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Metropolitan Policy Center 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016 United States

Metropolitan Policy Center Publications

Part of MPC's mission is to cultivate innovative cross-disciplinary metropolitan and urban research that helps to improve people's lives and public policy. We've accomplished this again and again by producing numerous publications with our findings. In the six years that we've been around, we've published 8 books and 163+ articles, completed 6 projects, and presented in over 115 countries & locations.

MPC Annual Reports

Books

Building Walls: Excluding Latin People in the United States by Ernesto Castañeda

Locally Played by
Benjamin Stokes

Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City by Derek Hyra

A Place to Call Home: Immigrant Exclusion and Urban Belonging in New York, Paris, and Barcelona by Ernesto Castañeda

The Politics of Staying Put By Carolyn Gallaher

Cradle to Kindergarten by
Taryn Morrissey

Capital Dilemma: Growth and Inequality in Washington, DC by Derek Hyra and Sabiyha Prince

Neighborhoods

Articles & Reports

2021

Johnson, L. “Modeling Urban Neighborhood Violence: The Systemic Model and Variable Effects of Social Structure.” Urban Affairs Review.

2020

Castañeda, E. "Border Residents’ Perceptions of Crime and Security in El Paso, Texas," Social Sciences.
Bader, M. "Using Universal Kriging to Improve Neighborhood Physical Disorder Measurement," Sociological Methods & Research.
Hardy, B. "Income Inequality, Transfers, and Neighborhood Choice," 2020 APPAM Fall Research Conference.
Morrissey, T. "Neighborhood disadvantage and children’s cognitive skill trajectories," Children and Youth Services Review.

2019

Bader, M. "Development of a Neighborhood Walkability Index for Studying Neighborhood Physical Activity Contexts in Communities Across the U.S. Over the Past Three Decades," Journal of Urban Health.
Bader, M. "Talk at the Playground: The Neighborhood Context for School Choice," City & Community.
Greene, T. “Queer Cultural Archipelagos are New to Us,” City & Community.
Johnson, L. "Modeling neighborhood violence: The systemic model and variable effects of social structure," Urban Affairs Review.

2016

Pike, D. “Slum,” A New Vocabulary for Global Modernism.

2015

Bader, M. “Development and Deployment of the Computer Assisted Neighborhood Visual Assessment System (CANVAS) to Measure Health-Related Neighborhood Conditions,” Health & Place.
Hyra, D. “Advancing the Future Urban Discourse,” City & Community.
Pike, D. “World Streets and Viae Ferae: The Nineteenth-Century Cityscape in Space and Time,” Studies in the Humanities.

2014

Bader, M. "Validity of an Ecometric Neighborhood Physical Disorder Measure Constructed by Virtual Street Audit,” American Journal of Epidemiology.

Gentrification

Articles & Reports

2022

Ranganathan, M. & Hyra, D. “The Racial Inequalities of Green Gentrification In Washington, D.C.” The Green City and Social Injustice.

2021

Hyra, D. "De-Gentrification or Disaster Gentrification? Debating the Impact of COVID-19 on Anglo-American Urban Gentrification," Volume 2: Housing and Home.

2019

Hyra, D. "A Method for Making the Just City: Housing, Gentrification, and Health," Housing Policy Debate.
Ranganathan, M. et al. "From Urban Resilience to Abolitionist Climate Justice in Washington, DC," Antipode.

2018

Grier, S. "Dog Parks and Coffee Shops: Faux Diversity and Consumption in Gentrifying Neighborhoods," Journal of Public Policy and Marketing.

2017

Bader, M. “The Promise, Practicalities, and Perils of Virtually Auditing Neighborhoods Using Google Street View,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

2016

Hyra, D. “Commentary: Causes and Consequences of Gentrification and the Future of Equitable Development Policy,” Cityscape.

2015

Hyra, D. “The Back-to-the-City Movement: Neighbourhood Redevelopment and Processes of Political and Cultural Displacement.” Urban Studies.
Hyra, D. “The Obama Administration’s Place-Based Initiatives: Why Not Include Small Business Lending Components?,” Journal of Urban Affairs.

2014

Esser, D. “Security Scales: Spectacular and Endemic Violence in Post-Invasion Kabul, Afghanistan,” Environment and Urbanization.
Ranganathan, M. “High Tech and the Monsoon,” Governing Urban Futures, London School of Economics and Political Science Urban Age Series.
Ranganathan, M. “Mafias in the Waterscape: Urban Informality and Everyday Public Authority in Bangalore,” Water Alternatives.

