NPR Can Help You Determine if You Live in a City

A tongue-in-cheek, and somewhat convoluted, infographic produced in association with NPR's "Cities Project" aims to help participants deduce whether or not they live in a city.

1 minute read

July 13, 2012, 1:00 PM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan discusses the decision-tree style
infographic, Do You Live In A City?, designed by Nelson Hsu, Natalie Jones, Melanie Taube, and Tanya Ballard Brown, which despite disclaiming that it "may (or may not) show you if you're really an urbanite," has NPR's commenters all in a huff. 

"The decision-tree style image leads you through a series of mundane
binary inquiries, finally spitting you out at one of six possible
answers, ranging from 'Definitely Yes' to 'Definitely No,'" writes Campbell-Dollaghan. "Obvious
factors, like transportation mode and housing type, are joined by more
inexplicable ones, like how long it takes you to get to Starbucks and
whether or not you go to work before dawn."

"I'm going to use this chart in my class as an example of all of the
things that can go wrong with decision tree diagrams: double barreled
questions, non-exclusive choices, ambiguous paths, suspect definitions,
etc." reads one of the series of complaints (this one by ChicagoSouth) left in the comments section of the post.  

"The chart says far more about our flawed understanding
of cities, than of cities themselves," writes Campbell-Dollaghan. We prefer to think it says more about NPR readers' need to lighten up. 

Thursday, July 12, 2012 in Fast Company Co:Design

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Cover CM Credits, Earn Certificates, Push Your Career Forward

Aerial view of town of Wailuku in Maui, Hawaii with mountains in background against cloudy sunset sky.

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly

Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

July 1, 2025 - Honolulu Civil Beat

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

July 2, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

White and purple sign for Slow Street in San Francisco, California with people crossing crosswalk.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths

Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

July 1, 2025 - KQED

Google street view image of strip mall in suburban Duncanville, Texas.

Adaptive Reuse Will Create Housing in a Suburban Texas Strip Mall

A developer is reimagining a strip mall property as a mixed-use complex with housing and retail.

2 hours ago - Parking Reform Network

Blue tarps covering tents set up by unhoused people along chain link fence on concrete sidewalk.

Study: Anti-Homelessness Laws Don’t Work

Research shows that punitive measures that criminalized unhoused people don’t help reduce homelessness.

4 hours ago - Next City

Aerial tram moving along cable in hilly area in Medellin, Colombia.

In U.S., Urban Gondolas Face Uphill Battle

Cities in Latin America and Europe have embraced aerial transitways — AKA gondolas — as sustainable, convenient urban transport, especially in tricky geographies. American cities have yet to catch up.

6 hours ago - InTransition Magazine