Research
2024 Boston University Pardee Center- New Faculty Research Fellows
3/2024
Our CPUA faculty, Dr. Yesim-Sungu-Eryilmaz and Dr. Luis Santiago, along with Dr. Danielle Rousseau (MET’s Criminal Justice program) were three of twelve new fellows announced by the Pardee Center as Faculty Research Fellows:
What Lies Beyond Built Infrastructure? Trauma-informed Planning (TIP) in Municipal and Regional Climate Recovery and Resilience:
Prof. Yesim Sungu-Eryilmaz (City Planning & Urban Affairs), Prof. Danielle Rousseau (Criminal Justice), and Prof. Luis E. Santiago (City Planning & Urban Affairs)
2022-23
Our Director, Dr. Yesim Sungu-Eryilmaz, was awarded a one year grant by the Boston University Initiative on Cities!
Who Benefits? The Spatial Context of Negotiated Community Benefits from Development Projects in Boston
PI: Yeşim Sungu-Eryilmaz, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Social Sciences, Metropolitan College; Director, City Planning & Urban Affairs Program
Without sustainable financing mechanisms, cities in many countries have increasingly relied on tools to have the private sector provide or pay for infrastructure, community benefits, or other amenities. Known as value-capture instruments, these tools are used to capture land value increases that arise from changes to zoning or investment in public infrastructure. With a strong real estate market in its favor, Boston has been capturing community benefits from development projects. This proposed project asks three questions with the case study of Boston:
- To what extent do low-income and minority neighborhoods receive community benefits from large projects?
- Do benefits flow spatially from some locations to others?
- Does the Imagine Boston 2030 — Boston’s first comprehensive plan since 1965 — facilitate the types and location of these benefits?
This research project will use quantitative content analysis to analyze the geographic distribution of community benefits before (2014–2017) and after (2018–2021) the launch of Imagine Boston 2030, controlling for the mayoral term. This research will impact how Boston employs the practice of community benefits to improve their equitable use by providing valuable guidance for policymakers and practitioners in Boston and beyond to pursue a well-designed process and ultimately achieve equitable public infrastructure financing.
Large projects are primarily concentrated near Boston’s commercial core