In 1985 I started my “data scientist” career as the head of the DataBank at the Center for Urban Economic Development at UIC-Chicago. Ahh yes, these were the days when universities were investing in mainframe computers, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data were becoming available, and the phrase “data-driven decision making” was entering our lexicon. Heady [...]

Home Depot made national news when it opened its Mills Basin Brooklyn store in 2002. Its urban format partially reflected a new realization that, for city neighborhoods, urban income densities were a better measure of potential retail demand than the over-used measure of median income. The argument for measuring urban areas differently began in the [...]