PolicyMap

What’s driving the rapid rise of poverty in the suburbs?

David Karp — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:35:59 +0000

In a recent study from the Brookings Institution, fellows Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube ask the question, “What’s driving the rapid rise of poverty in the suburbs?” Looking at population growth during the last decade, Census data shows that the total number of poor residents living in the suburbs surpassed the number living in the city sometime in the early 2000s. And while this trend continues to transform the geography of American poverty, what is most striking is the pace at which this shift is happening. Between 2000 and 2011, suburban poverty grew by more than twice the rate of inner city poverty – 64% compared to 29%. These findings are shocking and significant for a number of reasons, bringing attention to the fact that the common picture of poverty, emblematic of the inner city in the 80s and 90s may no longer be so accurate. In an interview on NPR, Kneebone describes how “our perceptions are still a bit outdated. They’ve lagged behind the pace of growth that we’ve seen….” Kneebone goes on to suggest that the cause of suburban poverty might be explained by a combination of “more low-income families and residents moving to suburban communities [and] longer-term residents slipping down the economic ladder.” Kneebone also highlights that while we may have once associated suburban living with jobs in high-tech office parks or daily commutes into a central financial district, “we’ve seen jobs suburbanize in regions across the country, so move away from city centers and further out into metro regions and [those] jobs pay lower wages.” Speaking about jobs like construction, retail, or manufacturing, Kneebone explains that these are among the most suburbanized. Those industry sectors were also among the most heavily affected during the Great Recession of the tail end of the 2000s. The New York Times examined the NY-NJ metro area, suggesting that “as the region creates more low-wage jobs, and attracts more new immigrants, low-income households that in the past might have located in the Bronx or Brooklyn are now settling in places like northern New Jersey and Westchester County.” The article makes reference to the continually rising cost of housing across the country.

So, why is this so problematic? Thinking back to the start of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, much of the public services available to assist struggling families was designed in the city and for urban populations. But as poverty spreads throughout suburban communities, these safety nets are stretched much more thinly. There is less infrastructure in place to address things like housing, hunger, workforce development, and other social services. Services directed toward immigrant populations and low-income youth also become scarcer. Another article in The Atlantic explores this issue, explaining that as poverty becomes less visible in a sprawling suburb, it becomes harder to address. The issue of density impacts both social and physical isolation, affecting the opportunity for community networks like those found in an inner city high-rise housing complex, or the availability of public transit, making it more difficult or more costly to travel to a job.

(Trend chart from The Atlantic article)

Kneebone and Berube’s newly published book, Confronting Suburban Poverty in America, identifies a need to “collaborate across geographic boundaries” to “address the metropolitan scale of poverty—for example, collaborating across sectors and jurisdictions, using data and technology in innovative ways, and integrating services and service delivery.” There is plenty of data available on their website as well as here on PolicyMap. As decision-makers and planners, we can use this data to better understand this new and rapidly changing geography of poverty, so to better allocate resources and supportive services.
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What’s New on PolicyMap in May?

Maggie McCullough — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:32:16 +0000

Customer Spotlight: YOU!

With the release of our data loader earlier this year, you’ve been busy loading your own address level files to view on top of the data available in PolicyMap. While most of you choose to keep this data private or share it confidentially within your organization, some of you have chosen to load data and post it for the public to access. You’ll find these customer-shared datasets in the Add Sites menu to the left of the map.

The spreadsheet data loader is a very exciting and unique tool, created to give users the ability to easily upload and visualize a list of addresses on a map. We have created helpful tips on how to setup a file and a complete walk-through on how to use the data loader.

Tips on setting up a file to upload (Setting Up a File)
A complete walk-through of the data loader (Using the Data Loader)

Become a subscriber or sign up for a free trial today and start uploading your data.

Election Data for 2012

Visit PolicyMap to check out the latest presidential, senatorial, and congressional election data, as well as voter turnout statistics for 2012. You’ll find election data presented in a few interesting ways on PolicyMap. You’ll find Margin of Victory maps – using the traditional red and blue election colors – percentage of votes by party and voter turnout statistics. Create and share maps of this data or embed them in your own website or blog. It’s free!
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Look for this new data under Elections in the Demographics menu.

