Hi Belle & others, You could put your teacher in touch with Andy Woodruff of Axis Maps, who's done some work with crowdsourced Boston neighborhood boundaries, take a look here: https://bostonography.com/2012/crowdsourced-neighborhood-boundaries-part-one-consensus/ I'm remembering an earlier project by Tom Taylor using Flickr tags to derive shapefiles but it doesn't seem to be online any longer but here's a trace: https://flowingdata.com/2008/11/28/neighborhood-boundaries-with-flickr-shapefiles/ Eric On Fri, Jan 29, 2021 at 9:33 AM Bertuca, David <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > hello Belle and all, happy new year.... > > We have worked on neighborhood mapping at University at Buffalo and from > experience, can say that it varies. > > Buffalo neighborhoods, for example, are loosely defined by residents and > not all agree. our online map of the city would receive calls asking us to > redraw boundaries for a variety of reasons. Some wanted to keep property > values high by cutting lower income sections out of their neighborhood. > Others felt there was something that did not match local perceptions. > > We found the neighborhood boundaries to sometimes be quite controversial. > > My predecessor created the original boundaries by walking each > neighborhood and talking with people. it was a long process but he was > determined to do an accurate job. he also used books on the neighborhoods > to compile his research. > > contrast this with NYC. My colleague prepared a Manhattan neighborhoods > map and he began with a book that provided specific boundaries that were > established. these had fixed borders. > > some other cities we found had fixed, or accepted boundaries. others had > general regions that were not so concrete or distinct. > > your teacher may want to examine some sources for various cities to see > how they are identified. places like Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco, > have good research. Less populated towns may not get the same treatment. > > Belle, if you would like additional information on this topic,please > contact me. > > As an aside, there are journal articles that discuss how Google maps are > changing neighborhood names. their system creates new names to assist route > identification. locals note that the names do not correspond with local > history. it is inadvertent revision of history. > > David J Bertuca, Map Librarian, Emeritus > University at Buffalo > > > -------- Original message -------- > From: Angela R Cope <[log in to unmask]> > Date: 1/29/21 8:55 AM (GMT-05:00) > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Neighborhood Boundaries Research / Social Theory > > *From:* Belle Lipton <[log in to unmask]> > *Sent:* Friday, January 29, 2021 7:25 AM > *To:* [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> > *Cc:* Belle Lipton <[log in to unmask]> > *Subject:* Neighborhood Boundaries Research / Social Theory > > One of our teachers is designing a lesson for next week, looking at > neighborhoods and wondering if anyone knew of books or articles that > address these questions: > > Who decides the boundaries between our neighborhoods? How does this impact > how we think about where we live? Who benefits from certain ways of > dividing and who doesn’t? > > Belle Lipton > GIS Map Librarian - Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the > Boston Public Library > [log in to unmask] > > >