This table ranks census tracts in cities (pop. ≥ 50K) east of the Mississippi as potential 15-minute neighborhoods. Each index is a percentile rank (0–1): a value of 0.85 means the tract scores higher than 85% of all tracts. Column headers are abbreviated; hover for the full field name. Columns marked ⊕ feed into the combined score. weather (city) is uniform across all tracts in a city; all other indices vary by tract.

combined

Weighted average of five ⊕ sub-indices (equal weight by default).

⊕ vibe

Percentile rank of culture density + veg restaurant count + bike repair shop count. Each item strongly boosts the score.

culture

Sub-component of vibe. Density of cafes, pubs, bars, bookshops, bakeries, museums, universities, libraries, theatres, cinemas, and community centres. Source: OpenStreetMap via Geofabrik.

vegetarian

Number of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the tract. Source: OpenStreetMap via Overpass API.

bike_repair

Number of bicycle repair shops in the tract (shop=bicycle or amenity=bicycle_repair). Source: OpenStreetMap via Overpass API.

⊕ affordability

Percentile rank of housing cost (lower cost = higher rank). Blends median gross rent and median home value. Source: ACS 5-Year Estimates (2022).

⊕ weather_city

Percentile rank of nice_days − hot_muggy − frigid_days: rewards mild weather, penalises hot humid summers and frigid winters (city-level). Source: NOAA 1991–2020 Hourly Weather Normals.

⊕ safety

Percentile rank of safety: 50% violent crime rate (city/agency level, state-median fallback) + 50% incarceration rate (tract-level). Sources: Kaplan UCR 2020 (Jacob Kaplan’s Concatenated UCR Files, ICPSR 100707); Opportunity Atlas (Opportunity Insights).

⊕ mobility

Composite of walkability (30%), transit (30%), and bikeability (40%). Source: OpenStreetMap via Geofabrik.

walkability

Sub-component of mobility. Density of footways, pedestrian zones, steps, and crossings.

bikeability

Sub-component of mobility. Density of cycleways and bicycle parking.

transit

Sub-component of mobility. Density of bus stops, bus stations, and railway stations.

pop_45min

Working-age population reachable within a 45-minute transit commute (walk + GTFS schedules, time-decay weighted), averaged across block groups in the tract. Source: EPA Smart Location Database V3.

0_cars_%

Percentage of zero-vehicle households, averaged across block groups. Higher = more car-free viable. Source: EPA Smart Location Database V3.

rent / home_val

Median gross rent and median home value. Source: ACS 5-Year Estimates (2022).

nice_days

Days per year with daily high between 60–85 °F.

hot_muggy

Days per year with normal daily high above 85 °F and peak dew point at or above 65 °F (thresholds adjusted for 30-year averaged normals).

frigid_days

Days per year with normal daily low at or below 20 °F.

jul_high / jan_low

Average July 3 PM and January 6 AM temperatures (°F). Cities with July high > 93.0 °F are excluded.

crime/100K city

Violent crimes per 100,000 residents (city-level).

incarceration_rate

Fraction of children from low-income families (25th percentile) who grew up in this tract and were incarcerated on April 1, 2010 (2010 Census), pooled across men and women (tract-level). Lower = safer. Source: Opportunity Atlas, Opportunity Insights (opportunityinsights.org).

neighborhood

Nearest neighborhood name; click 🗺 to open Google Maps centered on the tract. Source: Google Maps Geocoding API.

Excluded data

• Cities with pop. < 50,000 are not included.
• Cities with mean July high > 93.0 °F are excluded for excessive heat.
• Census sentinel values are treated as missing: -666666666 (data not available), top-coded values (3501 for rent, 2000001 for home value — exceeds reporting cap), and bottom-coded values (99 for rent, 9999 for home value — below reporting floor). Tracts missing rent or home value after this cleaning are dropped.
• Zero-amenity tracts — tracts with no OSM features in any culture, veg, walkability, bikeability, or transit category — are dropped.