USDA – Low Access Food Areas 2010

The latest USDA study of Low Access food areas from the USDA’s Food Access Research Atlas is now available. This data is useful to financial institutions applying for funds from the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI). You’ll find areas that have Low Access, as well as areas that have Low Access and are Low Income. You’ll also find maps showing the number of people who live at varying distances from these areas of need. For those of you needing the 2006 analysis from USDA, we’ve kept it up on PolicyMap as well. Read more on our blog.

Find this in the Federal Guidelines menu, in the USDA ERS Food Access section.

Additonal Data Updates

Home Sales for Q3 2012
Turn to PolicyMap for data on home sale trends – at the block group level, census tract, zip code and more – from 2006 through the third quarter of 2012. Create thematic maps or trend charts to better understand how both the median home sale price and sales volume are changing in the markets you care about. This proprietary data is available under the Real Estate menu.

Homeless Data 2011
Homelessness data, from HUD, is now updated to 2011 and includes annual estimates of homeless people, sheltered and unsheltered, by state. You can access it in the Demographics menu.

If you’ve used this data in the past, be aware that it’s been trimmed down a little, so that it now contains three indicators: total homeless, sheltered homeless, and unsheltered homeless. Other indicators were not updated by HUD.

CRA Small Business Lending 2011
Data regarding lending to businesses around the country has been updated through 2011. Use this census tract level data to find out how many business loans have been made in places all around the country, their average amount and info regarding the top lenders. Find this under the Lending Activity menu.

SBA HUBZones 2012
The Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) program helps small businesses in urban and rural communities gain preferential access to federal procurement opportunities. You can find census tracts that qualify as HUBZones as of 2012 under the Federal Guidelines menu in Federal Incentive Designations

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Infectious Diseases from the CDC 2011
Check out county-level data from the CDC on a variety of infectious diseases. This data is made available for all years between 2000 and 2011 and allows you to track how the rates of different diseases have changed over the last 11 years. You’ll find this data in the Health menu.

Unemployment and Labor Force Data

Every month we update unemployment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These statistics allow you to track how unemployment rates and numbers are changing in counties across the country. PolicyMap now houses unemployment data from January 2000 through March 2013. This data can be found in the Jobs & Economy menu.

Want to put these unemployment maps on your own website? You can and it’s FREE. Just embed the code found here.

We strive to keep the data on PolicyMap relevant to your work. If you need something we don't have, just let us know. We keep a rolling pipeline of new datasets to incorporate and love your input!

Learn more by following our blog and and stay tuned!

Not a PolicyMap user and ready to give it a try? Just sign up for our 7-day trial and get started now.

International Census Resources

Kristin Crandall — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:18:03 +0000

Have you ever wished that PolicyMap had data for other countries outside of the United States? We at PolicyMap also think this would be very neat! While our scope here at PolicyMap is currently limited to the United States, we have decided to dedicate a few blog posts to letting our users know about resources for gathering demographic data in other countries.

One place to start is actually within our own Census Bureau. According to the website of the U.S Census Bureau’s International Programs division, the Bureau actually does a fair amount of work abroad, including Capacity Building through Technical Assistance to more than 100 countries, Demographic and Socioeconomic Analysis, Global Population Mapping and Spatial Analysis, and maintaining an International Collection of the U.S. Census Bureau’s library.

Given the coming June 1st start of the hurricane season in the Northern Hemisphere, it seems worth also pointing out Demobase, an on-line international mapping tools meant to help with natural disaster planning. An interagency effort led by the U.S. Census Bureau, Demobase uses census data and satellite image analysis to create high-resolution gridded population maps for areas that experience a high frequency of hurricanes and other natural disasters. Demobase maps are currently available on-line for Haiti and Pakistan.

Another great resource for people interested in international census data is IPUMS International over at the Minnesota Population Center. Designed to facilitate cross-national research, IPUMS International is a project dedicated to collecting and preserving census data and harmonizing it across countries. They also strive to disseminate the data for free! In addition, IPUMS International also provides shapefiles to facilitate international data mapping, including a world file with country level boundaries and country level files with top administrative level boundaries (i.e. provinces in Argentina, regions in France, states in Brazil, etc.). For more information about the data, including how to extract it and some of its limitations, check out the project’s FAQ page.

