50th Percentile Rent Estimates
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Rent estimates at the 50th percentile (or median) for all Fair Market Rent areas provided by the HUD Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) and HUD USER- an information source for housing and community development researchers, academics, policymakers, and the American public.
Filed under: Data
A 2012 update on the population and density of the world's urban areas.
May 04, 2012
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
A new study suggests that the brains of urban and rural dwellers operate differently.
July 15, 2011
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
A new website, Walkonomics, uses public datasets and user reviews to rate the walkability of cities
September 27, 2011
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
American Housing Survey (AHS)
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The AHS is the largest, regular national housing sample survey in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the AHS to obtain up-to-date housing statistics for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). An introductory booklet created by Census Bureau provides an overview of housing data.
Filed under: Data
American Human Development Project
Social Science Research Council
The American Human Development Project provides easy-to-use yet methodologically sound tools for understanding the distribution of well-being and opportunity in America and stimulating fact-based dialogue about issues we all care about: health, education, and living standards.
AHDP produces national and state reports, as well as thematic briefs and innovative online tools such as the Mapping of the Measure of America, which also includes the City Explorer and Charts
Filed under: Links
American Migration Interactive Map
Forbs
Close to 40 million Americans move from one home to another every year. This map shows the migration patterns of residents between counties.
Filed under: Links
American Planning Association (APA)
APA is an independent, not-for-profit educational organization that provides leadership in the development of vital communities. The American Planning Association was created in 1978 by the consolidation of two separate planning organizations, but its roots go all the way back to 1909 and the first National Conference on City Planning in Washington, D.C.
Filed under: Organizations
An article about the highway teardown movement in the post-Interstate era.
February 27, 2012
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Analyzing the suburbanization of poverty in the San Francisco region.
April 04, 2012
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Annual Adjustment Factors (for Residential Rents)
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The Department of Housing and Urban Development establishes the rent adjustment factors — called Annual Adjustment Factors (AAFs) — on the basis of Consumer Price Index (CPI) data relating to changes in residential rent and utility costs.
Filed under: Data
As it expands, Moscow diverges from the West in its automobile-oriented planning.
March 12, 2012
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Assisted Housing: National and Local
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Picture of Subsidized Households describes the households living in HUD-subsidized housing in the United States for the year providing data from the 1970s through 2008. There is information describing the characteristics of assisted housing units and residents, summarized at various levels, including: national, state, public housing agency (PHA), project, census tract, county, Core-Based Statistical Area and city levels.
Filed under: Data
Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM)
The Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving public policy and management by fostering excellence in research, analysis and education. With over 1,500 academic, practitioner, organizational and institutional members, APPAM promotes its mission through the annual Fall Research Conference, with the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM), the association's journal, several award programs and various activites including international and national conferences and workshops.
Filed under: Organizations
Atlas of Economic Clusters in London
Loughborough University
This research network focuses upon the external relations of world cities. Although the world/global city literature is premised upon the existence of world-wide transactions, most of the research effort has gone into studying the internal structures of individual cities and comparative analyses of the same. Relations between cities have been neglected by world cities researchers; the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network has been formed to aid in rectifying this situation.
Filed under: Data
Best Practices Database in Improving the Living Environment
UN-HABITAT
This searchable database contains over 3,800 proven solutions from more than 140 countries to the common social, economic and environmental problems of an urbanizing world. It demonstrates the practical ways in which public, private and civil society sectors are working together to improve governance, eradicate poverty, provide access to shelter, land and basic services, protect the environment and support economic development.
Filed under: Links
Big box retailers like Office Depot and Target rethink their format with smaller stores in urban areas.
August 03, 2012
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
BJS Crime Type Data
U.S. Department of Justice
BJS provies data on the types of crimes that occur in the the U.S. and where. The site includes a city-level survey of crime, victimization, and citizen attitudes.
