Urban Design Needs of Anti Racism Protest in NYC and LA
︎︎︎Princeton, NJ︎︎︎Sep 2021 - May 2022
The purpose of this research was to spatially and quantitatively analyze anti-racism protesters' public space use in New York City and Los Angeles during the summer of 2020, utilizing crowd gathering data.
The research questions addressed were
1. Which spaces in Los Angeles and
New York City are most frequently used for anti-racism protests?
2. Which urban design features affect where people choose to protest?
Objectives
1. Determine protest statistics for May - July 2020 fo NYC and LA utilizing crowd gathering data.
2. Determine, map, and spatially analyze the mos frequent anti-racism protest locations in NYC and LA.
3. Determine which urban features most impact anti-racism protest frequency and size, utilizing a Qualitative Comparative Analysis.
Results
From the spatial analysis, it was determined that transit access is a key variable in determining where people choose to protest. From the Qualitative Comparative Analysis, it was found that high white racial percentage, large public space size, and walkability are core conditions for both large protest size and high frequency of anti-racism protest in a location. These results are significant because the literature does not directly point to racial demographics being an important factor in choosing anti racism protest locations.
