Check out the archive below, where you’ll find the remainder of our news and activity, dating back to January of 2011. Or, head back to the main news & activity feed.
The Peter Kwong Immigrant Workers Learning Center has recently been launched, honoring the legacy of Peter Kwong, who was a member of the Hunter faculty from 1993-2017. Kwong was a Distinguished Professor in the Urban Policy and Planning Department and a Professor of Asian American Studies. He had a passionate commitment to issues of social justice and the rights of immigrant workers and a long record of activism concerning conditions in the Asian American community. The Peter Kwong Immigrant Workers Learning Center is located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and strives to advance justice and meaningful change to immigrant workers, youth and veterans of justice struggles. For more information, consult its website.
Avi Garelick, MUP student, and Andrew Schustek, MSUPL student, have published an article “The Rise and Fall of the Coops” in a special issue of Jewish Currents magazine focused on housing. They also spoke about the article last month on an episode, “Coop Dreams,” of the podcast Nostalgia Trap. The special issue also includes pieces by department alums Jenny Akchin, Samuel Stein, and Oksana Mironova.
Venesa Alicea, a MUP student who is also a practicing architect and adjunct assistant professor of architecture at City College, worked with Dark Matter University, a new, collaborative BIPOC-led group, this fall to co-teach a course (remotely) at Tuskegee University. Read about her work in Architects Newspaper.
Luis Gallo, former MUP/MSUA student, has been reporting for NPR, StoryCorps, Vice and more for the past eight years. Recent stories include “The Remarkable Rebirth of Medellín” on PRX’s program Latino USA.
UPP Chair Professor Joseph Viteritti has written an essay on the NYC 2021 Mayoral Race for City Limits Magazine.
UPH Distinguished Professor and UPP affiliated faculty member Stephanie Woolhandler was interviewed on Democracy Now," Amid SCOTUS Fight over ACA, Advocates Say Medicare for All Remains Best Way to Expand Healthcare," November 11, 2020.
UPP Associate Professor Laura Wolf-Powers is co-author of a powerful new report that illuminates the ways that land use practice in NYC lets value slip away:
https://prattcenter.net/uploads/800008/1603900108692/Our_Hidden_Treasure_Final_10-28-20.pdf
UPH Distinguished Professors and UPP affiliated faculty members Stephanie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein's recent research on the rise of uninsurance in the Trump era is covered in the Healthline article "In Trump’s First 3 Years, 2 Million Americans Lost Healthcare, Thousands Died Prematurely," November 3, 2020.
UPP Chair Prof. Joseph Viteritti was a guest on CUNY Forum (October 28) where he participated in a panel discussion moderated by Bob Liff on the forthcoming New York City Mayoral Election of 2021. The other panelists were John Banks (Real Estate Board of New York), Jeffery Mays (New York Times), and Debralee Santos (Manhattan Times) The show is available on CUNY TV.
MS UPL student, Violet Moss is included in the Manhattan Power 50 list of most influential unelected New Yorkers. Violet is an expert on healthcare policy and government relations. She has directed policy and advocacy for prominent organizations such as the Fund for Modern Courts, the Children’s Health Fund, and the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York Presbyterian.
Other individuals on the list include Hunter College President Jennifer Raab, former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Founder and President of the National Action Network the Rev. Al Sharpton.
UPH Professor and UPP affiliated faculty member Steffie Woolhandler was on BBC discussing COVID-19 and the US healthcare system, (October 11, 2020).
Click for BBC Clip. (Prof. Woolhandler's discussion starts after 42 minutes or thereabouts)
Associate Professor Owen Gutfreund was featured on CNA (an international news channel based in Singapore), in a story about the reallocation of NYC street space during the pandemic, and the brewing conflict between restaurants and ride-hail drivers over sidewalk access.
UPH Professor and UPP affiliated faculty member Philip Alcabes' short piece "Coronavirus and the Withering of the Public Sphere" was published in The American Scholar, (September 19, 2020). The entire piece pertains to questions of policymaking in the current milieu.
