“We are grateful to the Initiative on Cities’ Gentrification and Urban Displacement Lab (GUDL) for supporting this partnership and for fostering innovative collaborations that bridge academic research and community practice in pursuit of more inclusive development.”
— Yeşim Sungu-Eryilmaz
The Boston University Initiative on Cities Gentrification & Urban Displacement Lab (GUDL) is proud to announce the third recipient of our pilot partnership seed grant program. This award supports a collaboration between Lowell Alliance, the Merrimack Valley Project, and Yeşim Sungu-Eryilmaz, Assistant Professor and Director of the Boston University Metropolitan College City Planning & Urban Affairs Program. The partnership reflects GUDL’s commitment to facilitating new cross-sector collaborations for innovative anti-displacement policy and practice.
Beginning this summer, the three collaborators will work together to explore potential community impacts of the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor (LINC) project, a proposed 15-acre mixed-use development and public-private partnership between the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and the City of Lowell. Lowell Alliance and Merrimack Valley Project, as community organizations deeply embedded in Lowell, will connect with community stakeholders, including the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments (NMCOG), the Coalition for a Better Acre, the City of Lowell’s Department of Planning and Development, UMass Lowell, and developers affiliated with LINC for this project partnership. Leveraging Professor Sungu-Eryilmaz’s expertise on community benefits and impact evaluations, a graduate student will work to produce a report that can be adapted for advocacy and action, including briefs, flyers, fact sheets, training materials, slide decks, and setup at community forums. Professor Sungu-Eryilmaz believes the research partnership with Lowell community organizations will secure opportunities for Lowell residents to participate and take action in the planning process: “We are excited to partner with the Lowell Alliance and the Merrimack Valley Project on this important effort to help ensure that the opportunities presented by the LINC project in Lowell benefit existing residents, include community voices, and help prevent displacement.”
Lowell Alliance looks forward to collaborating with Professor Sungu-Eryilmaz and Boston University in yielding new opportunities to allow community members to shape their vision for Lowell:
“Lowell Alliance is energized by the opportunity to continue bringing together key housing- and community-focused stakeholders for such an important collaboration. As an organization centered on connecting families and neighborhoods to the resources and information they need to thrive, we believe this project will create opportunities for community members to fulfill their own vision for their community. Safe, affordable, stable housing is such an integral part of that vision, and we are excited to work with the Merrimack Valley Project and Assistant Professor Yeşim Sungu-Eryilmaz on this Pilot program.”
The research collaboration between BU and these organizations will yield a comprehensive, community-facing report that can guide actionable strategies to ensure community members’ voices are meaningfully heard in the planning process on issues such as housing and rent affordability, displacement, and accountability.
“At the Merrimack Valley Project, we believe those closest to these problems must be the co-architects of their futures and control the destinies of their communities. This partnership creates an opportunity to bring together rigorous research and our grassroots organizing so that working families and renters have a decisive voice in shaping Lowell’s future. We’re incredibly excited to work alongside the Lowell Alliance, Boston University, and other community stakeholders to ensure the future of housing development remains truly affordable and protects our communities from displacement.”
— Julio Mejia, Executive Director of Merrimack Valley Project