Culture

CityLab Daily: Micro-Mapping a City’s Density

Also: Where the creative class is growing, and when “big plans” could change the world.
Garrett Dash Nelson/OpenMap Tiles

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Grid lock: Density can define how a city looks, feels, and functions. It’s also a characteristic that tends to get painted in broad strokes. Most discussions of density focus on a single number that represents how many people live in a given area. But that inevitably misses nuances on the ground: What if there’s uninhabited water, mountains, or deserts, and what about airport tarmacs, railroad yards, or central business districts where few people live?