Professor Nicholas Dagen Bloom has been busy on the public housing front. He has provided support and feedback on groundbreaking urban design work underway designed to make NYCHA's public housing developments better places to live:
1) A co-authored editorial in The New York Daily News: "The Rebirth NYCHA Needs Now"
2) Comments on landscape innovations as part of the NYCHA Connected Communities initiative:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pa9m5p9x6trarpq/Masterplan%20debrief_Agenda.pdf?dl=0
3) Comments on NYCHA landscape improvements as part of a feature in Le Monde (France):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yo0ljh90i0ewocu/Papier_Lillian_Wald%20%282%29.pdf?dl=0
In response to systemic racial injustice, the need to reaffirm UPP’s commitment to anti-racist practices, and the specific concerns of many in the UPP community, including students, alums, and faculty, around departmental priorities, procedures, and pedagogy, department chair Prof. Joseph P. Viteritti, in consultation with the department’s governing body (the Personnel and Budget Committee, whose members include the directors of UPP’s three degree programs), the full faculty, and GUAPA, has established a Racial Justice Working Group, comprising five full-time faculty, two students, and two alums.
The faculty serving on the Working Group are Professors John Chin (chair), Matthew Lasner, Karina Moreno, Lily Pollans, and Sigmund Shipp. The student members are Hafizah Omar (MSUPL student) and Lorrayne (Lola) Vieira-Sullivan (MUP student and GUAPA officer). The alums are Dr. Calvin T. Brown (MUP 2002), Assistant Commissioner for Neighborhood Development at the New York City Department of Small Business Services, and Amina Hassen (MUP 2016), Senior Urban Planner at WXY Studio.
The Working Group, which will convene throughout the 2020-21 academic year and issue periodic updates, will serve as a hub for conversations among the faculty, between the faculty and students and alums, and between all UPP stakeholders and the college around urgent issues including recruitment of BIPOC students and instructors, the needs of BIPOC students, and program curricula.
The Working Group’s efforts complement those already underway by Hunter College’s Presidential Task Force to Advance Racial Equity. This Task Force was appointed over the summer by President Jennifer Raab to effect college-wide improvements in recruitment and admissions, curriculum, anti-racism training, and student support and pipeline programs, and to host public programs, such as the ongoing Speaking of Justice series. Two UPP faculty, Professors Vivian Louie and Sigmund Shipp, also serve on this Task Force, along with two UPP alums, Dr. Calvin T. Brown and Caitlin Ho (MSUPL 2016), Program Director for HCAP: the Hunter College AANAPISI Project.
The department has created the Racial Justice Working Group in acknowledgment of the critical need to achieve equity in the department, college, fields of urban policy and planning, and the wider community.
Prof. Victoria Johnson's review of a new book about animal welfare policy in New York City and the founding of the ASPCA was published online in The New York Times Book Review, September 16, 2020. It will appear in the print edition on Sunday, September 20.
Prof. John Chin and the Hunter College AANAPISI Project (HCAP) team were awarded two minority-serving institution (MSI) grants through the US Department of Education's Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) program. The two new grants represent $3.5 million in funding over a 5-year period. Hunter College was the only school east of Illinois to compete successfully for the funding and the only school in the US to receive two grants. Prof. Chin will serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) on the project, working with Prof. Paul McPherron (English) as Co-PI, and Caitlin Ho (MSUPL, 2016) as the HCAP Program Director. HCAP collaborates closely with Hunter's Asian American Studies Program and Center, led by UPP Prof. Vivian Louie. The two grants will fund programs that help high-need Asian American and Native Pacific Islander students succeed in college, particularly targeting students who come from low-income and immigrant families, have limited English proficiency, or are first-generation college goers (Asian/Pacific Islander students have the highest rate of first-generation college attendance among all ethnic/racial groups at Hunter College).
Professor Nicholas Bloom discussed public housing in New York as part of an extensive radio feature that aired in August on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/cruise-ships-in-the-sky-the-story-of-public-housing-high-rise/12573734
UPH Professor and affiliated UPP faculty member Philip Alcabes' essay" Race and Public Health: The coronavirus reveals how this country fails to relieve suffering" was published in The American Scholar magazine, September 5, 2020.