New USDA Food Access data now on PolicyMap

Bernie Langer — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:49:46 +0000

Who needs a supermarket, but doesn’t have one?

The US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service has recently released new data at its Food Access Research Atlas. It contains the results of a newly-updated study based on 2010 data on areas where people have low access to grocery stores and supermarkets. The last USDA study, conducted with 2006 data, identified these areas as “Food Deserts” (a term no longer being used officially).

The study calculates an estimate of the number of people in each Census tract who live farther than a specified distance from the nearest store. In the 2006 study, this distance was 1 mile in urban areas, and 10 miles in rural areas. This latest data has a few different distance calculations. It has 1 mile (urban) and 10 miles (rural), 0.5 miles (urban) and 10 miles (rural), and 1 mile (urban) and 20 miles (rural). A tract is considered to be “Low Access” if at least 500 people or 33 percent of the population lives the designated distance from a store.
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Each of these distance calculations is available on PolicyMap. The data is in the “Federal Guidelines” tab, underneath “USDA ERS Food Access”.

Areas that are designated Low Access and Low Income can qualify for Healthy Foods Financing Initiative (HFFI) programs. Additionally, in the past, New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) applications have included USDA/ERS Food Deserts as secondary criteria for severe distress eligibility. It remains to be seen if the 2013 application will include this latest study.

PolicyMap also has data from a Food Access study done by The Reinvestment Fund (PolicyMap is a service of TRF). Data from this study can be found in the “TRF Analytics” tab on PolicyMap. These areas can also be used when applying for HFFI funding, however, additional criteria must also be met (see HFFI site for more details).

PolicyMap releases Boxwood Means home sale data for 2012Q3

Katie Nelson — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:18:10 +0000

2012 saw more home sales nationwide than any year for the past five years, according to the National Association of Realtors. For the first time in a while we are beginning to hear about a shrinking supply and looming increases in interest rates (see for example the New York Times).

PolicyMap has just updated our home sales data to include transactions from the third quarter of 2012. While national numbers come out very quickly, it takes somewhat longer to gather the detailed information at the county, ZIP code, tract, and block group geographies. The reason for the lag-time is that it can take months for counties to record the individual transactions. Our home sales data comes from Boxwood Means, Inc., a re-seller of CoreLogic’s real estate data. Login now to see how the data is trending in your community.

Home sale data is available exclusively to our standard and premium subscribers. Sign up now to explore this dataset, or set up a free trial to check it out.

Meanwhile, here is a static map to whet your appetite. It shows the percent change in the number of homes sold in the last year in Chicago. The darkest purple indicates zip codes where the number of sales is increasing the fastest, while orange indicates a decline in the number of sales. As you can see the trends in number of sales are varied, with some of the strongest increase in sales occurring in southwest Chicago.

Attend a CultureBlocks Information Session

Phil Vu — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:53:42 +0000

With the successful launch of CultureBlocks and the great reviews from users, reporters, and academics, we wanted to make sure everyone has the chance to learn how to use this fantastic tool. If you are in the Philadelphia area, the best way to become acquainted with CultureBlocks is to attend one of our upcoming information sessions. You’ll get a first-hand look at how you can leverage the power of the app for a variety of different needs, and get your questions answered by the CultureBlocks Help Desk staff. These sessions are free to attend and will be taking place in several different neighborhoods throughout the city, but space is limited, so please RSVP here.

Session #1
Monday, May 13th, 2-3PM
Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine Street

Session #2
Wednesday, May 15th, 1-2PM
URBN Center Annex, Drexel University, 3501 Filbert Street

Session #3
Thursday, May 16th, 2-3PM
The White Space at Crane Old School, 1417 N. 2nd Street

Session #4
Monday, May 20th, 2-3PM
Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catherine Street

Session #5
Wednesday, May 22nd, 9-10AM
Mt. Airy Art Garage, 11 West Mt. Airy Avenue

CultureBlocks Press Conference

Maggie McCullough — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:54:30 +0000

Check out the press conference for the release of CultureBlocks. Mayor Michael Nutter definitely understands the need to give people access to such a rich database.

