Penn Institute for Urban Research

📅 IN ONE HOUR! Join Penn IUR and at 11 AM as we discuss what's ahead for America’s states and municipalities. Fiscal 2025 will be especially consequential with in flux, coming to an end, and the elections.

📅 Tomorrow, Join Penn IUR and Sept 19 at 11 AM as we discuss what's ahead for America’s states and municipalities. Fiscal 2025 will be especially consequential with in flux, coming to an end, and the elections.

Griffin Pitt '26, an Urban Leadership Fellow, spent her summer conducting water sanitation research for the Utooni Development Organization in Machakos County, Kenya.

In a recent reflection for the Paideia program, Pitt says, "This summer in Machakos County has reinforced my belief in the power of simple, innovative solutions to address complex challenges... As I move forward in my academic and professional journey, I carry with me the lessons learned from the mamas of Machakos – lessons of resilience, community, and the profound impact of access to clean water." Read more here: https://bit.ly/3TsBRDH

Join Penn IUR September 27 at the Center for the Study of Contemporary China as we welcome Wang Lan, founder and head of the Lab and Dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University, Shanghai, China.

Planning Healthy Cities in China | Center for the Study of Contemporary China Professor Lan Wang’s research focuses on the mechanisms of urban built environment affecting public health, aiming to promote evidence-based practices for healthy city planning. Her presentation covers three aspects: 1) The theoretical framework and technical route of health intervention for spati...

It was great welcoming back our affiliated PhD students from across campus yesterday at our Lunch and Lightning Talks event! Doctoral candidates in Sociology, City Planning, Anthropology, Applied Economics, Architecture and more met to connect and share their research. Started last year, these lunches are just one way Penn IUR creates cross-disciplinary connections around urban research.

“We’re stuck in this process of building more highways and widening roadways even though the economic justifications aren’t there anymore," says Penn IUR Faculty Fellow Erick Guerra in new piece on road expansion in Bloomberg. Read more: https://bloom.bg/3XAduGL

The Outsized Cost of Expanding US Roads A new study quantifies the fallacy that adding new roads produces an economic benefit.

Americans' obsession with road building has cost trillions in lost housing opportunities. Penn IUR Fellows & have a new paper in the Journal of the American Planning Association diving into the issue.

Our Overbuilt Road Network Costs Americans Trillions in Lost Housing Opportunities — Streetsblog USA America roadway building addiction has sacrificed trillions of dollars worth of land that could be put to better uses like housing.

📅 Join Penn IUR and on Sept 19 at 11 AM as we discuss what's ahead for America’s states and municipalities. Fiscal 2025 will be especially consequential with in flux, coming to an end, and the elections.

Special Briefing: Year Ahead for America’s States and Municipalities | PennIUR What's ahead for America’s states and municipalities? Fiscal 2025 will be an especially consequential one, with the Federal Reserve expected to cut interest rates for the first time in almost five years as inflation and the economy cool; the impending end of federal emergency pandemic aid; and, of...

Penn IUR Scholar Arthur Acolin, a professor of real estate and finance at the University of Washington, recently weighed in on the newly-released impact studies for a downtown Sixers arena in Philadelphia:

"Independent economists agree that arenas and stadiums consistently do not fulfill their developers’ financial promises, and that they do not add to city and state tax base when their true costs are counted,” Acolin wrote.

City releases long-awaited studies on impact of a downtown Sixers arena "We are sharing these detailed reports so that the public can better understand the implications of such a multifaceted proposed project for Philadelphia," the mayor said.

As classes begin today on campus, we're thrilled to introduce this year's Undergraduate Fellows in Urban Leadership. This year's impressive cohort of fellwos are from around the country and the world, from Philadelphia to Singapore. Our fellows are interested in cities in a variety of ways, including environmental justice, public health, real estate, transportation, and more! We're excited to spend the year with them meeting city leaders in Philadelphia, New York, and DC. Meet our fellows: https://penniur.upenn.edu/press-room/announcements/penn-iur-welcomes-2024-25-fellows-in-urban-leadership

experts -- including Penn IUR Co-Director -- are optimistic about the Harris campaign's plans to address the supply crisis:
"The answer is more supply at the sweet spot, which is first-time ownership"

Kamala Harris is going full YIMBY — and housing experts are optimistic Kamala Harris unveiled the first details of her economic agenda on Friday, including efforts to address the housing crisis with new construction.