NASPAA, the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration — the global standard in public service education — has officially announced that it has accredited our MSUPL program. Click to read more.
The American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) New York City Chapter has named Assistant Professor Karina Moreno President-Elect for 2020-2021 and President for 2021-2022.
MUP student Sola Olosunde unearthed video footage of white children taunting Black children in Rosedale, Queens, in 1975. After sharing the clip on social media, the New York Times spent months investigating, tracking several of the victims. The Times published its report in June crediting Sola in a separate, second article about the investigation.
This week, Olosunde is featured in, “He’s Sharing the Historical past of Black New York, One Tweet at a Time,” New York Times, August 12, 2020.
In addition, Prof. Louie's two most recent articles "The Discriminatory Impact of COVID-19" and "Why Ethnic Studies is Pivotal Today" were published online.
MUP student Conor Greene is awarded the 2020 Westchester Municipal Planning Federation (WMPF) scholarship
Associate Professor Laura Wolf-Powers was quoted in an article in the Real Deal, about a proposed new subsidy for owners of rent-regulated apartments in NYC.
On July 14th Graduate NYC announced the release of The State of College Readiness and Degree Completion in New York City. This report examines the progress that the NYC DOE and CUNY have made toward their respective goals of high school graduation and college readiness and degree completion since 2010, while also detailing comprehensive policy changes currently underway at CUNY. The report was made possible by a network of talented and dedicated colleagues, including Carrie Torres, MS UPL alum (2019). Carrie started working on this report in Spring 2019 as a Graduate Fellow responsible for data analysis and policy research.
MUP alum Amina Hassen (2018) is featured in the Fast Company article, "NYC’s new Black Lives Matter mural is more than art. It’s the future of urbanism"
UPH Professor and UPP Affiliated faculty member, Philip Alcabes, published a short piece in The American Scholar. The article links the shabby coronavirus response in the US to the continuing policy assault on the minority poor.
Hunter MUP alum Felicia Park-Rogers, Director of Regional Infrastructure Projects for Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC), co-authored the organization's latest report, "Back on Board: A Guide to Safe(r) Transit in the Era of COVID," which provides a suite of over 50 interventions to promote a safer transit environment for riders and workers alike. Prof. John Chin served as an advisor on the report and participated in TSTC's press conference on June 17. The report has been covered in a variety of national and regional media outlets, including, The New York Daily News, Government Technology, Smart Cities Dive, The World Journal, and The NJ Star-Ledger.
MUP student Sola Olosunde unearthed video footage of white children taunting Black children in Rosedale, Queens, in 1975. After sharing the clip on social media, the New York Times spent months investigating, tracking several of the victims. The Times published its report this week, crediting Sola in a separate, second article about the investigation.
Prof. Sigmund Shipp has co-signed a response by Black planning faculty across the country to ACSP’s Statement Following the Killing of George Floyd. Read ACSP’s statement and Prof. Shipp’s response here.
Prof. Matthew Lasner has co-authored an editorial, Power to Witness, calling upon those who study the built environment, globally, to bear witness to racialized injustices and other systemic assaults on BIPOC and the right to peacefully protest.
UPP Alum Oriade Harbor (MS 2017) is quoted in a New York Times article on "How Black Police Officers Really Feel About the Floyd Protesters."
Police Officer Harbor, a transgender black man, notes that even though he often speaks out against what he sees as social injustice, when he does police work he is still seen as "part of the system that is oppressive to black people."
He further commented, "people treat me different in uniform, because they only see the uniform." He added, "At the end of the day I am a black person who dons a blue uniform. I am a trans male. I walk in all these words."
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced this week that she is appointing UPP alum Angela Tovar (MUP, 2011) Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Chicago. Selected on the basis of a national search, the mayor's press release refers to Tovar's "unique policy skill set focused on racial equity, deep community relationships across the city and a demonstrated track record of combining environmental justice, public health and inclusive economic growth."
