The Community & Capital Action Research Lab (C2ARL)

is committed to improving knowledge about urban neighborhoods dynamics, local economies and community change. We support progressive approaches to local economic development, community planning and decision-making.
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CURRENT RESEARCH

The Commercial Restructuring Project (CRP)

The CRP seeks to advance knowledge about neighborhood-level retail dynamics using small-area business data to examine fundamental yet underexplored questions regarding the impact of place-based policy, planning, programs, and demographic shifts on the entry, expansion, and closure of “neighborhood retailers.”

Using address-level longitudinal business data, the CRP examines the direction, magnitude and effect of retail change and continuity along neighborhood commercial corridors, including popular concerns about “commercial gentrification” and the “homogenization of retail.” The intent of the CRP is to better understand the degree to which these claims are borne out in various neighborhoods.
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CURRENT PUBLICATIONS

Rethinking Commercial Revitalization

Inner-city neighborhood retail development often engenders vigorous popular and political debate about the scale, scope, and location of projects, as well as their intended and inadvertent effects for urban landscapes, residents, and consumers.
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