I’ve got a bag of proposals that may never see the light of day, but they can live on here for funzies and future inspiration. One of these is Data Walk: Bringing Demographics to the People. According to data from the 2000 Census, a particular block east of Allen Street is 50 percent more Asian than the block directly west of it. And a block north of Rivington Street has 40 percent more divorced couples than the block directly south. If you walk down these New York City streets, however, these numbers don’t add up. What does it mean when spatial data is defined by arbitrary boundaries? How does the U.S. Census compare to its original people and places? Data Walk will bring demographics to the people by mapping Census data directly onto the landscape. The boundaries of Census blocks and tracts will be drawn on the sidewalks with a continuous chalk line and paired with select statistics to make this information more accessible and bring awareness to its strengths and inaccuracies. See more here…
