Maryland State Innovation Team

Metadata Descriptions

md_geoid_names.csv

Description:
This file provides human-readable names for Maryland census tracts, generated by spatially associating each tract with the most relevant nearby or contained place name (e.g., city, town, neighborhood, etc.) using OpenStreetMap data. The process involves:

• Extracting all OSM “place” features (e.g., hamlet, neighborhood, village, locality, town, suburb, city, quarter) within Maryland’s census tract boundaries.
• Assigning each tract the largest place(s) contained within it, or, if none are present, the nearest place by geodesic distance and cardinal direction.
• Standardizing place type names and resolving naming ambiguities by appending county names where necessary.

Fields:

• tract_geoid: 2020 Census tract GEOID (string)
• tract_name: Human-readable tract name (string), e.g., “The tract encompassing the neighborhoods of Hampden and Remington”
• (Intermediate file: md_geoid_name_options.csv contains additional fields: place_type, place_name, place_dist, place_dir)

Source Data:

• OpenStreetMap place features (via Overpass API)

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baltimore_residential_security/baltimore_residential_security.shp

Description:
This shapefile contains digitized boundaries and ratings of Baltimore neighborhoods from the 1937 Federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) “redlining” map. Each polygon represents a neighborhood area graded by HOLC for mortgage lending risk, with the following letter grades:

• A (“Best”): Affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods considered safest for investment.
• B (“Still Desirable”): Areas deemed still desirable, often middle-class and stable.
• C (“Definitely Declining”): Neighborhoods identified as declining, typically marked in yellow.
• D (“Hazardous”): Areas considered most risky (“redlined”), often with higher proportions of Black, lower-class, or immigrant residents.

Historical Context:
The HOLC redlining maps institutionalized racial and economic segregation by restricting credit access and investment in “D” rated neighborhoods, contributing to long-term disinvestment and inequality.

Fields:

• pkuid: Unique ID
• original_i: ID from the original map
• grade: HOLC Letter Grade
• undevelope: Whether the original map marked an area as undeveloped
• industrial: Whether the original map marked an area as industrial

Source:
Digitized from the 1937 HOLC map for Baltimore, hosted by Johns Hopkins Libraries.

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