Priced out: How Boston’s college housing crunch displaces longtime residents
Stacy Fox, executive director of the Boston University Initiative on Cities, leads university-wide programs and research focused on urban policy, governance and community engagement. “There’s an increased demand for housing, which impacts the rental prices,” Fox said. “A group of students who want to live together might be more able to pay higher rents than a family who lives nearby, and this can sometimes lead to displacement of long-time residents.”
There are even fewer affordable apartments in Massachusetts than we thought, according to new data
A new, publicly-available database is backing up what many frustrated Massachusetts residents already know: the state’s shortage of affordable housing is even worse than previously known. The data dashboard was released Tuesday by the nonprofit group Housing Navigator Massachusetts, which also runs an online search tool intended to help renters find affordable housing options.
Building a Better Boston
BU’s campuses aren’t the only place where the Arts & Sciences community learns—Greater Boston itself is a classroom, laboratory, and workplace. Governmental agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private sector companies are partners, and their challenges—from education to the environment—provide opportunities to contribute to solving real-world problems.
Building Better Cities
Two global trends collided in 2023: the warming of the atmosphere and the growth of urban areas. Phoenix, Ariz., the fifth-largest city in the US, reached 110 degrees on 31 consecutive days. Heat-related hospitalizations spiked and people burned themselves on scorching asphalt. Texas, home to several of the country’s largest and fastest-growing cities, experienced the second-hottest summer ever, leading to a BBC headline that asked if the Lone Star State could “become too hot for humans.”
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.
Tackling Charles River Restoration: Dan Li’s “Urban Climate” class puts arts and sciences into action
In Professor Dan Li’s “Urban Climate” class (EE 512), students solve real-world problems about climate change — like the relationship between perceived and calculated access to green space in Chelsea and East Boston or the implications, successes, and lessons learned from reusing rainwater in China. Li’s course is part of the MetroBridge program, which collaborates and sources projects from cities and community organizations. Working with BU faculty and project partners, BU students get to work on real-world projects and have hands-on experiences on topics like racial equity, sustainability, and civic engagement.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino headed to Boston University to help run new Initiative on Cities
Mayor Thomas M. Menino will trade City Hall for the halls of academia at Boston University, where administrators hope to meld the mayor’s pragmatism as an “urban mechanic’’ with the scholarly muscle of a major university.