Identifying Trends from Analysis of 7,000 PlanPhilly Stories

Ken Steif performed meta-analysis of 7,000 articles and article views for the local planning site PlanPhilly. Astute Planetizen readers will recognize the name Ken Steif from a similar analysis Steif performed earlier this year of Planetizen's 14-year archive. For PlanPhilly, however, the analysis drills down to access the themes that drive the discussion about planning in one of the country's richest planning case studies, Philadelphia. Steif explains the value offered by the exercise: "While the last decade has seen an explosion of urban-centric online media, PlanPhilly’s more local focus has helped it differentiate itself.  Unlike many of its peer publications, PlanPhilly reports on planning and policy issues that directly effect Philadelphia and its diverse citizenry."

Steif's analysis examines the occurrence of articles corresponding to specific writers, neighborhoods, and keywords, identifying trends among the many articles published over PlanPhilly's eight year history.

Steif identified one trend that held true at the local level as well as the national level: "I found a similar trend in my analysis of article data for the more nationally focused Planetizen.  It appears in Philadelphia as elsewhere, the mid 2000’s marked a collective shift in how we envision people and goods moving within cities."