People Before Highways

On Wednesday, October 17th, Dr. Karilyn Crockett joined the Initiative on Cities to discuss her book, People Before Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Planners, and a New Movement for City Making. Her research examines infrastructure and urban development in American cities in the 20th century. People Before Highways is an investigation into... More

Chega de Fiu Fiu: Enough with Catcalling

On Wednesday, October 10th, the Initiative on Cities and the Boston University Center for Latin American Studies hosted a screening of the Brazilian documentary Chega de Fiu Fiu, which translates roughly to "Enough With Catcalling." Filmmakers Amanda Kamanchek and Fernanda Frazão explore sexual harassment and catcalling in the streets of... More

The Latino City

On Thursday, September 27, the BU Center for Latin American Studies and the Initiative on Cities co-sponsored a discussion on the emergence and development of Latino communities in the heart of American cities. Jonathan Calvillo, Assistant Professor at Boston University, moderated the panel featuring Dr. Llana Barber, Professor at SUNY... More

Introducing our 2018/2019 NLC Menino Fellow

The Initiative on Cities (IOC) is pleased to announce Adam Bieda (Boston University Class of 2019) as our 2018-2019 National League of Cities (NLC) Menino Fellow. Adam is a double major, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and English. Through this Fellowship, Adam will participate in an on-campus Directed... More

2018 Manchester Fellow Reflects on Her Summer

It is my unwavering belief that a society should be judged not by its wealth or its military might, but by the compassion it shows for its most vulnerable members. It is this core belief which compels my interest in the issue of homelessness as well as the fact that... More

Providence Fellow Shares His Summer

During my summer as the Initiative on Cities fellow for the City of Providence’s Department of Innovation, I worked on researching, writing, and creating a diversity and equity plan for city employees. The fellowship and project gave me the opportunity to apply my skills as a historian to contemporary issues... More

Mayoral Views on Racism and Discrimination

On September 17, 2018, the National League of Cities (NLC) and the Boston University Initiative on Cities (IOC), with support from The Rockefeller Foundation,  released Mayoral Views on Racism and Discrimination. This new report, which draws on data from the 2017 Menino Survey of Mayors, explores how mayors of medium-sized and... More

Imagining a More Playful Boston

“Wanna come over and play?” five-year-old me asked my best friend on the phone. What, exactly, we were going to “play” wasn’t defined—at that age, everything had the potential to be playful, from toys and games to cardboard boxes to sticks. As we grow older, and as we become more... More

2018 Manchester Fellow Shares Her Summer

Let's Start with Housing: Manchester's Future Planning & Development This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to work for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on their Planning and Housing Research Team. I have been passionate about all things urban for years: from transportation planning to urban design, to urban inequalities. More

Past and Present IOC Summer Fellows Speak to Upward Bound High School Students

Boston University Upward Bound is a federally funded program to prepare low-income and first-generation college-bound students for success in higher education. Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education and Human Development runs the Upward Bound program for young people from Boston, who receive tutoring, take classes, and live on campus during... More

NLC Menino Fellow Augustine Jimenez Completes Fellowship

Looking back on my spring semester in Washington, D.C. reminds me of how much growth I owe to my Boston University Initiative on Cities 2018 Menino Fellowship. Working at the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education and Families introduced me to new people, ideas, and an entirely new... More

Impact of Natural Disasters on City Integrity

Principal Investigator Economics PhD candidate Giovanna Marcolongo aims to use statistical analysis to examine the relationship between emergencies—defined as municipalities’ declaration of a “state of emergency”—and corruption in local government, particularly focusing on public procurement outcomes. In order to determine this correlation, Marcolongo will investigate whether municipalities in a "state of... More

Observing and Modeling Urban Boundary Layers Under Heat Waves

Principal Investigator Heat waves (HWs) are amongst the deadliest natural disasters and are one of the most important causes of weather-related mortality. Urban residents, which now account for more than 50% of the global population, are arguably more vulnerable to HWs due to the urban heat island (UHI) effect wherein cities... More

Cities in the Realm of State Preemption Laws

Principal Investigator Media accounts and political organizations have increasingly highlighted a surge of state preemption laws that restrict the autonomy of cities. Political Science Ph.D. candidate Luisa Godinez Puig will investigate the validity of said surge to prove if preemption laws have increased over time and, if so, which cities within... More

Community Archeology on the Urban Periphery: The Tlajinga District at the Nexus of Ancient Teotihuacan and Modern Mexico City

Principal Investigator Associate Professor David Carballo, who holds a joint appointment in Anthropology and Latin American Studies, will pioneer a new initiative of community-based archaeology at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Teotihuacan is an ancient Mesoamerican city and UNESCO World Heritage site whose urban periphery is being impacted by new construction associated with the... More

Punishing Places: The Geography of Mass Imprisonment

Principal Investigator Sociology Assistant Professor Jessica Simes seeks to bridge the gap in sociological research between the political and economic causes of the prison boom and the neighborhood-level impacts of mass incarceration to help explain a phenomenon found in small cities and suburbs: a disproportionately high rate of imprisonment, compared to... More

Water Use Efficiency in Urban Street Trees

Principal Investigators Under the direction of Boston University Associate Professor Lucy Hutyra, Earth & Environment PhD candidate Sarah Garvey will examine water use efficiency among urban street trees in order to determine their climate sensitivity in relation to non-urban trees. Her research question is based on her lab’s recent work that... More

Justice in Urban Climate Mitigation

Principal Investigator Earth & Environment Associate Professor Anne Short seeks to examine climate action plans in 24 cities across the United States to determine if and how they integrate environmental justice into their goals. Professor Short undertakes this project in order to add to empirical evidence—of which there is little—examining justice... More