IOC Releases 2023 Annual Report

The Boston University Initiative on Cities (IOC) is proud to release our 2023 Annual Report. While it has been an exciting year of change and transition, our pillars of Research, Learning, and Practice continue to guide our activities towards sustainable, just, and inclusive urban transformation.

Over the past year, the IOC:

• Continued to lead the Menino Survey of Mayors, with the 2022 survey exploring mayoral insights and perspectives on climate and energy, poverty and rising living costs, and health and safety. We also partnered with The Rockefeller Foundation on a livestream event that featured survey findings and garnered more than 862,000 viewers.
• Released two policy briefs with Community Solutions on U.S. homelessness policy. The first examined how local governments can better address and end homelessness through improved coordination of homelessness and land use/zoning policies. The second brief investigated the involvement of police in response to homelessness in cities across the country.
• Issued our ninth request for proposals for our Early Stage Urban Research Awards, and awarded larger funding awards of up to $25,000 to three projects — one local and two international.
• Received a National Science Foundation grant for our upcoming global convening on gentrification and displacement.
• Continued the MetroBridge experiential learning program, embedding real-world projects with municipal and community partners in BU courses. This year, 11 projects with 309 BU students were completed.
• Launched a new faculty learning community, Bridge Builders, with support from the Davis Educational Foundation.
• Hosted seven Urban Seminars and co-sponsored six events, including two conferences. Continued supporting the Urban Inequalities Workshop led by IOC Urban Faculty Fellow and Chair of Sociology, Japonica Brown-Saracino.
• Expanded our partnership with the City of Boston to offer a new student internship opportunity with the Climate Ready Boston team.
• Appointed a new ten-member External Advisory Board to guide our growth and advise on key strategic priorities.
• Expanded digital content and experimented on a multitude of social media series, including our #BUandBoston and IOC Alumni Spotlight, and successfully increased our engagement and follower counts across our most-used platforms.

Thank you to all those urbanists and partners across BU and beyond who have supported us this past year — we could not have done this alone!