Mapping Boston's public space with 75,000 Instagrams

MappingThe Privatizationof Public Space

Evidence from 75,000 Instagrams

Yunjie LiMDesS 16’, Harvard Univ +Chaewon AhnSMarch 15’, MIT

GeoDev Meettup Boston 2014

What does Boston’s public space look like?

SOCIAL SPACE

PUBLIC SPACE...privately owned public space...privatized public space

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Private space

virtual space (webpages, apps...)

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PUBLIC REALM

connection of people

Face to face interaction

virtual connections (friend, follows, ...)

Term Definition

Third space

First space

Second space

2005Boston Land Use

’71 ’85 ’99 ’05

A re-categorization

Land Use Code of Boston, 2005

Evidence from social media

LegendKernel density of postsPercentile

Top 10%

10-20%

20-40%

40-60%

60-80%

80-100%

CENSUS BLOCKS

´0 0.5 10.25

Miles

Geo-tagged Instagrams

Cases of Public Space

Kernel density map of Instagram posting locations

Chinatown

Quicy Market

Newbury Street

Boston Common

“Privatization” of land use?

24-Hour Volume Study

Open social

Conditional social

Private social

1 Boston Common 2 Copley Square 3 Newbury Street

4 Charles Street 5 Prudential Center 6 Faneuil Hall

7 Government Center 8 South Station 9 Beach St, Chinatown

City highlights: from open gardens to commercial & recreational

Image of The City

Kevin Lynch, 1960

Remapped Boston

27,392 Instagramers, 2014