Samira Saad
- Latent Construct
The latent construct I would like to measure is the priorities of Boston residents, such as housing, shopping, health, the environment, and work. To measure this, the unit of analysis I would use is neighborhood as listed by the BRA.
This construct is interesting because it is vital to understanding what drives building permits and changes in the city, but cannot be seen by simply looking at the building permit data. I would measure this latent construct by understanding the types of construction being done and in what industries. This will measure the priorities of Boston residents because if there is time, money, and effort going into a project (as seen through the filing of a building permit) there must be some sort of want for that project. For example, it would not be feasible to build an apartment complex that no one would pay to live in. Therefore, housing must be a priority of some Boston residents.
- Manifest Variables
The manifest variables I would look at would be values for safety and health, education, sustainability, and wealth. More may arise from further looks into the dataset. Safety and health can be quantified through counting building permits relating to affordable/middle-income housing, hospitals, health offices, and gyms. Values for education, sustainability, and wealth could be quantified in similar ways, as seen in the diagram below.
Within these categories, it would also be important to further differentiate between new construction and renovation, as I believe new construction shows a greater priority or need. Though, renovations can also show value, especially with housing and schools. Large scale renovations to schools are very expensive and can greatly improve the educational experience of the students – such as with building new athletic or arts facilities, among other examples. For the housing stock, I think it will be important to include renovations, especially for affordable housing. This is based on the idea that landlords make less profit on affordable housing than market rate housing, so they may potentially receive less value for their investments. This does require further research as it is complicated by capital improvement requirements on building loans.
- Potential Sources of Bias
One potential source of bias that may complicate the development and interpretation of the measures is how construction decisions may not represent the needs of Boston residents, but rather outside residents in an attempt to bring them into the city. In particular, more luxury housing may bring wealth into the city rather than serve the wealth already here. The same can be said for high-paying office jobs and lab developments, which mainly do not provide jobs for current Boston residents.
Seeing Boston Neighborhoods through Administrative Data 