News & Activity

UPP Chair Professor Joseph Viteritti was quoted in a Wall Street Journal (October 8) article on Mayor Bill de Blasio's decision to replace his SUV and other official vehicles with hybrid cars that are more environmentally friendly.

Laura Wolf-Powers recently published an article (co-authored with Naomi Adiv) in the journal Urban Geography: "User Fees and the permeability of public space at municipal pools and bathhouses in New York City 1870-present."  https://works.bepress.com/laura_wolf_powers/45/

Professor Victoria Johnson's book American Eden has just been named one of five finalists for the 2018 National Book Award in Nonfiction: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/books/national-book-foundation-announces-finalists-for-69th-annual-award.html.

Prof. Matthew Lasner’s latest essay, “Architecture’s Progressive Imperative: Housing Betterment in the 19th and 20th Centuries” appears in a special issue of the UK journal AD devoted to the topic of social equity in housing. A review of the issue was published in Next City last week. Lasner also presented his research at a panel at the Center For Architecture earlier this month; video of the event can be seen on its Website.

UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti was interviewed by WAMU Radio, the NPR station in Washington D.C., regarding the merits (and limits) of governance arrangements that give mayors operational control over urban school districts. The interview ran on the day (September 17) that the District of Columbia City Council was considering a proposal to amend its governance law and end the system of mayoral control of schools that has been in effect since 2007.

Along with Weijie Wang at the University of Missouri, Dr. Ryan Yeung published an article in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory on the effectiveness of the NYC DOE’s Empowerment Zone Innovation. Click here for the article.

Associate Professor Jill Simone Gross published a new article (book chapter):
Gross, J. S. (2018). The governance of superdiversity: a tale of two North American cities. In The Routledge Handbook of the Governance of Migration and Diversity in Cities (pp. 251-261). Routledge. Click here for the description.

In addition, Prof. Gross has been chosen to serve as "President Elect 2019-20 of the Urban and Local Politics Section of the American Political Science Association" and asked to serve on the "2018-19 Robert A. Dahl Award" Committee of the American Political Science Association. The Robert A. Dahl Award is awarded annually to an untenured scholar who has produced scholarship of the highest quality on the subject of democracy.

Prof. Sigmund Shipp has been selected in a CUNY-wide competition to co-teach a course in Spring 2019 at the CUNY Graduate Center for the Futures Initiative Program. The aim of the proposed course, to be team-taught with  Professor of Sociology, Public Health, & Urban Education  Juan Battle, is to support diversity, equity, and student-centered interdisciplinary learning at the graduate level, to strengthen faculty diversity at the Graduate Center, and to establish robust peer mentoring among faculty members across the CUNY system.

Associate Professor Victoria Johnson's book, American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic is one of ten books on the list for consideration for a National Book Award in nonfiction.

Professor Victoria Johnson's new book, American Eden, about the first botanical garden in the United States (and how it became the site of Rockefeller Center), has been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. American Eden has also been chosen as one of Amazon's "Best History books of June" and as an editors' pick at Nature, Scientific American, Popular Science, and the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Her book was published in June by Liveright, a division of W. W. Norton & Co.

Prof. Wolf-Powers was on a panel of respondents gathered to discuss Alan Mallach's new book The Divided City at an event co-sponsored by the Regional Plan Association and the Century Foundation on June 25th.
https://tcf.org/content/event/divided-city-discussion-alan-mallach/

Prof. John Chin was recently appointed to the NIH Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council (https://www.oar.nih.gov/oarac/members.asp) and to the National Advisory Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholars Program (http://healthpolicyresearch-scholars.org/about-the-program/).

UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti was quoted in a front page story in the New York Times (July 5) about the role of Asian Americans in New York City politics.

UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti was invited by NBC News to write an opinion piece on former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, which was posted online, as  "Losing It: The Tragic Self-Immolation of Rudy Giuliani," NBC News, Think, May 30, 2018.

Prof. Matthew Lasner is quoted in the current issue of The Nation, which includes several articles exploring the affordable housing crisis United States. Click here to read.

UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti was extensively quoted in a Gotham Gazette (May 10) article on the establishment of two Charter Commissions for New York City.

UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti was interviewed by WNYC/NPR about Mayor de Blasio's proposal to a appoint a Charter Review Commission. Parts of the interview were aired on February 18th and 19th. He also was quoted extensively in a Gotham Gazette (February 21) article on the same subject.

UPP Professor Owen Gutfreund is quoted in am New York online article, “Cycling growth slows in NYC after decades-long boom, DOT report says” written by Vincent Barone, March 21, 2018.

UPP Prof. Ryan Yeung is the Co-author of two articles published by Springer, March 12, 2018. “The Impact of U.S. News College Rankings on the Compensation of College and University Presidents” written with Philip Gigliotti (SUNY, Albany) and Phuong Nguyen-Hoang (University of Iowa) and “The Impact of U.S. News College Rankings on the Compensation of College and University Presidents” written with Phuong Nguyen-Hoang.

Prof. Wolf-Powers' article, "The Maker Movement and Urban Economic Development," was the runner-up for the Journal of the American Planning Association's Best Paper of 2017. The article can be found through the Hunter College library and directly at the journal here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01944363.2017.1360787.

On January 31st, UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti gave a book talk, followed by a signing, at the City Seminar hosted by Professor Kenneth Jackson at the Columbia University's Herbert H. Lehman Center for American History.

Associate Professor Laura Wolf-Powers is a co-author of the article "Manufacturing without the firm: Challenges for the maker movement in three U.S. cities," published in December in the journal Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. Prof. Wolf-Powers was quoted in Crain's New York business in October on the irrational mania prompting cities to overuse economic development subsidy to attract companies like Amazon.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20171015/POLITICS/171019919/amazon-will-expect-subsidies-nycs-record-on-attracting-jobs-through-incentives-is-mixed

UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti is the author of an essay, "De Blasio's Second Act Will Feature the Same Script but a Larger Audience," in City Limits magazine (December 7, 2017)

James Rausse (MUP '02), AICP, has been appointed as the APA Chapter Presidents Council Liaison to the AICP Commission. James previously served as APA-New York Metro Chapter President and Vice President for Professional Development. He will serve on the Chapter Presidents Council board, which represents APA's 47 Chapters. James also graduated with a second Masters Degree in Organizational Dynamics, concentrating in Sustainable Development from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2017.

Prof. William Milczarski is the co-author of two recently published articles.  “Injuries caused by falls from playground equipment in the United States” written with Peter Tuckel(Hunter's Sociology Department) and David Silverman (Yale) was published in Clinical Pediatrics.  “Injury-related falls from bicycles, skateboards, roller skates, and non-motorized scooters in the United States: 2005-2014” written with Peter Tuckel and Richard Maisel (NYU) was published in the Journal of Epidemiological Research.

Dr. Laxmi Ramasubramanian has published her second book!  Essential Methods for Planning Practitioners: Skills and Techniques for Data Analysis, Visualization, and Communication, with co-author Jochen Albrecht. It is published by Springer. The foreword is written by Professor Mike Batty, urban theorist and Chair, at the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College, London.

Kerry McLean, MUP alum, has been selected as one of the 2017 LISC Michael Rubinger Community Fellows. Read More

UPP adjunct faculty members Philip Plotch and Jen Nelles' article "Mitigating Gridlock: Lessons on Regional Governance from the Organization that Keeps New York Moving,"  is published in Articulo – Journal of Urban Research. To read article click here.

UPP alumnus Prudence Katze (MUP 2015) invites the Hunter community to the premiere of her documentary film, The Iron Triangle. The film is about the bustling industrial community of Willets Point, Queens, where a group of small, immigrant-run businesses banded together to fight a development plan that would bulldoze their slice of the American Dream. Through the testimony of city officials, real estate developers, urban theorists, and the workers of Willets Point, The Iron Triangle offers a deep exploration of the controversial changes facing New York City. Their story launches an investigation into New York City’s history as the front line of deindustrialization, urban renewal, and gentrification.

