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NEWS & EVENTS |
RECENT NEWS
August 2020
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Historic redlining and urban health today in u.s. citiesAnthony Nardone, Joey Chiang and Jason Corburn publish article on redlining and urban health in U.S. cities. "This study explores the potential associations between historic redlining and urban health outcomes in nine U.S. cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Oakland, San Francisco, and St. Louis. We hypothesize that historic redlining has influenced current racial and ethnic health inequities that are spatially patterned by neighborhoods. Using shape files for redlining in nine cities, U.S. Census data and the Centers for Disease Control, 500 Cities Project health data, we tested for the strength of the association between historically redlined neighborhoods and 14 health outcomes today. We found associations between historically redlined neighborhoods and current day prevalence of cancer, asthma, poor mental health, and people lacking health insurance. We also found that residents in historically redlined areas of Atlanta, Cleveland, Miami, and the San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan areas were nearly twice as likely to have poor health than in nonredlined areas. Spatial racial segregation and poor health remain critical environmental justice issues impacting communities of color." To read more, please click here.
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APRIL 2020
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CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE CAN PROMOTE CITIES FOR ALL: NEW RESEARCH BY CENTER FOR GLOBAL HEALTHY CITIESCOVID-19 pandemic highlights the need to rebuild our cities and adopt new policies to ensure they are more inclusive for persons with disabilities, according to IURD Director Jason Corburn and leader of the Inclusive Cities Lab Dr. Victor Pineda, in a new article they co-authored in the Journal of Urban Health, entitled “Disability, Urban Health Equity, and the Coronavirus Pandemic: Promoting Cities for All.”
“The pandemic highlights existing inequities but is also galvanizing leaders and activists to generate new, more inclusive cities for all,” says Dr. Pineda, also a lecturer at UC Berkeley, President of World Enabled and leader of the Global Compact on Cities for All. According to the World Health Organization and the World Bank, there are more than 1 billion people living with a disability, and by 2050, 940 million people living in cities may be living with a disability. Persons with disabilities are four times as likely to be adversely impacted during an emergency such as the novel coronavirus pandemic, potentially creating and exacerbating urban inequalities. “Our cities, not people, are disabled, “ says Corburn. Poor urban planning, lack of inclusive policies and failures to implement universal design makes persons living with disabilities more susceptible when an infection spreads. “Their caregiving places and helpers may be disrupted, job and employment loss may occur, accessing food and other services can become that much harder,” says Professor Corburn. The article includes specific recommendations including: (1) making all information and communications accessible to all. (2) Ensuring persons with disabilities (PWD) and disabled persons organizations (DPOs) are at the center of program and policy decisions and implementation. (3) ensuring that all persons with disabilities have continued access to essential services, including healthcare and personal assistants. (4) immediate economic supports to PWDs to ensure they do not fall into poverty and mitigate any job losses and/or movement restrictions. (5) more strict enforcement of anti-discrimination and labor protections for PWDs. Dr. Pineda has organized and is leading a weekly webinar with participants from around the world, focused on generating immediate and long-term solutions to the pandemic and more inclusive cities, called “Equity and Access in the Time of Pandemic.” “My work through IURD and World Enabled is aiming to ensure that cities, decision-makers and researchers listen to people on the ground, and collectively generate new strategies that can work,” says Dr. Pineda. “We need a manifesto and global action for greater urban inclusion now and moving forward.” For more information: Dr. Victor Pineda, victor@worldenabled.org |
Jan 2020
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PROFESSOR JASON CORBURN AND THE CENTER FOR GLOBAL HEALTHY CITIES COMPLETES REPORT FOR ADVANCE PEACE StocktonProfessor Jason Corburn and the Center for Global Healthy Cities have completed a report for Advance Peace Stockton, entitled, Advance Peace Stockton 2018 - 2019 Progress Report. This report summarizes the key Learning and Evaluation Findings for Stockton Advance Peace, from July 2018 through June 2019. The learning & evaluation team focuses on gathering and analyzing data to support the development and effectiveness of Advance Peace. By emphasizing learning, the UCB team aims to feed-back data to Advance Peace in a timely way and to center the voices and experiences of those working and living with gun violence. This report includes, to the extent possible, the voices of outreach workers and community members impacted by the first year of Advance Peace Stockton. Download the report here.
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september 2019
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CGHC affiliate DANIEL RODRIGUEZ CONTRIBUTES RESEARCH TO A LONGITUDINAL STUDY ON BIKE COMMUTINGCenter for Global Healthy Cities affiliate and College of Environmental Design Professor of City & Regional Planning Daniel Rodriguez, as part of a team of five researchers, contributed to a study in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity this week titled, “Municipal Investment in Off-Road Trails and Changes in Bicycle Commuting in Minneapolis, Minnesota Over 10 Years: A Longitudinal Repeated Cross-Sectional Study” on the effect of key development and expansion of an off-road, multipurpose trail system in Minneapolis between 2000 and 2007 to understand whether infrastructure investments were associated with increases in commuting by bicycle. Read more here.
