Basti Clearances: Examining the Characteristics of Informal Settlements Experiencing Evictions in India
Principal Investigator: Co-Principal Investigator: Evictions in bastis (informal settlements) in India leave thousands of people from low-income communities homeless and violate several international human rights. Under India’s national informal settlement policy framework, some states have begun offering tenure rights that protect people from forced evictions. However, it remains unclear how these rights are... More
Small Particles Big Impacts: Using Novel Low-Cost Monitors to Characterize Air Pollution Exposure in Urban Communities
Principal Investigator Co-Principal Investigators Aerosol particles are ubiquitous in ambient air and are of great importance to human and environmental health. However, not all particulate matter is the same; the type and severity of health effects depend on particle characteristics, including the particle size, shape, concentration, and composition. While the United States has... More
Indoor air quality, thermal comfort, energy use, and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 engineering controls in Boston Public Schools
Principal Investigator Co-Principal Investigator Schools have many competing interests to keep their buildings operational and healthy for students and staff, including maintaining thermal comfort, good indoor air quality (IAQ), and minimizing energy consumption. Poor IAQ is associated with school absenteeism and health outcomes such as asthma exacerbations, while poor thermal comfort has... More
Climate finance and climate justice in small and midsize cities in the United States
Principal Investigator Co-Principal Investigator Cities have been important sites of climate action for more than two decades, and thousands of cities globally have adopted climate action plans. Implementing these climate mitigation efforts is already imposing additional costs to cities and urban governments are facing the challenge of identifying new revenue streams or... More
Pretrial Detention Project
Principal Investigator: Co-Principal Investigator: The in-holding pre-trial population is largely under-represented, under-resourced, and understudied within academic penal studies (Anderson, Cochran, & Montes, 2021). Though pretrial detention is common (nearly half a million people are currently in pretrial detention today in the United States) and becoming increasingly more so over the last several... More
PES Portal: A Community Engaged Research Project
Principal Investigator: Co-Principal Investigator During the pandemic, children (0-17) were presenting in emergency departments with higher levels of acuity/severity, requiring more intensive psychiatric care. Psychiatric emergency services (PES) are designed to stabilize patients and prepare them for treatment following discharge. As part of that process, guardians and clinicians engage in shared decision... More
A Prospective Mixed Methods Study of Maternal and Child Well-being and Risk of Relapse in the First Year Postpartum
Principal Investigator Co-Principal Investigator The year after delivery is a vulnerable period for maternal-infant dyads in substance use recovery. Short and long-term risks include relapse, overdose, death, family dissolution and trauma. In particular, the late postpartum period represents a critical time with high rates of pharmacotherapy discontinuation by 6 months postpartum and... More
Who Benefits? The Spatial Context of Negotiated Community Benefits from Development Projects in Boston
Principal Investigator Without sustainable financing mechanisms, cities in many countries have increasingly relied on tools to have the private sector provide or pay for infrastructure, community benefits, or other amenities. Known as value-capture instruments, these tools are used to capture land value increases that arise from changes to zoning or investment... More
Recommendations for Health Services Delivery Options for ECHO Village
Principal Inestigator Co-Principal Investigator Mental health problems and substance use disorders (SUDs) have been a major driver of housing insecurity and homelessness in nearly every major U.S. city. As fentanyl spread rapidly in illegal markets during the COVID-19 pandemic, many more people turned to opioids when treatment facilities and other essential social... More
Research To Action: Local Government Partnerships
Thursday, May 19, 2022 5:00–6:00pm ET The BU Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Community Engagement Program is hosting a panel discussion to explore how researchers can partner with local government to engage residents, build trust, and inform policy. Katharine Lusk, Co-Director of the Initiative on Cities (IOC), will moderate a discussion with: ... More
BU Today: MetroBridge GRS Course Aims to Help Reshape Community Policing in Lynn
From BU Today: Spencer Piston’s Race at the Center of U.S. Politics students helped the city work to implement a civilian emergency response team Read the full article on BU Today written by Alene Bouranova Lynn, Mass., made headlines in the summer of 2020 when Thomas McGee, then the city’s mayor, allocated... More
Examining experiences of gentrification, local policy awareness and the effects on social networks in Detroit, MI
Principal Investigator: Co-Principal Investigator: Gentrification is a widely discussed and examined phenomenon. The effects of gentrification on residents who stay in gentrifying and “revitalizing” areas, rather than moving and/or being pushed out, is an underdeveloped area of study. The qualitative experiences of Black residents are also less represented within gentrification-based scholarship. The... More
Announcing our 2022 Public Impact Scholars Cohort
The Initiative on Cities (IOC) is excited to announce our 2022 Public Impact Scholars cohort. This is the second year of the Public Impact Scholars program, which equips BU faculty with new skills and knowledge to influence local and state policy and discourse for positive societal impact. Through the program, faculty gain new... More
Faculty Friday: Kevin Gallagher
Faculty Friday is a series highlighting members of the Initiative on Cities (IOC) Faculty Advisory Board, by exploring their work on campus and in the city. This week, we are highlighting Kevin Gallagher, Professor of Global Development Policy at the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and... More
Researching Best Practices to Enhance Equitable Public Participation in Alignment with Framingham’s Racial Equity Vision
By Amelia Murray-Cooper Increasing community and civic engagement are key goals outlined in the City of Framingham’s Racial Equity Vision. During fall 2021, Associate Professor Katherine Levine Einstein led a course on Inequality and American Politics in the College of Arts and Sciences, in which students researched methods of enhancing equitable... More
Experiential Learning for Social Impact Summit
Thursday, May 26, 2022 9:00am–3:30pm 1 Silber Way, 9th Floor, Metcalf Trustee Center Ballroom Open to current members of the BU community Experiential learning continues to grow as a hallmark of a Boston University education, via both new and longstanding programs across our many schools, colleges, and centers. This day-long summit will bring together... More
Forum with Gubernatorial Candidate Sonia Chang-Díaz
Monday, April 25, 2022 6:30pm – 8:00pm ET Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02446 Registration is required to attend this event. Register here! The Boston University Initiative on Cities and Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground are proud to support a Forum with Gubernatorial Candidate Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz hosted by... More
Gloria Ampadu-Darko: My Experience at the NLC Congressional City Conference
Gloria-Ampadu-Darko is a sophomore at BU and the 2021–22 NLC Menino Fellow. Applications for the 2022–23 Menino Fellowship are due on Sunday, April 24, 2022. On Monday March 14th, I had the absolute pleasure of attending the Congressional City Conference (CCC), an annual event hosted by the National League of Cities... More
How Mayors are Tackling the Racial Wealth Gap
Thursday, April 14, 2022 12pm ET Virtual Event The racial wealth gap is wider for Black and Latinx families compared to White families than for any other racial identifications. Nationwide, this problem persists across a variety of assets, including housing, businesses, and retirement accounts. The Boston University Initiative on Cities' 2021 Menino Survey of... More
Loretta Lees will be the next Faculty Director of the Initiative on Cities
We are excited to announce new leadership at Boston University's Initiative on Cities (IOC), a hub for inter- and transdisciplinary urban research and learning across the University. On September 1, 2022, the Initiative on Cities welcomes a new faculty director, Loretta Lees, who also joins the College of Arts &... More