Urban Planning

Pandemic bike-share boom crossed socioeconomic lines

A new Weitzman study reports an increase in trip duration for all bike-share users across Philadelphia, challenging the assumption that low-income populations are less likely to use such services.

Marilyn Perkins



In the News


Philadelphia Citizen

Cleaner streets are key to Philly’s success

Two studies by the Urban Health Lab at Penn found that gun violence dropped significantly in neighborhoods where vacant parcels were turned into regularly maintained green spaces.

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PBS NewsHour

Your financial accounts are safe, experts say. Here’s what protects them

Lisa Servon of the Weitzman School of Design says that people are experiencing a new level of financial precarity, with very little savings or security in terms of jobs and benefits as well as higher costs for housing, higher education, and child care.

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WHYY (Philadelphia)

‘We deserve much better’: Critics oppose Philly’s plan for evaluating Sixers arena proposal

At a Philadelphia City Hall panel, Domenic Vitiello of the Weitzman School of Design decried the level of seriousness for impact studies requested by the city to evaluate the impact of a Sixers arena in Chinatown.

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WHYY (Philadelphia)

‘The more trees, the merrier’: Philly’s commercial corridors are blooming with greenery thanks to 117 new trees

Penn Medicine’s Urban Health Lab is providing funding support to engage Philadelphia residents around potentially planting trees along Woodland Avenue.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Want to tackle gun violence? Think about trees

Research by Eugenia C. South of the Perelman School of Medicine, John MacDonald of the School of Arts & Sciences, and Vincent Reina of the Weitzman School of Design shows that fixing up dilapidated homes in low-income Philadelphia neighborhoods is an effective way to prevent shootings.

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WHYY (Philadelphia)

Climate change could threaten Philly’s drinking water

Allison Lassiter of the Weitzman School of Design discusses the options for protecting Philadelphia drinking water if rising seas and drought threaten sections of the Delaware River.

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