Leveraging Data To Get Ahead of Gentrification
Gentrification and the displacement it causes is one of the most complex issues facing today’s cities. For decades, urbanists have struggled with the fact that, by the time you can see gentrification happening, it is already too late to combat it. Data, however, has the opportunity to introduce a paradigmatic shift in how we look at this problem.
A study conducted in Louisville, Kentucky used geographic meta data on social media posts to map where demographics are truly shifting in the city, in spite of what conventional local wisdom would have us believe about who lives where. Studies such of this show how data can be used to map behaviors before they become self-evident which, in turn, gives policy makers an opportunity to react to changes in their city at a pace never before thought possible.
This technology can also have huge implications for predicting and targeting areas that show early warning signs of blight or economic hardship. As urban scientists become more and more creative with how they leverage data, it is easy to see how this kind of predictive modeling could be applied to a host of urban issues.
Frank, A. (2017, August 29). What Does It Take To See Gentrification Before It Happens? Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/08/29/546980178/what-does-it-take-to-see-gentrification-before-it-happens
