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MIT's "Hot Or Not" Site For Neighborhoods Could Help Shape Cities
Daniel_Stuckey writes "When you walk around a city, there are things you can just sense, like if you've wandered into a dodgy neighborhood, or where the new happening spot is. Intuitively, we know that a city's more intangible characteristics, like class or uniqueness, play a big role in what it’s like to live there, but until now there was no way to actually quantify that idea.
Researchers from MIT Media Lab may have found a way to measure this 'aesthetic capital' of cities, with their website Place Pulse, a tool to crowdsource people's perception of cities by judging digital snapshots—a sort of 'hot or not' for urban neighborhoods.
Some 4,000 geotagged Google Streetview images and 8,000 participants later, the team found that by using digital images and crowdsourced feedback, they can accurately quantify the diverse vibes within a city (pdf), which in turn can help us better understand issues like inequality and safety."
I guess the Red Light districts or the Gang Warfare districts won't be "hot" enough...
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Can I get an overlay of drive by shootings?
Any reason that home sales prices compared wouldn't tell us this? Prices are determined largely by lot size and square footage. The other major factor is location, location, location. It should be pretty trivial to figure out how large this location factor plays into price.
Just the other day I told Detroit that I didn't want to ruin my special friendship with her by moving into her while I simultaneously eyebanged the unattainably hot San Francisco and consoled myself with the knowledge that she's high maintenance and her wild living will make her look especially butt ugly fifty years from now.
How about trailer park trash or poor black areas? Oops, can't make true observations, might upset the PC crowd.
Now add that to the navigation software in my GPS and I know what neighborhoods to avoid and where to troll for prostitutes or drug dealers!
Add that into the GPS in rental cars and you get a major news item -- from a few years ago when this caused outrage in Chicago. I can't find the specific story, but it was big for a few days.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I question anything that lists Washington DC as the safest place.
they are working with your friendly neighborhood NSA
Please identify the hot women with low self esteem everywhere. They are the only girls I can really talk to.
The people who push public optinion to suit their ideas and/or profits? Don't need them or want them. The folks who make people homeless then drive the homeless away so they can bulldoze the area and put something they expect to profit from in place of what was there before? The ones that go after the poorest people and make them poorer? The ones that try to manipulate other's conciouses to magnify the "keep up with the Jones" problems? No thanks!
The list is endless, there are other ways. Something like this will end up being a source of manipulated cyber-bullying and/or promotion. And don't forget other Marketing BS enabling.
You would think MIT of all places would be able to put together a website capable of withstanding real traffic.
HAHAHAHA More surveillance apps. Yes the "best and the brightest" are innovating great here! Building more snooping apps that find out what people are up to.
This tells me I'm a far better coder than anyone at MIT. Thank God i didn't waste my time with higher education.
Onoz! Look at all those black people! Must be a bad neighborhood!
Sounds real reliable.
#ChecksCashed
#SpanishBillboards
#foodtrucks
#baggypants
#blacks
#latinos
#hoopty
#hoodie
#nolawnmaintenance
#chainlinkedfence
#pitbulls
I just judge a neighborhood by the number of black and hispanic people in it.
And so do you. But YOU won't say it.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Statisically-speaking they often are. We can't let facts get in the way of our PC beliefs, right?
I see this turning into a lawsuit when real estate prices start to be affected by it.
It's not about race. If the place looks like Detroit, it's probably not someplace you want to be.
Also, from the NAACP website:
African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population
African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites
Together, African American and Hispanics comprised 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population
According to Unlocking America, if African American and Hispanics were incarcerated at the same rates of whites, today's prison and jail populations would decline by approximately 50%
One in six black men had been incarcerated as of 2001. If current trends continue, one in three black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime
1 in 100 African American women are in prison
Nationwide, African-Americans represent 26% of juvenile arrests, 44% of youth who are detained, 46% of the youth who are judicially waived to criminal court, and 58% of the youth admitted to state prisons (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice)
From wikipedia:
Soul food, a hearty cuisine commonly associated with African Americans in the South (but also common to African Americans nationwide), makes creative use of inexpensive products procured through farming and subsistence hunting and fishing. Pig intestines are boiled and sometimes battered and fried to make chitterlings, also known as "chitlins." Ham hocks and neck bones provide seasoning to soups, beans and boiled greens (turnip greens, collard greens, and mustard greens). Other common foods, such as fried chicken and fish, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, and hoppin' john (black-eyed peas and rice) are prepared simply. When the African-American population was considerably more rural than it generally is today, rabbit, possum, squirrel, and waterfowl were important additions to the diet. Many of these food traditions are especially predominant in many parts of the rural South.[93]
Traditionally prepared soul food is often high in fat, sodium, and starch. Highly suited to the physically demanding lives of laborers, farmhands and rural lifestyles generally, it is now a contributing factor to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in a population that has become increasingly more urban and sedentary. As a result, more health-conscious African Americans are using alternative methods of preparation, eschewing trans fats in favor of natural vegetable oils and substituting smoked turkey for fatback and other, cured pork products; limiting the amount of refined sugar in desserts; and emphasizing the consumption of more fruits and vegetables than animal protein. There is some resistance to such changes, however, as they involve deviating from long culinary tradition.
