Thursday, July 14, 2016
Proof by definition
BBC touts a "study" "showing" that urban areas with more Coooooool people are also more walkable. Atypically, the author gives proper credit to correlation/causation:
There’s not enough data to definitively say why these urban areas, which easily allow car-free errands and whose grocery stores are just a strollable jaunt away for many citizens, are filled with educated people. But it’s definitely a starting point for conversation: Many socioeconomic and generational trends the world over could help explain why university graduates gravitate toward crowded, subway-lined metropolises these days. In fact, such an intellectual influx has started to change the entire faces of some urban areas.The correlation/causation puzzle isn't needed here. It's all in the definition of walkable. They're not using a pure physical measure of safety and connectivity. They're mainly counting stores and parks and such within walking distance. Before 1930, downtown areas included grocery stores. By 1960 those stores were all gone. Any downtown that has such amenities has ADDED THEM RECENTLY, responding to the desires of Cooool Rich Youths. Thus we KNOW the direction of causation. These places have become walkable to attract and keep the Cooools. When this generation has kids and moves to a "coincidentally" all-white acreage 50 miles away from the Vibrant City, the stores will fail.
Labels: Blinded by Stats
¶ 1:31 AM
