Municipal Histories

Every city keeps a diary. And like most diaries, it’s nearly unreadable to outsiders. Budget documents, contracts, meeting minutes, court filings, and email correspondence form the entries. They add up to a story of how a metro area is built, what it values, and where it’s going.

We use a systematic reading of municipal records and data to reconstruct how communities arrive at defining decisions. The goal is to partner primarily with local newsrooms to bring these histories to wider local readership and public understanding. Current research subjects include real estate in the Sun Belt and West Coast transportation infrastructure.