Professor Taylor is hosting an open house at the Center for Urban Studies with a diverse group new graduate students.
Welcome!
The UB Center addresses the challenges facing marginalized and underdeveloped neighborhoods, particularly Black communities. Through research and neighborhood development projects, it explores the root causes of neighborhood underdevelopment, develops and tests innovative solutions, and creates radical plans to transform underdeveloped neighborhoods into healthy, thriving, and joyful communities.
Underdeveloped neighborhoods are the epicenter of systemic, structural racism and social class inequality, shaped by metropolitan city-building and a for-profit, hierarchical system of residential development. These communities reflect the policies and decisions of those driving urban development. Therefore, transforming them into thriving, healthy places requires changing how we build cities and design residential spaces.
The UB Center views health disparities and inequities as inseparable from the underdevelopment of neighborhoods. Neighborhood-level social determinants of health—such as substandard housing, rent gouging, inadequate education, low wages, food insecurity, toxic stress, environmental hazards, and violence—are significant contributors to adverse health outcomes among Black and Latinx populations. Therefore, improving health outcomes for Black and Latinx populations requires transforming their underdeveloped communities into thriving places to live, work, play, study, and raise a family.
Our mission is to engage in research and projects that deepen knowledge and understanding of the root causes of neighborhood underdevelopment, develop and test innovative solutions to urban problems, and develop strategies to transform underdeveloped neighborhoods into healthy, thriving, and joyful places.