High rates are keeping equity-rich from using their wealth. ICYMI: Listen to Penn IUR Co-Director & Prof on - podcast now available.

https://bit.ly/3Ab99k5

High rates are keeping equity-rich homeowners from using wealth - Marketplace Tapping into home equity requires taking out a loan, but today's high interest rates make that option unappealing.

Penn IUR Co-Director and prof is speaking on NPR's this evening. Find your local station to listen to it live (6:30pm at WHYY Philadelphia) or online after.

Support Public Radio: Donate To Your NPR Station

🏗️ Matt Levin of NPR's interviews Penn IUR Co-Director & Wharton Prof about the rise of apartment vacancies across the Sun Belt after a building spree.

“It’s a supply-side story,” she said. “Supply has gotten ahead of demand.”
https://bit.ly/3WnomG3

Earlier this morning, Penn IUR Visiting Scholar Mauricio Rodas spoke at the Conference of Mayors for Climate Action. Many of today's meetings (including the plenary meeting of secretariat for the SDSN Global Commission for Urban SDG Finance) are taking place in Paris's historic and beautiful City Hall.

Continuing our summer Instagram series highlighting urban research across Penn, this week's takeover will be Laura Frances and Delfina Vildosola, PennIUR's very own graduate research associates. This week, Laura and Delfina will be in Paris as part of the secretariat for the SDSN Global Commission for Urban SDG Finance's plenary meeting hosted by Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.

In addition to working with Penn IUR, Laura and Delfina recently finished their Masters of City Planning with a concentration in urban technology. Laura is a real estate developer and entrepreneur with a background in public policy and innovation design. Delfina is a lawyer from Buenos Aires with a background in environmental law and transparency. Both are interested in developing urban finance mechanisms, networks, and project portfolios in their future careers.

They will attend the meeting in Paris with the rest of the Commission's secretariat including Co-Director, Eugenie Birch; Visiting Scholar Mauricio Rodas; Director of Global Programs, Amanda Lloyd; and fellow research associate Luke Campo.

Declining housing has made living with parents the new normal, with 49% of young adults doing so in 2021.
Highlighting a study by Penn IUR Co-Director , YR Media ponders alternative housing for Gen Z in the age of remote work.
https://bit.ly/3zSyorb

🏛️📘 Looking for summer reading? Penn IUR Faculty Fellow and History Professor David Barnes' hidden history of Lazaretto Station, just a stone’s throw from I-95 and the Philadelphia International Airport has it all - commerce and politics, suffering and death, medicine and caregiving, immigration and hope.

The name “Lazaretto” derives from St. Lazarus, patron saint of lepers. Maritime quarantine stations known as lazarettos were established in European port cities beginning in the late 14th and early 15th centuries.

During the warm weather months, when traffic was heaviest and imported epidemics threatened, all arriving ships, passengers, and cargo were inspected there, and quarantined if necessary. Vessels and cargo were disinfected, and sick passengers and crew members were treated in the Lazaretto hospital.

Barnes speaks tomorrow about his book-- and the campaign to preserve and restore this unparalleled historical site--at the Bucks County Civil War Library and Museum in Doylestown, PA.

📅 Sat, Jul 20, 2024 | 11:00 AM

https://bit.ly/3WefWRz

📍 Incoming Penn IUR Fellow in Urban Leadership Leo Biehl of Penn's School of Arts & Sciences studies redlining with digital mapping projects with Professor Brent Cebul.

Following on his “Renewing Inequality” project at the University of Richmond, Cebul’s new digital history project “Building Inequality” will illuminate the impact of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) credit policies on affordable rental housing during and immediately following World War II.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4cTVMmv

📷 Garden Valley Housing residents inspect newly installed storm fences at the Kingsbury Run Landfill Project in Cleveland in 1961. Housing available to African Americans was often built on undesirable and sometimes hazardous land. (Image: Jerry Horton, Cleveland Press Collection, Cleveland State University via ClevelandMemory.org)

Are different prices for the same risk exposure fair? The NYTimes highlights "first-of-its-kind data" from Penn IUR faculty fellow and Professor Ben Keys.

