Research Overview
We specialize in collecting and analyzing large data sets, often combining data we gather with larger data sets generated by the U.S. Census Bureau and its partner agencies. We synthesize this information through scholarly books and articles, public-facing reports, the visualization of spatial patterns through maps, and developing online applications to provide public access to our results.
Each of our constituent units undertakes distinct projects but also collaborates to pursue CUR's overall research goals. Our research is supported by foundations, public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and media partners through grants and contracts.
Our Portfolio of Projects and Initiatives
Civic and Political Attitudes and Engagement
- The Impact of Ranked Choice Voting on the 2021 City Elections (2021-2022)
- Public Service Satisfaction Survey (January 2022)
- Civic and Political Participation in the Era of COVID (2021-2022)
- New York City Civic Engagement Survey (2019)
Public Policies and Urban Governance
-
Strengthening Communities Summit (2015)
-
Toward a 21st Century City for All (2013)
-
Rethinking the Urban Agenda (2001)
Census and other Surveys
- Census Hard-to-Count Map - Self-Response Rates Mapped and Analyzed: 2000, 2010 & 2020
- Census 2020 - Reports, Maps and Analysis
- Long Island Index
- Long Island Index Interactive Map (2008-2017)
- Long Island Multifamily Housing Map (2016)
- 2008 Index Data Analysis
- Special Districts Election Finder (no longer online)
- Long Island Historical Census Atlas (2015)
- Census 2010 - Reports, Maps and Analysis
- American Community Survey 2005-2009 - Working with the full dataset
- Online Statistical Data Analysis of select Census Bureau Datasets (2006)
Immigration and Demographic Change
-
Reordering Occupation, Race, and Place in Metropolitan New York (2020)
-
The Changing Face of World Cities: The Second Generation in West Europe and the U.S. (2012)
- End of segregation? Hardly. (2012) A nuanced response to The Manhattan Institute (MI) report, The End of the Segregated Century
- 40 Years of Changing Demographics (2010)
- Demographic Change in Metropolitan America: 2000 to 2010
- "Putting Data to Work" with the NY Immigration Coalition (2007)
- Second Generation Immigrants (2008)
- New York's Changing Middle Class (2007) A presentation by CUR director John Mollenkopf
- Hispanic Immigration on Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk Counties) (2007)
- The Foreign-Born Population in Upstate New York (2007)
- New York City Immigrants: The 1990s Wave (2005)
- Visualizing a Changing Region, Block by Block (2011)
-
Inheriting the City: The Immigrant Second Generation in Metropolitan New York (2009)
-
Becoming New Yorkers: Ethnographies of the New Second Generation (2004)
Voting, Elections, and Legislative Districting
- NYC's Changing Electorate: 2015-2016
- NYC Campaign Contributions Mapped Online – 2013, 2017 and 2021 (CUNY Mapping Service)
- New Hampshire Presidential Primary 2016 (CUNY Mapping Service)
- Toward a 21st Century City for All: Progressive Policies for NYC in 2013 and Beyond
- “Communities of Interest” and City Council Districting in New York, 2012-2013
- Electoral Maps of NY's 11th Congressional District (2015) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- Who Represents Me: NYC (2015) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- NYC Election Atlas (2013) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- New York Senate and Assembly Districts 2012: Eligible Voters Mapped (CUNY Mapping Service)
- New York Congressional Districts 2012: Eligible Voters Mapped (CUNY Mapping Service)
- Interactive Redistricting Maps for the 2010-2013 Election Cycle (CUNY Mapping Service)
-
The Shifting Map of Congressional Districts in New York State: 2005-2009 population estimates (2011)
- Implications of the American Community Survey 2005-2009 on NYS Legislative Redistricting (2010)
- 2008 Presidential Election Voting Results and Analysis (CUNY Mapping Service)
Environment and Infrastructure
-
Patterns of Attrition and Retention in the Build It Back Program of the Office of Housing Recovery (2019)
- Hudson River-Raritan Estuary Comprehensive Restoration Plan map (2017) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- New Subway Station in NYC: Hudson Yards (2015) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Program Citizen Science monitoring program (2014) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- NYC Subway and Bus Data in GIS Format (2010) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- Geocoding at CUR (ongoing - last updated 2009) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- NYC OASIS: The Open Accessible Space Information System (2009) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- USDA Forest Service's Stewardship Mapping Network (2007) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- Handheld Mapping and Data Capture with NYC Department of Finance (2007) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- Willets Point Land Use Study (2006) (CUNY Mapping Service)
- Innovative Approaches to the Spatial Analysis of Crime Patterns in New York City (1999)
Jobs, Economy and Labor
- The Maker Economy in Action (2016)
- Workforce Trends in the NYC Region (2008)
- The Future of Low Wage Work in Metropolitan America (2008) (CUNY Data Service)
- Career Planning Tools - maps, guides, and occupational profiles, organized by industry (NYCLMIS)
- Jobs Reports (LMIS)

Online Research Journal
Metropolitics
Metropolitics is an editorially peer-reviewed online journal of public scholarship about cities and urban politics aimed at an international audience with versions in English and French. The journal publishes short-form work based on original research, on a time frame that allows researchers to contribute contemporaneously to public debate and make their scholarly work more relevant to a broad readership. The journal’s editorial board includes CUR director John Mollenkopf, along with distinguished researchers and faculty from across CUNY.
Browse the journal