Last week, the online local retail blog Racked.com announced its Neighborhood Style Showdown, pitting neighborhood against neighborhood to find out which areas of several major metros its readers rated as having the best local style. Cities in the contest include New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Photos credit: New York Times
Each day of the week, Racked, whose tagline is “Shopping and Style Intelligence”, painted a style portrait of each neighborhood, highlighting unique shopping districts, and paying homage to its favorite boutiques, shops and eateries. From the results and Twitter feeds, it’s evident that readers are passionate about their favorite neighborhoods, and are actively engaging other local residents to cast their vote.
Image Credit: Racked.com
Needless to say, this type of contest wouldn’t be possible without neighborhood level data — it’s hard to imagine anyone getting passionate about (or even knowing the boundaries of) the arbitrary “census designated boundary” they live within.
Mark Miller is a Product Manager at Maponics