From Chief Blog Editor Mike Bellinger - check out their website at peaceandquiet.io
The Peace & Quiet project is designed to map and quantify neighborhood characteristics across the United States by turning publicly available location-based information into a single composite score called the PQ Index. This index ranges from 0 to 100, with higher values representing areas with fewer environmental or socioeconomic stress indicators and a more “peaceful” profile.
To build this index, the system combines multiple layers of public data — such as the locations of housing assistance sites, financial services like payday lenders and pawn shops, and retail/service points of interest including fast food or wireless stores — each weighted according to how strongly they relate to neighborhood characteristics. These data points are aggregated within a consistent hexagonal grid system (the H3 grid), which divides the map into uniformly sized cells so comparisons between areas at different scales are meaningful.
For each hexagon, the methodology counts relevant features from each layer, applies the designated weights, and then normalizes the total against a high-end reference (the 99th percentile). The score is then inverted so that a higher score reflects lower cumulative presence of selected indicators. This approach highlights relative differences between places rather than absolutes.
All information is handled at the aggregated cell level — no personal or precise address data is collected or shown — and only public sources are used. The project emphasizes that the PQ Index is one perspective on neighborhood contexts and should not be relied on in isolation for personal or investment decisions. It also notes that data completeness and quality can vary by region and source.
