Majority of mayors worried about racial wealth gap, survey finds

Based on a survey of 126 mayors of cities with more than 75,000 residents, the 2021 Menino Survey of Mayors: Closing the Racial Wealth Gap (20 pages, PDF), found that 67 percent of mayors are concerned about the racial wealth gap, with leaders of bigger cities significantly more concerned than those of smaller cities (58 percent vs. 26 percent), and those with lower housing costs more significantly concerned than those with higher costs (52 percent vs. 32 percent). The survey revealed a large partisan divide, with 80 percent of Democratic mayors versus 30 percent of Republican mayors expressing concern.

Majority of US Mayors Worried about the Racial Wealth Gap in Their Cities

A strong majority of US mayors (67 percent) say they are worried about the racial wealth gap in their communities, with elected leaders in cities with larger populations and higher costs of living significantly more concerned about the issue.

Those mayors who identify the racial wealth gap as a problem for their cities are close to unanimous in their support for programs designed to benefit small business ownership and homeownership for people of color. But when asked about specific programs targeting these problems, most said they would not back them in their own communities.

Boston Medical Center researchers report a surge in depression and anxiety among children of color

In “Changes in psychosocial functioning among urban, school‑age children during the COVID‑19 pandemic,” researchers found the rates of depression and anxiety among children of color aged from 5 to 11 spiked from 5% to 18% during the pandemic. The study, published in the journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, is one of the first to quantify the psychosocial impacts of COVID-19 among children of color using data collected before and during the pandemic, according to an article in Health City, an online publication run by BMC.

‘We’re afraid the building is going to collapse’ – Malden residents can’t get through to housing management, form coalition

Gathered in the parking lot of Malden Towers apartment complex at 99 Florence St., those present witnessed three Malden tenant associations come together. The event, which started at noon, was organized by the City Life/Vida Urbana (CLVU) housing nonprofit. The nonprofit brought together the Malden Towers Tenant Association, the United Properties Tenant Association and the Maplewood Square Tenant Association into a coalition with one mission: dignified housing.

Sociologist Jessica Simes’ New Book Explores the Toll of Mass Incarceration and Its Racial Disparities

Her discovery launched Simes, now a Boston University College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of sociology, on an eight-year investigation into the shifting geography of mass incarceration—specifically in Massachusetts, but with the pattern being repeated across the country—and the consequences for neighborhoods and communities. Her findings—a data-driven story of American punishment and place mostly untold by scholars and researchers—are presented in her recent book, Punishing Places: The Geography of Mass Imprisonment (University of California Press, October 2021).

Katherine Levine Einstein on Neighborhood Defenders

Why is affordable housing in such short supply? Author and political scientist Katherine Levine Einstein of Boston University talks about her book Neighborhood Defenders with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Einstein focuses on the ability of local residents to use the zoning and permit process to prevent development of housing or to reduce the amount of housing that can be built.

The housing wealth effect? Not in the Great Recession

We’ve all heard the story about the exceptionally large “housing wealth effect” that preceded the Great Recession. Homeowners felt increasingly rich as their homes boomed in value, and their newfound wealth encouraged them to spend like never before. “Using homes like they’re ATMs” was the cliché. Demand soared, production surged, and the economy boomed still further.

Episode 42: How Not-In-My-Backyard Politics Keep Housing Costs High

Expensive housing in major cities is holding back the American economy. Policy makers are trying to respond, but new housing developments commonly spark a big, not-in-my-backyard local backlash. Why can’t the broader public succeed in demanding new housing against local homeowners? New research offers two big pieces of the answer.

Why Some Politicians Shun Promotions

Put off by gridlock and partisan knife fights in upper reaches of politics—both in Washington, D.C., and in state capitals—city executives appear to be happy homebodies. “The bulk of mayors in our survey certainly said, ‘We’re cool being mayor,’” says Katherine Levine Einstein, a College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of political science, who conducted the research with Maxwell Palmer, also a CAS assistant professor of political science, and David Glick, a CAS associate professor of political science, with help from Robert Pressel (CAS’16, GRS’16).