What the ‘Crane Index’ Says About Your Changing City
In some cities, a skyline full of construction equipment has become synonymous with change and displacement. But there are things cranes can’t tell you.
Cranes in the sky over San Francisco in 2018.Eric Risberg/AP
Cranes should be pretty hard to miss. They reach hundreds of feet into the sky, often dangling precariously over city streets. But in a forest of high-rise buildings, spotting a crane in its native habitat is not entirely unlike spotting its avian homonym. You have to watch the skies.
