Mapping The Segregation Of Houston

[DaTrain]

Source: The Atlantic Wire

http://news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20100922/cm_atlantic/mappingthesegregationofuscities5133

Mapping the Segregation of U.S. Cities

Heather Horn – Wed Sep 22, 1:13 pm ET

WASHINGTON, DC – Many people have an anecdotal sense of what areas in a particular city are predominately black, white, or other ethnicity. Eric Fischer has a more precise sense, creating maps that visually represent segregation in urban areas. Using Census Bureau information and the methodology of cartographer Bill Rankin, who produced a racial map of Chicago, Fischer created maps for each of the forty largest cities in the U.S. Here, for example, is the one for Detroit, one of the most obviously segregated urban areas. White areas are pink, Black ones are blue, Hispanic orange, and Asian green. Example here:

The full set is on Fischer's Flickr page. Bloggers are exclaiming over the images and trying to draw social conclusions out of them. Link to page:

The Fascinating Cases of Boston, Houston, and Vegas "Hispanics live in Somerville, Blacks live in Dorchester, and Whites live everywhere else," says Gus Lubin, commenting on the map of Boston. In Houston, "clear racial divisions fan out from downtown" like pie slices. Meanwhile "Las Vegas is relatively mixed!"

Here is the map to Houston in its maximum size for clarity:

Edited September 27, 2010 by DaTrain

[DaTrain]

I'm surprised black folks in Mo City are all clustered in the Hunters Glen subdivision and scattered elsewhere to the other side of Texas Parkway. Just when I thought it was diverse everywhere in the suburb of its size. So much for being a continuation of the Fort Bend side of Houston below the belt.

[LTAWACS]

Wow

[arisegundo]

On the other hand, compared to the other cities in the series, the Southwest side is about the most evenly mixed, best integrated area in the country. Kumbayah!

[JLWM8609]

Looking at the Third Ward area, I see one pink dot near 288 and Holly Hall. I wonder if that's HAIFer "Original Timmy Chan"? He's talked about living in that area.

[Original Timmy Chan's]

Looking at the Third Ward area, I see one pink dot near 288 and Holly Hall. I wonder if that's HAIFer "Original Timmy Chan"? He's talked about living in that area.

Actually, if you look at the full-size picture, there are 3 red dots in the western half of South Union (between 288 and Springhill).

According to the legend, each dot represents 25 families...somehow I've missed the 75 white families on those 10 blocks.

I don't think the info is accurate even if each dot represents a single family...at least for our neighborhood.

EDIT: Just realized this is based on 2000 census data...I wasn't here until '03, so never mind. Probably all the white people moved out after I moved in.

I'd be interested to see a comparison of 2000 to 2010 maps...or even better, to see some older historical maps.

Edited September 28, 2010 by Original Timmy Chan's

[Highway6]

TimmyChan... small correction... each dot is 25 people, not families or households.

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Isn't the census data presented at the smallest level by zip code?

I would have guessed Rankin and Fischer's methodology consists of distributing the right number of dots broken down by color % across each zip code. But it's evident from his map that this isn't the case. Looking at downtown, it does appear the dots are clustered around 2016 Main, HoustonHouse, and the "lofts district" on the other end of downtown.

[TheNiche]

Actually, if you look at the full-size picture, there are 3 red dots in the western half of South Union (between 288 and Springhill).

According to the legend, each dot represents 25 families...somehow I've missed the 75 white families on those 10 blocks.

I don't think the info is accurate even if each dot represents a single family...at least for our neighborhood.

The data was sourced from the 2000 Census. I'd imagine that there were still some number of elderly holdouts in the area. Not many, but probably enough.

TimmyChan... small correction... each dot is 25 people, not families or households.

--------------------------------

Isn't the census data presented at the smallest level by zip code?

I would have guessed Rankin and Fischer's methodology consists of distributing the right number of dots broken down by color % across each zip code. But it's evident from his map that this isn't the case. Looking at downtown, it does appear the dots are clustered around 2016 Main, HoustonHouse, and the "lofts district" on the other end of downtown.

