Initiative on Cities

Inspired by classic Works Progress Administration (WPA) poster designs, the Icons of Franklin Park Poster Competition invited artists in 2025 to submit original works highlighting the park’s physical and cultural icons, past and present. The City of Boston, the Boston Society of Landscape Architects, and the Franklin Park Coalition sponsored the competition.

Among the winners featured three BU students and alumni: Helena Wang (COM ‘26), Lindsay Crockett (CAS ‘15) and Stella Shippy.

Swipe to learn more!

The Boston University Initiative on Cities Gentrification & Urban Displacement Lab (GUDL) is proud to announce the second recipient of our pilot partnership seed grant: a collaboration between the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH) and Shomon Shamsuddin, Associate Professor in the Tufts Department of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning (UEP).

MOH and Shomon Shamsuddin will work together to conduct a quantitative impact analysis of the City’s Acquisition Opportunity Program (AOP), which supports and enables responsible, community-driven investors and developers, like Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and Community Land Trusts (CLTs), to acquire naturally occurring affordable rental housing, stabilizing existing tenancies and adding in perpetuity affordability restrictions.

Findings from this project will help the City evaluate and refine the AOP and to offer lessons to other city agencies and municipalities seeking to advance evidence-informed anti-displacement strategies.

Swipe to see what the new partners, including Professor Shamsuddin and MOH Associate Director Adam Goldstein, say about this new collaborative partnership through GUDL.

Learn more on the GUDL or IOC website; link in bio!

🌱🔬 The Boston University Initiative on Cities is excited to share this year’s recipients of our Early Stage Urban Research Awards! Our flagship seed grants, the 12th year that we offer our request for proposals, support early-stage academic research focused on urban challenges and urban populations across various disciplines and scopes. Research projects also serve as mentorship opportunities for graduate students who work in tandem with faculty and researchers on multidisciplinary, convergent urban research.

From a large pool of applications, the selection committee, comprising professors from various on-campus disciplines and IOC staff, selected 4 projects to fund for this cycle. Learn more about the projects by swiping right or by visiting our website: bu.edu/ioc

The Boston University Initiative on Cities Gentrification & Urban Displacement Lab (GUDL) is proud to announce the recipients of our first pilot partnership seed grant matched by GUDL between the City of Cambridge Redevelopment Authority (CRA), City of Cambridge Economic Opportunity and Development Division (EODD), and the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network (SBAN). The pilot partnership award is part of GUDL’s aim to foster new, cross-sector collaborations to advance innovative anti-displacement policy and practice.

The CRA and EODD will work with SBAN to host the Cambridge Small Business Talks at the end of 2026. These talks, facilitated by SBAN Director and Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Maryland, Willow Lung, will include a commercial anti-displacement workshop for Cambridge leaders and members of the City’s primary business associations.

They will also have site visits to the CRA’s Neighborhood Storefronts Project at 1175 Cambridge Street, Central Square, and Porter Square. This program seeks to bridge local knowledge with SBAN’s national expertise in anti-displacement solutions for small businesses. The collaboration also provides opportunities for the City of Cambridge to listen, inform, and support local businesses.

Swipe to see a testimonial and learn more on our webpage bu.edu/ioc

🎓🥰🥳 Oh the places you’ll go and all the sites and cities you’ll visit! We’re so excited, proud, and a bit saddened that our class of 2026 cohort of IOC affiliates, researchers, staff, award recipients, and collaborators is graduating!

We’re honored to be a small part of your urban / city-focused journey and all you’ve accomplished ! We can’t wait to see more that is to come in a new chapter of your life!

— ❤️🏙️🌱 IOC Team

We’re delighted to share that IOC Director Loretta Lees has been awarded this year’s Patron’s Medal from the for her contributions to geographical sciences. This award is one of two of the highest honor from the Royal Geographical Society. Swipe to see what Director Lees have to say and visit the link in our bio to learn more!