The film will be screened at the DOC NYC Film Fest on Sat. 11/11 at 4:30 pm and Thur. 11/16 at 12:30 pm.

Prudence has offered to try to get free tickets for current students who would like to attend. If interested, contact her at contact@prudencekatze.net.

For more information on the film visit http://theirontrianglemovie.com/

New UPP Prof. Lily Baum Pollans' academic article, "PAYT Helps Drive Residential Food Scraps Collection " published this summer is featured in October 2017 issue of BioCycle Magazine, a magazine devoted to composting, renewable energy, and sustainability.

Rebecca Chau, former Hunter MUP student, was awarded the Runner-Up prize in the nationwide ACSP-GPEIG competition for the best international case study completed by a student in the last two years.  Her paper, Social Urbanism: Transformational Policy in Medellin, Colombia, was completed in Professor Gutfreund's course on Cities in Developing Countries.  It will be published on the ACSP-GPEIG website.  Congratulations, Rebecca!

Prof. Matthew Gordon Lasner appeared on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC-FM on October 5 to talk about the history of co-ops and condos as part of a series the show is doing in advance of the November mayoral election entitled "The People’s Guide to Power: Real Estate Edition.” Listen to the segment at https://www.wnyc.org/story/new-yorks-first-co-op/.

UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti was a guest on the premiere of Brian Talks New York, hosted by Brian Lehrer, which was aired for the first time on CUNY TV on October 4th.

Faculty member Laura Wolf-Powers has two articles out this fall. One, "Food Deserts and Real Estate-Led Social Policy," argues that the popularity of the "food desert" meme has have led policymakers astray in their responses to food insecurity. It was published in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. The other, co-authored with colleagues at University of Illinois and Portland State University, examines the entrepreneurs at the center of the urban "maker" phenomenon and reflects on implications for local manufacturing and economic development policy. It appears in the fall issue of the Journal of the American Planning Association.

UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti is the author of an essay on Bill de Blasio, Economic Justice, and the Democratic Party in The Nation (September 11, 2017).

Prof. Shipp's book review of  "The Folklore of the Freeway: Race and Revolt in the Modernist City" by Eric Avila (2014).

Prof. Jill Simone Gross has been asked to serve as Program Co-Chair for the Urban Politics Section (http://www.apsanet.org/section13) of the American Political Science Association, for their 2018 conference scheduled for August 30 - September 2, 2018 Boston, MA

UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti’s new book The Pragmatist: Bill de Blasio’s Quest to Save the Soul of New York(Oxford) was reviewed by Sam Roberts in the New York Times on August 27th. Professor Viteritti has also posted podcast interviews on Am New York, City and State, and Gotham Gazette, and an online interview with Politico magazine. An excerpt of the book was published on City & State on  September 5 and will be reissued on September 12.​

The Westchester Municipal Planning Federation (WMPF) offers a $2000 scholarship to a student who is currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate planning program (or a closely-related program such as architecture, landscape architecture, public administration, public policy or geography) and who plans to continue his/her studies in the following school year. The 2017 Westchester Municipal Planning Federation scholarship was awarded to Gregory Cutler. Greg received his bachelor’s degree in Geography from Binghamton University and is currently pursuing a Masters in Urban Planning at Hunter College.

Prof. Ryan Yeung is quoted in "2017's Best Places to Flip Houses"  Wallethub.com, Aug. 1

Prof. Sigmund Shipp was interviewed about the city council proposal to enforce timely inspections of noise violations in Hell's Square (on the lower east side) and other NYC locations. The interview aired on Fox 5 News Wednesday, August 2nd. For further reading, click here.

Ryan Rzepecki, MUP Alumnus and SoBi CEO, featured in Electric, station-less bike share program starts to roll out,  MissionLocal.org, By Laura Wenus, June 27, 2017.

Prof. Joseph P. Viteritti, UPP Chair, was quoted in the New York Times in an Q and A on mayoral control of the schools.

