The Brief

For a century now, the United States has prioritized the automobile over the pedestrian. Major cities slice up their neighborhoods with thick highways and some suburbs don’t even bother installing sidewalks. Even in deep-blue San Francisco, a battle broke out this year over whether to close a coastal highway to cars permanently.

It might seem obvious that making a neighborhood more friendly to pedestrians encourages people to walk more, improving public health and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from driving. But it’s surprisingly tricky to demonstrate that with data, since other factors influence how much a person walks, like their socioeconomic status. Cities need such data to prioritize which neighborhoods to make more walkable, and then public health officials need still more research to confirm the benefits of any interventions.

To that end, a new study in the American Journal of Epidemiology used 11,000 twins to show that whenever a neighborhood becomes 1% more walkable — by, for instance, adding sidewalks to make it easier for people to get from parks to restaurants and other businesses on foot — residents walk 0.42% more minutes a week.

So if a city boosts an area’s walkability by about 50%, an average resident might theoretically walk about 20 more minutes a week, according to the study. That’s important, the researchers write, “because even small increases in physical activity at the population level can contribute to improvements in public health.” (You can find the walkability score of your neighborhood here. The service is separate from the study.)

Experts have long encouraged people to walk for their health. But by targeting walkability overall, cities can bake that encouragement into the landscape itself.

“Individual behavior change just isn’t doing it. We’ve kind of done that to death, in my opinion,” said Glen E. Duncan, the lead author of the paper and a professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at Washington State University. “We just tell people to eat your fruits and vegetables and get more exercise, without really thinking about the larger structural problems that hinder people from eating better and getting more activity.”

A key component of the study was a database of twins, which allowed the researchers to look at pairs of similar people living in different neighborhoods. The researchers could investigate the objective measurements of walkability in the twins’ neighborhoods — such as plenty of destinations readily accessible by sidewalks — to determine if the built environment influenced their activity.

They found that the twins who lived in more walkable neighborhoods reported walking more weekly minutes than their siblings. Now policymakers can use this information to make their cities more walkable, Duncan said. “That could be a really good thing for public health.”

The study could help city governments looking to take climate action, too. Cities are prime candidates for “multisolving” techniques, interventions that solve multiple problems at once. New sidewalks or zoning laws to get more businesses within walking distance for residents don’t just make it easier to get around on foot.

“Every trip taken on foot instead of by a fossil fuel-powered car reduces greenhouse gas emissions,” said Elizabeth Sawin, the director of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Multisolving Institute, who wasn’t involved in the new research. “Walkability also helps connect people with the neighbors and local businesses, and increases a sense of connection and economic vitality.”

With more people opting to walk instead of drive, fewer cars on the road would improve local air quality and put fewer pedestrians and cyclists in danger of getting run over by cars: Every day in the U.S., an average of 20 people are killed by motor vehicles. But it’s not necessary to close off roads to cars to make a place more walkable; a city government simply needs to improve the existing infrastructure to make people feel safer walking and cycling. That might be particularly welcome in underserved neighborhoods.

“I think it is going to make a world of a difference for many people — marginalized groups in particular,” said Bunmi Akinnusotu, director of city innovation at the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Aspen Institute, who wasn’t involved in the research.

Cities can change more readily than you might think. San Francisco voters ended up closing that coastal highway in the November election, clearing the way for it to become a two-mile-long park for pedestrians and bicyclists. And ever since the lifting of COVID restrictions, cities across the U.S. have been experimenting with slow streets and other ways to improve pedestrian safety and human health.

“If we really want to move the needle on public health,” Duncan said, “we need to be thinking about things that we can change that impact a large percentage of the population.”

State and local lawmakers are joining immigrant rights groups in urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would bar California law enforcement from moonlighting for ICE.

Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, who represents Angelenos from South L.A. to Mar Vista, introduced AB 1537 in January. If implemented, the bill would ban California police, sheriffs and other law enforcement from taking on second jobs that involve “arresting, detaining, transporting, or deporting” people.

The bill has made its way through the state legislature and is now on the governor’s desk. Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto it.

At a press conference outside L.A. City Hall on Wednesday, José Madera, who directs the Pasadena Job Center, pointed to multiple deaths involving federal immigration agents in recent months — from Minneapolis to Houston — and to a recent shooting in Austin. “We don't need our local police to be part of that violence,” he said.

“ICE is a lawless, rogue agency that is terrorizing our communities, separating our families and kidnapping our neighbors,” said Bruno Huizar, supervising policy manager at the California Immigrant Policy Center. “Governor Newsom must sign AB 1537 into law to protect Californians.”

L.A. City councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, whose own parents were undocumented, said it pained him to see immigrant parents go to work and to church in fear of being separated from their children.

“If you’re a public servant, you should be serving the public — not helping ICE tear families apart,” he added in a follow-up email statement.

The bill, dubbed “No side jobs for ICE” by its proponents, would also require officers to report secondary employment offers relating to immigration to their employers.

