IOC Fall 2024 Event Highlights
The Two Faces of Fear: Violence and Inequality in the Mexican Metropolis Book Talk & Discussion
September 18, 2024
Boston University Initiative on Cities, Center for Latin American Studies, and Department of Sociology held a book talk on Assistant Professor of Sociology Ana Villarreal’s newly published book on the impacts of criminal and state violence on everyday life in Mexico. Drawing from two years of qualitative fieldwork in Monterrey, Mexico, during a turf war, Professor Villarreal takes a new approach to how fear exacerbates existing inequalities in all aspects of life for residents in Mexico’s metropolises.
Allston Multimodal Project and Reknitting the Allston Community
October 2, 2024
In partnership with the City Planning & Urban Affairs Program, the IOC held a special discussion panel with former Massachusetts Secretaries of Transportation Fred Salvucci (under Governor Michael Dukakis) and Jim Aloisi (under Governor Deval Patrick) on the upcoming mega project to realign the Massachusetts Turnpike/I-90. The project will open up land in Allston for new development and improve roadway, transit, and active transportation in the region. Boston University School of Law Lecturer Rob DiAdamo, former Executive Director of the MBTA Commuter Rail, moderated the conversation.
Read the Summary of the Discussion | Watch the Recording
2024 Careers in Transportation Information Session
October 30, 2024
In partnership with the City Planning & Urban Affairs Program at Boston University, we hosted our annual Careers in Transportation Information Session! This session provides a direct venue for students and aspiring entrants interested in transportation and transportation-adjacent work to connect directly with senior leaders in the transportation field. In past Careers in Transportation information sessions, students who have attended were able to secure employment. Students of all backgrounds and studies are encouraged to join! Terry Regan, Lecturer at the City Planning & Urban Affairs Program at Boston University, moderated the information session.
2024 Speakers:
- MassDOT: David Mohler, Executive Director of Planning
- City of Boston, Boston Streets Cabinet: Vineet Gupta, Director of Transportation Policy and Planning
- U.S. DOT’s Volpe Center: Luisa Paiewonsky, Director of Infrastructure Systems and Technology
- MBTA: Lynsey Heffernan, Chief of Policy & Strategic Planning
- Boston MPO: Tegin Teich, Executive Director, Central Transportation Planning Staff for the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization
Critical Gentrification Studies in U.S. Cities Book Symposium
November 1, 2024
This fall’s book symposium featured three new books by leaders in the field of gentrification: Tanya Golash-Boza’s Before Gentrification: The Creation of DC’s Racial Wealth Gap, Richard Ocejo’s Sixty Miles Upriver: Gentrification and Race in a Small American City, and Derek Hyra’s Slow and Sudden Violence: Why and When Uprisings Occur. Critically, all three books dig deep into race and inequality concerning gentrification in U.S. cities. After each other’s presentations, a panel discussion followed with the authors on Crosscutting Themes: Critical Gentrification Studies Going Forwards, led by BU urbanist Darien Williams and MIT urbanist devin michelle bunten.
Urban Power: Democracy & Inequality in São Paulo & Johannesburg
November 13, 2024
The Initiative on Cities and the Boston Urban Salon hosted Benjamin Bradlow, Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, at Princeton University for a talk about his new book. His new book, Urban Power: Democracy & Inequality in São Paulo & Johannesburg, explores why some cities are more effective at reducing inequalities in the built environment.
Mimi Sheller, Dean of The Global School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Marcus Walton, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston University, served as discussants on the major themes in Professor Bradlow’s new book.
On the Housing Crisis: A Discussion with Jerusalem Demsas
December 9, 2024
Jerusalem Demsas of The Atlantic visited the Initiative on Cities to discuss her new book, On the Housing Crisis: Land, Development, Democracy. The discussion focused on the U.S. housing crisis in major cities and how the excesses of local democratic protestation contribute to inefficiencies and irrationalities of contemporary land-use politics and the stages they play out on. Katherine Levine Einstein, Boston University Initiative on Cities Urban-H Associate Director of Housing, led the discussion.