"Does it Matter Who Runs New York City's Schools?" By Kate Taylor, June 23, 2017

May 22, 2017

Dear Students, Alums, Faculty, and Friends:

It is with great sadness that I write to you on the passing of Professor Stanley Moses, who died on Friday, May 19^th, after suffering from a head injury that he incurred from a fall that took place on May 14^th.

Stanley delighted in the time he spent with students. He used to tell me that it kept him going; and it did so for a long time, if not long enough for those who had the pleasure of knowing him. He had taught graduates and undergraduates in our department since 1971, and served as chair from 1998 to 2008. Most recently, he had taken on particular responsibility for two courses: “The Structure of the Urban Region” and “Plans, Policies and Politics,” though he taught a diverse menu of offerings over the years. Stanley also had a record of public service at both the federal and state levels of government that allowed him to bring his practical insights into the classroom.

Stanley was a proud product of CUNY, a graduate of City College who had gone on to earn a doctorate from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 1971. He was widely read, and had an intellectual curiosity that seemed to have no bounds.

His own scholarship focused on two issues that continued to occupy his attention throughout his long career: equality of educational opportunity and full employment. On the former, he was the author of The Elusive Quest: The Struggle for Equality of Educational Opportunity (1992), a book on school finance reform that he wrote with his Hunter colleague, Edwin Margolis, with a forward by the late New York Governor Mario Cuomo.

His interest in full employment was piqued by his Syracuse University mentor, Bertram Gross, a devoted advocate for the issue who eventually joined our department faculty as a Distinguished Professor. Stanley later edited a festschrift in honor of his former teacher that was published in 1995 under the title, Enduring Visions: The Legacy of Bertram Gross.

Stanley’s real passion was to engage people; his most valuable legacy is the example he set for us all by the way he indulged that passion. He had a tireless devotion to students: always the first to sign up for their events, always present to pose a thoughtful question when they presented, ever ready to celebrate their accomplishments, ever ready to offer a helping hand and assure them he cared. There was a genuine kindness about Stanley that you had to notice if you knew him. He regularly dropped by to ask how you were doing; he would take long trips to visit former colleagues when they were ill; he would go out of his way to support his junior colleagues; and he would never hesitate to tell his senior colleagues to lighten up when they took themselves too seriously.

Stanley’s absence will be felt by all.

A memorial service is being planned.

With sincere regrets,

Joseph Viteritti

Thomas Hunter Professor of Public Policy

Chair, Urban Policy and Planning Department

Prof. Jill Gross posts a piece, Accomplishing Agonism in Urban Governance, in the Urban Affairs Forum presented by Urban Affairs Review,  March 10, 2017. 2017.

March 19, 2017

Dear Members and Friends of the Urban Policy and Planning Community:

I write with deep sorrow to inform you of the passing of Professor Peter Kwong, who died of cardiac arrest on Friday, March 17th.

Professor Kwong had been a member of the Hunter faculty since 1993, where he was a Distinguished Professor in the Urban Policy and Planning Department and a Professor of Asian-American studies. He was also a member of the doctoral faculty  in Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center. In our department, he regularly taught a workshop for incoming students in the graduate program in Urban Policy and Leadership, and courses on immigration and the gentrification of Chinatown. Over his career, he taught as a Visiting Professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, the City University of Hong Kong, and the People’s University of China, as well as Princeton, Oberlin, Yale, Columbia, Berkeley, and UCLA.

Peter Kwong was born in China in 1941. He came to this country to attend Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where he received a B.A. in math and physics. He subsequently earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering at Columbia University before enrolling at Columbia to get a certificate in East Asian Studies and a Ph.D. in political science.

Peter had a passionate commitment to issues of social justice and a long record of activism concerning conditions in the Asian-American community. His career spanned the fields of scholarship, journalism and film-making, all directed to improve the lives of people who were marginalized by discrimination or social deprivation. A recent article in New York Magazine referred to him as the “Dean of Chinatown Studies.”

