Public Events
Thursday Nov. 21: Álvaro Sevilla-Buitrago's Against the Commons
Please join us for a live webinar featuring author Álvaro Sevilla-Buitrago in discussion about his sweeping critical history of urban planning, Against the Commons:
Sunday Oct. 22: Excavating Neighborhoods Lost to San José Freeways
Over the past year, a research team led by IMS Fellow Leila Ullmann analyzed archived state records documenting the eminent domain process for hundreds of San José homes demolished for the construction the I-280 / CA-87 freeway interchange. Rare photographs, maps, and appraisal documents were analyzed, catalogued and digitized for the first time and are now made publicly accessible through an interactive map and webpage. Join us to learn more about this project and engage in dialogue about this important history and the impacts of displacement in San José.
Past Events!
2023 Affordable Housing Month Events
The month of May is Affordable Housing Month. Check out many events including several cohosted by the Institute for Metropolitan Studies. Out first event is a panel discussion on causes and innovative solutions for unaffordable housing in Silicon Valley. The second event is a book talk with Robin Beltram, the author of Stacked Decks: Building Inspectors and the Reproduction of Inequality. The third event is continues the discussion on Social Housing with a great discussion panel.
Robin Bartram's Stacked Decks
Book talk with author Robin Bartram. Bartram, a sociologist, analyzes the work of Chicago building inspectors. These predominantly white, male inspectors largely recognize that they work within an unequal housing landscape, that systematically disadvantages poor people and people of color. Stacked Decks is a startling look at the power and perspectives of city building inspectors as they navigate this inequity.
Unaffordable Housing in Silicon Valley: Causes and Innovative Solutions
May 11, 2023, 12 - 1pm. A zoom panel discussion regarding housing prices in the South Bay. Panels include: "Housing Costs and Prices, an Estimator's Perspective" - Luis Plazola (Co-founder and Chief Estimator of Opticost); "Promoting Infill Affordable Housing through Pre-Development Revolving Loan Funds: Models, Successes, and Challenges" - Shishir Mathur (Professor of Urban and Regional Planning); "Emphasis on the HOME: Assessing Permanence, Resilience, and Barriers to Capital in Mobile Home Communities" - Jordan Weinberg (Masters Candidate in Urban and Regional Planning); "Why is San Jose-area Housing So Much More Expensive than Greater Seattle's and Greater Boston's? Key Issues" - Robert Chapman Wood (Professor of Strategic Management)
Institute for Metropolitan Studies at Viva CalleSJ
An open street event to walk, bike, skate, and play in the streets of San Jose! Stop by our booth on campus during the event for a fun community design activity with James Rojas of PlaceIt! Sunday, April 23, 2023 10 AM - 3 PM
Join IMS and other San Jose-based housing enthusiasts for happy hour!
SV@Home and its Coalition of Housers, along with the San Francisco Foundation and SJSU's Institute for Metropolitan Studies invite you to Happy Housers Happy Hour on Wednesday Oct. 26th at 6pm in San Pedro Market's St. John Courtyard.
SJSU's Institute for Metropolitan Studies and the Spatial Analytics and Visualization Institute (SAVI) invite you to join us for a conversation with the authors of California's new Housing Data Strategy. Every four years, the State of California releases a Housing Plan. The recently released 2022 Statewide Housing Plan included something new: a Housing Data Strategy. Mandated by AB 1483 (2019, Grayson), California's Housing Data Strategy develops concrete ideas for data collection, capacity building inside and outside state government, and for building the kind of partnerships needed for a robust housing data ecosystem. In order to raise awareness IMS and SAVI are proud to welcome Megan Kirkeby and Sydney Bennet (HCD) and Erik de Kok and Helen Campbell (OPR) for a conversation about the future of civic housing data infrastructure, led by Ben Metcalf (Berkeley Terner Center). Come learn about the core tenets and goals of the strategy (see https://www.hcd.ca.gov/docs/data-strategy.pdf), and how the State intends to partner with local government, academia, community-based organizations and the technology community in helping make data work better in meeting the State's housing goals.
