The Johns Hopkins 21st Century Cities Initiative (21CC) facilitates and supports actionable, applied urban policy research that policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders can use to inform policies and programs that advance economic inclusion, mixed income neighborhoods, and safe and healthy communities. 21CC also serves as a convener, bringing together urban scholars with city leaders, experts, and advocates to share the latest research and discuss solutions.

See below for highlights of our recent research and convening activities, including the announcement of our 2018 symposium that will be held in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s biennial Reinventing Our Communities conference.

21st Century Neighborhoods Symposium

Last December’s 21st Century Neighborhoods Symposium explored new research on neighborhood economic segregation, the racial wealth gap in cities, and community-based approaches to reducing violence. City leaders and experts discussed how this research informs the policies and programs they are pursuing. We have condensed the two-day symposium into this 6-minute video recap that is well worth the watch.

Census 2020

At our 21CC convenings, we seek to identify key topics that warrant further research, understanding, and action. One such topic from the symposium that was raised by Senator Barbara Mikulski is the importance of an effective and accurate 2020 U.S. Census to ensure that cities have their fair share of resources, representation, and data to address issues like economic and neighborhood inequality. Read Senator Mikulski’s blog that she wrote for 21CC on her thoughts about Census 2020, and stay tuned for new research from 21CC on the importance of an accurate census to cities.

2018 Symposium Announced

We are excited to announce for our 2018 21st Century Neighborhoods Symposium we are partnering with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia to incorporate our symposium into their biennial Reinventing Our Communities (ROC) conference. The ROC conference is held on even years in Philadelphia. But, for 2018, the Philadelphia Fed will hold the conference in Baltimore on October 1-3 and partner with 21CC to combine two amazing events on neighborhoods and communities into one. The conference will focus on the latest research and promising strategies, policies, and programs for building and mobilizing four forms of capital — financial, human, physical, and social — to create opportunity in communities. For more information and to register visit: https://www.philadelphiafed.org/roc2018.

Kerner Commission @ 50

The historic Kerner Commission report was released on February 29, 1968. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the report and explore what a present-day Kerner report might look like, 21CC partnered with the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society to host a bi-coastal conference that brought together individuals who participated in the Kerner Commission 50 years ago with policy experts and scholars focused on addressing race and inequality in America today.

• For a summary of the conference sessions, including video highlights of former Senator Fred Harris, the last living member of the Kerner Commission, read this blog.
• For contemporary policy ideas for addressing racial inequality discussed at the conference, read this blog.

Small Business Financing in Baltimore City

Last year, 21CC released a report, Financing Baltimore’s Growth: Measuring Small Companies’ Access to Capital, which measured the capacity of the financing system in Baltimore to sustain and grow the wide variety of startups and small firms in the city. One of the report’s recommendations was to continuously measure, track, and report on the small business financing system’s activities. To this end, 21CC recently partnered with the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance to include a “data story” in the recent Vital Signs report on capital flows to small businesses across Baltimore’s neighborhoods. You can read the data story here.

21CC also was honored to host the recent launch of Baltimore Community Lending’s new small business loan program. This new initiative, called Baltimore Business Lending, will fill a gap in community development financial institution (CDFI) led small business lending in Baltimore City, which was identified in our report as a critical need in the local financing system. Learn more about the new program and event here.

21CC Applied Research Seed Grant Updates

21CC supports a number of seed grants that bring together teams of Johns Hopkins faculty working side-by-side with city agencies or nonprofit organizations on short-term, applied research projects geared towards informing key policies aimed at advancing economic inclusion, mixed-income neighborhoods, and safe and healthy neighborhoods. In our latest blog, we share updates on some of our newer seed grant projects, including the effectiveness of mutual aid housing cooperatives in Buenos Aires and Baltimore City’s new zoning provisions for improving neighborhood health and safety by closing certain alcohol outlets in residential areas.