Episode 33: Neighbourhood Defenders

Today, we welcome Dr. Katherine Einstein, Dr. David Glick, and Dr. Maxwell Palmer from Boston University. We discuss their book: Neighbourhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America’s Housing Crisis; published in 2019. The book is premised on how local political inequalities can end up limiting the housing supply and contribute to the current housing crisis. Participatory institutions like local neighborhood committees often notify neighbours themselves and solicit comments on proposed housing developments, taking an active role for better or worse.

New BU MetroBridge Class Studies the Impact of Gentrification

When you think about gentrification, you probably think about neighborhoods like Brooklyn, N.Y., or South Boston, where new high-income residents have displaced families who’ve lived there for generations. Gentrification, however, extends beyond housing. It can also result in the displacement of small businesses, an effect known as commercial or retail gentrification.

417. Women Reclaiming the City book

The originality of Women Reclaiming the City lies not only in the variety of themes being presented, but also in the variety of all these different highly respected women researchers. This book is the first in which current societal themes revolving around urbanism, architecture, and city planning are put forth solely through female perspectives. It reveals the importance of having female lenses on certain societal debates.

Gentrification & Displacement: An International Dialogue

In an era marked by rapid urbanisation, shifting demographics, and evolving socio-cultural urban spaces, gentrification has emerged as a process of transforming neighbourhoods. It is a complex and multifaceted urban phenomenon characterised by the influx of higher-income residents, more educated people, and investment or new green development in residential areas.

Can We Stop the Gentrification of Cities?

Gentrification is happening in cities all around the globe: an influx of more affluent residents and rising housing prices pushes out existing tenants, changing the character of a neighborhood or community. The process can be driven by a host of factors, from the economics of development to climate change. Thursday, October 26, through Saturday, October 28, the Initiative on Cities and BU’s Department of Sociology are hosting “Gentrification & Displacement: What Can We Do About It? An International Dialogue.”

When the Turner Prize Came to ‘God’s Waiting Room’

Now, one of Britain’s most important art events, the Turner Prize, has arrived in the town, too, at the Towner Eastbourne art museum. Locals are hoping it will change the town’s reputation and place it on a national, or even global, cultural stage. But as shown by the experiences of other English seaside towns, big-city culture often dovetails with an influx of new residents, and concerns about gentrification and unfairly shared benefits often follow.

BU City Planning Students Develop and Present Plan for Busy Square in Boston Suburb

Students of the Boston University Metropolitan College (MET) City Planning & Urban Affairs programs worked with the City of Malden, Massachusetts, to help develop the components of a neighborhood plan for Maplewood Square, the city’s second-largest business district. The class gathered community feedback before making their final presentation on May 8, 2023. The collaboration was part of BU MET’s Urban Studies Capstone Course (MET UA 805), which integrates the principles and applications of city planning, urban affairs, and public policy.

Prof. Loretta Lees: Gentrification is Global, Revising the Definition and Borders of Gentrification (Interview)

Professor Loretta Lees is the current Faculty Director of the Initiative on Cities at Boston University and is an urban geographer and urbanist who is internationally known for her research on gentrification and urban regeneration. Emiliya Akhundova and Anna Jonczyk interview Professor Lees on her books “Gentrification” – the first textbook on gentrification – and “Planetary Gentrification.” In this interview, Professor Lees discusses how the term “gentrification” has been overburdened and that there are new, more specific terms that may better describe the changes occurring across various locations: classical, rural, new-build, and super-gentrification.

Defensible Space on the Move by Loretta Lees and Elanor Warwick (Book Review)

Newman’s core idea was that by designing segmented spaces that are easily controlled, we can create safer and more community-oriented housing. Lees and Warwick’s Defensible Space on the Move is highly recommended in this context for its forensic account of the evolution of Newman’s concept, as it influenced Alice Coleman’s Utopia on Trial, and how it was taken up by housing policy and practice in the UK. It is of especial interest to space syntax experts for its coverage of the interaction between Coleman’s ideas on the one hand, and early space syntax studies of housing and of crime, on the other. Indeed, Defensible Space coincides almost perfectly with Hillier’s earliest work at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, soon after he moved here from the RIBA’s Intelligence Unit.