Census data is available by block.

[editor]

Census data is available by block.

It's amazing the kind of interesting things that can pop out of detailed census data.

I often live in the middle of business districts. When the 2000 census information came out, it turned out that in addition to my apartment building, there was one other block in my census tract that had a resident. But that block was a government office building, not a residential building. The local paper noticed it, too, and did an article about it. It turned out that the census measured the homeless guy who set up a tent behind the bushes in the building's decorative planters.

[Highway6]

Census data is available by block.

I don't know how difficult it is to download and sort through that amount of data... but geezus, graphically speaking adding dots at the block level... x40 cities.. What an undertaking !!!

[TheNiche]

I don't know how difficult it is to download and sort through that amount of data... but geezus, graphically speaking adding dots at the block level... x40 cities.. What an undertaking !!!

I used to make these kinds of maps using MapInfo. Getting the settings right is a bit of a chore, perhaps entailing about 45 minutes of trial and error. After that, it may take about 10 minutes per city.

As with most other things, however, publicity is far more difficult to achieve than substance.

[Original Timmy Chan's]

The data was sourced from the 2000 Census. I'd imagine that there were still some number of elderly holdouts in the area. Not many, but probably enough.

There's plenty of elderly holdouts in the neighborhood...but they're all black. South Union was always a black neighborhood. (Interestingly, that's not the case with Foster Place, across Scott Street...apparently Scott was the dividing line?)

My wife's grandparents were the original owners of our house, and I know the original owners of the houses on either side of us (one 90+ and the other 100+, both finally had to move in with their families in the last few years.) Several of the original owners (the widows) have passed away in the last few years...and still a holdout a couple doors down. All black.

That said...with the turnover (original owners dying off), the neighborhood has become more diverse over the last few years. Latino families are moving in in greater numbers. That's one reason I'm curious about what an updated map would look like...not just for my neighborhood, but for all of Houston.

How much has our city changed in 10 years?

Edited September 28, 2010 by Original Timmy Chan's

[JLWM8609]

I don't think the info is accurate even if each dot represents a single family...at least for our neighborhood.

Same here. According to the dots, there's 25 black people living on runway 9/27 at IAH and another 25 on a taxiway. There's also 75 Asians and 25 Hispanics living on the runways and taxiways at Ellington Field.

[TheNiche]

Same here. According to the dots, there's 25 black people living on runway 9/27 at IAH and another 25 on a taxiway. There's also 75 Asians and 25 Hispanics living on the runways and taxiways at Ellington Field.

I'm pretty sure that the airports get treated as one or two gigantic blocks, so the dots would be spread randomly throughout. And IAH and Ellington, between them, probably have multiple group quarters facilities, including some kind of on-site confinement facility, barracks, transient quarters for military personnel, or workers' dormitories. People residing in hotels, hostels, or even (in theory) just sleeping overnight in a terminal also get picked up by the Census.

And hey, sometimes blocks are just incompetently drawn. Notice how there are about 75 black people living out in the field between the Port Houston and Pleasantville subdivisions? Yeah, well that's because that single "block" takes in the fringe of a retirement community and the fringe of Port Houston.

[Highway6]

New York Times has taken Eric Fischer's maps a step further... Interactive maps based on the most currently available census information where you can look at race, income, property values, income, same-sex households, educations, etc.

http://swamplot.com/playing-with-the-pie-houston-by-dot-and-slice/2010-12-16/

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer

[LTAWACS]

Actually, if you look at the full-size picture, there are 3 red dots in the western half of South Union (between 288 and Springhill).

According to the legend, each dot represents 25 families...somehow I've missed the 75 white families on those 10 blocks.

I don't think the info is accurate even if each dot represents a single family...at least for our neighborhood.

EDIT: Just realized this is based on 2000 census data...I wasn't here until '03, so never mind. Probably all the white people moved out after I moved in.

I'd be interested to see a comparison of 2000 to 2010 maps...or even better, to see some older historical maps.

OR

We can attribute this to lazy, incompetent, and slow Census workers/updates.