With the onset of COVID, BARI has sought to construct a data-support system for a city during a pandemic–both to serve our local communities and to act as a model for others across the country.

It consists of two main efforts: The COVID in Boston Database draws from a variety of administrative and social media sources that capture events and conditions across neighborhoods before, during, and after the onset of the pandemic. It includes original records, often with enhanced content, and custom aggregate measures (e.g., neighborhood-level metrics), all contextualized within the Boston Data Portal’s broader geographic structure that allows seamless linkage across data sets. We invite academics, policymakers, practitioners, and community members alike to use the data in their research, teaching, and decision-making.The Living in Boston during COVID Survey was conducted by BARI, the Center for Survey Research at UMass Boston, and the Boston Public Health Commission, with generous support from the National Science Foundation. It is the only survey in the world to capture disparities in the experiences of, attitudes toward, and impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic across the neighborhoods of a city, providing a unique insight into racial and social inequities. We are highlighting the insights from the survey in a series of reports and bite-size data stories.