Name one neighborhood anywhere in the US that has a large majority of blacks that isn't a declining hell-hole.
You must be a joy in the Caribbean.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I think the photo-analysis would be most compelling if it identified bad neighborhoods from pics of shootings, stabbings, drug deals, etc. Everything else is just a proxy.
The handwriting is on the wall. Literally, with all the graffiti!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Onoz! Look at all those black people! Must be a bad neighborhood!
Sounds real reliable.
When you drive into a neighborhood and see a lot of "check cashing" signs, bars on windows,and police 3 to a car with a shotgun prominently displayed, you usually get the idea that you're in a shitty neighborhood.
And yes, they are usually Black or Spanish neighborhoods - seeing groups of Black or Spanish men on a corner hanging out is another sign of a shitty neighborhood.
So, am I a racist or observant of a reality of our society?
What does it say about a group of people who refuse to do something about it or at least make it a social norm that drugs, violence and degrading education is for losers.
Am I racist?
Why is it I see very poor neighborhoods that are predominately white - with quite a few Black residents - (See the mountains of N. Georgia ) that don't have most of the problems I mentioned above? Yes, there is a problem with meth and alcohol, but not the violence and social decay of the cities.
There's a point where using poverty as an excuse grows thin and we have to start looking at the culture of said population. The Black people in the mountains there do NOT act like those folks in the blighted areas of the city. So, what's different? More white people and their influence? City life as opposed to mountain country life? Most social services in the mountains?
What?
Now see that because it's kind of a racial issue, you will never get funding for any study for it - too controversial - and too many folks who want to slap the "racist" label.
Maybe Dr. Bill Cosby will fund it from his show biz millions.
I judge a neighborhood by the number of black and hispanic people in it. Just like everybody else.
So a new way to obtain a superficial opinion of a neighborhood. What, did looking at relative real estate prices or just fucking asking someone "is that a nice area" has gotten too hard? You have _not_ obtained a quantified result, you have obtained a bunch of individual, biased results and presumed that the wisdom of the crowd will help you. Crowds are not always that smart.
I judge a neighborhood by a "sameness" factor - if the vast majority of people who live there dress the same, look the same, talk the same and have houses/homes that all look pretty much the same, something is very fucking weird and I get the fuck out. This applies to rich white neighborhoods as much as it does to poor black ones.
I do too. If the neighborhood is all-white, I don't want to live there. I am a Caucasian. I decided early on that I want a more diverse area for raising my kids. It has worked out very well. E pluribus unum.
I used to say that too, but then it took a few break ins before I realized you can't always tell the difference between "diversity" and "ghetto" until you live there. Multa adversus paucos.
My black neighbor drives a Mercedes, has a swimming pool, and a nicer lawn than I do.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
If they look too different, you may be in a redneck neighborhood.
You're an idiot who is falling for the rich man's war against the poor's tactics. Racism (and you and the folks who modded you up are racists) is a tool to get you and your fellow idiots who are black and hispanic to fight each other so you won't realize that your poverty comes not from the blacks and hispanics "stealing your jobs" but in reality, it's the 1%ers who are keeping you, the black, and the hispanic down.
You do realise that there are more whites on food stamps than blacks, do you not?
If you see "ghetto culture"; that is, young, thuggish looking young men of any race, you see a bad neighborhood. If you see forty year olds you're seeing a good neighborhood. Race has nothing to do with it, age and poverty do. Most poor young men will be thugs no matter what their race.
My black neighbor drives a Mercedes, has a swimming pool, and a nicer lawn than I do.
Does he live in a black neighborhood?
My black neighbor drives a Mercedes, has a swimming pool, and a nicer lawn than I do.
Does he live in a black neighborhood?
I don't think you can argue that it's not a black neighborhood, it's only an argument at what radius from that center point. At d = 1 house, it sounds like it's a 100% black neighborhood.
More Twoson than Cupertino
No, I grew up in a poor white town with very little crime. Find me a poor black neighborhood that can say that and we'll talk.
