Publications

Article May 26, 2022 Aging in Place or Stuck in Place? Transportation Planning for Older Americans in the Digital Era Decades-long transportation policies favoring vehicle owners have actually disadvantaged many older adults in their daily travel. To date, studies and policies specifically addressing older adults’ travel needs have not kept pace with the increasing number and diversity of the aging population. My research addresses these gaps by examining the interaction of the built environment, travel behavior, and technology usage among older adults in the United States. Shengxiao (Alex) Li Urban Development

Publication May 26, 2022 Rethinking the Heavy Hand of Flood Prevention in Informal Settlements: An Investigation of Retreat-Related Practices in the Philippines Researchers and decision-makers increasingly favor managed retreat as an adaptation to address urban floods exacerbated by climate impacts. In the informal settlements of the Global South, national governments, development banks, and other knowledge brokers choose relocation over slum upgrading in their retreat-related activities. They disproportionately relocate informal settlers—who lack legal land tenure— despite the fact that the risk profiles of many places is similar to those that the UN and other global bodies recommend in-situ climate-sensitive upgrade projects. Samuel Geldin Climate Change & Resilience Urban Development

Article May 26, 2022 The Financial Burdens of Property Taxes: Evidence from Philadelphia Property taxes are an essential source of revenue for U.S. local governments, generating more than $547 billion in 2018. While local elected officials use these taxes to fund public goods and services, their constituents find them burdensome. Housing State & Local Finance

Article May 26, 2022 The Black Worker and the Knowledge Economy in Philadelphia: University-Led Displacement vs. Homeowner Democracy Many have posited that university-driven development is the solution to the problems of deindustrialization and disinvestment. Others have criticized this work for displacing residents, contributing to inequality, and compromising urban democracy. My research investigates the consequences of university-driven development in Philadelphia, especially for African American communities that surround the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and Drexel University. State & Local Finance

Article May 2, 2022 Five Steps for Financing Urban Adaptation to Climate Change Eugénie L. Birch and Mauricio Rodas report on a five-step roadmap for financing urban adaptation to climate change . Eugénie L. Birch Mauricio Rodas Climate Change & Resilience State & Local Finance

Article April 28, 2022 Introducing the Inaugural Lawrence C. Nussdorf Student Award Recipients Penn IUR awarded Ayina Anyachebelu, Dennis Gallo, and Daniel Ruiz de la Concha the 2022 Lawrence C. Nussdorf Student Award.

Article April 28, 2022 Fellowship in Urban Leadership: Apply Now

Article April 27, 2022 Faculty Spotlight: Jessie Handbury Jessie Handbury is Assistant Professor of Real Estate at The Wharton School, NBER Research Fellow, and Penn IUR Faculty Fellow. Her work focuses on the spatial distribution of consumption amenities: the goods and services that are available to consumers in different neighborhoods (e.g., the mix of restaurants, retail, nightlife, public services, neighborhood aesthetics, etc.). State & Local Finance

Article March 30, 2022 Wachter Receives Quigley Medal Susan Wachter won AREUEA's 2022 John M. Quigley Medal for Advancing Real Estate and Urban Economics. Susan Wachter State & Local Finance

Article March 29, 2022 Nussdorf Urban Prize Winners Announced Penn IUR congratulates 2022 Lawrence C. Nussdorf Urban Leadership Prize winners Emilia Saiz Carrancedo of UCLG and Claudio Orrego of Santiago, Chile. Urban Development Anchor Institutions

Article March 25, 2022 Faculty Spotlight: Lance Freeman Penn IUR talks with Lance Freeman, one of the world’s leading scholars of urban housing and gentrification who was recently appointed Penn’s 29th Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) University Professor. Urban Development

Newsletter March 15, 2022 Penn IUR Newsletter, Spring 2022 Urban Development

Article February 22, 2022 Forthcoming Books in the City in the 21st Century Series The City in the 21st Century series is looking forward to adding its 50th book. We are proud of this achievement and looking forward to what’s next. Read on for a preview of what’s to come in this cross-disciplinary series edited by Penn IUR Co-Directors Eugénie Birch and Susan Wachter and published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Urban Development

Article February 16, 2022 Getting the Education and Workforce Training Our Nation Needs Penn IUR Faculty Fellow Laura W. Perna discusses the broad potential impacts of federally funded tuition-free community colleges in the United States. Laura Perna Anchor Institutions

Article February 16, 2022 Lassiter Receives NSF Grant Penn IUR Faculty Fellow Allison Lassiter won a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation for a project to improve the nation’s water infrastructure system and adapt to climate change. The CAREER award comes with $500,000 in funding over five years. Allison Lassiter Climate Change & Resilience

Article January 19, 2022 Expert Voices 2022: Reimagining Infrastructure To begin every new year, we publish a special issue of Urban Link for which we ask urban experts to reflect on a question of importance to cities. This year, we asked: How do you think urban infrastructure should be reimagined for the 21st century to build sustainable and equitable cities? Urban Development

Article December 15, 2021 Can Cities Lead on Climate? Mauricio Rodas, Visiting Scholar at Penn IUR, Perry World House, and Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, and Former Mayor of Quito and Senior Fellow at the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center; and Penn IUR Managing Director Amy Montgomery share their takeaways from COP26 on the role cities can play in addressing climate change. Climate Change & Resilience

Article December 15, 2021 Monitoring Recovery in Real Time Recovering New York City: A One Year Look Back on the Penn IUR Recovering Cities Project, and a Look Forward towards Recovery, is the report of Penn IUR’s “Recovering Cities Project,” a year-long effort that focused on New York City, the original epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. Urban Development

Article December 15, 2021 Penn IUR Undergraduate Urban Fellow Named Schwarzman Scholar Penn IUR Undergraduate Urban Fellow Daniel De La Concha won a prestigious Schwarzman scholarship, which fully funds a one-year master's degree in Global Affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Urban Development

Article November 17, 2021 Penn IUR's Research for South Korea Penn IUR is working with the Urban Sustainability Laboratory at the Washington-based Wilson Center, a convenor of comparative research with U.S and South Korean scholars and practitioners involving the Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) and the Land and Housing Institute (LHI) of South Korea. Housing Urban Development

Article November 17, 2021 Undergraduate Urban Scholars: Apply Now This coming spring semester’s Penn IUR’s credit-bearing Undergraduate Urban Research Colloquium (UURC) is accepting applications from undergraduate students interested in engaging in hands-on urban-focused research under the tutelage of mentors drawn from the faculty and advanced PhD candidates throughout the university. Urban Development Anchor Institutions

Article November 16, 2021 Livable Cities: Our Best Hope Selected annotated highlights from Mark Alan Hughes’s new book Livable Cities, plus Hughes’s reflections on a Penn IUR-sponsored October event that brought together scholars from across the university to share their research as it relates to the themes in Hughes's book. Mark Alan Hughes Climate Change & Resilience

Research Paper October 25, 2021 Recovering New York City: A One Year Look Back on the Penn IUR Recovering Cities Project, and a Look Forward towards Recovery Rapid Urbanization State & Local Finance

Article October 20, 2021 Monitoring the Effects of the Pandemic on Metros and Cities Here and There Penn IUR Co-Director Eugénie Birch provides a preview of three new Penn IUR briefs on the pandemic and urban places. Eugénie L. Birch Urban Development

Research Paper October 20, 2021 The COVID-19 Recession: Which Urban Economies Have Performed Better or Worse and Why John Landis State & Local Finance

Publications

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