Innovation Districts and Neighborhood Change

Innovation Districts and Neighborhood Change A GIS Analysis of Brooklyn, Seattle, and San Francisco

Davis Winslow Intro to GIS | Fall 2014

photo credit: Brookings

Innovation Districts • The reemergence of the urban core over the suburban park • Rise of the creative class • http://youtu.be /I6peAaD_avo photo: the deisgn for part of Amazon’s new headquarters in Seattle credit: NBBJ

The Project • What is happening in neighborhoods with emerging tech sectors? • How are neighborhood demographics similar to or different than demographics of the tech sector? • Three cities: NYC, SF, and Seattle

photo: a rendering of proposed changes at Fox Square credit: WXY Architecture Urban Design

Data Sources • Census Bureau – 2012 American Community Survey – Race, household income, geographic mobility

• Open Data Sites – Base maps, census tracts, property information

Getting started: collecting data • Even census data needed some cleaning – Discrepancies in coding – Formatting didn’t work with ArcMap

• Finding business addresses and matching with property files

ArcMap Tools • Selecting by attribute and by location • Clipping • Buffers • Joins

First Round

Still felt like there was something missing, so went back to the census data and calculated rates of mobility for low-income residents by percentage of households under poverty line who had lived in their house for over a year.

Thank you • Sources – "The Rise of Innovation Districts: A New Geography of Innovation in America." The Brookings Institution. Web. 15 Dec. 2014. – "Amazon's Giant Biodomes Win Blessing of City Design Board - GeekWire."GeekWire. 23 Oct. 2013. Web. 16 Dec. 2014. – "3 Key Elements Eyed for Brooklyn Tech Triangle." Latest from Crains New York Business. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.

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Innovation Districts and Neighborhood Change

Published on Dec 16, 2014

Davis Winslow

Innovation districts have been catching on as a major force in urban development and revitalization. More than ever, technology firms big and small are opting to locate in downtown corridors rather than traditional suburban office parks, taking advantage of the opportunities for collaboration and agglomeration while more easily attracting workers from the so-called creative class who also continue to flock to cities. This trend has brought a wave of economic growth and with it controversy over issues of gentrification. The tech industry’s lack of diversity and seeming contribution to growing costs of living in places like New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, raise questions about who really benefits from this trend. This project maps key demographics of areas in which innovation districts have sprouted in these three cities in hopes of providing some context to this ongoing urban transformation.