Urban Practices Lab

PENN IUR PHOTO CONTEST FINALIST, ABOVE: Protester Defying the Plague of Racism by Gabriel Ben-Jakov. City Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; June 6, 2020. See following pages for more photo contest finalists.

Penn IUR’s Urban Practices Lab houses its research on domestic topics. This year, Penn IUR focused on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on cities, fair housing, flood risk and housing markets, and building shared prosperity. In Spring 2020, Penn IUR focused on two phenomena in particular: the shock of the global pandemic and its economic repercussions on cities, and the U.S. crisis of racial inequity and inequitable cities. These two phenomena underscored the centrality of cities in creating a healthy, safe, and just society.

Cities and Contagion: Lessons from COVID-19 The Cities and Contagion: Lessons from COVID-19 Initiative brings together experts across scholarly disciplines who can help interpret the coronavirus pandemic’s implications for urbanization and the subsequent responses to its human and economic dimensions. This work informs public and private decision-makers as they adapt cities to be more resilient, inclusive, and innovative. The initiative has four parts: publications, a web-based resource library, convenings (both online and, when appropriate, in person), and research projects.

Penn IUR inaugurated the initiative in April 2020 with a special issue of Urban Link, its monthly e-newsletter, that highlights leading Penn IUR Fellows and Scholars (see page 38 for a selection of contributions to this issue). Shortly thereafter, the Institute introduced a dynamic online compendium of resources related to

research on the implications and consequences of COVID-19 for cities: the “Cities and COVID-19 Research Library,” which includes links to databases, organizations with COVID-19 resources related to cities, reports, studies, articles, webinars, and op-eds (see page 41 for more on the resource library). In 2020, Penn IUR also hosted a photo contest on the ways that urban places have adapted in both planned and unexpected ways to the coronavirus pandemic (see finalist photos on pages 12–19).

Penn IUR also hosted a number of online events exploring the impact of the novel coronavirus on cities, all of which were recorded and are available on the Penn IUR website. A 12-part series of expert convenings on the impact of the pandemic on state and municipal finance is described more fully on page 66. Details on a public lecture by Moody’s Mark Zandi, entitled “Global Economic Body Blow,” can be found on page 82.

As part of the Cities and Contagion Initiative, Penn IUR initiated the Monitoring City Recovery Project, convening a coalition of groups in New York City, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia to monitor and discuss a set of common recovery indicators in order to develop comparisons in cities and regions across the nation. The compiled data will be made available to the public in the coming year.

Fair, Equitable, and Affordable Housing Penn IUR Faculty Fellow Vincent Reina is leading a two-year research project that explores innovations in affordable housing policies and innovative zoning. As part of this project, Penn IUR is conducting a series of research projects focused on housing affordability and mixed-income communities. These efforts include a survey of housing plans across the U.S. to identify innovative housing practices being deployed in different markets, interviews and case studies that dive into the specific mechanisms that make such efforts succeed, and the exploration of new models that will guide future development. The project also explores how to develop and maintain vibrant mixed-income communities in the context of high housing costs and neighborhood change. Penn IUR will release findings in the coming year. In addition, Perspectives on Fair Housing, edited by Vincent Reina, Wendell Pritchett, and Susan Wachter, will be published in Fall 2020. This edited volume provides historical, sociological, economic, and legal perspectives on housing discrimination and offers a review of the tools that can be used to promote racial and economic equity in America. In Spring 2020, Penn IUR focused

on two phenomena in particular:

the shock of the global pandemic

and its economic repercussions on

cities, and the U.S. crisis of racial

inequity and inequitable cities.