April 16, 2008

How Will Southern California Attain Stricter Air Quality Standards?
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The Edward J. Blakely Center for Sustainable Suburban Development’s “Clearing The Air” Conference Explores The Challenges That Lie Ahead To Improve The Region’s Air Quality
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How Southern California tackles the daunting task of meeting stricter federal and state emissions standards and reducing greenhouse gases is the focus of an all-day conference by UCR’s Edward J. Blakely Center for Sustainable Suburban Development and the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG).

Clearing the Air: Issues and Strategies for Future Progress will be held on Thursday, May 22 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Historic Mission Inn. It will bring together academic, government, and economic leaders to examine the effects of emissions on health, address the challenges of meeting emissions standards to the goods movement industry, and explore potential solutions to future air quality issues. Sponsors of the event include the South Coast Air Quality Management District, Honda, and the Western Riverside Council of Governments.

Despite significant progress in the last 30 years, there is growing evidence that air pollutants in Southern California – including particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) are exposing Southern California residents to potentially serious health risks.

In addition, there is now overwhelming consensus that immediate attention needs to be taken to reduce greenhouse gases. California has taken a leadership position to address global climate change with the promulgation of AB 32, legislation to reduce greenhouse gases in California.

Future federal and state emission standards for reducing air pollutants will require extreme challenges and new approaches to air quality planning in Southern California.

“The region’s current air quality management plan will not be able to meet these emission standards, some of which are less than a decade away,” said Mark Pisano, who will be the conference Orientation speaker. “Reaching these standards will require billions of dollars, new technologies and synergy among strategies,” said Pisano, the former Executive Director of SCAG.

James Boyd, Vice Chairman of the California Energy Commission, will be the conference Luncheon Keynote speaker, addressing “Energy and Air Quality: Building a Bridge to State Policy Objectives."

An Issue of Health

Discussing the effects of the region’s air quality on health will be panelists Dr. Eric Frykman, Director and Public Health Officer of the Riverside County Community Health Agency; David Diaz-Sanchez, Chief of the Clinical Research Branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Ed Avol, Professor of Preventive Medicine at the USC Keck School of Medicine; and Joe L. Mauderly, Vice President and Senior Scientist with the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute. Hasan Ikhrata, SCAG Executive Director, will serve as panel moderator.

Goods Movement and Air Quality

The second panel will examine how the region’s Goods Movement and Environmental Justice are affected by future emissions standards. Panelists will include Wayne Miller, Manager of the Emissions and Fuels Research Laboratory at UCR’s Center for Environmental Research and Technology; John Husing, a Regional Economist with Economics & Politics, Inc., Peter Greenwald, Senior Policy Advisor, South Coast Air Quality Management District; and Adriano Martinez, Project Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council. Norman King, Associate with the Leonard Transportation Center at Cal State San Bernardino and former Executive Director of the San Bernardino Associated Governments, will moderate.

Potential Solutions and Timetable

The final panel will examine potential solutions and a timetable to meet emissions standards. Panelists will include Timothy V. Johnson, Director of Emerging Technologies and Regulations, Corning Environmental Technologies, Corning, Inc., Elaine Chang, Deputy Executive Officer of Planning, Rule Development and Area Sources of the South Coast Air Quality Management District; and Rick Bishop, Executive Director of the Western Riverside Council of Governments. Joseph Norbeck, W. Ruel Johnson Professor of Engineering and Director of UCR’s Environmental Research Institute, will serve as panel moderator.

Time will be allotted at the end of each panel for questions from conference attendees.

The conference is recommended to anyone who plays a role in determining policy related to air quality and meeting emissions requirements, including elected officials, city, county and regional staff members, developers, community groups, academics, healthcare professionals, those in the transportation and trade industries, and interested citizens.

For up-to-date information and to register for the conference, please go to:

 http://cssd.ucr.edu/conferences/2008/conf_2008.htm

 

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Center wins $1.17 Million Research Grant

The Edward J. Blakely Center for Sustainable Suburban Development won a $1.17 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to study the cultural differences, approaches and concepts regarding appropriate supervision of children to prevent injury in the home and community. The NICHD is one of 27 institutes and centers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research.

It is the largest grant ever awarded to the Center, which was established in 2003 to study all issues related to the growth and development of suburbs around the world. The Center was founded with a $2 million initial gift from Ali Sahabi, president of SE Corp.

Led by Assistant Professor Juliet M. McMullin of the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside, the four-year study will use the combined approaches and methods of anthropology, injury epidemiology and observational research to explore concepts and behaviors regarding supervision for injury prevention. The study begins this month and ends Jan. 31, 2011.

“Supervision is generally considered one of the strongest yet least understood protective factors against many types of home and community injuries,” McMullin said. “The absence of supervision has frequently been cited as a contributing factor for childhood injury. Yet, it is unclear what this concept means to the health professionals who recommend supervision as an injury prevention strategy or to parents who must implement the strategies,” she said.