Prof. Lily Baum Pollans’s Environmental Justice class was awarded the ACSP/Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Award for Curriculum Innovation
Professor Jill Simone Gross has been selected for induction into the Distinguished Service Honor Roll of the Urban Affairs Association (UAA). The Honor Roll recognizes the UAA's "most impactful service leaders." Prof. Gross has been recognized for her efforts to expand the Associations "international" relationships, build a "global urban research community," and "substantively contribute to the strong foundations upon which the Association stands today, and by which it will be sustained in the future."
UPP Prof. Vivian Louie's opinion piece "Asian-American studies, more vital than ever: Coronavirus is a moment we should be learning" was published in the Daily News, May 19, 2019.
UPH Professor and UPP affiliated faculty member Philip Alcabes' most recent public-health-oriented article, Beyond Technical Fixes for Coronavirus, was published in The American Scholar, May 7, 2020.
Here are links to his prior essays, in case you missed them:
Coronavirus: This is not a Plague (4/6)
Anxiety of Culpability (3/31)
Coronavirus and its Costs (3/25)
Coronavirus as Crisis (3/20)
State of Vulnerability (3/15)
How to Think About the Coronavirus (3/10)
Associate Professor Laura Wolf-Powers has been named to the editorial board of the Journal of the American Planning Association.
St. Peter's University Professor and former UPP adjunct faculty member and MUP alum Philip Plotch's book, "Last Subway: The Long Wait for the Next Train in New York City" was recently released by Cornell University Press.
UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti is the author of, "Lessons from the Pandemic: The Coronavirus Crashes a New York City History Course," Gotham Gazette, April 17, 2020.
Prof. Nicholas Dagen Bloom's article, Upstate Summer Camps for City Kids: Start Planning Now, was published in the Gotham Gazette (April 13, 2020). It was also featured on Politico New York: https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/newsletters/politico-new-york-education/2020/04/14/50-doe-coronavirus-deaths-334031
Associate Professor Laura Wolf-Powers had an article published in the online journal PLATFORM, titled "Recovering Land Value to Advance Equity: Gowanus, Brooklyn as a Case in Point."
Associate Professor Laura Wolf-Powers was a featured speaker at an event sponsored by the Urban Design Forum on January 24th. The event explored the process that led to consensus around the rezoning of East Midtown in 2017 and addressed its applicability in other contexts.
Prof. Nicholas Dagen Bloom authored two editorials in the Gotham Gazette: "Hidden in Plain Sight: Billions in Potential Revenue for NYCHA," ( December 2, 2019), and "NYCHA Open Space: The Next City Park Frontier," (December 19, 2019). Prof. Bloom was also cited in the Next City article "New York’s Public Housing Development Dreams at a Crossroads," (December 18, 2019).
Associate Prof. Owen Gutfreund was interviewed by CNA (a TV news station in Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Phillipines, Malaysia, and Australia) for a story about recent efforts of cities to regulate AIRbnb. Click here for a video of the interview.
Prof. Wolf-Powers is a co-author of a report recently published by the Pratt Center for Community Development: "Public Action, Public Value: Investing in a just and equitable Gowanus neighborhood rezoning."
Associate Professor Laura Wolf-Powers' Op-Ed, "New York City Needs a Development Reset -- Starting with Public Land," appeared in the Gotham Gazette on December 9th.
UPP affiliated faculty member and Hunter College Distinguished Professor David Himmelstein was quoted in The Washington Post article, "How a fight over health care entangled Elizabeth Warren — and reshaped the Democratic presidential race," November 30, 2019.
Prof. John Chin and his colleague Prof. Lois Takahashi (USC) have published a report on "Illicit Massage Parlors in Los Angeles County and New York City: Stories from Women Workers". This report, intended for a policy and practitioner audience, examines the experiences of Chinese and Korean immigrant women working in illicit massage parlors. Often lost in media accounts are the daily experiences of the women workers from their own perspectives. Why are women working in these establishments and under what conditions do they labor? What solutions can be offered that do not further penalize, traumatize, or victimize an already vulnerable population? This report aims to answer some of these questions, and offer recommendations for policy and practice, based on in-depth interviews with 116 women. The report is particularly timely in light of decriminalization legislation currently being debated in New York State.
UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti was quoted in City & State magazine (November 8, 2019) for an article on "Which Promises Will de Blasio Leave Unkept?"
Congratulations to Professor Edwin Melendez for receiving the Edward Blakely Award, given by the Planners of Color Interest Group (POCIG) of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP). The award recognizes planning or related academics or professionals who have supported the cause of social justice for communities of color in their work.
Congratulations to Associate Professor Victoria Johnson for receiving the Hunter College Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship.
Distinguished Professors David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler are the authors of "The Public Option Poison Pill", in The Nation, (October 21, 2019) on the issue of Medicare for All. Professors Himmelstein and Woolhandler, affiliated faculty members in our department, are cofounders of Physicians for a National Health Program.
Professor Nicholas Dagen Bloom provides background on NYCHA history on WNBC's new podcast, Question Authority, about problems at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). A video introduction to the series with Bloom is here: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Question-Authority-A-Deep-Dive-Into-NYCHA-Problems_New-York-563169282.html. Most of the interview, recorded last summer, can be found in Section 6 of the podcast: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/NYCHA-Question-Authority-podcast-episode-6-interview-gregory-russ-561139601.html
Assistant Professor Lily Baum Pollans' article, “Sustainability policy paradox: Coping with changing environmental priorities in municipal waste management” was recently published in the Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning.
Professor Nicholas Dagen Bloom discussed "Diversity and Inclusion in Planning" with Maria Torres Springer (VP for US Programs, Ford Foundation) and Rohit T. Aggarwala (Head of Urban Systems, Sidewalk Labs) at the Regional Plan Association Board of Directors Retreat on October 3.
Prof. Lasner was also quoted in the New York Times in an article, “A Roof of One’s Own," about use of tiny houses as affordable housing around the United States.
UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti has published an "open letter to Mayor de Blasio" in the New York Daily News (September 20) on "What he should do now that his presidential ambitions have run aground."
Professor Nicholas Dagen Bloom's new book How States Shaped Postwar America: State Government and Urban Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2019) is positively reviewed in Planning Magazine (American Planning Association):
“Bloom provides a needed reminder of how significant state governments were to urban development and planning in the mid-twentieth century. . . . The moral of the many stories is that in today's political climate, urban Americans may again need to look to state governments.” Choice (American Association of Research Libraries) rates the book “Highly recommended. . . Bloom’s carefully crafted work persuasively shows that without the intervention of states, large public systems in fields such as education, transportation, housing, and the environment might not exist or would be unrecognizable today.”
Professors Nicholas Bloom gives a tour of the Housing Density Show at the Skyscraper Museum to staff from the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development, September 17, 2019.
The Department of Urban Policy and Planning was one of several programs featured in a Forbes magazine article on schools that provide practical career training.
Professor Nicholas Dagen Bloom is Co-Curator of an exhibition on HOUSING DENSITY at the Skyscraper Museum in Battery Park City. He has already given exhibition tours to senior staff from HPD, DCP, and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development. The exhibition will remain on view until December 2019. Bloom welcomes the opportunity to give additional group tours for agencies and other interested organizations. Please contact him directly at nb2907@hunter.cuny.edu. More information about the show is available here: https://www.skyscraper.org/housingdensity/
Assoc. Professor Laura Wolf-Powers co-authored an article that recently appeared in the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, titled "Opportunities and Risks of Localized Industrial Policy: The case of 'maker-entrepreneurial ecosystems' in the USA." (August 20, 2019)
UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti was quoted in Politico (August 19) magazine in an article on "After the Likely Demise of deBlasio's Campaign, What Comes Next?"
UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti appears in an educational video released this week by the New York City Charter Revision Commission commemorating the Thirtieth Anniversary of the historic 1989 Charter Commission. The video is posted on the Commission Website and is being distributed on Facebook and Twitter. Click here for the video.
