Residential zoning and near-roadway air pollution: An analysis of Los Angeles

Air pollution from motor vehicles harms the health of those who live near freeways and other high-traffic roads. Land use regulations may permit, prohibit, or impose special conditions on housing near major roadways. This paper answers two questions: First, how is residential development near major roadways regulated? Second, how common are zoning changes near major roadways, and what factors explain these changes? This paper compares the zoning designations of near-roadway parcels with others in the city, and uses two sets of logistic regression models to analyze near-roadway zoning. The results show that residential development is permitted on most near-roadway parcels, including more than 92% of those within 500 feet of a freeway. One of the main explanations is that Los Angeles’s hierarchical zoning structure allows housing development in most commercial zones. While many of these parcels have commercial development today, they could be redeveloped for residential uses in the future. Larger shares of near-roadway parcels were upzoned to allow higher residential densities compared with parcels elsewhere in the city, but this difference is explained by other locational factors

Looking through the lens of size: Land use regulations and micro-apartments inSan Francisco

Small studio apartments, or micro-apartments, represent a market response to high housing costs in several major American cities. San Francisco, California, is one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets and the location of an innovative pilot microapartment policy. The literature on regulatory barriers to affordable housing has yet to pay much attention to minimum unit-size requirements. This article uses two prototype buildings to illustrate regulatory barriers to smaller units, including minimum parking standards in some parts of the city, outdoor open-space and indoor common-space provisions, unit-mix stipulations, and inclusionary zoning requirements. I recommend that cities review their codes through the lens of unit size and eliminate unnecessary impediments to small units

How Do Developers Respond to Land Use Regulations? An Analysis of New Housing in Los Angeles

There is strong evidence that land use regulations constrain housing production. We know less about how real estate developers respond to specific zoning provisions. I compare the characteristics of new multifamily housing with baseline land use regulations in two sets of rail station areas in Los Angeles. I supplement this building-scale analysis with expert interviews. I find that developers were most sensitive to density restrictions and parking requirements. The average development in the Vermont/Western area had 112% of the maximum allowable residential density and 94% of the minimum required parking. Koreatown’s average development had 99% of the maximum density and 88% of the required parking. But, there was variation by area and whether a building was affordable or market rate, apartment or condominium, and by development size. Additionally, regulatory implementation can matter as much as the written regulations themselves. I recommend that cities take an evidence-based approach to reforming regulations and implementation processes

Hidden costs and deadweight losses: Bundled parking andresidential rents in the metropolitan United States

There is a major housing affordability crisis in many American metropolitan areas, particularly for renters. Minimum parking requirements in municipal zoning codes drive up the price of housing, and thus represent an important potential for reform for local policymakers. The relationship between parking and housing prices, however, remains poorly understood. We use national American Housing Survey data and hedonic regression techniques to investigate this relationship. We find that the cost of garage parking to renter households is approximately $1,700 per year, or an additional 17$440 million annually. We conclude by suggesting cities reduce or eliminate minimum parking requirements, and allow and encourage landlords to unbundle parking costs from housing costs

Employment proximity and outcomes for Moving toOpportunity families

The Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration (MTO) randomly assigned housing vouchers to public housing residents in an experimental test of the effect of neighborhood and location on household outcomes. In terms of adult employment outcomes, the 2 treatment groups did not significantly differ from the control group. We use MTO data to examine whether spatial proximity to jobs and job growth explains this lack of treatment effect. We first estimate differences in access to jobs and job growth for the 3 MTO groups. We then use 2-stage least squares models to test relationships between employment accessibility and 2 key outcomes: employment status and earned income. We find that employment accessibility declined for all groups, and these declines were strongest for the 2 treatment groups. However, our results show essentially no effect of employment proximity on earnings or employment status for MTO participants

Improperly-zoned, spatially-marginalized, andpoorly-served? An analysis of mobile home parks in Los Angeles County

More than 6% of Americans live in mobile homes, and yet there has been limited scholarly attention to mobile home location or quality of life compared to conditions in other housing types. There has not been a single comprehensive study to date that assesses where mobile home parks (MHPs) are located within metropolitan areas, that explores why some neighborhoods have a greater concentration of MHPs than others, or examines what environmental or basic service conditions are like in those neighborhoods. In California, more than 1 million residents live in mobile homes, with the vast majority (75%) of these living in MHPs rather than standalone units. We answer two questions in this study. First, are MHPs in “worse” neighborhoods in terms of socioeconomic status, zoning, local land uses, accessibility to jobs, and environmental quality? Second, which neighborhood factors are most strongly correlated with MHP locations and concentrations? We answer these questions using data for all mobile home parks in Los Angeles County, California. We find that MHPs are more likely to be located in lower density neighborhoods and at the urban fringe. More than 41% of MHPs are in areas zoned for commercial or industrial purposes rather than residential uses. Not surprisingly then, we find that MHPs are located in areas with more environmental hazards. A multivariate analysis of neighborhood factors confirms our hypotheses. Moreover, we find that MHPs’ access to public services is worse than the average neighborhood in the county. We recommend that policymakers engage in targeted efforts to address disparities in service access and mitigate environmental hazards

Bridging the Digital Divide in Public Participation: The Roles ofInfrastructure, Hardware, Software and Social Networks in Helsinki’s Arabianranta andMaunula

