The Storefront Index

By Joe Cortright  26.4.2016

 

As Jane Jacobs so eloquently described it in The Death and Life of American Cities, much of the essence of urban living is reflected in the “sidewalk ballet” of people going about their daily errands, wandering along the margins of public spaces (streets, sidewalks, parks and squares) and in and out of quasi-private spaces (stores, salons, bars, boutiques, bars and restaurants).

 

Clusters of these quasi-private spaces, which are usually neighborhood businesses, activate a streetscape, both drawing life from and adding to a steady flow of people outside.

 

In an effort to begin to quantify this key aspect of neighborhood vitality, we’ve developed a new statistical indicator—the Storefront Index (click to see the full report: http://cityobservatory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Storefront_Index_April_2016.pdf)—that measures the number and concentration of customer-facing businesses in the nation’s large metropolitan areas. We’ve computed the Storefront Index by mapping the locations of hundreds of thousands of everyday businesses: grocery and hardware stores, beauty salons, bookstores, bars and restaurants, movie theatres and entertainment venues, and then identifying significant clusters of these businesses—places where each storefront business is no more than 100 meters from the next storefront.

 

MORE:

http://cityobservatory.org/the-storefront-index/

Notice how much an effect this index has on property values and vice versa.

Notice how much an effect this index has on property values and vice versa.

 

True. Cities have so much to gain by aggressively promoting this type of growth.

I should chime in and say the base map (the black and white map tiles) in the background is from data from OpenStreetMap, an open crowd-source geographic data with minimal restrictions. Its licensing and nature is like the wikipedia version of google maps. ;)  (You can thank me and others for ensuring downtown Cleveland is up to date :D)

 

This overall idea is great but from looking it at briefly, I wonder about the results' accuracy: Cleveland along with many other cities' downtown cores (defined by the  circle on the map) are half under water... I didn't see if they took that into account..

This overall idea is great but from looking it at briefly, I wonder about the results' accuracy: Cleveland along with many other cities' downtown cores (defined by the  circle on the map) are half under water... I didn't see if they took that into account..

 

Sure if you're ranking cities that has to be a consideration.  Looking at a place individually I think it's a nice resource to help figure out where additional retail makes the most sense.