Contact CSSD
Mailing address:
B101 Highlander Hall
Riverside, CA. 92521
Tel. (951)-827-7830
Fax: (951) 827-2619
Lecture Series Explores Sustainability Issues
The Center and UCR Extension offer a Public Policy Lecture Series that explores public policy alternatives and sustainability issues from the minds of some of the most experienced and renowned practitioners in Southern California.
First offered in the fall of 2008, the course consists of six lectures on the institutional framework and looming issues of the region, including air quality, transportation, housing density, water, regional planning and public finance.
The three-hour lectures are held one evening a week for a six-week period. Students can attend the lectures in person or via videoconference at UCR's Riverside and Palm Desert campuses. Individuals who enroll for all six lectures can obtain credit as part of a new certificate program in Sustainable Development and Green Design launched in fall 2008 by UCR Extension. Individuals also can attend any of the lectures on a non-credit basis for a per lecture fee.
Andy McCue, principal of McCue and Associates and former Deputy Director of UCR's Center for Environmental Research and Technology, serves as the course instructor. McCue also was the founding Managing Director of the Blakely Center.
In its first year, the public policy speakers were Mark Pisano, former Executive Director, Southern California Association of Governments; Robert "Bob" Johnson, Assistant City Manager, City of Temecula; Timothy Skrove, Government Relations Representative, Metropolitan Water District; James Lents, President of the International Sustainable Systems Research Center and retired Manager of the Environmental Policy Group, UCR College of Engineering - Center for Environmental Research and Technology; Eric Haley, former Executive Director, Riverside County Transportation Commission; and Norman King, founding Director, Leonard Transportation Center, CSUSB, and former Executive Director, San Bernardino Associated Governments.
The 2009-10 Public Policy Lecture Series is tentatively scheduled to begin on Jan. 27, 2010. A complete schedule and list of speakers will be announced in future weeks.
CSSD Assists in Air Quality Conference
The Center is involved in the planning and coordination of California Energy and Air Quality Conferences for the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program. The last conference was held Oct. 29-30, 2008 in Diamond Bar, CA.
The Energy Commission, the California Air Resources Board, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District co-sponsored the conference.
Dr. James M. Lents and the CSSD staff are under contract with the California Energy Commission to help create the agenda, provide event planning and coordination expertise for the conferences. The California Energy Commission held a similar conference in which CSSD was involved in fall, 2006, and another is tentatively planned fall 2010.
The two-day conferences are designed to help bring public awareness to the current issues and activities under way in Southern California to improve air quality and its relation to energy production and use; and spur innovative solutions towards a clean and productive future.
In spite of groundbreaking efforts to reduce air pollution over the last three decades, California still has some of the worst air quality in the nation. At the same time, California is also experiencing continual increases in the state's energy demand.
By providing improved research, tools, and innovative techniques, the Air Quality Group of the Public Interest Energy Research Environmental Area (PIER-EA) at the California Energy Commission is working to improve air quality while enabling reliable, affordable and efficient energy.
At the last conference in 2008, participants discussed the current issues and activities for improving air quality and it's relation to energy production and use. The conference was designed for mid-level managers of energy and air quality regulatory agencies, researchers, and industry such as power producers and equipment manufacturers.
Opolis - Journal of Suburban and Metropolitan Studies
Opolis was the first academic journal specifically focused on suburban studies.
Opolis covered all dimensions of suburbia. It was a joint enterprise of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech; the Edward J. Blakely Center for Sustainable Suburban Development at the University of California, Riverside; and the Urban Planning Department of the University of Sydney.
