Serving UIC's Great Cities Commitment: Solutions for Today's Urban Challenges
GCI maintains an archive of all published research. Publicly available documents are hosted online here.
For other GCI research, please send a request to gcities@uic.edu or contact the office.
Brandon Johnson’s election this past April as Chicago’s new mayor has been hailed across the country as an electrifying victory by progressive Democrats. But a detailed analysis of vote tallies and turnout conducted by Juan González and Matthew Wilson of the Great Cities Institute finds “a startling gap in voter turnout continues to persist along racial and ethnic lines” in Chicago.
Executive Summary: The present moment entails a new set of challenges to water management: A formidable challenge to water management is the growing imbalance between flooding and water scarcity. Because water recycling requires technical innovation and public health inquiry, as well as policy and urban planning considerations, we convened an interdisciplinary team to establish the research and development groundwork for water recycling.
Executive Summary: Mujeres Latinas en Acción (Mujeres) officially launched their first ever position paper, ¡Actívate! A community-data driven guide to help Latinas and their families thrive. Founded in 1973, Mujeres is the longest-standing Latina-led organization in the country. With its headquarters based in Pilsen in Chicago, Illinois, it has grown from a […]
Executive Summary: This groundbreaking study, commissioned by Grand Victoria Foundation (GVF) and the Great Cities Institute (GCI), seeks to shed light on the challenges faced by Black communities across Illinois, with a specific focus on 81 “Black population centers” throughout the state where 30% or more of the residents identify […]
Executive Summary: This study identifies demographic and socio-economic changes in the Lower West Side and its subareas.
Executive Summary: As previously documented, youth joblessness and disconnection from school and work are ongoing systemic issues in Chicago, with higher rates of violence in areas of concentrated youth joblessness (Córdova and Wilson, 2017a). In this data brief, we seek to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted those rates […]
Executive Summary: The Immigrant Impact Task Force (IITF) is a statewide effort to review, assess, and recommend a vision for the future of immigrant, refugee, and LEP communities in Illinois, created via SB 2665 the Immigrant Impact Task Force Act. The Immigrant Impact Task Force consists of 27 members representing […]
Executive Summary: Through the concerted focus of the Puerto Rican Agenda, on August 27, 2021, Senate Bill 1833 was signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker. The bill, introduced by Senator Cristina Pacione-Zayas, not only made such a cultural district possible for Puerto Rican Town, but also for other communities […]
On February 8, 2023, Director Teresa Córdova, Ph.D, gave a presentation on "Mayoral Forum on a New Industrial Vision in Chicago."
Authors Yannet Lathrop Matthew D. Wilson William Lester Introduction and Executive Summary Ten years ago, on November 29, 2012, a group of 200 fast-food workers in New York City— fed up with low pay and roadblocks to organizing—walked out of their jobs demanding a $15 hourly wage and a union. […]