Related UI Researchers

Publications on US Cities/Communities

Urban Institute researchers and a dozen contributors explore how public housing reform policies could overcome the persistent disadvantages facing black communities and black families and whether ignoring these disadvantages may undermine the long-term vision for public housing's transformation. Authors recount the history of racial segregation in public housing, highlight the consequences, and debate remedies.

New research on arts and culture points to a range of impacts in US communities. Arts and culture - including informal activities such as gatherings in parks and community centers where group traditions are maintained and/or invented, church-based artistic activity, and through the convergence of professional working artists in neighborhoods - shape communities in a variety of ways ranging from community health to community development and the creation of social capital. Planners and policymakers would do well to incorporate new research findings about arts and culture into their work on the design and revitalization of communities

Urban policy expert Margery Austin Turner will become the Urban Institute's vice president for research. Maida Schifter, a senior project manager, will serve as corporate secretary.

The Urban Institute and National League of Cities developed this series of 10 guides for city and county elected officials, and their staffs, to help them obtain and use information about the results of their governments' services in helping their citizens. The Guides address such issues as: improving strategic planning; improving budgeting decisions; reviewing programs throughout the year; helping motivate their government's employees and contractors; and two-way communications with citizens on what citizens are getting for their money. Specific actions are suggested, and examples are provided.

Nobel Laureate Robert M. Solow, vice chairman of the Urban Institute Board of Trustees, sums up the Institute's 40 years of achievements by exploring the interaction between policy research and policy action. While social policy is sold as "leaps and bounds" research uncovers the true slow and incremental steps toward success. Yet research is indispensible for action because it weeds out bad ideas and gives policymakers objective evaluations. Solow concludes that it is in this complex but crucial interaction where the Institute's real work is done, citing several of the Institute's key accomplishments.