PolicyMap Around the Web: July 2019
In the past few months, PolicyMap has been cited in a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, linked to in an article at NBC News, and used in a whole host of academic published and student papers. As PolicyMap continues to be a valuable resource for all kinds of users, here are some of the highlights from the past few months:
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
In a report titled “Climate Adaptation Investment and the Community Reinvestment Act,” the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco uses PolicyMap data in six different maps to demonstrate where disaster declarations occur throughout the country. Specifically, the maps show which counties with disaster declarations are CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) eligible.
An NBC News article about the legacy of slavery links to a PolicyMap blog post that features maps related to the racial wealth gap. The post looks at the home ownership, education, and income disparities in Boston, Memphis, and Baltimore.
The article, “Exploring consensus across sectors for measuring the social determinants of health,” which relies on health indicators from PolicyMap, assesses the current state of social determinants of health measurement across sectors. In conducting their analysis, researchers found that “PolicyMap’s Health Indicators tool and Data2Go.NYC had the most unique indicators not found in any other tools.” The study contends that learning how different sectors measure SDOH and creating more uniformity among SDOH categories will “enable greater collaboration and deepen the impacts of place-based interventions to improve community health and well-being.”
This paper by Kathy Dempsey explores the past and present of library marketing in the U.S., from the foundations established by John Cotton Dana more than a century ago to today’s practices. PolicyMap is mentioned as one of a handful of companies that “are at the forefront of mapping demographics for libraries today.”
American Society for Engineering Education
This paper, “Familial Influences Affecting Student Pathways to Engineering at Two-Year and Four-Year Institutions” by researchers from Clemson University, discusses the factors that influence why students choose engineering and attend a two-year or four-year institution. In analyzing the lack of racial diversity in engineering, the paper uses demographic data from PolicyMap.
Mapping the Dance Landscape in Chicagoland
This report about the dance ecosystem in Chicago brings together data from a variety of sources in order to provide a comprehensive picture of this unique sector of the arts. Not only do the authors hope to help Chicago’s dance community, but they also want to provide a model by which other metropolitan areas can use similarly available data for their communities.
“PolicyMap is a powerful tool that can help drive decisions based on real data, in real places,” according to a spotlight post by the New Jersey State Library. Through the library’s subscription, PolicyMap is available for remote access to state employees and Thomas Edison State University staff and students, as well as for onsite use in the library to any patron or visitor.
An Auburn University librarian uses PolicyMap as an example of a database for demographic data in a presentation titled “Entrepreneurship for the People.” The presentation was intended to inform students of the government resources available to them for researching, starting, and growing a business.
PolicyMap is mentioned as a tool for social entrepreneurship by Steve Cramer in a post on his blog. Cramer writes that PolicyMap has a “robust collection of health indicators, not just Census data: CDC National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the Behavioral Risk Factor Service, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.”
Georgia Tech School of City and Regional Planning
An applied research paper by Georgia Tech School of City and Regional Planning student Melody Carter titled “Opportunity Zones: The newest gentrification tool?” argues that the Federal Opportunity Zones tax incentive can potentially cause more harm than good for those it is designed to help. Carter uses a PolicyMap map to demonstrate where the designated opportunity zones are located throughout the country.
In his master’s thesis, “A beautiful day in these neighborhoods: variations in access to school, food, and healthcare in neighborhoods along an urban to rural gradient,” KSU student Rial Tombes Carver provides insight that informs and improves neighborhood level planning efforts. He uses Census data from PolicyMap to analyze neighborhoods along an urban to rural gradient.
Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association
California State University Northridge student Alexandra Macias prepared her paper “Flipping the District: An Analysis of Voter Registration Trends and Public Opinion in a Clinton-Republican Congressional District” for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association. The paper uses data, including an analysis of Census data by PolicyMap, to explain the 2018 “flipping” of California’s 45th Congressional District.
The publication EducationNext from the Harvard Kennedy School uses a PolicyMap map of Opportunity Zones in an article about education opportunity in Opportunity Zones.
This book about building multisector partnerships in an effort to improve communities through collaboration uses data from PolicyMap for its analysis.
In his honors thesis at Oregon State University, Jake Fitzharris writes about how the electoral college system has led to today’s highly polarized political climate. The thesis concludes that the only way to eliminate political polarization would be to implement a unique proportional representation system. To analyze the negative effects of gerrymandering, Fitzharris uses a PolicyMap blog post about identifying possible solutions to gerrymandering.