Initiative on Cities

We’re excited to share the recipients of our third community partnership pilot grant: BU City Planning Urban Affairs Director Yesim Sungu-Eryilmaz, Lowell Alliance, and the Merrimack Valley Project!

Beginning this summer, the three collaborators will work together to explore potential community impacts of the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor (LINC) project, a proposed 15-acre mixed-use development and public-private partnership between the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and the City of Lowell. Lowell Alliance and Merrimack Valley Project, as community organizations deeply embedded in Lowell, will connect with community stakeholders, the local government, and developers affiliated with LINC for this project partnership.

Leveraging Director Sungu-Eryilmaz’s expertise in community benefits and impact evaluations, the research team will produce a report that can be adapted for advocacy and action, including briefs, flyers, fact sheets, training materials, slide decks, and setup for community forums.

Swipe to hear more from some of the collaborators and learn more about the project at bu.edu/ioc

🌉🌱🔎 Another year in the books for our MetroBridge experiential learning program! We’re excited to share some highlights from the over 400 BU students who worked this past year with 19 of our public sector partners and courses (e.g., local governments, nonprofits, and community organizations)! Students researching, exploring, proposing solutions, and creating novel tools to address urban challenges in real time and help further the work in their respective communities.

Swipe to see some photos of students in action. Photos taken by our staff .liu18 .inl

Learn more about the projects and the MetroBridge; link in bio!

We are excited to share the launch of the Right to the City art exhibition featuring photographer and activist Dominic Moulden on global resistances against displacement. This exhibition is generously supported by the Boston University Office of the President and the Boston University Art Galleries! The exhibition will be on display at the Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery at 855 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215 (at CFA) from June 9 to August 8, 2026.

Please join us for our two featured events that accompany the exhibition taking place at Stone Gallery:

➤ Right to the City Gallery Opening Reception, taking place on Thursday, June 11, 2026, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, featuring a program with featured guest Essmaa Litim, 2025 Boston Music Award Spoken Word Artist of the Year, with refreshments and a gallery viewing.

➤ The Right to the City: Visualizing Home, Resistance, & Belonging, taking place on Friday, June 12, 2026, from 12:00 to 1:30 PM for a lunchtime (lunch included!) panel discussion featuring Right to the City artist Dominic Moulden, Karilyn Crockett, Nia Evans, and Dan Lesser; moderated by Joseph Zeal-Henry.

RSVP links for the two events are in our bio! Swipe to learn more about the Right to the City exhibition!

☀️🌇 We’re excited to share our 2026 cohort of summer fellows and interns! Each year, we place Boston University students in local governments and nonprofit organizations to help and learn how these organizations operate and to work directly on projects that will impact many lives. This year, 5 BU students will spend their summer working full-time in Boston’s City Hall.

Swipe right and visit our website to learn more about each of our summer fellows and interns; IOC website link in bio!

Inspired by classic Works Progress Administration (WPA) poster designs, the Icons of Franklin Park Poster Competition invited artists in 2025 to submit original works highlighting the park’s physical and cultural icons, past and present. The City of Boston, the Boston Society of Landscape Architects, and the Franklin Park Coalition sponsored the competition.

Among the winners featured three BU students and alumni: Helena Wang (COM ‘26), Lindsay Crockett (CAS ‘15) and Stella Shippy.

Swipe to learn more!

The Boston University Initiative on Cities Gentrification & Urban Displacement Lab (GUDL) is proud to announce the second recipient of our pilot partnership seed grant: a collaboration between the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH) and Shomon Shamsuddin, Associate Professor in the Tufts Department of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning (UEP).

MOH and Shomon Shamsuddin will work together to conduct a quantitative impact analysis of the City’s Acquisition Opportunity Program (AOP), which supports and enables responsible, community-driven investors and developers, like Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and Community Land Trusts (CLTs), to acquire naturally occurring affordable rental housing, stabilizing existing tenancies and adding in perpetuity affordability restrictions.

Findings from this project will help the City evaluate and refine the AOP and to offer lessons to other city agencies and municipalities seeking to advance evidence-informed anti-displacement strategies.

Swipe to see what the new partners, including Professor Shamsuddin and MOH Associate Director Adam Goldstein, say about this new collaborative partnership through GUDL.

Learn more on the GUDL or IOC website; link in bio!

🌱🔬 The Boston University Initiative on Cities is excited to share this year’s recipients of our Early Stage Urban Research Awards! Our flagship seed grants, the 12th year that we offer our request for proposals, support early-stage academic research focused on urban challenges and urban populations across various disciplines and scopes. Research projects also serve as mentorship opportunities for graduate students who work in tandem with faculty and researchers on multidisciplinary, convergent urban research.

From a large pool of applications, the selection committee, comprising professors from various on-campus disciplines and IOC staff, selected 4 projects to fund for this cycle. Learn more about the projects by swiping right or by visiting our website: bu.edu/ioc