2019 Menino Survey of Mayors

The 2019 Menino Survey of Mayors represents the sixth nationally representative survey of American mayors and is based on interviews with 119 sitting mayors from 38 states. The 2019 Survey explores mayoral views on issues ranging from infrastructure and transportation priorities — including mobility and public safety — to the changing nature of work. The 2019 Survey also provides the first in-depth examination of mayors’ reactions to and expectations for the Opportunity Zones program, a significant new federal initiative to stimulate urban development. The 2019 Survey continues with the support of Citi Community Development and The Rockefeller Foundation.Citi Community Development and The Rockefeller Foundatio

Menino Survey of Mayors 2018 Results

Report on research findings.The 2018 Menino Survey of Mayors represents the fifth scientifically rigorous and nationally representative survey of American mayors released by the Boston University Initiatives on Cities and supported by Citi Community Development and The Rockefeller Foundation. The Survey, based on interviews with 110 sitting mayors conducted in 2018, reveals mayoral views on economic development—including corporate recruitment, financial incentives, the sharing economy, and social mobility—as well as public health, housing, and intergovernmental relations.Citi Community Development and The Rockefeller Foundatio

Gaps and Opportunities: Supporting Bostons BIPOC Small Businesses

Small businesses play a central role in cities: they foster growth and innovation in local economies, provide critical jobs for residents, contribute to the vibrancy of urban corridors, and help to anchor neighborhoods. However, over the last two years, the pandemic has devastated the small business community, forcing many to shutter their doors. Nationally, the number of active business owners fell by 22 percent from February to April 2020. Black-owned businesses closed at almost twice the rate of other businesses, experiencing a 41 percent drop during that time.Against this more recent backdrop, the racial wealth gap continues to persist, as systemic bias contributes to white households both earning more and having more — and more valuable — assets on average than households of color. These gaps not only manifest in personal and household wealth, but in small business creation and operation as well. Boston has the potential to be a model for other cities by moving aggressively and intentionally to close these gaps, including by addressing biases that limit the opportunities of small business owners and entrepreneurs of color.Based on in-depth, structured, qualitative interviews with leaders across 30 nonprofits, community-based organizations, city agencies, and others, this report seeks to:reveal the strengths and weaknesses of Boston's ecosystem of small business advocates, funders, and technical assistance providerscapture their views on the challenges confronting our region's BIPOC small business owners and entrepreneurs, andcollect their ideas for changes in the future. It endeavors to provide new intelligence and insights, not just for Boston but for other cities

Developing a Community-Designed Healthy Urban Food System

Learning About Food in Urban Communities is a comprehensive guide with Extension resources for Food Production, Food & Business, Food & Family, and Food & Community. This publication emerged as part of a 2-year community-planning project. An interdisciplinary OSU team worked with the Weinland Park community, in the central Ohio University District, to explore how food could be a catalyst for urban neighborhood development

Focusing on fear: attentional disengagement from emotional faces

Evidence suggests that anxiety is associated with a shift of visual attention toward threatening stimuli in the environment, such as facial expressions (Mogg & Bradley, 1999). More recent evidence, however, indicates that anxiety may be better characterized by a failure to rapidly disengage the visual attention system away from threat-related facial expressions (Fox, Russo, Bowles, & Dutton, 2001). The present study further investigates this delayed disengagement hypothesis. Results show that high trait-anxious individuals, in contrast to low trait-anxious individuals, take longer to classify peripheral target letters when fearful facial expressions were presented at fixation relative to sad, happy, or neutral expressions. These findings demonstrate a specific tendency to dwell on fear-relevant stimuli, as opposed to negative information in general. These findings are considered from an evolutionary perspective and the possible role of delayed disengagement from threat in the maintenance of anxiety states is also discussed. © 2005 Psychology Press Ltd

2022 Menino Survey of Mayors: mayors and the climate crisis

The 2022 Menino Survey of Mayors represents the ninth nationally representative survey of American mayors and is based on interviews with 118 sitting mayors from 38 states. The 2022 Survey explores mayoral views on climate and energy, poverty and rising costs of living, and health and safety. The first set of findings, released in January 2023, delves into mayors’ current views on local climate action, focusing on their beliefs about the underlying issues and threats, their sense of the tools they have at their disposal, and their enthusiasm for using them. The 2022 Survey continues with the support of The Rockefeller Foundation.The Rockefeller Foundatio

Development and reproducibility of a computed tomography-based measurement of renal sinus fat

BACKGROUND: Renal sinus fat may mediate obesity-related vascular disease, although this fat depot has not been assessed in a community-based sample. We sought to develop a protocol to quantify renal sinus fat accumulation using multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT). METHODS: Protocol development was performed in participants in the Framingham Offspring cohort who underwent MDCT. Volumetric renal sinus fat was measured separately within the right and left kidneys, and renal sinus fat area within a single MDCT scan slice was measured in the right kidney. Due to the high correlation of volumetric and single-slice renal sinus fat in the right kidney (Pearson correlation [r] = 0.85, p < 0.0001), we optimized a single-slice protocol to capture renal sinus fat in the right kidney alone. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to compare to assess the correlation of volumetric and single-slice renal sinus fat in the right kidney with other measures of adiposity. Inter- and intra-reader reproducibility was assessed using intra-class correlation coefficients. RESULTS: Single-slice measurements were obtained in 92 participants (mean age 60 years, 49% women, median renal sinus fat 0.43 cm(2)). Intra- and inter-reader intra-class correlation coefficients were 0.93 and 0.86, respectively. Single-slice renal sinus fat was correlated with body mass index (r = 0.35, p = 0.0006), waist circumference (r = 0.31, p = 0.003), and abdominal visceral fat (r = 0.48, p < 0.0001). Similar correlations were observed for volumetric renal sinus fat in the right kidney. CONCLUSIONS: Measuring renal sinus fat is feasible and reproducible using MDCT scans in a community-based sample

2020 Menino Survey of Mayors: COVID-19 recovery and the future of cities

The 2020 Menino Survey of Mayors details insights and perspectives shared by a representative sample of 130 mayors leading U.S. cities with populations of more than 75,000 residents. This year’s Survey explores mayoral views on COVID-19 recovery and implications, policing and protests, parks and greenspace, and the 2020 Census. This report focuses on the COVD-19 related findings and outlines mayors’ responses to the global pandemic, perceptions of its impact, and expectations for the future of their cities. The 2020 Survey continues with the support of Citi and The Rockefeller Foundation