Health & Education

Articles & Reports

2022

Morrissey, T. “Effects of Medicaid expansion on home production and childcare: Evidence from time use data.” Southern Economic Journal.

2021

Morrissey, T. “SNAP participation and the health and health-care utilisation of low-income adults and children.” Public Health and Nutrition.
Johnston, J. “Linking Organizational Capacity and Performance: The Case of Probation and Medicaid Reform in California Counties.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.
AbouAssi, K. “The Impact of Medicaid Expansions on Nonprofit Hospitals.” Nonprofit Policy Forum.
De Jesus, M. “Social Environmental Resiliencies Protect Against Loneliness Among HIV-Positive and HIV- Negative Older Men Who Have Sex with Men.” Social Sciences & Medicine.
De Jesus, M. "A Mobile Health Breast Cancer Educational and Screening Intervention Tailored for Low-Income, Uninsured Latina Immigrants," Women’s Health Reports.
De Jesus, M. "Addressing Cancer Screening Inequities by Promoting Cancer Prevention Knowledge, Awareness, Self-Efficacy, and Screening Uptake Among Low-Income and Illiterate Immigrant Women in France," International Journal of Public Health.
De Jesus, M. "The Environmental and Social Determinants of Health Matter in a Pandemic: Predictors of COVID-19 Case and Death Rates in New York City," International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Grier, S. "Black Community Conversations About Opposing Ethnically Targeted Marketing of Unhealthy Foods and Beverages," Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

2020

Castañeda, E. "Sick Enough? Mental Illness and Service Eligibility for Homeless Individuals at the Border," Social Sciences.
Grier, S. "Operating in a Constricted Space: Policy Actor Perceptions of Targeting to Address U.S. Health Disparities," Journal of Public Policy & Marketing.
Hardy, B. "Education and the Dynamics of Middle-Class Status [Report]," The Brookings Institution.
Hardy, B. "Ties that bind? Family income dynamics and children’s post-secondary enrollment and persistence," Review of Economics of the Household.
Johnson, L. "The ecology of overdose mortality in Philadelphia," Health & Place.
Morrissey, T. "The Longer Term Effects of Early Childhood Education Programs," 2020 APPAM Fall Research Conference.
Morrissey, T. "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Improves Children’s Health Care Use: An Analysis of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Natural Experiment," Academic Pediatrics.
Morrissey, T. "Impacts of Contemporary Public Pre-k Programs on Short- and Medium-Term Learning Outcomes," 2020 APPAM Fall Research Conference.
Morrissey, T. "Geographic Variation in Access to Early Care and Education: Implications for Children’s School Readiness," 2020 APPAM Fall Research Conference.
Morrissey, T. "Rhode Island’s Paid Family Leave Program, Parent Health, and Health Behaviors," 2020 APPAM Fall Research Conference.

2019

De Jesus, M. "Generalized Violence as a Threat to Health and Well-Being: A Qualitative Study of Youth Living in Urban Settings in Central America's 'Northern Triangle'," International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
De Jesus, M. "To end the HIV epidemic, addressing poverty and inequities one of most important treatments," The Conversation.
Grier, S. "Operating in a Constricted Space: Policy Actor Perceptions of Targeting to Address U.S. Health Disparities," Journal of Public Policy and Marketing.
Morrissey, T. "Food Insecurity and Child Health," Pediatrics Journal.
Ranganathan, M. "From Urban Resilience to Abolitionist Climate Justice in Washington, DC," Antipode.

2018

De Jesus, M. "The Care and Prevention in the United States Demonstration Project: A Call for More Focus on the Social Determinants of HIV/AIDS," Public Health Reports.

2017

Castañeda, E. "Empowerment through work: the cases of disabled individuals and low-skilled women workers on the US–Mexican border," Disability & Society.
Grier, S. “Weight Loss through Virtual Support Communities: A Role for Identity-Based Motivation in Public Commitment,” Journal of Interactive Marketing.
Lindsay, C. “Exposure to Same-Race Teachers and Student Disciplinary Outcomes for Black Students in North Carolina,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.
Lindsay, C. “Teacher Race and School Discipline,” Education Next.
Morrissey, T. “Active Shooter Incidents and Gun Ownership and Storage Among Families with Young Children in the United States,” Preventive Medicine.
Morrissey, T. “Child Care and Parental Labor Force Participation: A Review of the Research Literature,” Review of Economics of the Household.
Morrissey, T. "Center-Based Early Care and Education and Children's School Readiness: Do Impacts Vary by Neighborhood Poverty?," Developmental Psychology.
Morrissey, T. “Economic Instability, Food Insecurity, and Child Health During and After the Great Recession,” Social Service Review.
Morrissey, T. “Employer-Supported Child Care: Who Participates, and Who Benefits?,” Journal of Marriage and Family.

