Director's Report 2023

The Lewis Center is engaged in efforts to influence policy and planning to improve the quality of life for residents across Los Angeles, especially the most vulnerable among us. This year, the Lewis Center has been actively involved in efforts to address the affordable housing crisis, provide transportation services for low-income households, and create urban environments that are safe and sustainable for all. Given the many challenging issues facing the region, this mandate has never been more pressing.  

Each year, our efforts attract a larger and increasingly diverse audience. With each new initiative and publication, our work plays a growing role in shaping policy debates and outcomes across the  region.  A few highlights from the 2022-23 academic year include: hosting major programming focused on understanding and developing solutions to California’s housing crisis, publishing new research on pressing local issues such as vehicular homelessness, bus stop shelters, and the transfer tax on multi-million dollar properties, and continuing to expand our financial support of graduate students.

With dozens of episodes now published, we’re also quite proud of our UCLA Housing Voice Podcast.  If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe and listen to researchers from around the world discuss and make sense of complicated local and global housing issues.         

As always, we look forward to engaging with you as we continue to expand our portfolio of research and events — on campus, online, and across Los Angeles.

Evelyn Blumenberg Director, UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies

Since 1991, the  UCLA Lake Arrowhead Symposium  has brought together local experts, community advocates and academics to explore the connections between transportation, land use, and the environment. In 2022, the Lewis Center proudly led programming at the symposium, which focused on California’s housing crisis and solutions. 

The 32nd annual symposium convened 180 researchers, practitioners and political leaders to address the critical need for more housing and stronger tenant protections. Specific topics of discussion included: displacement protections and rent stabilization, shared responsibility between the state and local governments, additional housing supply produced through a combination of government subsidies, zoning and development reform, direct assistance for unhoused and at-risk households, and bottom-up political organizing to support more diverse housing choices in every community.

Hosted by the UCLA Lewis Center, the annual  InterActions LA  conference delved deeper into the connections between housing and transportation previously discussed at the UCLA Arrowhead Symposium. In recent years, the California Legislature has taken an increasingly active role in passing laws to expand housing production and protect tenants — but how can these housing advances be coupled with transportation approaches, allowing us to reach shared goals?

“The struggle to provide more housing and build more transit is big... We don’t have enough housing, and it’s hard to get around. But it’s also a lot bigger than that.” Mike Bonin, InterActions keynote speaker and former Los Angeles City Councilmember

In honor of Black History Month, we screened  BIKING WHILE BLACK , a documentary that depicts both the joys and challenges of biking for Black residents across Los Angeles. Afterwards, filmmaker and activist Yolanda Davis-Overstreet, alongside fellow cast members David Price from L.A.’s Civil and Human Rights Department and the Rev. Patricia Strong-Fargas, discussed the key themes of the documentary, including the ability of film and storytelling to influence mindsets and advance more equitable policymaking.

The screening was hosted by the Lewis Center, the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and the student group UCLA Planners of Color for Social Equity.

“It is a very powerful tool — a liberating tool — to do film and communications work” Yolanda Davis-Overstreet, activist & filmmaker

In October 2022, UCLA’s  (Un)Common Public Space Group , with support from the UCLA Lewis Center, brought together more than 200 people for a  public space activation  celebrating the architectural and cultural significance of the West Los Angeles Civic Center and Courthouse.

Student organizers spent the afternoon discussing the history of this important public space, inviting participants to comment in support of its preservation, and encouraging them to envision its future redevelopment.

The activation encouraged deeper dialogue between policymakers, developers and community members to safeguard public amenities. As the third and final event organized by UCLA’s (Un)Common Public Space Group, it also connected UCLA-based public space research with redevelopment plans for the future of the space.

Throughout the past year, Lewis Center affiliated faculty and staff deepened our impact through earned media. We garnered 75 media mentions in prominent outlets across radio, print and television, including the Los Angeles Times, Slate, Bloomberg and USA Today.

Associate faculty director Michael Lens argues that to effectively address the housing and homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, we must build more housing of all kinds, more quickly.

Deputy director Madeline Brozen makes a case for increasing ridership on public transit as a means to decreasing crime. 

Research on housing affordability, displacement and policy is a complex and fast-moving field, with serious implications. Over the past year, the Lewis Center released dozens of new episodes of the UCLA Housing Voice podcast to help share new research and make sense of the findings.

Housing initiative manager Shane Phillips, joined by co-hosts professors Michael Lens, Michael Manville, and Paavo Monkkonen, interviewed housing experts, organizers and advocates from every corner of the globe. A few of our favorite episodes from the past year include:

•  Episode 31 : Inclusionary Zoning with Emily Hamilton
•  Episode 42 : Vienna’s ‘Remarkably Stable’ Social Housing with Justin Kadi
•  Episode 45 : What Happened When Auckland Upzone Everywhere with Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy