At the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, a scantily clad Miley Cyrus and her foam finger twerked her way into our collective memories. At this year’s awards, the pop star somehow managed to grab everyone’s attention again — and she barely even left her seat.
After presenter Jimmy Fallon announced her Video of the Year win for “Wrecking Ball,” Cyrus had her VMA companion, a 22-year-old formerly homeless man named Jesse, take the stage instead.
“I am accepting this award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving and lost and scared for their lives,” he said. “I know, because I am one of those people.”
“I have survived in shelters all over this city,” he continued as Cyrus cried in the audience. “The music industry will make over $7 billion this year, and outside these doors are 54,000 human beings who have no place to call home.”
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While in front of the microphone, Jesse also explained how viewers could donate to My Friend’s Place (a center that helps homeless youth in Hollywood with housing, jobs, school and healthcare) by visiting Cyrus’ Facebook page.
Undoubtedly (to paraphrase a tweet from Maria Shriver following Cyrus’ win), this is a very smart use of air time.
As the New York Times points out, however, Jesse’s appearance raises a few questions: Is Cyrus trying to improve her image? Did she notice the viral potential of social media activism of the #IceBucketChallenge? Is this tongue-wagging exhibitionist suddenly a philanthropist?
All of which leaves us asking: How genuine is Cyrus? We’re not sure, but the fact that there’s a prize for donating to My Friend’s Place — a VIP trip to Brazil and a chance to hang out with Cyrus — is unsettling, to say the least.
Her rep tells the Times that Cyrus took a page from Marlon Brando, who sent a woman named Sacheen Littlefeather to accept his Best Actor Oscar for “The Godfather” in 1973 to protest of the treatment of Native Americans by the film industry.
ALSO: Which Celebrity Is Building Green Homes For Native American Tribes?
And, according to the Times, she was also “informally advised” by Trevor Neilson, the president of G2 Investment Group and co-founder of Global Philanthropy Group, who worked has worked with Bono and Sharika on their charitable campaigns.
Interestingly, Cyrus also admitted to Ryan Seacrest in an interview she, perhaps, wanted something with a little more substance following last year’s scandalous VMA performance. “There’s going to be talk, so what do I want them to talk about?” she said. “If I’m going to be given this loud of a voice and this big of an image and this big of a platform and this huge of an opportunity to talk to young people in American right now, what am I really trying to say? Because I don’t think what I was trying to say is what happened the year before.”
My Friend’s Place does appear to be a reputable organization for Cyrus to talk about. It’s received a four-star rating from CharityNavigator, spending just about 90 percent of its funds on programs and services and only 5 percent on administrative costs.
Whatever your thoughts are about the former Disney starlet’s intentions, we’re probably going to hear much more about her newest charitable cause. “I’m just getting started,” a statement from Cyrus reads. “And I want to make sure my fans are part of helping me to give back and make an impact on this issue. We all have the power to make change happen. This is about helping youth, people just like you and me have the opportunity to find their inner power and potential, no matter what their circumstances.”
Bravo for raising awareness and funding for the 4,000 young homeless people on the streets of Los Angeles every year. And as for doing things for attention? That’s so Miley.
[ph]
DON’T MISS: How L.A. Plans to End Veteran Homelessness by 2016
Tag: los angeles
How This Fix Can Help Quench California’s Thirst
Seven billion gallons. From dripping faucets to burst water mains, that’s the amount of potable water that’s wasted every single day from our country’s leaky pipes.
As the Huffington Post reports, that startling amount could meet all of the daily water needs of California — a state that’s now experiencing the most severe drought ever recorded.
Simply put, the nation’s water pipes are way too old. As ABC News puts it, “Much of the piping that carries drinking water in the country dates to the first half of the 20th century, with some installed before Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House.”
Aging pipes are precisely the reason why a 100-year-old water main recently burst in Los Angeles, spewing out 20 million gallons of precious water in the already drought-stricken Californian city.
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So what’s stopping Uncle Sam from calling the plumber? Cost, of course, is one main reason. According to Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. will need to spend up to $200 billion dollars on water systems over the next 20 years to upgrade transmission and distribution systems, $97 billion of which will need to go towards water loss control.