2016

Bader, M. “Use of Google Street View to Assess Environmental Contributions to Pedestrian Injury,” American Journal of Public Health.
De Jesus, M. “A One-Size-Fits-All HIV Prevention and Education Approach? Interpreting Divergent HIV Risk Perceptions Between African American and East African Immigrant Women in Washington, DC Using the Proximate-Determinants Conceptual Framework,” Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
De Jesus, M. “How Religiosity Shapes Health Perceptions and Behaviors of Latina Immigrants: Is It An Enabling or Prohibitive Factor?,” Psychology, Health, and Medicine.
De Jesus, M. “Documentation Status as a Contextual Determinant of HIV Risk Among Young Transgender Latinas,” LGBT Health.
Grier, S. “Mindfulness: The Transformative Potential for Consumer, Societal and Environmental Well-Being,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing.
Ranganathan, M. “Thinking with Flint: Racial Liberalism and the Roots of an American Water Tragedy,” Capitalism Nature Socialism.

2014

Bader, M. "Comparing Nutrition Environments in Bodegas and Fast-Food Restaurants," Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Race & Diversity

Articles & Reports

2022

Palmer, J. “Anti-racist & intersectional approaches in social science and community-based research.” Handbook of Research on Social Justice Research Methods.

2021

Grier, S. “On the sunny side of the street: Sidestepping race for inclusion at the New Orleans Jazz Fest.” Jazz Research Journal.
Ranganathan, M. & Hyra, D. "Decolonizing the Green City: From Environmental Privilege to Emancipatory Green Justice," Environmental Justice.
Gallaher, C. "Mainstreaming white supremacy: A twitter analysis of the American ‘Alt-Right,’" Gender, Place & Culture.
Hardy, B. "The Persistence of Historical Racial Violence and Political Suppression: Implications for Contemporary Regional Inequality," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Johnson, L. "“Blacks Can’t Jump”: The Racialization of Transit Police Responses to Fare Evasion," Race and Justice.
Ranganathan, M. "Time to take critical race theory seriously: Moving beyond a colour-blind gender lens in global health," The Lancet Global Health.

2020

Bader, M. "Can Racial Diversity Swing Competitive Congressional Elections?," Contexts.
Bader, M. "Racial Disparities of Daily Living in the DC Area: Findings from the 2018 DC Area Survey," Social Science Research Network.
Grier, S. "Marketing Inclusion: A Social Justice Project for Diversity Education," Journal of Marketing Education.
Matlon, J. "Black Masculinity," The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology.
Ranganathan, M. "From Urban Resilience to Abolitionist Climate Justice in Washington, DC." Antipode.

2019

AbouAssi, K. and Johnston, J. "Collaboration, Venus, and Mars: The Gender Factor in Intersectoral Relations," Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.
Castañeda, E. "The contradiction at the heart of immigration restriction," The Washington Post.
Grier, S. "Constructing a bridge to multicultural marketplace well-being: A consumer-centered framework for marketer action," Journal of Business Research.
Hardy, B. "Cash Assistance in America: The Role of Race, Politics, and Poverty," The Review of the Black Political Economy.
Johnston, J. "Governing Immigration Detention: How & Why Do Localities Collaborate with ICE?," Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

2017

Esser, D. "Transdisciplinary," School of International Service Research Paper.
Hardy, B. “Location Matters: Historical Racial Segregation and Intergenerational Mobility,” Economics Letters.

2016

Chuang, A. “Mediating the President’s American Otherness from ‘Birthers’ to bin Laden: Television-news Representations of Barack Obama, False Balance, and Power,” Paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Conference: Minneapolis, MN.
Bader, M. "The Fragmented Evolution of Racial Integration since the Civil Rights Movement," Sociological Science.
Hyra, D. "The US Great Recession: Exploring Its Association with Black Neighborhood Rise, Decline and Recovery," Urban Geography.
Ranganathan, M. "Thinking with Flint: Racial Liberalism and the Roots of an American Water Tragedy," Capitalism Nature Socialism.