How the Home Insurance Market Became So Distorted Climate change and widely varied state regulations could mean you’re paying too much or far too little to insure your home.

Speed cameras save lives, according to a study led by Penn IUR Faculty Fellow and professor .

But is it enough for cities and states seeking to reduce and injuries?

Pennsylvania Legalized Speed Cameras. You Won’t Believe What Happened Next. A study of Philly’s deadly Roosevelt Boulevard showed a drop in crashes and deaths after speed cameras were installed.

Housing. Violence. Transit. Education. 9 speak on the issues facing their cities and the nation and where they find reassurance.

9 Mayors on What Divides America, and What Will Save It Mayors described the national discourse as “broken,” “garbage” and “horrible.” But many found reassurance inside their own cities.

Penn IUR Faculty Fellow Vincent Reina was recently quoted on housing in The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Philadelphia is really uniquely positioned in that there’s actually a fair amount of land that still can be disposed of. Low cost land, low cost financing, and really strategic thought about long-term mixed income housing that has real affordable components is a real opportunity.” Read more:

Is this European city a model for Philadelphia’s affordable housing? One Council member thinks so. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier's recent trip to Vienna reaffirmed some of her ideas about Philadelphia's housing policy.

$1 trillion a year in go out the door. Follow our Special Briefing topic with the on their report, which notes the lack of transparency around tax expenditures and opportunities for states to review them.
https://bit.ly/4clXHQO

$1 trillion a year in tax breaks goes out the door. Are states keeping track? A new report from the Volcker Alliance highlights the lack of transparency around tax expenditures, and calls on states to better monitor whether the tax breaks are achieving their intended effects.

How does China fit in with urbanization agreements around the globe? Penn IUR co-Director lectured today at The College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) of Tongji University. https://bit.ly/3W2XZ9A

Penn IUR Co-Director Eugenie Birch is traveling and speaking in China for the next couple of weeks. She recently visited Xiamen with Penn IUR faculty fellow Zhongjie Lin and former Penn IUR visiting scholar, Ruoxi Zhang. Great to see all the Penn IUR connections around the world!

Continuing the conversation on the challenges for big cities with , David Stanek, Richard Voith, and Susan Wachter have authored a paper following on the Special Briefing with Volker Alliance titled Reflections on Doom Loop or Boom Loop
https://bit.ly/3VYEmzt

IN ONE HOUR! Join us and for a Special Briefing on , moderated by William Glasgall and Susan Wachter, featuring authors of "Benefit or Burden: Evaluating $1 Trillion in State Tax Expenditures"

Register here 👉

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Special Briefing: State Tax Breaks. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Join us for a Special Briefing to discuss a forthcoming Volcker Alliance issue paper, Benefit or Burden: Evaluating $1 Trillion in State Tax Expenditures. The issue paper addresses how US states hand out massive tax breaks every year to advance policy goals, such as aiding low-income families, spurr...

Higher rates were supposed to lower prices. It isn’t working.

Penn IUR Co-Director and The Wharton School Real Estate professor comments in Barron's.

Higher Rates Were Supposed to Lower Housing Prices. It Isn’t Working. Housing won’t come to the Federal Reserve’s rescue this time around, writes Susan Wachter in a guest commentary.

THIS THURSDAY, join us and for a Special Briefing on , moderated by and , featuring authors of "Benefit or Burden: Evaluating $1 Trillion in State Tax Expenditures"

Register here 👉 https://bit.ly/3x9LVJX

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Special Briefing: State Tax Breaks. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Join us for a Special Briefing to discuss a forthcoming Volcker Alliance issue paper, Benefit or Burden: Evaluating $1 Trillion in State Tax Expenditures. The issue paper addresses how US states hand out massive tax breaks every year to advance policy goals, such as aiding low-income families, spurr...