UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation

The January 2025 Eaton and Palisades firesdestroyed homes and roads across L.A. County. The experience revealed how urgently transportation systems must restore mobility and access after a fire orother major disaster—even though rapid transportation rebuilding can lock in unsafe road designs and miss chances to advance long-term resilience and community priorities.

This research brief presents the need for indoor mechanical cooling in California homes and schools and a menu of strategies for increasing access. It focuses on two key heat exposure settings for children, homes and schools, because they are where children spend most of their time. Children are a particularly heat-vulnerable group, and access to cooling systems in their primary indoor environments is a life-saving heat intervention. Heat is a life-course disruptor because it is an accumulation of non-fatal disruptions that add up to threatening problems later in life. This report presents new data from the 2025 UCLA Luskin California Poll on challenges Californians face pertaining to heat in homes and schools. The researchers provide original policy analysis on strategies used in California and beyond, summarized as a list of potential strategies the state legislature can take to increase access to cooling systems in homes and schools

Plastic is a fossil fuel product. Despite efforts to find alternatives, 99% of plastic is derived from oil and gas. As regulatory efforts to date have largely failed to address profligate plastic production, the sector continues to grow rapidly, accounting for a sizeable and growing portion of global fossil fuel yields. The plastic sector is thus responsible for both a significant amount of global warming potential and a fraction of localized pollution risks from oil and gas extraction and refining operations commensurate with its consumption. Past research has clearly established the link between living near oil and gas development and a litany of health risks, and these exposures tend to be inequitably distributed across populations. This paper expands on the authors' previous work, outlining the Three-Part Framework for Identifying Plastic-Burdened Communities by conducting a high-resolution geospatial analysis of every operational oil and gas well and refinery in the State of California - the upstream stage of the plastic supply chain. The results show that communities living in close proximity to oil and gas infrastructure are consistently home to greater proportions of Hispanic/Latino and Black residents and lower proportions of White residents; have lower median household incomes and higher poverty rates; have lower levels of educational attainment; and face higher levels of environmental burden and rates of harmful health conditions. The authors recommend that California’s governance decisions regarding the oil and gas industry take into account its links to plastic-related environmental injustice, and that communities experiencing exposure risks from multiple stages of the plastic supply chain be prioritized for public investment.

Shade is a critical heat-management solution, yet most U.S. cities lack enough to keep people safe during hot conditions. Using the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation’s national Shade Map, this research brief presents new insights into shade patterns across 360 U.S. cities. Findings show that 91 percent of cities have less than 50 percent shade at noon, and more than half have under 25 percent, leaving people highly exposed to sunlight during the hottest part of the day. Shade cover increases later in the day, rising from 27 percent at noon to 59 percent by 6 p.m., primarily due to buildings. Trees provide nearly all midday shade, while buildings contribute more in the evening. However, shade is not evenly distributed: many cities contain “shade oases” and “shade deserts,” with large gaps between neighborhoods. Case studies in Austin, Detroit, and Phoenix demonstrate stark disparities, with shade gaps as large as 80 percentage points. These findings underscore the importance of planning for shade to improve safety, equity, and quality of life in urban environments.

Shade helps people go about their daily lives more safely and comfortably, especially in hot climates like Los Angeles. This research brief presents new findings on shade in L.A., drawing on data from the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation’s national Shade Map. Results show that Los Angeles has less shade than the national average, with 24 percent coverage at noon compared to 27 percent nationally. Nearly all of the midday shade comes from trees, but by 6 p.m. total shade nearly triples, with buildings providing about two-thirds of the coverage. Despite this overall increase throughout the day, shade is unevenly distributed across the city. About two-thirds of L.A.’s neighborhoods have less than 25 percent shade at noon, while others have more than 50 percent or even 75 percent. The least shaded areas are often inland, lower-income, and predominantly communities of color, highlighting shade gaps that can worsen inequities. Expanding shade in high-exposure locations such as schools, bus stops, and parks will be crucial for more effective heat mitigation strategies.

​​The ubiquity of plastic in the modern economy has created a global crisis. Plastic pollution is now found everywhere, and increasingly poses grave risks to human health and the environment. Recycling has proven ineffective to address the plastic crisis, with only a small fraction of global plastic ever being recycled. However, while the plastic pollution burden is widespread, lower-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately exposed. In response, California's Senate Bill 54 seeks establishes a state investment fund to address plastic-related impacts within communities. This policy brief informs decision-makers on how to prioritize SB 54 platic pollution mitigation funds, equitably.

The State of California, primarily through the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board), serves as the regulator of drinking water systems and the operator of many funding programs to help systems comply with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and associated state laws. The Water Board thus has an important role in assisting residents in identifying and addressing premise plumbing issues. However, some of the board’s potential to regulate requires additional authorities and responsibilities to be granted by the state legislature.

Community water systems serve as the local water provider for 98% or more of Los Angeles County’s population and have the responsibility to collect, report, and share data regarding water quality to the state and to their customers under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and associated state law.

Public water systems’ technical, managerial, and financial capacities vary greatly throughout the state, as does their ability to comply with existing standards. For instance, larger public water systems may be better able to comply because they can more easily staff and pay for required maintenance and water testing, while “at-risk” water systems likely need to pass off costs to their customers. Additionally, many water systems face aging infrastructure and underinvestment that cause challenges in providing safe drinking water.

Although water systems are publicly regulated (unlike private wells) and residents commonly expect that water systems are responsible for their tap water quality, water systems are not responsible for on-site or private premise plumbing. Instead, as other briefs cover, property owners are responsible for on-site plumbing. Thus, water systems are not fully responsible for the quality of water coming out of the tap.

Small water systems are 13 times more likely to violate the Safe Drinking Water Act than large systems and are less resilient in the face of drought and other challenges resulting from the climate crisis. Low-income, rural, and indigenous communities bear the brunt of these consequences, thereby perpetuating inequality. Water system consolidation — or the merging of two or more previously independent water systems — presents one possible solution to many of these challenges.