Filed under: Data
Bronx Data Center
Lehman College
The Bronx Data Center collects and analyzes demographic material related to the Bronx and adjacent areas, in order to provide service to the Lehman community, as well as to cultural, social service, civic, media, and other organizations. The Center focuses on data for very small geographic units (down to the city block), as well as the Bronx as a whole. Historical data going back several decades complement the latest census information. The Center specializes in the graphic presentation of data through computer-generated maps.
Filed under: Organizations
Brookings releases report on the effect of transit systems on the pool of available workers.
July 18, 2012
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Brookings Institution study evaluates the suburbanization of HUD Housing Choice Voucher recipients.
November 07, 2011
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Building Resilient Regions
The University of California Berkeley
The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Building Resilient Regions (BRR) examines the power of metropolitan regions to respond to local and national challenges. BRR brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners to investigate why metro regions matter now, what constitutes resilience in the face of challenges, and what factors help to build and sustain strong metro regions. The Network’s analyses focus on several broad-based national challenges where the regional response is especially significant. These include: how growing regions address conditions such as increased traffic congestion and housing affordability; how regions that have lost manufacturing jobs build on existing strengths and attract new growth; how regions with large influxes of immigrants have responded to increased diversity and population pressures; and how the continued concentration and emerging deconcentration of poverty across metropolitan areas has affected access to opportunity and patterns of service provision. While these challenges appear as defining characteristics of regions, their origins and paths of development are conditioned in large part by global technological and economic shifts and concomitant alterations in the international division of labor.
Filed under: Organizations
Crain’s Chicago Business finds that corporations are moving their headquarters from the suburbs back into the central city, reversing the trend of the last century.
July 11, 2011
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Census of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
Complete count of U.S. Farms and ranches and the people who operate them. Includes data on land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expendures, and other information. Taken every five years.
Filed under: Data
Center for an Urban Future
The Center for an Urban Future is a public policy organization dedicated to improving the overall health of New York City and serving its long-term interests by targeting problems facing low-income and working-class neighborhoods in all five boroughs.
A new kind of think tank, the Center brings a unique, community-oriented perspective to the public policy arena. Our staffers function more like beat reporters than like academics, going out into the field to observe and interview neighborhood residents, local businesspeople and community organizations. We also consult with academic experts, government officials and others, in order to get the broadest possible view of an issue or problem, and to hear from all those affected by it.
Filed under: Organizations
Center for Metropolitan History
University of London
The Centre for Metropolitan History (CMH), established by the Institute in 1988, is one of the world’s leading centers for the study of the history of London and other metropolises. It specializes in innovative research projects, covering a wide range of periods, themes and problems in metropolitan history, publishing the results and data online and in print. The Center runs a seminar, and organizes workshops and conferences on many different topics in metropolitan and urban history.
Filed under: Organizations
Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT)
Since 1978, Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) has promoted urban sustainability—the more effective use of existing resources and community assets to improve the health of natural systems and the wealth of people, today and in the future. CNT is a creative think-and-do tank that combines rigorous research with effective solutions. CNT works across disciplines and issues, including transportation and community development, energy, water, and climate change.
Filed under: Organizations
Center for Urban and Regional Studies
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Created in 1957, the Center for Urban and Regional Studies is one of the oldest university-based research centers of its kind. The Center's mission is to promote and support within UNC-Chapel Hill, high-quality basic and applied research on urban, regional and rural planning and policy issues. The Center seeks to generate new knowledge of urban and regional processes and problems and ultimately to improve living conditions in our communities. This is done by involving the University's faculty and graduate students in large, multidisciplinary research projects and smaller, more narrowly focused projects. The Center's mission also includes promoting the use of the research it facilitates.
Filed under: Organizations
Center for Urban Policy Research
Rutgers University
The Center for Urban Policy Research conducts basic and applied research on a broad spectrum of public policy issues, including affordable housing, land use policy, environmental impact analysis, state planning, public finance, land development practice, historic preservation, infrastructure assessment, development impact analysis, the costs of sprawl, transportation information systems, environmental impacts, and community economic development.
