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Boston and 100 Resilient Cities convene Transatlantic Policy Lab

The City of Boston and 100 Resilient Cities launched the Transatlantic Policy Lab to address income and opportunity inequalities in the city. PHOTO BY BETSEY GOLDWASSER/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
The City of Boston and 100 Resilient Cities launched the Transatlantic Policy Lab to address income and opportunity inequalities in the city. PHOTO BY BETSEY GOLDWASSER/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Mayor Martin Walsh and 100 Resilient Cities convened at the Transatlantic Policy Lab Monday to discuss and address social inequalities and policy issues in the city, according to a Monday press release.

Boston and Athens, Greece are the two cities worldwide that have been chosen to work with TAPL’s 100 Resilient Cities.

Walsh expressed in the release how beneficial the program is for the City of Boston as a whole.

“This work is very important to the City of Boston,” Walsh said in the release. “There is no better time than now for us to lay the groundwork for our resilience efforts. This is one of the many stages of the process and I look forward to making deep-rooted systemic change to help address inequities in our City. I thank all of our partners for their collaboration in making this possible.”

The TAPL is a social equity lab aimed to develop policy recommendations to reduce inequalities, according to the release. TAPL is provided to the city through 100 Resilient Cities as part of Platform Partners, a set of “resilience-building tools” provided from public, private, non-profit and academic sectors, according to the 100 Resilient Cities website.

100 Resilient Cities is an organization pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation, and it works to help cities around the world “become more resilient to the physical, social and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century,” according to its website. The organization works to facilitate the establishment of resilience among citizens, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and governments.

According to the release, the TAPL will assemble experts from the United States and the European Union in order to work together with host cities “in efforts to reduce income inequality and inequality of opportunity.”

Atyia Martin, chief resilience officer for the City of Boston, told The Daily Free Press on Nov. 3, 2015, that the equity lab works to fix opportunity gaps within the city.

“They will help look at the specific equity challenges that we face so we’ll know more about what to prioritize,” Martin said. “They’ll help us do the research, to dig deeper into those issue areas to understand the best approach. They’re contributing to the resilience strategy by going through this.”

Liz Yee, vice president of strategic partnerships and solutions for 100 Resilient Cities, expressed excitement in the release over the work the lab does.

“We’re proud to provide best-in-class tools and services to foster resilience-building efforts at no direct cost to our member cities,” Yee said in the release. “By convening experts through the Transatlantic Policy Lab, we are poised to assist Boston’s resilience-building efforts and identify where approaches can be scaled to address similar challenges in other cities.”

Several residents had opinions on topics they believed should be discussed at the Transatlantic Policy Lab for the benefit of the city.

Victor Wei, 21, of Fenway, said he had concerns about the contrast in caliber between public and private schools.

“I think there’s a big difference in the quality of public schools,” he said. “Some policy that would improve the quality of public schools and areas that don’t have the same opportunities as others would be beneficial for Boston as a whole.”

Susanna Jackson, 28, of Jamaica Plain, said college campuses could be improved, considering there are dozens of universities in the Boston area.

“I think that college campuses should be brought up because there’s a lack of diversity not only on most campuses, but in the arts specifically, and how some students don’t feel safe on campus,” she said.

Sam Rees, 34, of Brighton, said he was excited for how an event like this could promote more successful communication between Boston residents and the Walsh administration.

“I wish the dialogue was more open, especially since it seems like a lot of the stuff that’s happening, like Black Lives Matter, is just dividing people,” he said. “To foster real communication, this would be good for Boston.”

Natalie Schiera, 26, of Brighton, said she’s curious to see how the city government could address the subtle prejudices and inequalities that are seen on a daily basis.

“From what you see on the news,” she said, “racial profiling by police, disadvantages of being from a lower income area of Boston, not having access to a good grocery story with fresh products or things like that are all things that are prevalent and what I’d like to be brought up.”

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