Among other things, the study will seek to explain findings from recent studies which have noted lower rates of pediatric injury among Latino children compared to Non-Latino Whites.

“Considering the current lack of understanding of what constitutes effective supervision for preventing injury, it is vital that we define cultural models to lay a foundation for enhancing supervision as an injury prevention strategy,” McMullin said.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research.

NIH is the steward of medical and behavioral research for the nation. Its mission is science in pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to extend healthy life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.

Dr. Juliet McMullin

Dr. Juliet McMullin specializes in medical anthropology with an emphasis in health inequalities and the interaction between concepts of health and cultural identity. The central focus of her research is understanding how the pursuit of health, as both a highly individual practice and as embedded in the particulars of history and social structure, influences cultural identity.

She has worked with Pacific Islanders and Latinos in the United States. Her research with Native Hawaiians examined health concepts as a symbol of a Native Hawaiian cultural identity and a critique of notions of health as simply the absence of disease.

This research found that understandings of health are intimately connected with land, family and Native Hawaiian ancestors. As such, practicing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle includes the ability to integrate these aspects of health and well-being, which extends far beyond seeking biomedical care or eating a proper diet.

She has also conducted research with physicians, Latinas and Pacific Islanders on their health practices, and understandings of cancer prevention and survivorship. One of her projects was with a Tongan community based organization in the San Francisco Bay area, focusing on Tongan understandings of cancer and cancer screening practices. The primary goal of the project was to train interested community members in the research process. The data gathered from the project will serve as a baseline for understanding the barriers faced by Tongans in acquiring health care, the role of health in their identity as Tongans, and for developing programs to increase use of cancer screening services in the Tongan community.

As a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the NCI funded project, Weaving an Islander Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training (WINCART), Dr. McMullin will continue her efforts with Pacific Island communities.

The second on-going project was conducted in Orange County, CA and examines Latina cervical cancer survivors’ experiences with the illness, inequalities experienced in obtaining diagnosis as well as how it has affected their experience of well-being.

One of Dr. McMullin’s recent activities, is the co-leadership of a School of American Research Advanced Seminar which examined anthropologist’s efforts at understanding the cancer experience and strengthening advocacy efforts within the communities that the researcher’s work with. She received her Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of California, Irvine and holds a concurrent position with the Department of Medicine at UCI.

Blakely to Manage New Orleans Recovery

Edward J. Blakely, the Center’s namesake, has been appointed by New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin as Executive Director for Recovery Management, where he will coordinate and direct Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts in New Orleans.

He also will act as the primary recovery interface to all regional, state, and federal agencies. In addition, Blakely will also serve as the Mayor’s designee on other recovery related issues.

Blakely, who is the Chair of Urban and Regional Planning at The University of Sydney, is nationally and internationally recognized for his extensive experience in the design of recovery strategies for cities across the country.

In 1999, Blakely, while serving as Dean of the Milano Graduate School at the New School University in New York, was on hand for the devastating disaster at the World Trade Center. He also coordinated the New School’s recovery strategy along with providing policy guidance for 100 Black Men of New York with respect to participation of minorities in the recovery.

In 1989, Blakely guided recovery efforts in Oakland following the Loma Prieta earthquake. He served under two Oakland mayors as Chief Policy Advisor.

He has held roles in the private sector as a senior manager with the Pacific Telephone Co., a Special Assistant for domestic policy for the U.S. State Department and an investment partner in Humboldt Realty and SE Development Corp. in California.

Blakely has written extensively, with more than 200 scholarly articles and eight books. He is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, a member of the selection board for the Fulbright Fellowship, a former member of the Fulbright Association Board of Directors, and Rhode Scholarship Board Chair for the western United States.

Allison Appointed Associate Director

Juliann Allison has been named Associate Director of the Blakely Center, David H. Warren, the Center’s new director, announced.

Allison, a professor of Political Science, will be spearheading the Center’s efforts to dovetail its work with the research interests of the faculty, find funding and research work for graduate students and raise the Center’s intellectual profile.

Her research interests concern International Relations; Political Economy; Research Methods; Environmental Politics and Women's Studies. She earned her Ph.D. at UCLA.

Center Wins Research Grant from CalTrans

The Edward J. Blakely Center for Sustainable Suburban Development has won a $258,000 grant from the California Department of Transportation to study four regional planning processes in California.

The grant will fund a comparative study of the efforts of San Diego, Riverside and Merced counties, along with the Sacramento region, to find better methods for regional planning. These four processes were the first generation of plans which tried to fully incorporate environmental and land use concerns into the planning processes rather than simply create a transportation plan and then deal with environmental issues as interest groups sued.

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