The New York Times also points out a much more sinister reason why the country isn’t giving its aging water infrastructure a facelift. Mary Ann Dickinson, president of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, tells the paper, “Water loss is unsexy,” adding, “There’s no ribbon cutting for new plants. If you announce that you’ve recovered a million gallons a day, it looks like you weren’t managing your system right in the first place.”
ALSO: Can This Ancient Farming Method Help Drought-Ridden California?
But this necessary (albeit expensive) fix could also mitigate much bigger problems. As the American Society of Civil Engineers says, if we do nothing about it, we’ll only have more water shortages to come, increased rates as water gets more expensive and even increased exposure to water-borne illnesses due to unreliable delivery and wastewater treatment services.
Our water systems are only getting older and the planet is only getting hotter, which means more droughts all around — and not just in the American southwest. Solutions are more crucial than ever to conserve this important resource.
Meanwhile, it may be a good idea for you to call your local plumber if you haven’t gotten around to patching up that leaky faucet.
DON’T MISS: The Silver Lining to California’s Terrible Drought
How L.A. Plans to End Veteran Homelessness by 2016
It’s virtually unanimous: Most of us believe that all veterans who have served this country deserve to have roofs over their heads. As a result, cities across the country are working toward the goal of housing all the homeless vets in their communities. (Special props to Phoenix for already accomplishing this.) And now, the mayor of the city with the biggest veteran homelessness problem has pledged to join this quest.
In total, Los Angeles County has 6,300 homeless veterans — more than any other county in the United States. So on July 16, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti pledged to end veteran homelessness, at least for the 2,600 living within city limits by 2015.
Garcetti made this vow during the Unite for Veterans Summit, which included First Lady Michelle Obama. “The image of even one of these heroes sleeping out in the cold, huddled up next to an overpass—that should horrify all of us,” Obama said, according to Gale Holland of the Los Angeles Times. “Because that’s not who we are. And the truth is, we know that there are simple steps that we can take — whether that’s in business or government or in our communities — to prevent and solve these kinds of problems,” she said.
Los Angeles has 17 months to fulfill its promise, and it’s already working towards achieving it. The pipe fitters, elevator construction, painters and sheet metal worker unions are lending a hand by giving veterans first priority in their apprenticeship programs. And, earlier this year, construction began on renovating a Los Angeles County VA building into housing and supportive services for homeless veterans.
According to the Los Angeles Times, mayors from 40 states have already committed to the Obama administration’s challenge to end veteran homelessness. So hopefully the country is well on its way to meeting that goal.
MORE: Phoenix Just Became the First City to End Chronic Veteran Homelessness. Here’s How.
Which Cities Have the Most Designers?
Move over techies and engineers, there is a new industry coming to Silicon Valley: Design.
Design is an integral part of the creative economy that gives artistic people a lucrative career option. Not only is the industry beneficial for the artistic economy, but it helps the overall economy as well. As of 2013, 625,000 people were employed in the design industry, with graphic design being the biggest sector followed by architecture. Interestingly, during the recession, the number of employed designers remained stable. And with the median income at $24.55 per hour, designers bring jobs and money to their communities.
New York City and Los Angeles aren’t the only destinations for designers anymore. Now, many are gravitating to Silicon Valley and other parts of the country as the designing industry gets a high tech upgrade.
According to data from the labor market data and research firm EMSI, as well as City Lab, there are more self-employed designers in San Francisco and San Jose, California, than anywhere else in the United States.
NYC and L.A. still do dominate the fashion industry, thanks to their fashion schools, stores and businesses. But the surprising holder of third place? Columbus, Ohio, which is home to DSW, L Brands and Abercrombie and Fitch.
However, when it comes to other design careers, urban areas other than the largest coastal cities are tops. Architects should head to Seattle, San Francisco, or even Boston. And graphic designers should look for employment in Minneapolis-St. Paul, which leads the field due to its strong marketing and advertising industry, and San Francisco.
To learn more about the key cities and what makes them leaders, click here.
