Cities say they want to be equitable – San Jose is proving it

The pandemic and its disproportionate impact on some communities has brought a fresh focus on equity in the US and elsewhere. Barely a city announcement now passes without the mention of equity, and rightly so. While efforts are being ploughed into making cities more equitable, specifics about what that means and how it is measured are harder to come by.

The City of San Jose has set up a crack data team to do exactly that, led by Christine Keung.

Keung joined the City of San Jose in the middle of the pandemic as the Chief Data Officer in the Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation. In just a year, her team has grown to 20 people. The work, which is supported by the Knight Foundatio...