The Look Ahead: Seema Iyer, head of Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance

Now the head honcho of Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance-Jacob France Institute (BNIA), the one-stop shop for data on Baltimore neighborhoods, Seema Iyer has been entrenched in Baltimore City data since 2005.

The organization that annually releases a “vital signs” report looking at local health and quality of life, so we figured there’s be no one better to tells us where Baltimore is headed based on where the data shows us it’s been. Iyer was more than happy to oblige in a conversation about population loss and gain at the neighborhood level, how data governance has changed over the years, and why it’s even important to have events like BNIA’s Baltimore Data Week so residents can learn more about the place where they live.

“It can’t just be that one sector of the economy knows about neighborhood data,” Iyer said, “because neighborhoods matter to everybody. Neighborhoods matter because we live there, work there, drive through there. Neighborhoods matter because they are our city.”

Check out the full conversation with Iyer below.

Watch our conversation here:

Here’s the audio version:

 

And check out the rest of our video series exploring lessons from the pandemic year, The Look Ahead, here:

Watch past episodes Donte Kirby is a 2020-2022 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.