“CultureBlocks symbolizes the extraordinary role the creative community has played in our City’s economic recovery and neighborhood development,” said Mayor Nutter. “This web-based tool is the first of its kind in the Nation, and it is a testament to the creative sector in our city that Philadelphia is the first to undertake a project like this. Not only is this a tool that is free to the public, but various city agencies and non-profit organizations will use CultureBlocks in planning, business attraction efforts, investment decision-making, and in providing technical assistance to the arts community — all to improve the livability and creativity of our city.”

Follow the Press Surrounding CultureBlocks, the Philly Arts Tool Powered by PolicyMap!

Maggie McCullough — Thu, 02 May 2013 19:46:44 +0000

Check out coverage of CultureBlocks – the first of its kind mapping tool, all about the Arts, from PolicyMap! Click “Continue reading →” to see all stories and social media related to CultureBlocks.

The official press release from the Mayor’s Office:

CultureBlocks is a public-private partnership between the City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy; the City of Philadelphia Department of Commerce; The Reinvestment Fund’s (TRF) Policy Map; and the Social Impact of the Arts Project (SAIP) at the University of Pennsylvania. It is supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and ArtPlace.

A wide variety of local, regional and national media outlets have reported on the launch of CultureBlocks:

Philadelphia Releases New Arts Mapping Tool

Maggie McCullough — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:18:32 +0000

Today, Philadelphia made available a free new mapping tool called CultureBlocks, that supports organizations making decisions about place and creativity in Philadelphia. Powered by PolicyMap, the online tool can be used for simple data gathering to inform a project, research into a specific neighborhood, or data gathering for a city-wide initiative.

The creation of CultureBlocks was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and ArtPlace and represents the work of three organizations long tied to the arts in Philadelphia: The Reinvestment Fund, the Social Impact for the Arts Projects at the University of Pennsylvania and the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy. The release of the web tool represents just one part of a multi-phase project. Later this year, the team will release additional data and trend analyses that can guide a series of arts-related investment strategies in the city.

CultureBlocks contains over 50 datasets unique to Philadelphia – all in one simple tool. Maps can be zoomed to particular neighborhoods, councilmanic districts, or even school catchment areas. Data can be visualized in fluid interactive maps, summarized in reports or analyzed through a site selection tool called Match.

Learn more about the site and check out the tool itself at www.cultureblocks.com.

2012 Election Data on PolicyMap

Bernie Langer — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:13:16 +0000

Remember last year’s election? I try not to. I remember one of the guys using the word “malarkey” during a debate. That was fun. And there was that guy who didn’t care who the president of Uzbekibekibekistanstan was. Oh right, and there were those binders full of women. Fun times.

But now you can relive the most important part: the results! The 2012 election data is now on PolicyMap!
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Of course, no election map collection would be complete without the red and blue map that we know and love. You can access these maps for the presidential, senatorial, or congressional elections by going to the Demographics tab on PolicyMap, going down to Elections, and clicking on any of the indicators called “Margin of Victory”.

Because of the way PolicyMap works, the colorful “Margin of Victory” maps only give you a range of data, for instance, Hampshire County, West Virginia (home of the town of Romney, donchaknow) gave the former governor a 30-100% margin of victory.

But maybe you want to dig into the data a little deeper and see the actual results for each candidate. Then, in the Elections submenu, click on the specific party whose vote total/percentage you want to see.

Plus, you can see something cool there: the change in vote percent between the last election and this one. Below is the change in Obama’s vote percent from 2008 to 2012. The darker the orange, the more votes he lost; the purple areas are where he gained.
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With the after effects of the recession, and his failure to make life sunshine, lollipops, and everything that’s wonderful, Obama didn’t do quite as well in 2012 as he did in 2008, and that’s illustrated above. The purple areas, though, are interesting. Those are the areas where people liked Obama better in 2012 than they did in 2008. Or maybe they really didn’t like Romney. It doesn’t make up much of the map… but it sure takes up a chunk of the Buckeye State.

Coming soon on PolicyMap: Complete data for Uzbekibekibekistanstan.