Today on AirTalk we'll go over Los Angeles' plan to grow business through less parking restrictions, consider the effects of a UC Berkeley report concerning hate speech on campus, discuss President Obama's new immigration policy which rolls out today, introduce you to an organization that wants to invest in the careers of college graduates, and figure out when, why and how the media is manipulating its audience.
LA hopes to grow business by shrinking parking requirements
It’s hard enough for a driver to find one parking space in this city. If you’re a business owner, the law says you need to find several. Businesses in Los Angeles have been stymied by the city’s parking requirement rules, which date back to the 1940s.
Office buildings, retail establishments, restaurants and apartments are all required to provide a minimum number of parking spaces in order to open. For every 1,000 square feet it occupies, an office-type business must provide two parking spaces, a retail store needs four and a restaurant must come up with 10.
As a result, small business in many areas has dwindled as shops shutter and new owners fail to find the required allotment of spots.
A new parking initiative, spearheaded by Eastside and Central City council members, aims to change that dynamic by relaxing the rules and reducing the number of required spots. The program would divide up the city into zones where each community would be able to enact, through a series of votes, what works best for their area.
Councilman Ed Reyes, who voted in favor of the initiative Tuesday night, sees this as a positive development for many areas of L.A. that he represents. However, for other areas, particularly in West Los Angeles, the idea of easing restrictions in already congested areas is not popular for many residents. Neighborhood activists fear that the initiative will bring more traffic to overcrowded streets, leaving cars cruising the surrounding streets for a space.
“It’s not going to be imposed on anyone. It’s going to be sought out. It’ll be layered in with a process in mind so … those residents who are concerned about overfilled parking that they will have a role in this. So perhaps the end result will be some type of a balance,” Reyes said on AirTalk.
Even with this reassurance, many residents, including Jim O’Sullivan, the President of the Miracle Mile Residential Association, feel this solution may actually create more parking problems. He says there is a larger problem which is the city’s lack of comprehensive transportation system for residents.
“For instance in the Miracle Mile, or the whole Mid-City West neighborhood council area it’s a parking congested area. You can’t take one parking place away. We constantly have issues with restaurants that need to open and there just is no space other than to drive into communities,” said O’Sullivan.
The initiative comes after pilot programs in Atwater Village have shown promising results, injecting the areas with small businesses and enlivening the streets with pedestrian traffic. Reyes emphasized that these positive results prove that it’s time for Los Angeles to move forward with a more diverse approach to parking rather than the single city-wide ordinance.
“This menu allows flexibility both ways, in terms of understanding the unique qualities of every neighborhood and that phrase one size fits all, and how that does not apply to the unique, diverse environment that we call Los Angeles,” Reyes added.
The LA City Council will have a final vote next week on the initiative.
Weigh In
How do you think the new rules will affect your area? Would you like to see more businesses opening, even without parking requirements? Will you to walk to your favorite restaurant to avoid hunting for a parking space?
Guests:
Councilman Ed Reyes, representing the 1st district of Los Angeles including Mount Washington, Lincoln Heights and Echo Park; proponent of changing parking requirements for businesses.
Jim O’Sullivan, President of the Miracle Mile Residential Association; opposes the City Council’s parking plan
UC report on campus climate stirs free speech backlash
In the 1960’s, UC Berkeley became well known as the birthplace of the campus free speech movement. Now, some University of California students see a threat to free speech brewing.
It started two years ago, when a number of disturbing incidents on UC campuses made big news. A group of Muslim students loudly interrupted the Israeli ambassador’s talk at the Irvine campus, prompting an outcry by Jewish and Muslim students. During Black History Month, a UC San Diego frat house sent out Facebook invitations to a “Compton Cookout”; after black students complained, a noose was found hanging in the library.
These and other incidents of perceived racism or anti-Semitism prompted UC president Mark Yudof to form a task force to assess the racial, cultural and religious climate on campuses. The 17-member Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion visited UC’s throughout the state to meet with students and talk about their concerns.