You do realise that there are more whites on food stamps than blacks, do you not?
Which doesn't say much. What about the amount of whites vs blacks proportional to the percentage of their demographic size based on the total population of the US. There are 6 times as many whites so the numbers will always be higher even if the percentage was less than but greater than 1/6th of the black percentage.
I just judge a neighborhood by the number of black and hispanic people in it.
And so do you. But YOU won't say it.
No, I judge by the following, based on the images I saw and my previous thoughts:
If you've read this far, you can probably tell that all of these point to how affluent/rich the area is, but as a non-rich person myself, I find over-opulence off-putting and prefer the more upper-middle-class look. Amazingly, it would be pretty simple to codify the above in a hueristic and probably get it 80-90% accurate in a comparison test (given adequate sampling factor). Anyone got other hueristics they were using in the pulse website?
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Name one neighborhood anywhere in the US that ... isn't a declining hell-hole.
I fixed that for you. Let's be fair, the US is not on the up and up.
I'm no statistician, but I ran quick-and-dirty linear correlations on the rankings from the MIT site with Excel (shut up; I'm at work). Oddly, the strongest correlation was a negative one between Safer and Depressing -- stronger even than Wealthier/Safer. Here are my results, if anyone's curious. (Some repeated for readability.)
Wealthy/Boring: -.32 .49 .79
Wealthy/Depressing: -.79
Wealthy/Livelier:
Wealthy/Safer:
Safer/Wealthier: .79 .24
Safer/Boring: -.15
Safer/Depressing: -.84
Safer/Livelier:
Livelier/Wealthier: .49 .24
Livelier/Boring: -.61
Livelier/Depressing: -.22
Livelier/Safer:
Depressing/Wealthier: -.79 .27
Depressing/Boring:
Depressing/Livelier: -.22
Depressing/Safer: -.84
Maybe an actual statistician can tell us something more interesting.
Visit the
I thought this was called "street smarts" and could only be acquired by people who have actually lived in cities for a while. A neighborhood or area isn't going to have a sign stating so. Digital images can help with guesses, but even though a neighborhood looks badish, it could be quite a friendly place. Vice versa: A nice neighborhood doesn't equate to a safe neighborhood. A nice attempt but ultimately futile.
Hey, look at me! My opinion is valid because I found a website that says the same thing.
Hardly, though this might have something to do with the fact that I live in Mexico.
Here, check this out
http://westhunt.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/race-potboiler-from-ron-unz/
This would be a much more worthy application of his frequently-discussed-here techniques than deciding whether J.K. Rowling would still be popular under a pseudonym.
I do, but only as a proxy of its ethnic diversity. More hispanic and black people in a neighborhood usually means a more diverse neighborhood, and a higher likelihood of the little shops I like (such as Latin supermarkets with the fresh Mexican breadstuffs and pastries), and if you mean socio-economic status, then a lower SES level means cheaper laundromats and barbers, more fast food joints and restaurants. There's nothing more boring than rich white (old) neighborhoods.
But what do I know, I'm Hispanic. Sounds like I'm not the kind of person you want around in your neighborhood. Ironically I don't think you could afford to live in my neighborhood - Atherton, California was ranked as the second most expensive zip code in the U.S. by Forbes in 2010. It's a pleasant, boring neighborhood, but 5 minutes away from vibrant (and more diverse) Redwood City and Palo Alto, going north or south.
It's not a "neighborhood" if there's only one house involved. There are no neighbors at that point!
I do too. If the neighborhood is all-white, I don't want to live there. I am a Caucasian. I decided early on that I want a more diverse area for raising my kids. It has worked out very well. E pluribus unum.
I used to say that too, but then it took a few break ins before I realized you can't always tell the difference between "diversity" and "ghetto" until you live there. Multa adversus paucos.
I've lived in a majority hispanic neighborhood for the past 17 years and it's been quite nice. Lots of families and children and the neighborhood is quite diverse (I live a few blocks from a major university). I suspect that you are confusing poor neighborhoods with neighborhoods with people of color. They are not necessarily the same thing. I've been to places which are lily white and very poor, where the crime is just out of control. The issue is poverty and hopelessness, not the amount of melanin in the skin of the residents.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
The real deal is, no one wants to live near or associate with underclass Black people. And since even middle class Black people have lots of relatives in the underclass, which is truly, horribly feral and dangerous, hipsters and conservatives alike don't want to live next to or associate in public with Black people.
Because of a rational fear of crime and violence amplifed by having a White skin.