Professor John Chin was quoted in an article, in CityLab concerning a New York State bill that would decriminalize sex work:
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/06/sex-work-justice-police-decriminalization-harris-new-york-legal/591526/
Assistant Professor Lily Baum Pollans' article, "From non-planning to cutting edge policy: the transformation of waste management in Boston since the 1980s," was published in Metropolitics journal, June 11, 2019.
Prof Laura Wolf-Powers published an article in Metropolitics journal, “Reclaim Value Capture for Equitable Development”, May 28, 2019.
UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti participated in an "Ask the Experts" Q&A for City and State magazine (May 22) on "Predicting the Impact of de Blasio's White House Bid."
He was also quoted in other venues on the subject of de Blasio's presidential campaign, including Fortune magazine (May 16), the Wall Street Journal (May 16), and Gothamist (May 15).
Associate Professor Lynn McCormick has an upcoming article in the Journal of Planning Education and Research on Housing for People with Disabilities. Written with Prof. Alex Schwartz at the New School and Chiara Passerini, she argues that planners need to pay attention to the impending housing crisis facing adults with disabilities who face an insufficient supply of affordable and accessible units country-wide. Click here for the article.
UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti was quoted in a Fortune magazine story on, "How New York Could Become a Factor in the 2020 Presidential Race," (May 7, 2019).
Associate Professor Victoria Johnson was quoted in The New York Times article "Rockefeller Center Digs Up", (May 5, 2019).
UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti is writing a series of articles on the New York City Charter for City Limits magazine, as a panel appointed by the mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough presidents and city council is conducting the most comprehensive review and revision of the document undertaken in thirty years.
Part 1: Charter Debate is a Moment for NYC to Change—or Confirm—its Identity
https://citylimits.org/2019/04/03/opinion-charter-debate-is-a-moment-for-nyc-to-change-or-confirm-its-identity/
Part 2: Commission Must Tweak—Rather Than Transform—the Balance of Power in NYC
https://citylimits.org/2019/04/04/opinion-commission-must-tweak-rather-than-transform-the-balance-of-power-in-nyc/
Part 3: A Stronger New York Does Not Need a Weaker Mayor
https://citylimits.org/2019/04/05/opinion-a-stronger-new-york-does-not-need-a-weaker-mayor/
Part 4: Is the Charter Revision Commission Looking at the Wrong Campaign Reforms?
https://citylimits.org/2019/04/12/nyc-charter-term-limits-not-irv/
Associate Professor Victoria Johnson's book American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine inthe Garden of the Early Republic was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in American History.
Associate Professor Laura Wolf-Powers' co-authored article, Industrial inheritances: Makers, relatedness and materiality in New York and Chicago is published in the journal Regional Studies.
Prof. Sigmund Shipp was a panelist on the CUNY-TV forum "How Much is Too Much"? That focused on Amazon's decision to withdraw its proposed location in Long Island City. The show was taped March 27, 2019.
The APA Divisions Council has recently announced the winners of its 2019 Grant Awards. Profs. Sigmund Shipp and Jeffrey Lowe (Associate Prof at Texas Southern University) were awardees. Their research project entitled, "The First Generation of Black Planners Speak Their Truths" focuses on the first black professional planners and their work in major cities as they were changing from being largely white to largely African-American.
Associate Professor Victoria Johnson's book American Eden has been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the biography category. https://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-la-times-book-prize-finalists-20190220-story.html
A Chinese translation of UPP Chair and Professor Joseph Viteritti's book, Choosing Equality, has been published by Guangxi Normal University Press in China. The book, Choosing Equality: School Choice, the Constitution, and Civil Society was originally published by the Brookings Institution Press twenty years ago this year and has a new preface. The new edition is the second in a special series of five books by American authors on the subject of school reform in America being translated under the editorial direction of Chinese scholars at Beijing Normal University in Beijing and East China Normal University in Shanghai. The other American authors are on the faculties of UC, Berkeley; Stanford (two); and Harvard.
