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This course will focus on how and why urban neighborhoods change. Why does vacant housing grow in some communities, while others seem on the brink of gentrification? Who benefits from neighborhood investment in Baltimore? Can urban revitalization benefit all residents? How can we study these challenging issues? These concerns are as relevant as they have ever been, as Baltimore contends with life after the death of Freddie Gray, contentious investment plans with major developers, and stubborn levels of poverty and crime. In this course, we will read scholarship in urban sociology, economics and housing policy data. A significant portion of the course will be dedicated to the analysis of longitudinal data on neighborhood change in the areas around both of Hopkins’ campuses, as well as other communities in the city. The data includes the perspectives of residents, landlords, developers, and community leaders, as well as ground-level observations of street and housing conditions. The course provides students an opportunity to become involved in timely and relevant research in the city, and possibly produce papers that would be suitable for conference submissions or journal articles. We will also compare efforts in Baltimore to those elsewhere, such as Detroit, Chicago, Brooklyn, Washington, D.C. Previous coursework in statistics, policy, research design and research methods is helpful but not required.