2015

Bader, M. “Community Attraction and Avoidance in Chicago: What’s Race Got to Do with It?,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Bader, M. “Realizing Racial and Ethnic Neighborhood Preferences? Exploring the Mismatches Between What People Want, Where They Search, and Where They Live,” Population Research and Policy Review.
Chuang, A. “Beyond the Positive-Negative Paradigm of Latino News-Media Representations: DREAM Act Exemplars, Stereotypical Selection, and American Otherness,” Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism.
De Jesus, M. “Attitudes, Perceptions, and Behaviors toward HIV Testing Among African American and East African Immigrant Women in Washington, DC: Implications for Targeted HIV Testing Promotion and Communication Strategies,” Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Hyra, D. “Greasing the Wheels of Integration: Housing and Beyond in Mixed-Income, Mixed-Race Neighborhoods,” Housing Policy Debate.

2014

Castañeda, E. “Disparities in Hispanic and non-Hispanic Homeless Populations in the El Paso, Texas,” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences.

Inequality

Articles & Reports

2021

Esser, D. "Spatial Dynamics of Racialized Income Inequality in the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area," The Professional Geographer.
Hardy, B. "Long-run analysis of regional inequalities in the US," Oxford Review of Economic Policy.

2020

Hardy, B. “Money, Money, Money: The Fiscal Response to COVID-19,” Brookings Institution.
Grier, S. "Reproducing inequity: The role of race in the business school faculty search," Journal of Marketing Management.
Hardy, B. "Racial Economic Inequality Amid the COVID-19 Crisis," The Brookings Institution.
Morrissey, T. "Household economic instability: Constructs, measurement, and implications," Children and Youth Services Review.
Morrissey, T. "The Effects of Food Assistance Programs on Children, Parenting, and Food Insecurity," 2020 APPAM Fall Research Conference.

2018

Hardy, B. “The Changing Safety Net for Low Income Parents and Their Children: Structural or Cyclical Changes in Income Support Policy?” Demography.

2016

Hardy, B. "Income Instability and the Response of the Safety Net," Contemporary Economic Policy.
Hyra, D. “Commentary: Causes and Consequences of Gentrification and the Future of Equitable Development Policy,” Cityscape.
Morrissey, T. “Child Care Deserts,” Center for American Progress, Washington, DC.
Morrissey, T. “Neighborhood Poverty and Children’s Food Insecurity,” Children and Youth Services Review.

2015

Grier, S. “A Tale of Two Urbanicities: Adolescent Alcohol and Cigarette Consumption in High and Low-Poverty Urban Neighborhoods,” Journal of Business Research.

Housing & Community

Articles & Reports

2022

Palmer, J. “Youth-led action research: Lessons learned from a university-community partnership in Washington DC.” Handbook of Research on Social Justice Research Methods.

2021

Stokes, B. "Urban furniture in digital placemaking: Adapting a storytelling payphone across Los Angeles," Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies.
Johnson, L. "The policing of subway fare evasion in postindustrial Los Angeles," Punishment & Society.

2020

Morrissey, T. "“Hay que seguir en la lucha”: An FQHC’s Community Health Action Approach to Promoting Latinx Immigrants’ Individual and Community Resilience," Behavioral Medicine.

2019

Hyra, D., "A Method for Making the Just City: Housing, Gentrification, and Health," Housing Policy Debate.

2018

Castañeda, E. “Improving Homeless Point-In-Time Counts: Uncovering the Marginally Housed,” Social Currents.
Johnson, L. "Deserts of disadvantage: The diffuse effects of structural disadvantage on violence in urban communities," Crime and Delinquency.

2017

Castañeda, E. “Activists’ motivations and typologies: core activists in Ciudad Juárez.” Interface Journal.

2015

Hyra, D. "Growth Opportunities and Constraints: Perspectives from CEOs and High-Ranking Executives," The Roadmap for the Washington Region's Economic Future.
Hyra, D. "SBA Lending: Equity and Efficiency Challenges," White paper commissioned by the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders.
Hyra, D. "The Obama Administration's Place-Based Initiatives: Why Not Include Small Business Lending Components?," Journal of Urban Affairs.
Hyra, D., Johnston, J., and Hardy, B. "A State and Local Level Economic Development Policy Gap Analysis," The Roadmap for the Washington Region's Economic Future.
Ranganathan, M. “Storm Drains as Assemblages: The Political Ecology of Flood Risk in Post-Colonial Bangalore,” Antipode.
Ranganathan, M. “Water Marginalization at the Urban Fringe: Environmental Justice and Political Ecology Across the North-South Divide,” Urban Geography.

2014

Ranganathan, M. "Paying for Water, Claiming Citizenship: Political Agency and Water Reforms at the Urban Periphery,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

Project Publications