The council’s report, delivered to Yudof last month, suggests a campus-wide need to foster a more inclusive climate. Among their recommendations: diversity training for faculty and students, attention to the dietary and worship needs of Muslim and Jewish students, a review of student organization activities and the adoption of a “hate speech-free” campus policy. But the report has raised questions by students, faculty and civil rights groups. The National Lawyers Guild, the Council on American-Islamic Relationas and an ad hoc student-faculty group have all sent letters to Yudof questioning the study and its recommendations.
What was the council’s fact-finding process, and how did they reach the conclusions they did? What constitutes hate speech, and who decides the parameters? How is it distinguished from other forms of civil protest? What would a UC-wide “hate speech-free policy” look like and how will it be implemented? Even if such a policy is workable – is it constitutional?
Guests:
Sarah Anne Minkin, PhD. candidate in sociology at University of California, Berkeley and a member of the UC Ad Hoc Committee on Jewish Campus Climate
Richard Barton, member of the UC Advisory Committee on Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion, national chair of education for the Anti-Defamation League, Adjunct Professor of Law at University of San Diego School of Law
Obama rolls out new immigration plan for youths
Today marks the beginning of President Obama’s “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” immigration policy. The plan allows for illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children to stay legally, via an authorization to work and a two-year deferral from deportation.
More than 1.2 million young immigrants could benefit from this program, and some estimates even range up to the 1.7 million mark. The “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” plan was adopted in lieu of the even more comprehensive Dream Act, which would have granted legal status to the same group affected here, but stalled in Congress in 2010.
Here in Southern California, a ceremony was held at 9 a.m. at the office of the Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles to roll in the new policy, which will be followed by information sessions for the 500 or so expected to attend on the application process.
Who exactly is affected by this administration’s immigration reforms? What does it mean for Los Angeles and the rest of California?
Guests:
Linett Luna, UCLA senior studying Latin American Studies and Anthropology, who came to the U.S. legally when she was 10 years old to join her parents and siblings then overstayed her visa
Russell Jauregui, Immigration Attorney with the Los Angeles firm Vellanoweth and Gayhart
Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies, Center for Immigration Studies
Upstart your career
With the rising costs of higher education, students are often graduating with mountains of debt. Dave Girouard saw this debt as a burden to the potential of future entrepreneurs. So, he left his post as the head of enterprise at Google to launch Upstart (based in Palo Alto).
The idea is to fund recent college graduates with entrepreneurial or artist dreams, but wouldn’t have the resources to launch a creative endeavour and pay back loans. So, Upstart is giving money to eligible grads in return for a percentage of their future income about $30,000. Here’s how it works. Grads put up a profile and Upstart rates them according to an algorithm.
Guests:
Jeff Keltner, founding member of Upstart; former Engineer at Google where he launched and ran the Google Apps for Education business and supported Google’s overall Enterprise business
Nathan Sharp, 2008 Harvard graduate; MBA 2012 Dartmouth Tuck School of Business. Nathan just graduated and has about $100,000 of student-loan debt. He’s part of the Upstart pilot program.
Matt DeBord, KPCC Reporter; writes the DeBord Report KPCC.org
An expert media manipulator tells all
We all know that blogs and websites aren’t always the most reliable news sources. Students are endlessly urged to be discriminating when doing research online and skeptical of sites like Wikipedia. But what happens when even the most reputable news sources can’t be trusted?
In his book “Trust Me, I’m Lying,” marketing expert Ryan Holiday exposes the seedy underbelly of media manipulation, where even The New York Times can be duped. Holiday says we live in a world where blogs like Gawker, Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post distort the news and it’s his job, as a self-proclaimed “media manipulator” to control them.
Recently, Holiday went on a spree of manipulation, lying to The New York Times, CBS and ABC about everything from vinyl record collecting, to his troubles as an insomniac, all in an effort to pull back the curtain on the marketers who write the news, the reckless journalists who spread the lies, and the lack of accountability. In the process, Holiday reveals that the very framework of our current news system is flawed.
“Trust Me, I’m Lying” has ignited controversy among major news sources. But it’s also sparked high praise from various critics. Though some question Holiday’s motives in writing the book (he is a manipulator after all), many still believe it’s an important and incisive look at the state of the media in America.
So, who and what can we trust?
Guest:
Ryan Holiday, author of “Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator” (Portfolio/Penguin), media strategist and marketing director for American Apparel