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AUGUST 2019
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Affiliate M. reza shirazi publishes second article about hunters point shipyard project reviewOn July 31, 2019, Dr. Reza Shirazi published an op-ed about the UC-led independent review of the Hunters Point Shipyard project. Read the op-ed here.
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MAY 2019
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urban environmental justice: bayview hunters point community-university symposiumOn May 9, 2019, IURD in collaboration with Oxford Brookes University and Bayview-Hunters Point (BVHP) community organized the Symposium “Confronting Urban Injustice: Bayview-Hunters Point, A Community-University Symposium”. The symposium brought together community activists, non-profit organizations, journalists, and academics and discussed multiple urban injustices afflicting the BVHP neighborhood. This neighborhood that has been suffering from environmental, racial, economic and health inequity for decades, is now home to the biggest redevelopment project in San Francisco, known as the Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard Redevelopment Project. Remediation activities related to this project were revealed to be fraudulent, community members and activists are fighting for and demanding transparency, community oversight, and environmental justice.
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PROFESSOR JASON CORBURN AND THE CENTER FOR GLOBAL HEALTHY CITIES COMPLETES REPORT FOR ADVANCE PEACE SACRAMENTOProfessor Jason Corburn and the IURD have completed a report for Advance Peace Sacramento, entitled, Advance Peace Sacramento, Learning & Evaluation 2018 Progress Report. Advance Peace, www.advancepeace.org, is a national non-profit that works to reduce gun violence in urban neighborhoods by providing mentoring and transformational opportunities to those at the center of community firearm hostilities. The UC Berkeley researchers found that the program’s street outreach workers, called Neighborhood Change Agents, engaged over 2,800 people in just six months of work in Sacramento. The program mediated 94 community conflicts, interrupted 17 potentially retaliatory gun violence conflicts & responded to another 20 shootings – preventing further escalation of gun violence. Advance Peace Sacramento invested over 3,600 hours into street-level engagement and gun violence interruption in just the last six months of 2018. Download the report here.
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March 2019
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IURD VISITING SCHOLAR DR. M. REZA SHIRAZI, CO-EDITs A BOOK ENTITLED: URBAN SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY: THEORY, POLICY AND PRACTICE.This ground breaking volume raises radical critiques and proposes innovative solutions for social sustainability in the built environment. Itconsists of original contributions from academics and experts within the field and explores the significance of social sustainability from different perspectives such as urban policy, transportation and mobility, urban space and architectural form, housing, urban heritage, neighbourhood development, and urban governance. See here for more information.
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JANUARY 2019
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center for global healthy cities Completes rapid health impact assessment for mukuru informal settlementThe UC Berkeley team completed a rapid health impact assessment for the Mukuru informal settlement in January 2019. This Rapid Health Impact Assessment (RHIA) aims to support the SPA planning process by assessing the health impacts of existing conditions and potential planning interventions.
In 2017, the Mukuru informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, was declared a Special Planning Area (SPA) due to its unique environmental, health and development challenges. The SPA designation prevents development for a two-year period, requiring that the Nairobi City County government develop and adopt an integrated improvement plan for the area by August 2019. Download the report here. |
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EXAMINING CALIFORNIA LAND USE ENTITLEMENTSCalifornia’s housing affordability crisis has rightly received a great deal of attention by state lawmakers, the press, academics, and ordinary Californians. Important questions raised in this discussion are: What laws or regulations might impede housing construction in high-cost areas? What solutions might help reduce those barriers with a minimum impact on other important values, such as environmental protection, public participation, and equitable treatment of low-income communities of color? More specifically, does state environmental law (the California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA), or local land-use regulations, constrain housing development? To answer these questions, this phased research project joins legal research with qualitative research methods to examine land-use entitlement processes in selected high cost cities over a four-year period (2014-2017). Read more about this project here.
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DECEMBER 2018
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UC BERKELEY HEALTH STUDY DOCUMENTS IMPACTS TO BAY AREA FROM POSSIBLE HOSPITAL CLOSUREThe IURD recently completed a Rapid Health Impact Assessment (RHIA) of the likely population health impacts of the closing of Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley, California. IURD researchers found that the closure may have significant impacts on the well-being of the region, particularly in the areas of birthing, emergency department access and disaster response. The closure may also adversely impact Cal students’ access to a full service hospital. According to lead author and IURD Director, Professor Jason Corburn, “our research found that the closure of Alta Bates hospital could adversely impact the health of all populations in the East Bay, but particularly those in Richmond and Contra Costa County, and those already vulnerable, such as the elderly, homeless and uninsured populations. A comprehensive plan is needed to ensure all populations and places have access to quality and affordable health services.” Read the full report below and an article in the Berkeleyside news about the report’s findings here
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NOVEMBER 2018
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WASHINGTON POST: IN SACRAMENTO, TRYING TO STOP A KILLING BEFORE IT HAPPENS An eye-opening article on the work of Advance Peace in Sacramento. To read the article, please click here.
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