He was the author of five books and hundreds of articles. Among his books were Chinese America: The Untold Story of America’s Oldest New Community, which he co-authored with his wife, Dusanka Miscevic, a historian and frequent collaborator; Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor; and The New Chinatown. Kwong challenged the notion that Asians are a model minority, revealing in his research widespread class divisions, poverty, exploitation, drug abuse, and organized crime -- all of which were exacerbated by decades of discrimination by a majority white society. At the time of his death, Peter and his wife were completing a history of Chinese immigration in the western United States, and he was beginning to work on an autobiography.

Peter’s journalism appeared in such outlets as The Nation, Village Voice, International Herald Tribune, and Philadelphia Inquirer. He was frequently interviewed by the New York Times and other major news outlets. His essay on multi-cultural race riots in Los Angeles, published in the Village Voice in 1992, merited the Sidney Hillman Foundation Prize, the George Polk Award, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His 1990 article in the Village Voice on Chinese drug cartels, co-authored with Dusanka Miscevic, was also nominated for a Pulitzer.

As with his scholarship and journalism, Peter’s filmmaking always delivered a strong social message. His 1980 PBS film, Third Avenue: Only the Strong Survive, documented steep class divisions along Manhattan’s East Side, and won him an Emmy Award. His HBO documentary, China Unnatural Disaster, co-produced with Jon Alpert, was nominated for an Academy Award in 2010. The heart-wrenching film highlighted corruption, incompetence and neglect by the Chinese government that became apparent as a result of the catastrophic earthquake of 2008 in Sichuan Provence that killed 70,000 people, including 10,000 children. The Chinese police detained Peter and Jon Alpert during the course of the filming.

Peter Kwong enjoyed an international reputation as an activist, scholar, journalist, and film-maker. He was a personal friend of the Dalai Lama, who, because of Peter’s good graces, has visited Hunter College on two occasions. Peter and his wife “Douska” reciprocated in 2011 by accepting an invitation from the spiritual leader to visit his residence in India.

Our community will dearly miss Peter’s irreplaceable presence. A memorial service celebrating his extraordinary life and achievements will be held at Hunter College later this spring. Details will be posted on both the college and department websites when final arrangements are made.

With Sincere Regrets,

Joseph P. Viteritti

Thomas Hunter Professor of Public Policy

Chair, Urban Policy and Planning Department

UPP Chair Joseph P. Viteritti was quoted in The New York Times article, “Questioning Whether de Blasio Will Learn From a Teachable Moment”, March 17, 2017. To read, click here.

UPP Prof. Ryan Yeung discusses Milwaukee School Board's recent district-wide school uniform requirement on The Joy Cardin Radio Show,

"The Effects Of School Uniforms", March 3, 2017.  To listen to the audio, click here.

Professor Gross was busily over her winter break. She participated in a PodCast with two urban governance scholars: Susan Clarke, Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder (http://www.colorado.edu/polisci/people/faculty-emeritus/susan-clarke) and Allison Bramwell, Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (https://psc.uncg.edu/people/bramwell/). In Part 1 the conversation explores the question of whether "Collaborative Governance" is the next phase for urban research? In Part 2 they ask: "What do we gain or overlook in a "collaborative governance" approach?

Both PodCasts can be found at the Urban Affairs Forum Presented by Urban Affairs Review web site https://urbanaffairsreview.com

The program prepares academically promising undergraduate students who have an interest in attending graduate school. Eligible students who are accepted to the program attend a six-week summer program and an array of workshops, seminars, and lectures throughout the academic year which will enhance students' technical, writing, and research skills. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) preparation workshops are also offered at various points throughout the academic year to enhance students' opportunity to help them gain acceptance to graduate schools of their choice.

Prof. Gross  had a short piece published in the Roosevelt House Public Policy Forum titled "Facing the Realities of Geo-Political Division in the Age of Trump: The Metropolitan Future and the Need for Collaborative Models of Governance" which can be accessed at

http://www.roosevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu/?forum-post=facing-realities-geo-political-division-age-trump-metropolitan-future-need-collaborative-models-governance

Prof. Owen Gutfreund was quoted in New York Newsday and amNew York about the Governor's proposal to overhaul JFK Airport, January 4,  2017.