{"id":84,"date":"2024-09-27T11:06:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T15:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2024\/?page_id=84"},"modified":"2024-10-28T14:29:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T18:29:02","slug":"gentrification","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2024\/social-issue-health-issue\/gentrification\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking a Solution for Gentrification"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the widening wealth gap leads to increasing gentrification in US cities, BU is committed to finding answers to stop this inequitable destruction of communities.<\/strong> Leading this charge is Loretta Lees<\/strong><\/a>, faculty director of BU\u2019s Initiative on Cities<\/strong><\/a>. The Initiative on Cities is a hub for urban-related research and teaching across the University, engaging policymakers, academics, and students to work toward sustainable and just urban transformation.<\/p>\n

A professor of sociology, Lees is internationally known for her research on gentrification and urban regeneration, urban policy, and more. She served as an expert witness to the demolition of the largest public housing project in Europe, providing her insights on the displacement of a low-income, multiracial, and multiethnic community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is hope that we can achieve the \u2018caring city,\u2019 looking at what the city does to care for the people who live in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014LORETTA LEES<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She brings that global expertise to BU, where gentrification is taking place outside her window. \u201cBoston is what you might call a hypergentrified city,\u201d says Lees. \u201cIt\u2019s nigh impossible for a regular professional to buy a property anywhere in the vicinity of downtown Boston at all\u2014myself included.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sociology professor Loretta Lees<\/strong> is internationally known for her research on gentrification.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To help cities like Boston, Lees and her colleagues initiated \u201cGentrification & Displacement: What Can We Do About It? An International Dialogue<\/a>,\u201d the first major international academic conference on the topic since 2002. Lees organized the conference with Professor of Sociology Japonica Brown-Saracino<\/strong><\/a>, a faculty fellow at the Initiative on Cities and an ethnographer who has researched the social preservation of longstanding urban communities in relation to gentrification.<\/p>\n

Gentrification is about more than housing. It impacts underrepresented populations, directly and indirectly, in many areas of life, including mental and physical health, maternal and infant mortality, addiction, cultural identity, stability of social networks, general quality of life, and of course, economic opportunity.<\/p>\n

As progress is made, Lees says, \u201cThere is hope that we can achieve the \u2018caring city,\u2019 looking at what the city does to care for the people who live in it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the widening wealth gap leads to increasing gentrification in US cities, BU is committed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1859,"featured_media":0,"parent":78,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"bu-landing","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1859"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732,"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84\/revisions\/732"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/78"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}