Filed under: Organizations
Center for Urban Research and Learning
Loyola University
The Loyola University Chicago's Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL) is a non-traditional interdisciplinary university research center. CURL promotes an innovative model of teaching and learning that reaches beyond Loyola's campuses and classrooms to develop equal partnerships between the university and city or suburban communities.
Filed under: Organizations
Center for Urban Research and Policy—Columbia University
Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs
The Center for Urban Research and Policy (CURP) has been established at a time of profound economic, political, and social change. The civic discourse has become increasingly anti-urban with fewer opportunities for informed non-partisan dialogue. Political leaders and ordinary citizens need reliable policy research, training in technology, and opportunities for public discussion on issues of concern to America’s cities. As an internationally known research university located in New York City, Columbia has a special responsibility to make a substantial contribution to these efforts. CURP promises to fulfill this responsibility by becoming a national resource for education, research, and discussion on issues confronting America’s cities. The Center is engaged in an ambitious program of training, research, and public discussion.
The need for the Center is increasingly apparent in the visible problems and repeated fiscal crises of our cities. Opportunities are evident in the renewed interest in domestic public policy and by an increased willingness by various sectors of society to “do something.” However, greater voice and focus and better dialogue and data are required to create a capacity for more informed discussions which will help influence the larger national agenda in effective policy-making. With the support of the entire Columbia community, the Center and its programs draw attention to issues confronting urban America and prepare the nation’s leaders for the challenge of solving these problems.
Filed under: Organizations
Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development
DePaul University
The Chaddick Institute, located at DePaul University in Chicago, advances the principles of effective land use, transportation and community planning. Founded in 1993, the institute offers planners, attorneys, developers, and entrepreneurs a forum to share expertise on difficult land-use issues through workshops, conferences and policy studies.
Filed under: Organizations
Chicago Architecture Foundation
The Chicago Architecture Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public interest and education in architecture and design. The Chicago Architecture Foundation presents a comprehensive program of tours, exhibitions, lectures, special events, and adult and youth education activities, all designed to enhance the public’s awareness and appreciation of Chicago’s outstanding architectural legacy.
Filed under: Organizations
Chicago Imagebase
The Chicago Imagebase is a Web-based project aimed at enhancing knowledge about the built environment of the Chicago region. On this site you will find a wide variety of images and other data along with information on how to use this data to study the city.
Filed under: Data
Chicago Policy Review
University of Chicago
Since 1996 the Chicago Policy Review (CPR) has published top scholarship in the field of public policy analysis. Initially a forum for renowned scholars and policy experts such as Nobel Laureate James Heckman, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator John McCain, the journal has primarily published the work of students and alumni of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago since 2006.
The Chicago Policy Review (ISSN: 1093-8990) is edited and published annually by the students of the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. By establishing linkages between theory and practice, the Review aims to promote thought provoking, insightful, and relevant public policy decision-making.
Filed under: Journals
Cities Environment Reports on the Internet (CEROI) Programme
The CEROI programme was established to increase awareness about the urban environment, to improve environmental policy making by providing better access to information, and ultimately to improve the cities' and the world environment. The concept provides city authorities with an efficient tool to produce and present a report of the cities' environment on Internet. It includes a template with standard indicators and a tailor-made software for easy presentation of graphs, maps, photographs and text.
Filed under: Organizations
Cities in the 21st Century
International Honors Program
Cities in the 21st Century program examines the intentional and natural forces that guide the development of the world’s cities. It combines an innovative urban studies academic curriculum with fieldwork involving public agencies, planners, elected officials, NGOs and grassroots groups in important world cities where exciting changes are taking place.
Filed under: Links
Citiwire.net
Citiwire.net's mission is to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions, excruciating social problems and deep challenges in education. But a time of exciting promise, too: for example rejuvenated downtowns, revival of classic walkable neighborhood form, new citistate-wide consciousness, more protected lands, upgrading rather than bulldozing developing world slums. Citiwire.net’s quest: to chronicle struggles, illuminate pathways to more vibrant, equitable, sustainable choices for grassroots America and urban regions worldwide.
