Variation in Restaurant Sanitary Scores in New York City

The purpose of this study was to determine whether restaurants that are homogenous in nature would exhibit substantially different hygiene scores based on the underlying consumer learning behaviors present in the neighborhoods in which the restaurants are located

Big Data and Big Cities: The Promises and Limitations of Improved Measures of Urban Life

New, “big” data sources allow measurement of city characteristics and outcome variables higher frequencies and finer geographic scales than ever before. However, big data will not solve large urban social science questions on its own. Big data has the most value for the study of cities when it allows measurement of the previously opaque, or when it can be coupled with exogenous shocks to people or place. We describe a number of new urban data sources and illustrate how they can be used to improve the study and function of cities. We first show how Google Street View images can be used to predict income in New York City, suggesting that similar image data can be used to map wealth and poverty in previously unmeasured areas of the developing world. We then discuss how survey techniques can be improved to better measure willingness to pay for urban amenities. Finally, we explain how Internet data is being used to improve the quality of city services

Gotham city. Predicting ‘corrupted’municipalities with machine learning

The economic costs of white-collar crimes, such as corruption, bribery, embezzlement, abuse of authority, and fraud, are substantial. How to eradicate them is a mounting task in many countries. Using police archives, we apply machine learning algorithms to predict corruption crimes in Italian municipalities. Drawing on input data from 2011, our classification trees correctly forecast over 70 % (about 80 %) of the municipalities that will experience corruption episodes (an increase in corruption crimes) over the period 2012–2014. We show that algorithmic predictions could strengthen the ability of the 2012 Italy's anti-corruption law to fight white-collar delinquencies and prevent the occurrence of such crimes while preserving transparency and accountability of the policymaker

The Vibrancy and Resilience of British High Streets

British high streets have endured significant economic and cultural challenges both in the leadup to and as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The volatile and challenging socio-economic environment has been brought about by the lingering effects of the 2008 recession, high business rates, competition from online retailers, and the impact and implications of the global pandemic. The changes to the high street retail landscape have been recorded using new sources of data that can supplement traditional data sources such as local government retail surveys. New sources of data such as consumer data, property portal data and mobility data are more spatially and temporally granular. As a result, local governments, the retail sector and stakeholders can use these emerging forms of data to create more easily updateable measures of high street composition and performance. This thesis utilises the Local Data Company’s Britain-wide database on retail location, type and vacancy. The data ranges between the start of 2017 and June of 2021, containing around 800,000 records of occupiers. The analysis within this thesis starts by describing the composition and vibrancy of British high streets in the lead-up to the pandemic. Next, the thesis provides an evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent shift towards remote working on the viable resilience of commuter towns. This section is followed by an exploration of the short-term impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions on the resilience of Britain’s high streets. Finally, the application of new forms of data in informing local government high street regeneration policy is studied as part of a knowledge exchange with the London Borough of Camden. This thesis contributes to our understanding of how the circumstances of different British high streets can be monitored and mapped, with the goal of improving understanding of vibrancy, resilience, and potential for regeneration

2016 Annual report Bedford NH.

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire

Enablers and Disablers of Private Small-Scale Residential Rehabilitation in Fringe Neighborhoods of Philadelphia

Philadelphia displays a clear need for rehabilitation of dilapidated housing through the high percentage of vacant properties in fringe neighborhoods. While government incentives have attempted to solve these issues, there is little documentation on the driving forces and obstacles of private-sector investment in these areas of Philadelphia for the purpose of revitalization. The purpose of this thesis is to uncover and analyze the enablers and disablers of private small-scale residential rehabilitation in fringe areas of Philadelphia through an analysis of literature and interviews with practicing developers. Contexts include a brief history of the vacant housing problem in order to describe the current supply of vacant housing, include how to understand the process of rehabilitation through real estate investment, and case studies of fringe neighborhoods in order to define relevant areas of study. The collection of media reports, journal articles, books, and community reports about fringe neighborhoods serves as the initial analysis of categories of enablers and disablers. Recent events and occurrences are used as indicators of effectiveness. From these media reports, interviewees of practicing small-scale residential redevelopers in fringe neighborhoods are selected. Each interview asked the same set of questions to ensure consistency. Then enablers and disablers as defined through the interviews are compared and analyzed to those of the media reports. The final conclusion finds that private small-scale residential redevelopment is a highly flexible and case-specific approach to addressing the vacant housing issue in Philadelphia