The geography of bars and restaurants
Bars and restaurants are the main amenities in worldwide cities and have been found to be important to a city’s economy, as Harvard’s professor Edward Glaeser noted in Triumph of the City.
However, bars and restaurants are not evenly spread across the urban space but rather concentrated in several areas following different patterns. Thanks to the granularity and quality of the data provided by EIXOS, we can analyze this phenomenon to understand the behavior and patterns of bars and restaurants’ geography.
For this example I took the data from Madrid and visualized bars in red and restaurants in green (click to enlarge):
However, bars and restaurants are not evenly spread across the urban space but rather concentrated in several areas following different patterns. Thanks to the granularity and quality of the data provided by EIXOS, we can analyze this phenomenon to understand the behavior and patterns of bars and restaurants’ geography.
For this example I took the data from Madrid and visualized bars in red and restaurants in green (click to enlarge):
Source: EIXOS
In total, they account for more than 3.000 restaurants and more than 8.000 bars representing more than 20% of all economic activities at street level in Madrid. Additionally, both categories show different patterns of concentration. While bars are more evenly spread across the city, restaurants show a more clustered pattern of localization around the city center.
Source: EIXOS
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Source: EIXOS
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As proposed by University of Chicago sociologist Terry Clark in The City as an Entertainment Machine, people “pondering where to live and work, restaurants are more than food on their plate. The presence of distinct restaurants redefines the local context, even for persons who do not eat in them. They are part of the local market baskets of amenities that vary from place to place." Furthermore, this statement rises the legitimate question of how consumption and entertainment drive urban development (or vice versa). How do amenities and related consumption attract talented people, who in turn drive the classic processes which make cities grow?' This new question proposed by Professor Clark is critical for policy makers, urban public officials, business, and non-profit leaders who are using culture, entertainment, and urban amenities to enhance their locations for present and future residents, tourists, conventioneers, and shoppers.
Once more, this is another example to talk about the complexity of cities and the social or economic interactions taking place in the built environment.
Once more, this is another example to talk about the complexity of cities and the social or economic interactions taking place in the built environment.