Filed under: Links
City and Community
American Sociological Association
City & Community aims to advance urban sociological theory, promote the highest quality empirical research on communities and urban social life, and encourage sociological perspectives on urban policy. It welcomes contributions that employ quantitative and qualitative methods as well as comparative and historical approaches. The journal encourages manuscripts exploring the interface of global and local issues, locally embedded social interaction and community life, urban culture and the meaning of place, and sociological approaches to urban political economy. The journal also seeks articles on urban spatial arrangements, social impacts of local natural and built environments, urban and rural inequalities, virtual communities, and other topics germane to urban life and communities that will advance general sociological theory.
Filed under: Journals
City of Chicago Data Portal
The City of Chicago’s Data Portal is dedicated to promoting access to government data and encouraging the development of creative tools to engage and serve Chicago's diverse community. Here you’ll find essential data presented in easy-to-use formats to help Chicagoans keep track of how their government is performing and build innovative applications to benefit residents and visitors alike.
Filed under: Data
City, Culture, and Society
The 21st century has been dubbed the century of cities - sustainable cities, compact cities, post-modern cities, mega-cities, and more. CCS focuses on urban governance in the 21st century, under the banner of cultural creativity and social inclusion. Its primary goal is to promote pioneering research on cities and to foster the sort of urban administration that has the vision and authority to reinvent cities adapted to the challenges of the 21st century. The journal aims to stimulate a new interdisciplinary paradigm that embraces multiple perspectives and applies this paradigm to the urban imperative that defines the 21st century.
Topics of special interest to CCS include urban economics, cultural creation, social inclusion, social sustainability, cultural technology, urban governance, sustainable cities, creative cities. As a peer-reviewed international journal, CCS welcomes contributions from disciplines including but not limited to economics, business, accounting, planning, political science, architecture, geography, sociology, historiography, cultural studies, population studies and public administration.
Filed under: Journals
City-Region Studies Centre
University of Alberta
The City-Region Studies Centre (CRSC) is a University of Alberta research unit that engages with communities to explore the nature of towns, cities, and regions. CRSC is one of the only centres in North America to focus on regional research. To do this, we undertake both engaged and theoretical activities, work with clients, sponsor events, host visiting experts and public lectures, and maintain a global set of links with planners and academics, and cities and institutes. We are the portal to urban and regional teaching and research at the University of Alberta.
CRSC's goal is to increase understanding of the cultural, political, economic interactions and interdependencies within these social spaces and to inform public policy and improve the well-being of citizens.
Filed under: Organizations
Clean Cities
U.S. Department of Energy
Clean Cities is the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) flagship alternative-transportation deployment initiative, sponsored by the Vehicle Technologies Program. Clean Cities has saved nearly 3 billion gallons of petroleum since its inception in 1993. More than 8,400 stakeholders contribute to Clean Cities' goals and accomplishments through participation in nearly 100 Clean Cities coalitions across the country. Private companies, fuel suppliers, local governments, vehicle manufacturers, national laboratories, state and federal government agencies, and other organizations join together under Clean Cities to implement alternative-transportation solutions in their communities.
Filed under: Links
CNN continues their series on the famous planned suburb of Levittown.
January 09, 2012
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Components of Inventory Change (CINCH)
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The Components of Inventory Change (CINCH) report measures changes in the characteristics of the housing stock of the United States. Using data collected from the national American Housing Survey (AHS), conducted every two years, the characteristics of individual housing units are compared across time. This comparison allows researchers to see not only changes in the characteristics of housing units, but also in the characteristics of occupants. Information is available on the characteristics of units added and removed from the housing stock.
Filed under: Data
Congress for the New Urbanism
Nonprofit organization focused on sustainable, walkable, community development.
Filed under: Organizations
Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox examines the continuing trend of suburbanization.
April 21, 2011
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Consolidated Planning/ Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) Data
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) periodically receives "custom tabulations" of Census data from the U.S. Census Bureau that are largely not available through standard Census products. These data, known as the"CHAS" data (Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy), demonstrate the extent of housing problems and housing needs, particularly for low income households. The CHAS data are used by local governments to plan how to spend HUD funds, and may also be used by HUD to distribute grant funds.
