Since 2004, the Penn Institute for Urban Research (IUR) has used research, instruction, and civic engagement to inform policies in areas such as sustainability, inclusion, and economic development both locally and globally. By stimulating new ideas that policymakers can put into action, Penn IUR co-directors Eugenie L. Birch and Susan M. Wachter and their team are guided by the key values of the Penn Compact 2022—engaging populations near and far, increasing access, and integrating knowledge.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, cities around the world have faced additional hardship on top of pre-existing challenges, including debt, disease, and development. With the help of philanthropy, Penn IUR is bringing together scholars and urban leaders to address these real-world problems. A recent commitment of $500K from Richard Ravitch, former Lieutenant Governor of New York State, will support the Initiative for State and Local Fiscal Stability, based at Penn IUR, and expand the institute’s focus on this topic through the monthly Volcker Alliance Special Briefing Series.
The fiscal health of states and municipalities, whose expenditures make up 10% of U.S. GDP, is vital to the nation’s well-being. As COVID-19 causes hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue shortfalls, the cost of fighting the pandemic is rising. Penn IUR has already had a significant impact informing the policy dialogue. My commitment to establish and help sustain the Initiative on state and local fiscal stability will expand this impact.”Richard Ravitch, former Lieutenant Governor of New York
Together, Penn IUR and the Volcker Alliance’s national research team produced the Volcker Alliance Special Briefing Series. These sixty-minute online conversations feature leading academics, economists, and government officials who discuss timely topics of interest. The most recent briefing, COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout: Challenges for States, Counties, and Cities, took place on February 11, 2021; you can watch video of the event at the link.
As a longstanding thought leader in the urban research space, Penn IUR ideas are especially needed during the COVID-19 pandemic. A key initiative at Penn IUR is the four-part Cities and Contagion: Lessons from COVID-19 program that includes publications, online events, and a resource library. Penn IUR is bringing together experts who can help interpret the current pandemic’s implications for cities and the people who live in them. Within the Cities and Contagion initiative is the Recovering Cities program, which monitors key cities like New York and Atlanta. In the spring of 2020, Penn IUR consolidated useful, specialized content into its Cities and COVID-19 Resource Library for students, urban scholars, and practitioners. This work and more will be critical in shaping urbanization and supporting recovery in exciting and sustainable ways in the coming years, and to inform urban decision-makers in both the public and private sectors about how to adapt with resilience, inclusion, and innovation.
For Penn undergraduates, the Penn IUR ongoing Fellows in Urban Leadership program prepares students to become strong leaders who will build cities that can thrive in the face of the immense challenges of urbanization in the 21st century. Expert faculty join dynamic speakers in this program, which in the past has included noted politicians like former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter, Philadelphia councilperson Jamie Gauthier, and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley.
For information about opportunities to support the vital work of Penn IUR, contact Paula Clark.