Over the past few years, a movement has grown up trying to rethink the public role in American housing. Activists and legislators pushing for "social housing" are drawing from inspiration from around the world to reimagine how and for whom we build housing, focusing in particular on building a stronger role for public agencies in housing development. Social Housing has different definitions, draws on different traditions in housing, and brings together a diverse set of thinkers and organizers. As part of our effort to build public understanding of complex issues like housing, The Institute for Metropolitan Studies is proud to partner with the Human Rights Institute to present a series of educational conversations about Social Housing. Come hear from legislators, activists and academics about what Social Housing is, where it comes from as an idea and a movement, and where it can possibly lead us as we confront our longstanding and ever worsening housing crisis.
Art Ride: Mural Bike Tour in San Jose
Join us on Saturday, April 23, 2022, at 11:00 am as we ride through Downtown San Jose and explore the city's vibrant murals that have become a visual representation of the city and its community. This tour will provide a compelling new perspective on the way we see murals in San Jose and allow us to reflect on what is being presented to us in public space. We will experience the stories that produced these murals, to whom they were intended for, and who were they funded by; this information provides a painted picture of the cultural economy of San Jose and highlights the crucial role of the artist as they exhibit a cultural identity inspired by the city's site history, agglomeration, and locational specialization.
Elevating Black Voices in Urbanism - A Celebration of Black History Month at SJSU Urban Planning
Please join us on February 26th at 10am for an online event featuring a keynote by AICP President Mitchell Silver and a panel discussion with Rosalynn Hughey (City of San Jose), Jason Foster (Destination Crenshaw), Abigail Moriah (BPUA, Black Planning Project), and Lisa Cholmondeley (Gensler), moderated by SJSU graduate student and co-founder of SmartCohort, Carla Mays. This event is organized and sponsored by SJSU's Urban Planning Coalition, the Department of Urban & Regional Planning, the Institute for Metropolitan Studies, and TRANSITion SJSU, and the APA California Chapter Northern Section Diversity Committee.
The Spatial Contract, a Book Talk with IMS Visiting Scholar Alex Schafran, PhD
Geographer and planning scholar Dr. Alex Schafran will present his newest book, The Spatial Contract: A New Politics of Provision for an Urbanized Planet. He will be in conversation with Dr. Miriam Chion, Community Equity Director in the San Francisco Planning Department and visiting scholar at UC Berkeley.
A Reckoning in Boston, an outdoor Film Screening in the SOFA Pocket Park!
This powerful new documentary film about place-based organizing and reckoning with white privilege in the face of racial and economic inequalities will be screened outdoors at the SOFA Pocket Park, 540 S. 1st Street, on Wednesday, Sept. 15th, at 7 p.m. Featuring a livestream conversation with Director James Rutenbeck and special guest.
IMS presents Race and Urban Space - A Book Launch for Sparked: George Floyd, Racism, and the Progressive Illusion
Sparked: George Floyd, Racism, and the Progressive Illusion featuring Walter R. Jacobs, Wendy Thompson Taiwo, and Marcia Williams, brings together the perspectives of social scientists, professors, and other academics who work or have worked in Minnesota. The essays present reflections on racial dynamics in the Twin Cities and the intersection of the wonderful and wretched sides of that existence, revealing deep complexities, ingrained inequities, and diverse personal experiences.
IMS Presents Dr. Mindy Fullilove's 'Urban Trilogy'
Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD discusses her pathbreaking work on community, urban planning, and public health. Dr. Fullilove will present her newest book, Main Street: How a City's Heart Connects Us All (2020), along with two influential earlier works, Root Shock (2004), and Urban Alchemy (2013), which together the urban theorist Andy Merrifield has referred to as her "urban trilogy, pursuing [...] what's wrong and what's right about urban America."
IMS and the Department of Justice Studies presented US vs THEM: A Conversation on Race, Crime, and Gentrification
Jan Doering, PhD discusses his research around race and ethnicity, urban processes, and politics. In his new book Us Versus Them: Race, Crime, and Gentrification in Chicago Neighborhoods (Oxford University Press 2020) examines conflict over crime and gentrification in the era of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. I teach courses on urban sociology, ethnography and qualitative methods, and crime.
Us Versus Them: Race, Crime, and Gentrification in Chicago Neighborhoods