Filed under: Data
County and City Data Books
University of Virginia
This resource provides access to the 1944 through 2000 County and City Data Books providing users with the opportunity to create custom printouts and/or customized data subsets (subsets only available for 1988-2000).
Filed under: Data
Crime in the nation's largest cities has fallen to its lowest rate in 40 years, according to a new report from the FBI.
June 07, 2011
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
DataPlace
DataPlace is an easy-to-use source of U.S. housing and demographic data from the census tract to the national level. The cite currently contains data from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, as well as home mortgage, Section 8, and housing needs data. There is useful directory and users can create their own maps. Included topics are mortgage lending, income and employment, housing, health, social and demographic, education, arts, and federal expenditures.
Filed under: Data
Discovering the Bronx
Bronx Data Center
The Bronx Data Center's graphic presentation of borough-related data through computer-generated maps.
Filed under: Data
Displaced New Orleans Residents Survey (DNORS)
Rand
The new Displaced New Orleans Residents Survey (DNORS) is designed to examine the current location, well-being, and plans of people who lived in the City of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck on 29 August 2005. The DNORS study builds on an earlier pilot study, the Displaced New Orleans Residents Pilot Survey (DNORPS), which was fielded in the fall of 2006. Documents describing DNORPS are available, as well as initial publications, and data.
Filed under: Data
Driverless cars present new possibilities for transportation policy and the American city.
March 07, 2012
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Economic and Social Data Service
The Economic and Social Data Service is a national data archiving and dissemination service in the UK which came into operation in January 2003. The service is a jointly-funded initiative sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).
The ESDS is a distributed service, based on a collaboration between four key centres of expertise:
UK Data Archive (UKDA), University of Essex
Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) , University of Essex
Manchester Information and Associated Services (MIMAS), University of Manchester
Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR), University of Manchester
These centres work collaboratively to provide preservation, dissemination, user support and training for an extensive range of key economic and social data, both quantitative and qualitative, spanning many disciplines and themes. The ESDS provides an integrated service offering enhanced support for the secondary use of data across the research, learning and teaching communities.
Filed under: Data
Envirofacts
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Envirofacts is a comprehensive collection of environmental data.
Filed under: Data
Environmental Design Library
University of California, Berkeley
One of the premier architecture, landscape architecture, and city and regional planning libraries in North America, the Environmental Design Library is a subject specialty library of the UC Berkeley Library system.
Filed under: Links
European Association for Urban History
The European Association for Urban History was established in 1989 with the support of the European Union. The Association organizes conferences every two years. These biannual conferences provide a multidisciplinary forum for historians, sociologists, geographers, anthropologists, art and architectural historians, economists, planners and all others working on different aspects of urban history. Membership in the Association is free of charge, and is demonstrated by repeated active participation at the conferences. The Association supports participation of young scholars by stipends, which cover registration fees, and since 2010 it even offers mobility stipends in a limited number of justified cases. The first conference took place in Amsterdam in 1992.
Filed under: Organizations
Fair Market Rents
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Fair Market Rent data from 2000 through 2011.
Filed under: Data
Forgotten Chicago
The main goal of Forgotten Chicago is to discover and document little known elements of Chicago’s infrastructure, architecture, neighborhoods and general cityscape, whether existing or historical.
Secondarily, the hope is that exposing many of the often overlooked elements of Chicago’s built environment to a wider audience will result in more interest in their preservation. Certainly, much of the content on the site is included mainly for documentation and historical reasons, and of course not every old structure in the city is worthy of being preserved. However, some of the structures included on the site are little known but of important architectural and historical interest. The hope is that their inclusion will raise public awareness and result in their preservation rather than demolition in the future.
