Mission Statement

Founded in 1987, the Center for Urban Studies (CENTER) has, as its mission, the quest to transform distressed inner city neighborhoods into vibrant, cosmopolitan communities based on participatory democracy, collaboration, reciprocity, and social justice.  This approach is based on the belief that social development must drive the physical, economic, and political development in distressed inner city communities. 

Toward this end, the CENTER works with residents and stakeholders in inner city communities to construct a social function model of neighborhood development capable of realizing, in practice, the radical reconstruction of inner city neighborhoods and their metropolitan regions. The Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan region serves as the CENTER’s laboratory where we conduct theoretical and applied research and engage in practices to transform distressed inner city communities and the larger urban metropolis. 

Why is this mission so important?

Inner city distress is the strategic problem of our time.  Dilapidated housing, decaying infrastructure, underperforming schools, poverty, underemployment, unemployment, crime, and violence are interconnected place-based problems that not only thwart the development of urban regions, but also undermine democracy. Until resolved, this problem will become increasingly challenging and complex over time. Therefore, realizing in practice the regeneration of inner city neighborhoods is critical for the development of vibrant urban regions anchored by participatory democracy and social justice.

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