Gentlify

California is facing a housing shortage that has resulted in urban sprawl, soaring rent prices and property values, and displacement of low income families. The solution to these problems isn't clear however as transit-oriented development, amenities investment and desenity building proposals each have their own community challenges. Today, in Los Angeles, there’s an ambiguous connection between urban policies and impact.

Enter Gentlify, our policy simulation tool that supports gentle, sustainable gentrification.

Using Uber's H3 gric, the tool maps geographic data into a hexagonal grid over Los Angeles County to provide a more granular look at the effects of policy changes. The tool combines population statistics such as age, gender, racial composition, and education from the 5-year American Community Survey with LA County tax assessor, crime, and transportation data to model the effects of policies across multiple dimensions. We model using Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations to simulate how policy changes will affect vulnerable populations 5, 10, or 15 years into the future.