Filed under: Links
Fourth International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies
July 1–July 3, 2013
University of Groningen
Groningen, The Netherlands
Filed under: Events
Friends of Downtown
Friends of Downtown is the voice for intelligent planning and urban design for downtown Chicago. Founded in 1981, the organization is recognized as a vital and influential component of the city’s design and building process. Friends of Downtown directly influences planning and development decisions through debate, public advocacy, and cooperation with other civic organizations. Friends of Downtown creates awareness of important issues affecting downtown, enabling citizens to develop their understanding and voice their opinions of Chicago’s physical and social environment. Members throughout the metropolitan area are committed to ensuring that downtown Chicago remains the well-designed, vibrant, economic heart of the city.
Filed under: Organizations
GaWC Research Network Data
Loughborough University
The Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network provids relational data on world cities that have been neglected by researchers.
Filed under: Data
Geospatial Platform
The Geospatial Platform provides ready access to federally maintained geospatial data, services and applications. It also provides access to data from our partners across State, Tribal, Regional and local governments as well as non-governmental organizations.
Filed under: Data
German newspaper Der Spiegel reports that the population of rural areas in Germany is declining rapidly as residents move to the cities.
May 19, 2011
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
GIS Lounge
Information and news site about geographic information systems, GPS, cartography, and remote sensing. GIS Lounge publishes items of interest to the geospatial community. GIS Lounge has has sections for job listings, geospatial press releases, and events.
Filed under: Links
Goethe-Institute
A German Institute devoted to architecture, urban space, city research, town planning, and urban development.
Filed under: Organizations
Great Cities Institute
University of Illinois at Chicago
The Great Cities Institute sponsors research, service, and educational programs aimed at improving the quality of life of people living in Chicago, its metropolitan region, and other great cities of the world. In carrying out its work the Institute engages closely with government institutions, businesses and their membership organizations, foundations and grant-making agencies, and organizations devoted to the social, cultural, and economic vitality of cities, local communities and neighborhoods. It serves as a research laboratory and meeting place for scholars, policymakers, and citizens who share an interest in finding answers to the question, "What can cities and regions do to make themselves into great places?"
Filed under: Organizations
Greater New Orleans Community Data Center
The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) gathers, analyzes and disseminates data to help nonprofit and civic leaders work smarter and more strategically. Operating since 1997, GNOCDC is New Orleans’ sustainable data source – before the storm, throughout recovery and for years to come. A product of Nonprofit Knowledge Works, GNOCDC is one of only two–dozen organizations nationwide chosen to be a National Neighborhood Indicators Partner – local data experts dedicated to community change. GNOCDC is recognized across the country for expertise in New Orleans demographics, disaster recovery indicators and actionable data visualization.
Filed under: Organizations
A suburb north of Hartford, CT plans to build thousands of housing units in its corporate office corridor in an effort to decrease residents' dependence on cars.
September 05, 2011
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Has poverty become suburbanized?
For many years, urban scholars considered poverty to be a problem of the inner city; suburbs were traditionally where middle-class Americans moved to in order to escape the disintegrating city center. Using the results of the 2000 and 2010 Censuses, social scientists are beginning to look more closely at suburban poverty, exploring its causes, dynamics, and long-term consequences.
August 01, 2011
Filed under: Issues
A case for why high-speed rail lines between smaller cities are a good decision, in Miller-McCune.
June 13, 2011
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Paris and New York City’s distinctive physical and socioeconomic characteristics are borne out in their different histories.
December 16, 2011
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
Housing Affordability Data System
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The Housing Affordability Data System (HADS) is a set of files derived from the 1985 and later national American Housing Survey (AHS) and the 2002 and later Metro AHS. This system categorizes housing units by affordability and households by income, with respect to the Adjusted Median Income, Fair Market Rent (FMR), and poverty income. It also includes housing cost burden for owner and renter households. These files have been the basis for the worst case needs tables since 2001. The data files are available for public use, since they were derived from AHS public use files and the published income limits and FMRs.
Filed under: Data
How should we design urban parks?