There was the case of the the White couple torture-murdered over DAYS by four Blacks and one Black woman; the two White British tourists murdered because they had no money (by a "teen" who looked like a son of Obama) and the White girl Britney Watts, shot and murdered by an enraged vibrant, and diverse immigrant (whose mother is a civil rights attorney) in Atlanta GA. Said enraged and vibrant person angry that not enough "respect" was shown him (he was employed as a security guard in the building where the late Ms. Watts worked). And yes he shot other members of her party, paralyzing for live another young woman and seriously wounding a third. The late Lily Burke age only 17 in LA was a victim of a "diverse and vibrant" Black guy who strangled her; the late Strait family, Bob and Nancy, age 90 and 86 respectively, raped and murdered by vibrant and diverse men who looked like sons of Obama.
This is real, and if you are around the feral, violent, and profoundly stupid (all these guys got caught easily) Black underclass you stand a chance of dying in the manner of Mengele's victims. The violence that this class of Urban Black people deal out on a daily basis is horrific. Which is why NYC is engaged in stealth ethnic cleansing of Blacks like SF has already done, and Boston is also engaged in. Yes White people can be violent and murderous, but Whitey Bulger at his worst always figured the probability of being caught, and killed basically for money. Your Black feral criminal doesn't even think, that's whats truly frightening about them. [And most if not all the victims families are now 100% haters for life of Black people, that's the true harvest of Black violence directed at Whites ... and Asians who are their favorite targets.]
Everyone wants to hang out and pal around with the kids of the President (maybe he could appoint them Assistant Undersecretary of Alternate Thursdays) or Will Smith's kid (they could have a minor part in the next Scientology movie and get a SAG card!) The Black feral underclass -- not so much. In reality not anyone wants to live in a place over-run with Trayvons and Rachel Jeantels. Or work there. Or pass through there.
Put it in math terms. Whitey Bulger is likely to have killed in one way or another, about 75 people. Most of them business associates and rivals. But most Underclass Whites kill no one, only 0.0001% of Underclass Whites approach Bulger-level murder rates. Meanwhile about say, 60% of Underclass Blacks are responsible for about an average of three murders (mostly of other Blacks never solved). That makes the risk of Black underclass much higher than White, because of the far higher murder rates. Particularly since Bulgers are very rare, and don't kill for the most part just people they spot on the street for impulse.
So yes, cant and dogma and Galileo inquistion away, most people still understand the risk factors and want to avoid Black people. Its not as if they miss anything by not hanging with Trayvon and Rachel. A population that is about half illiterate (Detroit) and "can't read cursive" is no real loss to avoid.
I realized you can't always tell the difference between "diversity" and "ghetto" until you live there.
Just because you don't have that skill doesn't mean it is impossible. Many of us have that skill.
Learn to love Alaska
There's nothing more boring than rich white (old) neighborhoods.
I don't locate to a neighborhood to be entertained. Boring is a GREAT AND HIGHLY DESIRABLE feature in any neighborhood. Sure, not as exciting as drive-by shootings and crack dealers and gang graffiti and police chases, granted, but I'll take boring any day.
Neighbors who are polite but otherwise stay the fuck out of my business is another great bonus. I will gladly return the same courtesy. Gossip and being nosy and trying to tell others how they should live just don't appeal to me, probably because I have a life. I'm a live and let live kind of guy.
I know no one in a hurry to move to a black neighborhood. I can tell by all the Blacks trying to earn enough to move to white ones. Myself I avoid neighborhoods that the people have cars not expensive enough to put in the garage. Lot size smaller than a half acre. Gated with not more than 25 homes. The up side of East Greater Phoenix this is 750,000 or less Now If I could afford this in a place without rattle snakes and scorpions that would be great.
I have a pet theory that a lot of our decline is a result of the family unit disappearing. In the days of my youth, it was almost universal the man supported the family, and the woman ran the house. Both were absolutely essential.
These days, welfare programs have replaced the male's efforts. The Government is far better equipped to finance fatherless families as counterfeiting currency is illegal for an individual, but legal for the government. Useless males, replaced by welfare programs and cellphones, now congregate often finding much mischief. The sexual drives are still on, so we satisfy them with each other.
I believe the current expansion of homosexuality is nothing more than the result of males whose attractiveness to the female has waned as the female finds other means to support the family and no longer needs to expend the effort to maintain a relationship with a male. With this in mind, pandering to the needs of a male is tantamount to changing the oil in a rental car. Males are too easily replaced - look to the animals - the females are usually the ones that run the show. The only thing we males had going for us is we had the time to go to work to finance the family - but, thanks to easily accessible WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) government programs, unless one is a really high-income male, there is little use for him in today's Government-financed family.
