My name is Danny Yonto. I am a broadly trained Human Geographer with expertise in Urban Studies whose research and teaching focuses on the spatial and temporal aspects of neighborhood change. In my research, I try to examine real-world problems that society and community face due to urbanization along with the application of geospatial tools and techniques. 

My PhD research, “Community gentrification in Charlotte: A tale of urban redevelopment”, creates a local-level analysis for tracking gentrifying neighborhoods. The study focuses on comparing outcomes based on the scale at which gentrification unfolds and outcomes based on the granularity at which gentrification is measured. 

I found that instead of applying a census-based approach to identify gentrifying neighborhoods at the census tract level, administrative data at the parcel level helps pinpoint where gentrification occurs and how it diffuses overtime. I argue that urban environmental shocks rarely align with census time periods, which means researchers miss valuable information using temporally and spatially coarse data. 

I am currently a Geography Instructor at The University of Alabama.