Is Your Block a “Culture Block”?


LaunchEvent_zps4da26c45The City of Philadelphia is set to launch CultureBlocks, another one of these innovative tech tools that the city keeps rolling out, as if that’s just a normal thing for it to do. It’ll be a free mapping tool that filters demographic and geographic information through a cultural lens in order to reveal which neighborhoods are most creative and culturally fertile.

The project is a collaboration with Penn’s Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP), which has been examining what makes a “natural” cultural district for years. (In 2004, the three districts SIAP identified as natural cultural centers were Old City, Norris Square and 40th Street.) But CultureBlocks is obviously being pitched hard to the business community as a tool for investors. Who would’t want to invest in a creative, vibrant area? It launches April 30.

Via Philadelphia Business Journal