Most major cities have one or more large parks. As geographer Terence Young has explained, parks proliferated across modern cities to help stem the departure of middle-class and affluent residents in the wake of industrialization at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Parks were considered a panacea for social ills as varied as crime, illness, and poor mental health. In recent years, scientists have taken a fresh look at parks and their role in the quality of urban life.
February 01, 2012
Filed under: Issues
How the media portrayed the French banlieues (suburbs) during the 2007 presidential election.
May 24, 2012
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
HUD Geographic Information Systems Data
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) collaborated with the U.S. Department of Interior, Geological Survey (USGS) and Mexican partners to create a binational Internet-based Geographic Information System (GIS) application for four sister cities along the US/Mexico Border. These include El Paso/Ciudad Juarez, Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras, Douglas/Agua Prieta, and Ambos Nogales. For each of the urban areas, the web mapping applications provide statistical and spatial analysis tools to plan for future growth scenarios, estimate infrastructure development costs for the colonias, and supply binational demographic census data for economic growth models.
Filed under: Data
HUD Infographics
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
This section of the HUD USER website highlights the housing data available through interactive infographics. In order to show the wealth of information available from HUD USER Data Sets, these infographics seek to present housing data in new and informative ways.
Filed under: Links
HUD State of the Cities Data Systems
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The HUD State of the Cities Data Systems (SOCDS) provide data on metropolitan areas, central cities and suburbs: demographic and economic data from the 1970 through 2000 U.S. censuses, current employment statistics, jobs, business establishments, and average pay, crime, building permit, and urban public finance data.
Filed under: Data
IGU Kyoto Regional Conference 2013
August 4–August 8, 2013
International Geographical Union Urban Geography Commission
Kyoto, Japan
Filed under: Events
Initiative for a Competitive Inner City
The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City is a nonprofit research and strategy organization and the leading authority on U.S. inner city economies and the businesses that thrive there. Founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, ICIC strengthens inner city economies by providing businesses, governments and investors with the most comprehensive and actionable information in the field about urban market opportunities.
Filed under: Organizations
Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation
Rutgers University
The Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation (IRCT) is a university-based effort that helps community residents and leaders in the public and private sectors frame workable policies that will bolster the political, economic, and social participation of marginalized communities within the larger metropolitan community. The IRCT's vision is inclusive. Not only does it encompass concerns for the poor, but leaders of the Initiative also believe that in order for metropolitan regions to support sustainable and livable communities, all sectors of civil society must be involved and see a shared interest.
Filed under: Organizations
Institute of Urban and Regional Development
University of California-Berkeley
IURD conducts collaborative, interdisciplinary research and practical work that reveals the dynamics of communities, cities, and regions and informs public policy.
Rooted in the social sciences, IURD's work has steadily gained recognition since its inception over 40 years ago. IURD has become the gateway to the university for those concerned with urban and regional issues—infrastructure, housing, sprawl, transportation, environmental quality, disaster recovery, and poverty and physical decline in inner cities—as well as a home for scholars who integrate real-world metropolitan problem-solving in their teaching and research.
Filed under: Organizations
Inter-city bus travel has significantly risen, potentially due to the availability of Wi-Fi.
January 19, 2012
Filed under: New & Noteworthy
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is a Canadian-based, public policy research institute that has a long history of conducting cutting-edge research into sustainable development. The Institute is a non-partisan, charitable organization specializing in policy research, analysis and information exchange. Through its head office in Winnipeg, Manitoba and its branches in Ottawa, Ontario; New York, NY; and Geneva, Switzerland IISD applies human ingenuity to help improve the well being of the world's environment, economy and society.
Filed under: Organizations
International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture, and Urbanism
The International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU) is an international educational charity which works under the Patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales to promote traditional architecture, urbanism and crafts. The central office of the organization is based in London, United Kingdom. 17 national Chapters of INTBAU are established as independent, affiliated charities in countries around the world.
INTBAU is a world wide organization dedicated to the support of traditional building, the maintenance of local character and the creation of better places to live. We are creating an active network of individuals and institutions who design, make, maintain, study or enjoy traditional building, architecture and places.