“If a law enforcement agent gets a conditional offer from an immigration enforcement agency, that will be part of their employment records. And that will be subject to a public records act request,” said Shiu-Ming Cheer, a licensed attorney at the California Immigration Policy Center. “This is aimed at bringing transparency, so that we know how many officers are actually getting offers to work as an ICE agent or a Border Patrol agent.”

The Peace Officers Research Association of California, which represents officers across the state, has spoken out against the bill, arguing that “policies like this don’t improve public safety.” The Los Angeles Police Protective League did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

The bill is part of a growing effort to bar local law enforcement from engaging in the ongoing mass deportation effort. The L.A. City Council approved a motion in March, barring city employees from holding second jobs with federal immigration enforcement agencies.

In Santa Ana, the City Council recently adopted a policy that prohibits employees from obtaining outside work that involves federal immigration enforcement activities.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill aimed at protecting children who are abused.

The law, which went into effect this week, is named “Gabriel’s Law,” after Gabriel Fernandez — an 8-year-old boy in Palmdale who died in 2013 after being tortured and abused by his mother and her boyfriend.

“It devastated the community. Still has,” said State Assemblymember Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale), who worked on legislation related to Gabriel’s case for years. “It hasn't gone away, right? It’s something we still acknowledge.”

Since Fernandez’s death, the Antelope Valley has seen a number of high-profile child deaths at the hands of their parents.

The new law requires social workers to make sure a child gets emergency medical care when needed, and it makes it easier to prosecute social workers who knowingly falsify records.

Officials said there had been warning signs about Fernandez’s abuse, but social workers with the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services failed to follow up on them. The high-profile case prompted internal reforms in the agency.

What happened to Gabriel

Gabriel died in May 2013, after months of abuse from his mother and her boyfriend. He was found with a number of injuries, including a fractured skull, broken ribs and BB pellets lodged in his body. His mother and her boyfriend were both sentenced.

A teacher had reported signs of abuse to the county, but social workers did not remove him from the home. Then they ended the investigation. Prosecutors charged the social workers with child abuse, but the charges were later dismissed.

“He was literally tortured. And there were many, many, many documented events, and there are many encounters that he had with people that lacked follow-up,” Lackey said.

What does the law change?

Before this week, the law said that social workers may authorize care if a child needs immediate emergency care, but did not require it. Gabriel’s law requires a social worker to secure medical care for a child.

“ They call for an ambulance or escort the child to an emergency room— make sure a physician has the opportunity to provide some level of remedy and documentation of the injury,” Lackey said.

It also clarifies the law so that social workers who are guilty of falsifying or destroying public records can be imprisoned or fined.

Why did the law take so long to change?

Lackey’s previous legislative efforts related to Fernandez’s case failed over the years. He introduced at least five different pieces of legislation that failed to advance.

“I'm not even saying that I blame the pushback and the concern, because if you're too aggressive, there's a tendency to accuse people of wrongdoing when they are not guilty of wrongdoing, so we wanted to make sure that the balance was reasonable,” he said.

Lackey terms out this year. “We're trying to do something as a community to not only pay tribute to [Gabriel], but to prevent it from reoccurring,” he said.

The Los Angeles Fire Department has completed its investigation into the cause of the Lineage warehouse fire in Boyle Heights but was unable to determine what caused it. 

In a press release, LAFD said the June 17 fire was caused by an “electrical event” that occurred on the roof of the building, “adjacent to a section of solar panels.” Despite a “comprehensive investigation,” the department could not determine what caused the electrical event.

“The Department’s thoughts remain with all those impacted by this deeply tragic incident,” Arson and Fire Investigation Chief Thomas Raymond said in a release.

In response to the inconclusive investigation, District 14 Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said, “LAFD’s finding that the cause remains undetermined does nothing to alleviate what Boyle Heights residents have endured and are still carrying: months of health concerns and disruption, along with unanswered questions about whether this site can safely operate again.”

“The fact that we still cannot explain how this catastrophe began is yet another reason I will continue opposing any permits to rebuild this facility,” Jurado said.

Recently, the LA City Council voted to withhold rebuilding permits for the Lineage warehouse until after the Los Angeles Fire Department completed its investigation. Earlier this month, Lineage Chief Executive Officer Greg Lehmkuhl told Boyle Heights Beat and The LA Local that the company had not decided whether to rebuild, saying, “We’re still focused on holding the right people accountable here and making sure that we’re continuing to support the community.”

The CEO’s comments came after Lineage sued solar power provider Altus Power, Inc. and its contractor, blaming them for the fire. Altus Power and its contractor dispute those claims.

In a statement following the completed investigation, Lineage said, “Today’s report from the Los Angeles Fire Department validates what we have known all along: This was a solar fire.”

The fire and subsequent cleanup of millions of pounds of rotting food caused a flood of issues for residents living in Boyle Heights, East LA and surrounding communities, including an infestation of flies and pests, nausea and headaches, higher utility bills and other health concerns. 

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Boyle Heights Beat senior reporter Alejandra Molina and LA Local reporter Christopher Damien contributed to this report.

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