Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Exposing Urban Legends: The Real Purchasing Power Of Central City Neighborhoods, Prepared For The Brookings Institution, John Pawasarat, Lois M. Quinn

ETI Publications

The gap between “urban legends”—such as, “no one works in inner-city neighborhoods”—and urban realities is wide, and often the private marketing data that people rely on to provide accurate neighborhood information actually exacerbate these myths. These marketing data have several problems. They are often based on infrequently updated Census information that undercounts central city residents; they make misleading generalizations (e.g. crime statistics are not based on the number of crimes committed in the neighborhood but estimated from the “type” of people living there); and they fail to review local data for trend analysis, thereby missing many positive developments in cities. …