INTBAU's architecture and urban design workshops bring together practitioners, artisans and students. By education and training in traditional architecture, urbanism and the building crafts, we encourage people to maintain and restore traditional buildings, and to build new buildings and places that contribute to traditional environments and improve the quality of life in cities, towns and villages around the world.
Filed under: Organizations
Is sub-Saharan Africa becoming urbanized?
Research on urban growth has traditionally focused on the Western metropolis. In recent years, scholars have started to examine the growth patterns of cities in other regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, and to question the universality of the Western model of urban development. While earlier data had led many scholars to conclude that cities in that region are growing at an unprecedented rate, new research has challenged the notion that Africa is fast becoming an urban continent.
April 01, 2012
Filed under: Issues
Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program
Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy
The Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program was established in 1996 under the direction of William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor. The Program seeks to analyze the effects of increasing urban poverty and joblessness plaguing the inner cities and to ensure that scholarly research plays a critical role in the creation and implementation of national public policy concerning the poor.
Through conferences,seminars, and research activities, the Program agenda focuses on the various social forces and ecological factors that contribute to the marginalization and social isolation of urban populations.
Filed under: Links
Joint Center for Housing Studies
Harvard University
The Joint Center for Housing Studies is Harvard University's center for information and research on housing in the United States. The Joint Center analyzes the dynamic relationships between housing markets and economic, demographic, and social trends, providing leaders in government, business, and the non-profit sector with the knowledge needed to develop effective policies and strategies.
Filed under: Organizations
Journal of Planning History
Society for American City and Regional Planning History
Journal of Planning History (JPH), peer-reviewed and published quarterly, focuses on the history of city and regional planning, with particular emphasis on the Americas. JPH covers the full range of topics embraced by city and regional planning history, including planning history in the Americas, transnational planning experiences, planning history pedagogy, planning history in planning practice, the intellectual roots of the planning processes, and planning history historiography.
Filed under: Journals
Journal of Policy Analysis & Management (JPAM)
Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM)
APPAM founded the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM) in 1981 through the merger of two other journals – Policy Analysis and Public Policy. Wiley-Blackwell (formerly John Wiley & Sons) has published JPAM since 1981. The current contract for publishing JPAM runs until the end of 2016. JPAM is published quarterly and is a peer-reviewed research journal. The creation of JPAM fulfilled one of the primary reasons for APPAM's existence: the dissemination of the highest quality, multidisciplinary research in public policy and management. As the Association's journal of record, JPAM's ultimate purpose is building a professional community of scholars and practitioners devoted to more effective policy analysis and public management.
Filed under: Journals
Journal of the American Planning Association
American Planning Association
Since 1935, the quarterly Journal of the American Planning Association has published research, commentaries, and book reviews useful to practicing planners, policy makers, scholars, students, and citizens of urban, suburban, and rural areas. JAPA publishes only peer-reviewed, original research and analysis. It aspires to bring insight to planning the future, to air a variety of perspectives, to publish the highest quality work, and to engage readers.
Filed under: Journals
Journal of Urban Affairs
Urban Affairs Association
Published for the Urban Affairs Association, the journal offers multidisciplinary perspectives and explores issues of relevance to both scholars and practitioners, including: theoretical, conceptual, or methodological approaches to metropolitan and community problems; empirical research that advances the understanding of society; strategies for social change in the urban milieu; innovative urban policies and programs; and issues of current interest to those who work in the field and those who study the urban and regional environment.
Filed under: Journals
Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century Urban Rail Transit Maps
University of Chicago
The maps included on this site roughly illustrate the history of urban rail transit between the 1860s and the 1920s. These years were the heyday of urban rail transit. Virtually every city in the Western world and in its colonial offshoots had street railroads during much or all of this period. Streetcars were drawn by horses in the early years. The invention of the grip cable in 1870s and of electric traction in the late 1880s greatly increased their speed and reliability. By the end of the 19th century, everyday urban life was completely dependent on this mode of transport.
Filed under: Data