Urban Consortium Events

Past Events

Urban Studies Week Panel Discussion: Covid-19 and the City

COVID and the City Event for the Fordham Urban Consortium.

This event happened on April 27
Virtual / Room TBA

The Urban Studies Program at Fordham University cordially invites you to this year's Urban Studies Week Panel Discussion: COVID-19 and the City.

There is ample data to show the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color, and the exacerbating effects it had on existing inequalities. But simultaneously, we also witnessed a highly politicized discussion, in which politicians and journalists were quick to proclaim The End of the City as we know it. Our panelists will examine all these different narratives, as well as the real effects of the pandemic, from their different perspectives.

panelists

discussion & insight

  • Challenges that major cities and their vulnerable communities faced during the pandemic
  • The politicized predictions of "the end of the city"
  • Issues cities still have to address as we continue to live with COVID-19

Please join us on April 27, from 1–2:30 p.m. for what promises to be an exciting and important conversation.

Spring Virtual Events

2/26 Friday 10 a.m. – 2:45 p.m.

fordham urban law journal spring symposium 2021
A Taxing War on Poverty: Opportunity Zones and the Promise of Investment and Economic Development
Following the 2008 Great Recession, general economic uncertainty and anxiety enveloped the United States but was more acutely felt in specific pockets of the nation. Severely distressed areas across the country suffered from severe unemployment, low levels of and declines in public investment, and the lack of infrastructural improvements and access to private capital. The seemingly localized adverse effects ultimately spilled over into the national economy. Responding to this economic despair, Congress believed it drafted a provision to remedy the uneven economic recovery in the United States: Opportunity Zones (OZs). These are low-income census tracts that lure private investment through private opportunity zone funds (OZFs), which reward investors with tax deferrals, reductions, and exclusions. Since its inception, states have designated nearly 9,000 OZs across the nation in hopes of bringing economic growth to “blighted” areas. Alongside professors, attorneys, scholars, economists, investors, and advocates, the Symposium will explore what OZs are, the reasons for persistent gaps in access to capital in distressed areas, private-sector investment motivations, and the misnomers and shortcomings of OZs, as well as the possibilities of equitable or sustainable economic development.

• also, 3/16 columbia gsapp lectures in planning series, “Opportunity Zones: A Baseline Evaluation in West Baltimore”

3/4 Thursday 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

fordham environmental law review symposium 2021
Urban Climate Change and the Law
panel 1: cities and climate change
Outlining roles played by the laws & policies of cities and other municipalities in addressing the unique calamities faced by urban populations.

  • Extreme Weather Events
  • Heat Island Effect

panel 2: cities, climate justice, and the law
Discussing the role of policymakers and practicing attorneys in ensuring that principles of environmental justice guide governmental action relating to the environment.

  • Vulnerable Populations
  • The Unequal Cost Of Environmental Protection

panel 3: adaptation and resilience
Exploring what the future could look like for cities and urban populations regarding climate change, examining the role of policymakers and lawyers in creating that future.

  • Urban Land Use Law
  • Urban Adaptation And Resilience To Climate Change
  • How Can Emerging Technologies Reduce A City’s Environmental Impact?

2/12 Friday, 10 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

fordham international law journal symposium 2021
Black Lives Matter Around the Globe: A Symposium Focused on Racial and Ethnic Discrimination Abroad
In the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matters protests in the United States, the 2021 Fordham International Law Journal Symposium topic will focus on the manifestation of the Black Lives Matter movement and the issue of racial and ethnic discrimination around the globe. Panelists will include judges, scholars, and activists within and outside of the Fordham community well versed in civil and human rights issues in an international context. Conversation will surround an identification of the particular issues in jurisdictions outside of the United States as well as ongoing proposed solutions.

More Past Spring Virtual Events . . .

Urban Law Day Roundtable Discussion
Law and the New Urban Agenda in the Current Crisis

Law and the New Urban Agenda Event for the Fordham Urban Consortium.

This event happened on October 6, 2020

In honor of the annual World Habitat Day, please join UN-Habitat and the Fordham Urban Law Center for an Urban Law Day Roundtable Discussion on October 6, 2020. Featuring a panel of urban legal scholars from around the world, the Roundtable will engage with the recently published book, Law and the New Urban Agenda, and its significance for the contemporary urban moment in the face of the challenges from COVID-19 and related pressing issues.

introduction and moderation:

scheduled panelists include:

Cities in a Changing World: Questions of Culture, Climate and Design
AMPS Conference 2021

Downtown Manhattan Skyline used in the Fordham Urban Consortium Event.

June 16–18, 2021
Virtual / New York. City Tech, CUNY

call: 

The premise of this conference is that the city is a site of interconnected problems. No single issue dominates its needs. No single discipline has the answers to its questions. As a result, the range of issues we deal with is vast. Urban designers are developing new models of settlement planning to address housing needs. Architects are renovating ever more existing buildings. Infrastructure designers are developing faster modes of transportation. Planners are demanding lower C02 emissions from industry. Health professionals are rethinking movement in the city. Policy makers are addressing grass-roots demands for regional governance.

In looking at the city as a site of such inherent interdisciplinarity, the conference venue offers insights. New York is a city of over 8 million people. It has an affordable housing problem, . . . is threatened by rising sea levels, . . . is the site for the United States’ most iconic historic buildings, . . . is at the forefront of the healthy city agenda today, . . . knows the pressures of displacement and migration, . . . is a city for the wealthiest elites in the world, . . . exhibits poverty, social exclusion and periodic cultural tensions.

In this place, as in cities the world over, none of the issues that vex the metropolis are isolated, and none of their factors, consequences or responses are limited to single disciplines.

March 30, 2021: Abstract Submission Form (DOCX).