Faculty Bio: Nicholas Dagen Bloom, Department Chair

Title:
Professor
Room #:
1614 HW
Phone:
(212) 396-6077
Specialty
Areas:
Public and affordable housing, state and metroplitan planning, transportation policy and community planning history

Common Courses Taught

URBS 101: Urban Life
URBG 702: Structure of the Urban Region
URBP 700: Introduction to Urban Planning
URBP 701: History and Theory of Urban Planning
URBP 737: Planning Studio

Education

Ph.D. , American History, Brandeis University

Biography

Nicholas Dagen Bloom is a Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College. His research analyzes long-term planning outcomes in essential urban systems such as subsidized housing and mass transportation. He is the author of Suburban Alchemy (OSU, 2001), Merchant of Illusion (OSU, 2004), Public Housing That Worked (Penn, 2008), The Metropolitan Airport (Penn, 2015), and How States Shaped Postwar America (Chicago, 2019). He is co-editor of four edited collections, including the prize-winning Public Housing Myths (Cornell, 2015) and Affordable Housing in New York (Princeton, 2015). His most recent book, The Great American Transit Disaster (Chicago, 2023), has been widely featured and discussed.

Professor Bloom has been quoted extensively in media outlets on housing, transit, and other topics, including CityLab, WNYC, The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post. His editorials have also appeared in Newsday, The Daily News, Crain’s Business, and City Limits. As a co-curator of housing exhibitions at Hunter College, the Skyscraper Museum, and the National Public Housing Museum, he has highlighted overlooked dimensions of community life. Bloom frequently joins panel discussions on issues of concern to planners, historians, architects, and the general public. He has taught urban affairs courses to thousands of students in previous positions at NYIT, NYU, and Tulane.