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How A Database is Helping Los Angeles Create a Sense of History
Beyond the glitz and glamor of Hollywood, Los Angeles boasts historical resources that extend across its sprawling boundaries. And though it may be young in terms of world heritage compared to other places like Rome and Athens, city planners want to understand and record its most historical aspects as more areas are thrust into urban redevelopment or weathered by economic blight and natural disasters.
Using the open-sourced software Arches from the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), city planners have launched SurveyLA, a database cataloguing the city’s historic and cultural heritage, Governing Technology reports.
“The idea that Los Angeles has no history or cares little about its history is a true urban myth,” said Ken Bernstein, manager of the city’s Office of Historic Resources. “Los Angeles has one of the most intact historic downtowns in the country, and perhaps the greatest collection of historic movie palaces of any city.” And that’s not all. “It has always been on the cutting edge of architecture,” he adds.
The Arches software, which was developed in partnership with the World Monuments Fund (a nonprofit that works to save historical architecture), has previously been used to help keep record of heritage sites in Iraq and Jordan. GCI then enhanced it so it could be used with younger cities such as L.A. — which serves as a pilot project for the new initiative.
The survey, which began four years ago, focuses on everything from historic districts to homes of famous leaders to the sites of civil rights demonstrations and World War II air-raid sirens that are still visible throughout the city. The survey, which is partially funded by the J. Getty Trust, uses more than 200 themes and sub-themes to develop guidelines for what qualifies as historic. These guidelines are known as a historic context statement.
“The idea is to not just send the survey teams out and have them make subjective assessments of what they like and don’t like,” Bernstein said, “but to really ground the survey evaluation in a deep understanding of the forces that shape the city historically as well as the city’s architectural evolution.”
Information collected by these survey teams will also be used to predict where places of historical significance are likely to be. Teams scour the city block by block to make a list of potential landmarks before more comprehensive surveyors make a proper assessment with a digital camera and a tablet computer. The team also launched MyHistoricLA to assist in collecting local feedback about potential sites.
“Many months before we go out into a community we are talking to local community groups, neighborhood councils and others to find out what are those hidden gems or hidden stories in a given community to make sure that gets reflected in the survey,” Bernstein added.
The survey teams are slated to finish assessments by late 2015, with the goal of creating a tool to help planners and lawmakers in developing future plans. The rich database will then be available to the public in a searchable archive, but the GCI is hoping more cities will take notice and eventually implement a similar project with the free software.
And so do we. After all, preserving a sense of history is not only beneficial for celebrating a heritage, but also in helping local governments better understand their communities as they shape future policy and development.
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Here’s How the LAPD Is Connecting With Young People
Police officers are not always known to have the strongest relationship with local youth, but the Los Angeles Police Department is using recruitment as a tool to change that narrative.
Late last month, the LAPD graduated 652 cadets from ages 14 to 20, the largest graduating class since the program launched in 2007, the Los Angeles Times reports. Rather than guiding young people into law enforcement, the program includes courses ranging in topics including citizenship, leadership and financial literacy.
Students work in police stations, assist officers on ride-alongs and volunteer time at community events such as a Christmas toy drive and the L.A. Marathon.
“We’d rather have them close to us than out there on the street,” said LAPD Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger. “Gang members don’t have trouble recruiting, so why should we?”
The program, which began under former LAPD Chief Bill Bratton, recognizes the potential of using recruitment as a way to build trust between the community and the force in particularly underserved parts of the city.
With the help of $1.5-million grant from the Ray Charles Foundation and Paysinger’s organizing efforts, the LAPD revamped its community youth program to boast a roster to 5,000 cadets. Since its launch, graduating classes have tripled in size and an overwhelming majority have opted to continue to serve after training.
The key to the LAPD’s success is focusing on providing youth with assistance on whichever career path they choose instead of just recruiting for the force. Such help can include tutoring or college scholarships for cadets as well as an eight-week course for cadet parents.
“It allows you to learn so much about what teenagers are dealing with,” said Lily Licea, a cadet parent. “Bullying, drugs, bad influences, child abuse. You’re aware, and yet you’re unaware.”
Licea’s son, Nathaniel, is one of the hundreds of cadets who graduated last month. Since he was eight years old, he’s considered a future in law enforcement. Nathaniel grew up in the Carson community, watching family members make poor choices and join gangs — experiences that ultimately guided him to enrolling in the cadet program. His parents were joined by two of his teachers and his principal at Port of Los Angeles High School to watch Nathaniel graduate.
