Dr. Davarian L. Baldwin (Trinity College), Founding Director
“The Smartest Cities Develop without Displacement”
The dominant response to the great challenges facing our cities has been to make urban areas “smarter,” with a focus on technological innovations and sustainable design. But what about the people, the diverse and marginalized communities that struggle to maintain sustainable lives in changing urban locales? At the Smart Cities Research Lab (SCL) we study and consult on best practices for building equitable urban communities at the human scale from the classroom to the street corner. The SCL specifically focuses on the challenges and opportunities of university-driven development projects both on and beyond the campus.
Because colleges and universities have become central political and economic anchors for cities, drawing attention to campuses highlights a range of urban issues from inclusive planning, worker’s rights, and equitable innovation strategies to just policing, sustainable food systems, and public art. SCL mines buried histories of the past, everyday struggles of the present, and speculative possibilities for the future to ensure that cities remain spaces of living, learning, and loving for everyone. At the SCL, our work is guided by the mantra heard in the communities we serve: The smartest cities develop without displacement.
Key highlights of the lab include the broader Renewal Project, which chronicles higher education’s historic use of federal policy to demolish and displace communities of color. This work uses histories of harm to build out new visions of both reconciliation and repair. Within this work the lab is leading a nationwide series of campaigns called Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) to get nonprofits to “pay their fair share” into struggling municipal budgets, with consideration of their property tax-exempt status. The lab has also worked on related campaigns for community control of land use policies and campus policing, alongside affordable housing mandates. Innovative community history work is also a focus of the lab, including The World of the Harlem Renaissance: A Jigsaw Puzzle and the new Black Intellectual Oral History (BIOH) database.
All media stories, expert testimony, partnership documents, and scholarly sources are available upon request. Send e-mail to Davarian Baldwin.
Partnered Projects
The Renewal Project, Humanities Action Lab (Newark) and Minnesota Transform (Minneapolis)
The Renewal Project is a national initiative recovering higher education’s role in urban renewal-era demolition and its displacement of Black and brown communities, tracking its present-day legacy. Eight teams engaged in local work of archival recover, curriculum development, creative placemaking, and reparations campaigns in relation to their specific histories of university-driven urban renewal.
Advisory Council, Public Dollars for Public Good, Marguerite Casey Foundation
Davarian Baldwin participated on the advisory council of this initiative working with local organizing campaigns across the country that devise various strategies to ensure public dollars are used in ways to materially improve–instead of harm–the lives of working people.
Advocacy Advisory Council, Social Mission Alliance
Davarian Baldwin participated in the advocacy advisory council of an organization leading efforts to infuse social mission into health professional education and incorporate accountability into medical school accreditation and rankings standards.
“New Shop Floor” Initiative, National Council, American Association of University Professors
Davarian Baldwin co-organized the “New Shop Floor” Initiative that situates the standard academic labor concerns (wages, working conditions, academic freedom) within the broad reach of campus impact (housing, policing, local governance) on workers’ lives.
Advisory Board, Vital Cities and Citizens Initiative, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, NL
Davarian Baldwin served as a representative for community stakeholders on the Cultuur & Campus development project in the South Bank neighborhood of Rotterdam, NL.
Consulting: Urban Community Development
New Haven Rising, New Haven, CT (2022)
Helped secure agreement with Yale University to increase its voluntary tax contributions to the city of New Haven by $52 million over six years.
Black Bottom Coalition, Philadelphia, PA (2021)
Provided historical research to support Councilperson Jamie Gauthier’s Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning pilot program in the University City area of West Philadelphia
Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, Berkeley, CA (2022)
Coalition of Non-Profit Organization Tenants, Miami, FL (2022)
Coalition for University Accountability, Rhode Island
Massachusetts Action for PILOTs, Massachusetts
1199 SEIU, Baltimore, MD
City Council, University City, MI
City Council, Durham, NC
Public Testimonies and Convenings
Expert Testimony, Graduate Employee’s Organization (GEO), Michigan State Labor Board, April 2023
Appeal to include an unarmed police response program in its contract negotiations
Expert Testimony, H.3080 and S.1874 (Required Payment in Lieu of Taxes) and H.3803 (Study of town revenue losses on tax-exempt properties), Massachusetts State Revenue Committee, February 2022
Expert Panel, #Bill 2010633: Inclusionary Zoning Overlay Pilot, Rules Committee Hearing, Philadelphia City Council, November 2021
Expert Panel, City Charter Revision, NYC Racial Justice Commission, July 2021
Urban Curriculum and Professional Development, K-12 Teachers
Facing History and Ourselves
Chicago Racial History unit for Chicago Public Schools
“Red Summer” unit for Chicago Public Schools
Primary Source, Inc.
Professional Development Workshops for School Boards across Massachusetts
Friends Select School of Philadelphia
“Urban Citizenship” Curriculum
“Urban Citizenship” Pedagogy—Social Justice Institute, Trinity College
UniverCities Initiative
Clearing house for the collection and interpretation of data about various higher education-based urban developments, built around student research training
Black Intellectuals Oral History (BIOH) Project
Video and text-based interviews with Black intellectuals (academics, artists, journalists, clergy) to serve as an oral history training venue for students and virtual mentorship aimed at young scholars
Research Clusters
Sites of faculty research and student-driven curriculum development
The World of the Harlem Renaissance: A Jigsaw Puzzle
A collaboration with illustrator Noa Denmon, available here.
Media Relations
Provided expert commentary and opinion for over one hundred media stories in outlets ranging from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Washington Post, and TIME magazine to The Tavis Smiley Show, URBAN VIEW on SIRIUS XM, and Amanpour & Co. on CNN/PBS.
Consulted on a 2023 multi-part news series with ProPublica investigating the demolition of a middle-class Black Virginia community to make wake way for Christopher Newport University.
Work resulted in the documentary Uprooted, which inspired Virginia delegate Delores McQuinn to sponsor a legislative commission advocating for reparations in service to displaced communities.
