Bostonians have their own ideas and biases about what are the best neighborhoods to live and work in (my vote: Cambridge!). But here’s something that can provide a little data to back those up.

A group at MIT has developed an interactive map that shows which areas within greater Boston have higher or lower levels of income, education, job growth, public transportation accessibility, and a few other parameters important for economic growth and competitiveness. The map can display more than one parameter at a time and you can select which ones you want to see so that you can figure out, for example, which areas have low housing costs and high rates of job growth and good public transportation. The map isn’t very fine-grained and I had trouble interpreting some of the color coding, but it’s an interesting idea.

It looks like a work-in-progress. According to their website, the researchers say “we hope the tool will evolve into a more practical application that can help people make more informed decisions about their lives.”

(Thanks Hilary for the tip.)