That’s another element of the program — the ability to invite not just family members to graduation, but any person who has been a positive influence — furthering the element of strengthening ties to community and service.
“What we see here,” said Thomas Carey, a church vicar who came to support two other cadets, “is an expression of the web of support that exists in the community, which is really a beautiful thing and quite rare.”
How Los Angeles Is Setting the Tone for Disaster Preparedness
Earthquakes, superstorms, hurricanes and flooding have become a mainstay in American headlines. But rather than simply brace for Mother Nature, Los Angeles is joining an international initiative to help cities better prepare for natural disasters.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced plans to hire a “chief resilience officer,” tasked with improving the city’s recovery plan from man-made or natural disasters, according to the Los Angeles Times. The mayor also committed to surveying the city for at-risk infrastructure in the event of a major earthquake as well as how efficiently the city is using water and electricity.
“Why should we be going and looking at buildings on their seismic safety if we don’t also look at the energy that they’re consuming and the water that they consume?” Garcetti said.
Los Angeles’s action is part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s effort to help cities around the world implement better safety prevention and planning. The aim is to help urban planners prepare for the influx of people moving to cities. In fact, the United Nations projects that three-fourths of the world’s population will move to an urban area by 2050, according to a Rockefeller Foundation report.
The nonprofit is awarding 100 cities with funding to hire a “chief resilience officer,” and has selected 33 recipients so far, according to the foundation website. Los Angeles is one of 372 cities that applied to become one of the 100 Resilient Cities, and the nonprofit has pledged to pay the salary of L.A.’s future CRO for the first two years, as well as other funding to develop a response plan.
But Los Angeles has already begun its efforts without the nonprofit’s help. The mayor approved action to hire three people at the building department to outline a list of vulnerable residential buildings. Garcetti also acknowledged support for a compulsory check on retrofitting older building at risk as well as grading buildings for seismic safety.
He also appointed a prominent U.S. Geological Survey seismologist to spend this year meeting with scientists and community members to draft recommendations on retrofitting buildings for better safety and ensuring water and communications systems remain available in the event of a disaster. The foundation’s president, Michael Berkowtiz, said he was “really impressed by the innovative and visionary leadership that the mayor was providing on these issues.”
New Orleans, Berkley and San Francisco have also been selected, adding “chief resilience officer” responsibilities to their respective earthquake czar job title. Another U.S. recipient using funding for sustainability issues: El Paso, Texas.
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Could Los Angeles Become The Next Pedestrian-Friendly City?
Survival in Los Angeles has long hinged on owning a car and enduring its punishing traffic, but a new report suggests the sprawling city has potential to become America’s next walkable urban area.
As we reported earlier this week, coalition of real estate developers and investors partnered with SmartGrowth America (a non-profit that focuses on developing and sustaining great urban neighborhoods) and the George Washington University School of Business to analyze the number of walkable neighborhoods in the country’s 30 largest urban areas and look at the potential for growth.
Though L.A. came in at 18th (just below Columbus, Ohio and Kansas City), researchers suggest its future could move it toward the top of the list.
How’s that possible, you might be asking?
Currently, the report finds that only about 16 percent of L.A.’s office and retail space is walkable, compared to three times that amount in Washington, D.C. But 35 percent of that pedestrian-friendly space exists in the city’s suburbs, which means L.A. and its surrounding communities are ripe for growth.
These walkable areas are in-demand for office and retail development, which is driving up rent costs, according to Chris Leinberger, a real-estate professor at George Washington who led the study.
“This is a pretty significant change in how we invest, how we build the country,” Leinberger said. “There will be demand for tens of millions of square feet of additional walkable urban development.”
Additionally, the city has invested more than $40 billion in developing public transit over the next decade — more than any other city across the nation — with eight new commuter, light and heavy rail lines already open. The city has also begun construction on five new rail lines while suburban cities like Pasadena and Santa Monica continue to develop plans for a more public transit-friendly community, Fast Company adds.