Males do the same, we jump from woman to woman like a tomcat. No loyalty to one woman. A loose woman shows up and he's onto it.
Women I have encountered seem to have an unrealistic expectation of my capacity to keep them in trinkets and entertained. It seems to be my lot in life to work for wages, pay tax, sign onto more debt to buy a "nice" car ( chick magnet ), buy jewelery because the ads tell me that is what I have to do to "prove my love". The female takes that which I traded years of my life for and hocks it at the business with the sign twirler in front saying "we buy gold". I am no longer needed. The government has made me obsolete.
Scott Adams summed it up pretty good here...
http://www.dilbert.com/2013-07-21/
But... but... but... That's Racist!
Myself I avoid neighborhoods that the people have cars not expensive enough to put in the garage.
So anywhere there are apartments and the people make no less than 50% above the median.
How does it feel to think of 80% of the United States as a dangerous place to be avoided? Oh. My. God. Its people like you isn't it? People like you are responsible for this never ending blight of fear and warmongering to fight [ terrorism, drugs, minorities, gays, poor people, pedophiles, nonconformists of any kind].
How did you find slashdot? People on here sometimes drive junkers. Some don't live in gated communities or own any land at all. Hell, some don't even own cars! A dangerous lot indeed. You better run to your congressman to ban this site.
So your house is only 833 square feet?
Maybe people who are treated worse than other people on account of the color of their skin are more likely to end up in depressed neighborhoods. This doesn't have to be a racist thing.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You do realise that there are more whites on food stamps than blacks, do you not?
No matter how many times that old canard is stated, it's still not true.
American Third Position
Finally, a real choice!
Don't be such a coward AC. I *refuse* to live in a black neighborhood. It's a cultural thing! Nothing to do with race. I will not raise my son in a poor black neighborhood and be exposed to cultural influences of children without fathers. I will not let this corrupt culture of ghetto hold back my son's potential in life. There's not a single person on Slashdot that can argue otherwise (try if you can if just for entertainment). Truth is truth!
Now Asian and Indian communities, they can be my neighbors. Even if I can't understand their language. I've see how the well educated raise their children. It's safe and reassuring. Again, purely culture.
Life is not for the lazy.
I'm not talking about "community" - so few neighborhoods truly have that - but about services. I'd rather have a few small shops, restaurants, pubs, a movie theater, some gyms or skating rinks, parks, etc. within convenient walking distance rather than live in a row of lawned houses.
There is an enormous difference between places where humans dwell and natural land. Is it "safe"?"
There is a difference between humans and wild animals like wolves.
The total number of visible cars parked anywhere per street block for 7 contiguous days divided by 7 divided by the number of residences times the average 7 day ratio between the maximum and minimum value of cars for each day. requires several comparative values localized by city, town and country.
On a contrast, if the neighbourhood is all black nobody wants to live there, not even the blacks. You know it's true.
You're an idiot. I just a neighborhood on how the house quality. A poor neighborhood has poor quality housing (little better than shacks), a rich neighborhood has big houses and expensive apartment buildings.
Now everyone lives in the USA, and not everyone is a racist.
HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
Yes, because we all know, nobody knows what is cool and what is hot better than the students/professors at MIT...
I grew up in a town where most of the poor black people literally lived in their own "town" across the railroad tracks. There was exactly one road in, and no other way to enter or leave the neighborhood. It also had the lowest crime rate in the entire town.
It doesn't help much that my hometown is world renowned for it's production of meth, from which most of the local crime stems. The vast majority of crimes are committed by poor white guys cooking meth or robbing people to buy meth.
I have lived in TONS of very rich, very white neighborhoods in my life. I have never met more nosy, in-your-face people than I did in those areas. As soon as there is an HOA involved, your house is NOT your house anymore. Every single person you live near will get a vote as to how you should live your life, and you're EXPECTED to keep "unwanted" behavior a secret to your grave. Those are the most intellectually dishonest people I have ever met, and I will never purchase a house that belongs to an HOA ever again.
I have lived in TONS of very rich, very white neighborhoods in my life. I have never met more nosy, in-your-face people than I did in those areas. As soon as there is an HOA involved, your house is NOT your house anymore. Every single person you live near will get a vote as to how you should live your life, and you're EXPECTED to keep "unwanted" behavior a secret to your grave. Those are the most intellectually dishonest people I have ever met, and I will never purchase a house that belongs to an HOA ever again.
HOAs are just a way for bitter old retirees to feel important. That explains everything about them.