Urban Lab

The LBJ Urban Lab

Austin city skyline

"WHAT STARTS HERE CHANGES CITIES"

“We must make sure that every family…lives in a home of dignity and a neighborhood of pride, a community of opportunity and a city of promise and hope.” – President Lyndon B. Johnson

The LBJ School of Public Affairs Urban Lab at The University of Texas at Austin will explore and address issues that affect urban and metropolitan communities.

Inspired by UT’s motto, “What Starts Here Changes the World,” the Lab utilizes Texas cities and others across the nation as “urban laboratories,” bringing together policymakers, business and civic leaders, academics, and students to tackle significant urban challenges.

Who We Are

Urban Lab Director Steven Pedigo speaking at the Mayoral Forum

What We Do: The Urban Opportunity

Cities are humanity’s greatest invention, driving global economic growth. And Texas cities serve as a key laboratory for urban innovation. The state is dynamic and a diverse epicenter of growth. Its cities also face growing challenges of affordability, upskilling, congestion and climate change. Innovative policies are to meet these challenges.

The LBJ Urban Lab is a pioneering hub for urbanism and policymaking, providing a forward-thinking model for urban policy engagement and education through:

The Future of Downtowns event panel

Austin city skyline at night

News & Events

LBJ Urban Lab News

Children play out of focus in a daycare.

Texas continues to face child care accessibility crisis

March 20, 2024

Texas continues to grapple with a persistent challenge: providing accessible and high-quality child care at an affordable rate, as outlined in a recent policy brief by researchers at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. The current shortfall not only affects working families but also impedes the state’s economic growth.

Texas Capitol dome. Credit: Meggyn Pomerleau, Unsplash

Could Texas really be the future of America?

Oct. 15, 2021

Steven Pedigo gives us his take in a recent essay in the New York Times titled "Texas is the Future of America." He is the founding executive director of the LBJ Urban Lab and a professor of practice at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

Texas flag. Photo credit: Joshua J. Cotten, Unsplash

Op-Ed: Texas Is the Future of America

Oct. 5, 2021

"As goes Texas, so will the United States — for better or for worse," writes LBJ Urban Lab Director Steven Pedigo in a guest essay in the New York Times. His analysis looks at Texas's influx of citizens, its economy, its rapidly changing demographics, its approach to business and the politics its leaders are practicing — and predicts its influence on the rest of the country. 

Austin Mayoral Forum presentation

Upcoming Events

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