“That future—of a walkable, transit-friendly Los Angeles—is being built right now,” the report said. “It will allow people to drive everywhere they want, assuming they can put up with the traffic, and provide the option of walkable urbanism for those who want it.”
Despite the investment, L.A. still must clear the hurdles of circumventing zoning and regulatory policies in some of these communities, as well as find tenants who can afford the soaring costs of rent.
Challenges aside, as the report points out, achieving the futuristic transit system depicted in last year’s movie “Her” is not too far from reality.
MORE: How Can Two Cities Develop the Area Between Them?
Top 10 Cities for Energy Efficient Office Buildings
It takes a lot of energy to go to work, and we mean that quite literally. In fact, most of a city’s carbon emissions come from commercial buildings. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, commercial buildings in Chicago are responsible for 70 percent of the city’s carbon emissions; in New York City, it’s a staggering 80 percent.
In recent years, however, many metropolitan cities have committed to reducing their carbon footprint. These days you’ll see many high rises sporting green roofs, LED lighting, and automated heating and cooling systems, in addition to other green upgrades. As Fast Company reports, since 1999, more than 23,000 commercial buildings have earned the EPA’s Energy Star rating.
These buildings use 35 percent less energy and produce 35 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than similar buildings, the EPA said. To earn the seal, a commercial building has to score 75 or higher on an energy efficiency scale out of 100 (50 is the average).
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Impressively, Los Angeles topped the list for the sixth consecutive year with 443 Energy Star certified buildings. In 2013, these green structures helped the city save $132.2 million in utility bills and prevented greenhouse gas emissions equal to 45,100 homes. A reason for Los Angeles’ success is that California requires buildings to disclose their energy use.
Here’s a complete list of the top 10:
1. Los Angeles
2. Washington, D.C.
3. Atlanta
4. New York
5. San Francisco
6. Chicago
7. Dallas-Fort Worth
8. Denver
9. Philadelphia
10. Houston
Did your metro area make the list? Here, the top 25 as well as which small and mid-sized cities that also made the cut.
A Parade of Hope: L.A.’s Skid Row Celebrates Its Community
The 52-square-block area in Los Angeles known as Skid Row is home to the densest population of homeless in the United States. In addition to those living on the streets, there are an additional 7,000 people residing in subsidized apartments or welfare hotels in the area. Many of these residents suffer from mental illness or substance abuse. But last Saturday, this distressed community was recognized for something other than its plights.
Skid Row residents congregated at Gladys Park, where they began the celebration of the second annual Walk The Talk parade, put on by Los Angeles Poverty Department, a local theater company. Neighborhood leaders and community members danced as the Mudbug Brass Band played to the tune of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
The event, billed as a project that combines performance, visual art, and community conversations, celebrates the downtrodden area’s sense of community among the more than 3,400 people living in homeless shelters and on the sidewalks of Skid Row.
“It’s a demonstration of Skid Row culture,” said Manuel “OG” Compito, a local who spearheads a three-on-three streetball league at Gladys Park. “And it does have a culture.”
Stanford University students on an urban art walking tour and Christian students from Sunnyvale, California, handing out hygiene kits, joined in the fun while onlookers enjoyed a mobile gallery featuring a Skid Row history display.
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Skid Row preacher Pastor Cue Jn’marie adds the parade also aims to give those suffering from mental illness, depression, or addiction a celebration of hope.
“You never know who’s struggling,” Jn’marie said. “And this is the trigger they need to improve their lives.”
The parade wound along Gladys Park northwest to 5th and Main streets, stopping along the way for the Poverty Department’s sketches, which honored local activists and leaders like General Jeff Page.
Page, a member of the downtown neighborhood council, is a “proud resident of Skid Row.” The local activist and one-time hip-hop entrepreneur has spoken up for the community to bring clean drinking water, chess tables, shaded refuge, and a basketball court to Gladys Park.
Former Skid Row resident Stephanie Bell, 51, attended the parade and was even featured in some of the skits.
“I have seen a vision of all the people here dressed in suits and dresses, high heels, just like in uptown, going to their jobs,” Bell said. “It can happen.”
For many of Skid Row’s residents, including Compito, the parade acknowledges that the area is indeed a community, and that it’s only getting larger and prouder.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Compito said.