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 Study program under IOC Director […]
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 my hometown of Tampa, FL […]
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 and learn more about the […]
IOC Fellow Jessica Bajada-Silva Reflects on Summer with City of Boston
This past summer, I was extremely fortunate to be awarded the undergraduate fellowship with the Initiative on Cities and Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground to work with the Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity (MORRE) in the City of Boston. I was excited to start working in a field foreign yet familiar; I […]
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 scheduled, some of that openness […]
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. Most recently, after reading […]
The Effects of Ethnically Segregated Urban Neighborhoods: Evidence from Malaysia’s New Villages
Principal Investigator Economics Ph.D. candidate Jia De Gedeon Lim will conduct a study of the impact of the “New Village Program” in British Malaya on the current urban prosperity and interethnic preferences of urban dwellers in Malaysia. Specifically, he will examine the effects of long-run ethnic segregation from The New Village Program, which was an […]
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 the summer. This year, Dan […]
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 perspective on what it means […]
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 emergency” are more likely […]