Measuring Gentrification in Three U.S. Cities Using Google Street View

Keywords: Google Street View, Gentrification, Built Environment
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 46

Abstract

Google Street View has been recognized as a tool for measuring characteristics of the built environment since 2007. The program provides panoramic views of city streets and is an appropriate method for analyzing change in a neighborhood. One of those changes of interest to social scientists is gentrification. We use Drexel University’s (2019) gentrification criteria based on census data to identify tracts in three cities in the U.S. (Boston, Cincinnati, and Phoenix) that underwent gentrification between 2010 and 2019. These cities were selected because their urban morphologies and timing of settlement differ. We then used Hwang’s (2015) gentrification index to measure gentrification in the built environment which was originally applied in Chicago. The measurement worked best in Boston with a population density that was closer to Chicago’s. The most conspicuous change in Boston’s built environment was the building of up-scale apartment/condominium complexes. The gentrification index did not work as well in Cincinnati where much of the evidence for gentrification was concentrated in only a few blocks in gentrifying tracts. Hwang’s (2015) gentrification index was the weakest in Phoenix where there was almost no evidence of up-scale high-density apartments/condominiums. Many gentrifying tracts had vacant (unbuilt upon land). Most of the evidence for gentrification in Phoenix was noted in the rehabilitation of the bungalow- type housing. Our conclusion is that cities with different urban morphologies than the city of Chicago need different methods to detect evidence of gentrification in the built environment.