UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

The present study investigates whether less computer access is associated with an increase or decrease in cyberbullying and face-to-face bullying victimization. Data were derived from the 2009-2010 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children U.S. Study, consisting of 12,642 adolescents aged 11, 13, and 15 years (Mage = 12.95). We found that less computer usage was negatively associated with cyberbullying victimization and face-to-face bullying victimization. The findings from the study have implications for research and practice.

Young Black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) are disproportionately impacted by violence, including violence rooted in anti-Black racism, sexual identity bullying, and neighborhood violence rooted in structural racism and inequities. These multiple forms of violence are frequently co-occurring and interactive creating syndemic conditions that can negatively impact HIV care. This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 31 YBMSM, aged 16-30 years, living with HIV in Chicago, IL, to examine how violence has impacted their lives. Using thematic analysis, we identified five themes that reflect how YBMSM experience violence at the intersection of racism, homonegativity, socioeconomic status, and HIV status: (a) the experience of intersectional violence; (b) long histories of violence contributed to hypervigilance, lack of safety, and lack of trust; (c) making meaning of violence and the importance of strength; (d) normalizing violence for survival; and (e) the cyclical nature of violence. Our study highlights how multiple forms of violence can accumulate across an individuals life and contribute to social and contextual situations that further contribute to violence and negatively impact mental health and HIV care.

This essay provides a counterpoint to Robert Bruegmann's perspective on accessibility and sprawl in this journal volume. Bruegmann's recent work on the history of urban form situates contemporary discussions of sprawl in a well-researched historical context; however, this essay takes a different perspective on several key points in Bruegmann's analysis, particularly in relation to cost-benefit analysis for transportation-disadvantaged populations.

Immigrant-run sexually oriented massage parlors embody the intersection of important planning issues, including inequitable distribution of controversial land uses and economic functions of illicit businesses. We analyzed geocoded data from a ratings website to examine sexually oriented massage parlor clustering in Los Angeles County (LAC) and New York City (NYC). In LAC, clustering occurred in areas with more Asian and Hispanic residents. In NYC, clustering occurred mostly in Manhattan and was negatively associated with household size. Local regulation did not appear to affect clustering. Study findings hold lessons about both more effective regulation and enabling economic development in immigrant populations.

This study conducted 28 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Young Black Men who have Sex with Men in Chicago to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on their HIV care and ancillary service access. The qualitative analysis identified both negative and positive effects. The negative effects included: (l) mixed disruptions in linkage to and receipt of HIV care and ancillary services, and (2) heightened concerns about police and racial tensions in Chicago following the murder of George Floyd, contributing to possible disruption of retention in care. The positive effects included: (1) the ability to reflect and socially connect, contributing to heightened self-care and retention in care, and (2) some improvements in receipt of medical care. These findings suggest that while COVID-19 disruptions in care reduced in-person use of HIV care, the expansion of telemedicine allowed more administrative tasks to be handled online and focused in-person interactions on more substantive interactions.

We examine pre-COVID declines in transit ridership, using Southern California as a case study. We first illustrate Southern California's unique position in the transit landscape: it is a large transit market that demographically resembles a small one. We then draw on administrative data, travel diaries, rider surveys, accessibility indices, and Census microdata for Southern California, and demonstrate a strong association between rising private vehicle access, particularly among the populations most likely to ride transit, and falling transit use. Because we cannot control quantitatively for the endogeneity between vehicle acquisition and transit use, our results are not causal. Nevertheless, the results strongly suggest that increasing private vehicle access helped depress transit ridership. Given Southern California's similarity to most US transit markets, we conclude that vehicle access may have played a role in transit losses across the US since 2000.

Abstract Planners often regard streets as targets for mitigating urban heat across cities by virtue of being abundant, publicly-owned, low-albedo, low-vegetation surfaces. Few studies, however, have assessed the role streets play in contributing to urban heat, and the scale of their effect relative to the built environment around them. We examine the relationship between road area and land surface temperature across a variety of biophysical regions through the urban areas of Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties in Southern California. Our results show that wide streets have no consistent, detectable effect on urban heat. Rather, vegetation is the primary cooling mechanism for urban areas. In the absence of trees, concrete highways are the coolest surfaces, though particular hot or cool pockets (e.g., airports, industrial centers, parks) can dominate neighborhood temperature signatures. In considering LST mitigation strategies, these hotspots might outweigh the cumulative effects of road surface changes.

This article focuses on national and local anti-homeless ordinances and investigates emerging spatial banishment strategies and their impacts on unhoused folks’ basic freedoms. First, we review debates on co-existing geographies of punishment and care through theoretical and legal lenses. Focusing on sixteen cities in the United States, we examine categories of anti-homeless ordinances and their evolution in the past two decades. Next, we focus on Los Angeles and use archival research and interviews with activists to examine the expansion of newly emerging anti-homeless spaces. Our research details ad hoc strategies of spatial banishment targeting homelessness. We find that the city represents a fragmented landscape of “no-go-zones” for the unhoused. We posit that the COVID-19 pandemic enabled various spatial banishment strategies and that Los Angeles is neo-revanchist. We advocate for city policies that abolish spatial banishment strategies and respond to the needs of the unhoused.

A better understanding of urban form metrics and their environmental outcomes can help urban policymakers determine which policies will lead to more sustainable growth. In this study, we have examined five urban form metrics-weighted density, density gradient slope, density gradient intercept, compactness, and street connectivity-for 462 metropolitan areas worldwide. We compared urban form metrics and examined their correlations with each other across geographic regions and socioeconomic characteristics such as income. Using the K-Means clustering algorithm, we then developed a typology of urban forms worldwide. Furthermore, we assessed the associations between urban form metrics and two important environmental outcomes: green space access and air pollution. Our results demonstrate that while higher density is often emphasized as the way to reduce driving and thus PM2.5 emissions, it comes with a downside-less green space access and more exposure to PM2.5. Moreover, street connectivity has a stronger association with reduced PM2.5 emissions from the transportation sector. We further show that it is not appropriate to generalize urban form characteristics and impacts from one income group or geographical region to another, since the correlations between urban form metrics are context specific. Our conclusions indicate that density is not the only proxy for different aspects of urban form and multiple indicators such as street connectivity are needed. Our findings provide the foundation for future work to understand urban processes and identify effective policy responses.