The digital I Urban Affairs Quarterly i backfiles available from Sage do not include inside cover contents or Gittell's "message from the editor" that was in the first issue. We are honored and excited by the opportunity to shape and promote research in one of the world's longest-standing urban social science journals. The goal, which continues a long tradition at the journal (see [5], 8), is to publish articles that define a conversation about urban politics across topics and disciplines - defining "urban" and "politics" and "urban politics" along the way. [Extracted from the article]