosing...

Saving Black Homeownership: Just and Fair Pandemic Relief and Recovery

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This research brief by CNK in partnership with the National Housing Services of Los Angeles County summarizes the current state of Black homeownership in Los Angeles County and highlights some of the challenges currently brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Homeownership is a critical issue because it remains a primary source of asset accumulation, and past studies have shown an enormous gap between African Americans and whites.

The report’s preliminary analysis of pre-foreclosure notices during the pandemic indicates that the communities hardest hit by the last foreclosure crisis are in large part the very same communities now at risk of another foreclosure crisis generated by the pandemic. The findings show that Black neighborhoods are among those most at risk, as indicated by the disproportionate number of pre-foreclosure notices in their neighborhoods.

The report calls for policies and strategies to grow and protect Black homeownership. This will require addressing...

Crisis to Impact: Reflecting on a Decade of Housing Counseling Services in Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

National CAPACD, in partnership with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, jointly announce the release of Crisis to Impact: Reflecting on a Decade of Housing Counseling Services in Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities. The research examines the state of housing for low-income AAPIs since the Great Recession and offers valuable insights on housing counseling services that can mitigate the anticipated wave of displacement of low-income communities of color from their homes as a result of the current economic crisis.

Findings from the report show that pre-pandemic, one in four AAPIs paid more than half of their income towards housing costs compared to whites (16 percent), placing many on the edge of financial vulnerability. Asian and NHOPI borrowers within the study area (seven metropolitan statistical areas that comprise one-third of the nation’s total...

Economic Impact of the COVID-19, Pandemic in Riverside County, Unemployment Insurance Coverage and Regional Inequality

Mon, 8 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Access the Transportation Disparities data mapping tool here.

Disparities in the Distribution of Paycheck Protection Program Funds in California’s Congressional Districts

Thu, 4 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The necessary lockdowns to reduce the spread of COVID-19, along with the ensuing reduction in consumer demand, have created huge economic challenges for small businesses, especially those owned by Latino or Black business owners. To prevent a massive wave of layoffs and small business closures, the U.S. Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which included over $600 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

In this brief, done in collaboration with UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative, we study the distribution of PPP loans across California’s 53 congressional districts, with an emphasis on the impacts of the distribution of funds on racial equity. We provide findings for three analyses. First, we study the baseline economy in each congressional district to understand any pre-existing inequities in terms of jobs and payroll provided by small businesses. Second, we analyze...

Disparities in the Distribution of Paycheck Protection Program Funds Between Majority-White Neighborhoods and Neighborhoods of Color in California