UPP Chair Professor Joseph Viteritti participated in an "Ask the Experts" Q&A with John Lentz, Editor-in-Chief of City & State magazine, about "What Can Amazon Do to Sell its HQ2 Plan in New York City" (February 5, 2019).
UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti has written an opinion piece for the Daily News, "We're Not the City of Amazon After All: The Soul of the City Snapped Back." February 19, 2019
UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti was interviewed by AM New York for a piece on "President de Blasio? Mayor de Blasio ponders a White House run while testing the waters (Ice) in New Hampshire," February 12, 2019.
Laura Wolf-Powers, Associate Professor, is going to be part of a panel on blight at the Municipal Art Society of New York on March 6, 2019. https://mailchi.mp/mas/youre-invitedurbanist-breakfast-brainstorm-201489?e=f57fa703ca
Associate Professor Victoria Johnson’s book American Eden has been awarded a 2019 John Brinkerhoff Jackson Prize by the Foundation for Landscape Studies.
Laxmi Ramasubramanian, Associate Professor, is the recipient of the 2019 William R. and June Dale Scholar Prize for Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning. The Dale Prize is awarded by California State Polytechnic University, Pomona’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Awarded since 2004, the Dale Prize recognizes planning excellence, creates dialogue between scholars and practitioners, and enriches the education of planning students. The Dale Prize is awarded in pairs, recognizing a scholar and a practitioner. Awardees spend two days on the Cal Poly campus, meet with students in classes, and participate in a colloquium and other public events. The 2019 theme is From Blueprint to Resilience: Planning when Change is the Norm.
Associate Professor Lynn McCormick is quoted in Next City article, "Can This Westchester Community Revitalize without Displacement?", December 3, 2108.
UPP Chair Professor Joseph Viteritti was a guest on CUNY TV's CUNY Forum for a discussion on "Outcomes 2018: What Comes After the Elections," December 5, 2018.
Associate Professor Jill Simone Gross is co-editor of the new book, Constructing Metropolitan Space: Actors, Policies and Processes of Rescaling in World Metropolises. The book explores the contested nature of metropolitan governance on four continents. The volume is derived from the efforts of 14 scholars, exploring the degree to which globalization is generating new configurations of power and politics. The book is the outcome of a four-year collaborative research project exploring the politics of metropolitan development in Berlin, Delhi, Istanbul, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Shenzhen.
Professor Vivian Louie has been appointed to serve on the Russell Sage Foundation Advisory Committee for its Race, Ethnicity and Immigration Program and special initiative on Immigration and Immigrant Integration.
UPP Chair Joseph Viteritti is the author of "Amazonian Lessons for Urbanists," Gotham Gazette, November 19, 2018, where he thanks the students in his "Governing the City" class for a stimulating discussion on the topic.
Associate Prof. Victoria Johnson's Op-Ed, "What really makes America great", is published in The Washington Post, November 15.
Associate Prof. Matthew Lasner was quoted in The Nation in an article analyzing recent housing bills in Congress and the role housing might play in the 2020 election.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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
Urban Development Workshop project, "Hell Square: Contested Space on the Lower East Side (LES)", gets media attention.
Client: LES Dwellers Research & Strategies
Instructor: Prof. Sigmund Shipp
Team: Gretchen Bank, Melissa Giroux, Francisco Sandoval
Full press list:
http://www.boweryboogie.com/2017/06/nightlife-saturation-hell-square-toxic-quality-life-spurs-crime-study-finds/NY Post
http://nypost.com/2017/06/07/less-hell-square-is-now-an-alarming-hotbed-for-crime/Curbed
https://ny.curbed.com/2017/6/7/15757192/lower-east-side-nightlife-quality-of-life-nycEater
https://ny.eater.com/2017/6/7/15757942/les-bars-crime-hell-square-study Gothamist
http://gothamist.com/2017/06/07/les_crime_nightlife.php
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 19th, after suffering from a head injury that he incurred from a fall that took place on May 14th.
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, inc