by Jeremy Loudenback Last year, when the Army Corps of Engineers signed off on a $1.08 billion plan to revitalize an 11-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River, momentum for the project turned from a trickle into a swift current of expectations. Though a modest “back to basics” message has been Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback Despite his soft-spoken public persona, Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard casts a long shadow. Over the course of his 16-year tenure, most current Pasadena schoolchildren have grown up knowing only Bogaard as their mayor. During that span, Pasadena has undergone dramatic change, shifting from a sleepy town known for Read more…
by Justine Dodgen Originally posted on the BAPF: Bay Area Policy Forum Website, March 12, 2015 Last week, the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy hosted the Bay Area Policy Forum (BAPF) in San Francisco. BAPF, an annual conference for Price students in the Master of Public Read more…
by Justine Dodgen When we talk of governance our first thought is often of the behavior of public officials, but governance is an idea that goes beyond politics; in fact there are many different spaces in which we can talk about governance. Coming up, we’ll be discussing college athletics as a form of Read more…
A call for papers has been issued for the Contesting the Streets II: Vending and Public Space in Global Cities conference, which will be held October 2-3 at the University of Southern California. Abstracts for papers are welcome from graduate students and faculty from a wide variety of disciplines. Abstracts Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback Next Tuesday, Los Angeles will take to the polls to confront one of its enduring stereotypes. Los Angeles, critics say, is a civic wasteland, a sprawling city still struggling to forge an identity for itself. Look no further than the last mayoral election, they might say. Only 20.8% Read more…
by Justine Dodgen On March 3, the Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics invite you to hear Dr. Mitchell Katz, Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, speak about how policy work can impact issues such as needle exchange, changes in Read more…
by Justine Dodgen This week, the White House hosted a summit on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) to discuss how the United States and its partners can counter extremist ideologies and prevent the radicalization of domestic individuals. The summit’s emphasis on countering homegrown terrorism comes in response to the evolving form of Read more…
by Justine Dodgen While Pasadena City Hall may be best known for its appearances on the hit show Parks and Recreation, it is also home to one of the longest-governing mayors in LA County. Bill Bogaard, Mayor of Pasadena, has been elected four times, having first taken office in 1999. On Read more…
CEQA brought everybody to the table to negotiate what turned out to be a really a brand new set of tools that were really creative for both market-rate developers and affordable developers in that neighborhood. I think in some cases it can be used to protect the public good. What’s Read more…
Originally published on the USC Price website, February 11, 2015 Television icon LeVar Burton discussed how he’d like to see storytelling better integrated into education during a Jan. 28 Holt lecture series event presented by the USC Price School of Public Policy’s Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise. Read more…
by Justine Dodgen On February 17, The Bedrosian Center will host the first event of the Center’s newest program series, Policy at the Playhouse. With this series, the Bedrosian Center aims to recognize that conversations about governance take place in diverse spaces and are voiced by many different communities. The first Read more…
South LA has a new park, thanks to the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust and all the great people who support them and their work! We were happy to host the Park Equity Symposium this past July. The issue of park equity has long existed on the fringes of several research Read more…
by Justine Dodgen Last week, former CEO of Los Angeles County Bill Fujioka joined students at the Bedrosian Center’s Lunch with a Leader event to discuss his ideas about leadership and how they helped him rise to LA County’s top appointed position. Long before he was CEO, Fujioka says, his Read more…
The USC Price School of Public Policy offered a timely and insightful discussion on the Paris massacre and its implications for the United States at a Jan. 21 event featuring noted homeland security expert Erroll Southers and Professor Raphael Bostic. Southers, the director of transition and research deployment for the Read more…
by Donnajean Ward A new initiative, Policy at the Playhouse, at Bedrosian Center recognizes that conversations about governance take place in many different fora and are voiced by many different communities. We said an enthusiastic “Yes!” to the opportunity to lead a post-show discussion at the historic Pasadena Playhouse after a performance of The Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback For William T. Fujioka, a distinguished 40-year career in public service began in humble circumstances. In 1972, Fujioka started working in the public sector as a custodian for Santa Cruz County. But after rising through the ranks in jobs for both the City of Los Angeles and Read more…
by Justine Dodgen The events surrounding the Paris massacre have sparked an international debate on the right to free speech. While there is widespread consensus over the unspeakable tragedy of these events, reactions over the political implications have varied; free speech champions have lauded Charlie Hebdo for its brave stance, others Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback At the Bedrosian Center’s Lunch with a Leader program last week, Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Doane Liu recalled with pride how he first got a taste for public service. As a San Pedro resident, he helped broker a deal in the mid-1990s that turned surplus land in San Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback In the 2008 presidential campaign, the much more prominent use of social media by Barack Obama’s campaign served to highlight his relevance and forward-looking perspective. But by 2012, the social-media gap had narrowed sharply, with Twitter and other social media becoming a contentious political battlefield for candidates from Read more…
by Justine Dodgen Last week, the Bedrosian Center hosted Professor Edward Kleinbard of Gould Law School to discuss his new book, We Are Better Than This: How Government Should Spend our Money. In our conversation, Kleinbard, students, and fellow faculty discussed the themes of federal government spending and how fiscal policy Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback As California ponders the shape of its future, nothing underscores the current challenges of urban development more than the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Since its passage in 1970, CEQA has remained at the heart of many battles over development, with local governments, environmentalists, developers, and community groups Read more…
by Justine Dodgen Doane Liu, Deputy Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, is no stranger to local government. Liu, the first deputy mayor appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti of the four in his administration, oversees 15 city departments that directly impact our neighborhoods, including Water and Power, Transportation, Public Read more…
by Justine Dodgen Two years ago, 92nd Street Y Executive Director Henry Timms came up with an idea. To maintain the spirit of Thanksgiving in a culture that has been overrun by Black Friday and Cyber Monday, he started Giving Tuesday, a day dedicated to giving back to our communities. Giving Read more…
by Justine Dodgen Edward D. Kleinbard’s solution to America’s economic inequality might seem pretty revolutionary. Last month, The LA Times quoted Kleinbard as saying, “the left sees me as a Wall Street Journal Satanist, and the right as a stealth Marxian bent on destroying free enterprise.” When you have a plan Read more…