Information and communications technology (ICT) itself does not provide communities with a more effective voice in the planning process. However, when ICT is used as a tool to build stronger neighborhood social networks, it can catalyze public participation in planning. The use of ICT as a community-building tool requires a combination of network infrastructure, hardware and software, according to the literature. Additionally, it requires the utilization of human social networks. Based on my study of Helsinki’s Arabianranta and Maunula neighborhoods, I found that catalyzing collaborative planning in Helsinki using ICT requires a combination of infrastructure, hardware, software, and, most importantly, social networks. The ICT projects in Arabianranta and Maunula represent a new paradigm of technology use in the neighborhood context. Both initiatives are relatively recent (conception and implementation in the last five to seven years) and this thesis looks critically at the conditions that make it possible to use ICT in collaborative planning

Identifying Homogeneous Patterns of Injury in Paediatric Trauma Patients to Improve Risk-Adjusted Models of Mortality and Functional Outcomes

Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the paediatric population and exhibits complex injury patterns. This study aimed to identify homogeneous groups of paediatric major trauma patients based on their profile of injury for use in mortality and functional outcomes risk-adjusted models. Data were extracted from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry for patients aged 0-15 years, injured 2006-2016. Four Latent Class Analysis (LCA) models with/without covariates of age/sex tested up to six possible latent classes. Five risk-adjusted models of in-hospital mortality and 6-month functional outcomes incorporated a combination of Injury Severity Score (ISS), New ISS (NISS), and LCA classes. LCA models replicated the best log-likelihood and entropy > 0.8 for all models (N = 1281). Four latent injury classes were identified: isolated head; isolated abdominal organ; multi-trauma injuries, and other injuries. The best models, in terms of goodness of fit statistics and model diagnostics, included the LCA classes and NISS. The identification of isolated head, isolated abdominal, multi-trauma and other injuries as key latent paediatric injury classes highlights areas for emphasis in planning prevention initiatives and paediatric trauma system development. Future risk-adjusted paediatric injury models that include these injury classes with the NISS when evaluating mortality and functional outcomes is recommended

Controlled ecological evaluation of an implemented exercise training programme to prevent lower limb injuries in sport: Differences in implementation activity

OBJECTIVE: The public health benefits of injury prevention programmes are maximised when programmes are widely adopted and adhered to. Therefore, these programmes require appropriate implementation support. This study evaluated implementation activity outcomes associated with the implementation of FootyFirst, an exercise training injury prevention programme for community Australian football, both with (FootyFirst+S) and without (FootyFirst+NS) implementation support. METHOD: An evaluation plan based on the Reach Effectiveness Adoption Implementation Maintenance (RE-AIM) Sports Setting Matrix was applied in a controlled ecological evaluation of the implementation of FootyFirst. RE-AIM dimension-specific (range: 0-2) and total RE-AIM scores (range: 0-10) were derived by triangulating data from a number of sources (including surveys, interviews, direct observations and notes) describing FootyFirst implementation activities. The mean dimension-specific and total scores were compared for clubs in regions receiving FootyFirst+S and FootyFirst+NS, through analysis of variance. RESULTS: The mean total RE-AIM score forclubs in the FootyFirst+S regions was 2.4 times higher than for clubs in the FootyFirst+NS region (4.73 vs 1.94; 95% CI for the difference: 1.64 to 3.74). Similarly, all dimension-specific scores were significantly higher for clubs in the FootyFirst+S regions compared with clubs in the FootyFirst+NS region. In all regions, the dimension-specific scores were highest for reach and adoption, and lowest for implementation. CONCLUSION: Implementing exercise training injury prevention programmes in community sport is challenging. Delivering programme content supported by a context-specific and evidence-informed implementation plan leads to greater implementation activity, which is an important precursor to injury reductions

Incidence and outcomes of major trauma assaults: a population-based study in Victoria

OBJECTIVE: To describe the incidence and outcomes of assault resulting in serious injury in Victoria. DESIGN AND SETTING: Analysis of population-based data from the Victorian State Trauma Registry for assaults between 1 July 2001 and 30 June 2007. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Overall trends in the rate of assault-related major trauma, inhospital mortality, and functional outcomes 6 months after injury as measured by the Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale. RESULTS: The rate of assault-related major trauma rose significantly over the 6-year study period (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.21 [95% CI, 1.16-1.26]), particularly for blunt assault (IRR, 1.33 [95% CI, 1.26-1.41]). There were 803 admissions for major trauma related to assault: 484 (60%) were for blunt trauma and 319 (40%) for penetrating trauma. Most patients were young men. Compared with penetrating trauma, blunt trauma was associated with more severe injury; 396 patients (82%) with blunt trauma had serious head injuries, and 102 (24%) of these required inpatient rehabilitation. A higher percentage of patients with penetrating trauma died in hospital compared with those with blunt trauma (35 [11%] v 23 [5%]; P = 0.001). Follow-up at 6 months showed that only 19% of respondents (42 patients) had made a complete recovery; outcomes at 6 months were worse for patients with blunt trauma than for those with penetrating trauma. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of assault resulting in severe trauma rose significantly between 2001-02 and 2006-07, mostly due to a rise in assault resulting in blunt trauma. The increase in incidence, the young age of the victims, and the potential for high burden of injury and poor outcome, combined with the preventable nature of assault, highlight the importance of developing effective assault-prevention strategies