Understanding the Racial Undertones of Housing Trends

For this assignment, I was given specific Excel data from which I had to compute numbers for additional fields. While doing the calculations Excel did the calculations for me (so nice), it became apparent that there were some big differences in where people lived based on their racial identity. I had plenty of leeway in deciding which data I wanted to analyze for this project but that really jumped out at me, so I created this:

Pardon the screen shot, I won't waste time explaining. The assignment called for the following:

Create a GIS Poster in 11 by 17 inches (Tabloid) landscape orientation. This poster will contain:

ü  one data frame with a choropleth map,

ü  a data analysis table,

ü  charts, and

ü  text explaining your analysis.

 Leave a 1 inch margin around the edge of the paper and your map elements in order to add a neat line once the map is completed. Create a map focused on the 10 cities located within Plymouth, Bristol and Barnstable counties. The map needs all necessary map elements and to adhere to good practices in map presentation! Show the states as hollow, with wider black outline. Show the counties as hollow, with thinner black outline. Show the cities using red circles as a function of population in 2000.  Label the cities and counties, using different font sizes and bold/normal. Export the attribute table as a dbf (or txt) file and open in MS Excel. Copy and paste the completed table into ArcGIS. Make sure it is neat, fonts not too large/small. Add in grid lines and make the header stand out.

 Create two charts in MS Excel to visualize some aspect of your analysis. You can use scatterplots, bar charts, pie charts, etc. Whichever chart you us, make sure they are easy to read,  have meaningful titles, axes are labels (if applicable), etc. Copy and paste the completed charts into ArcGIS. Add text to your map documenting, describing, and interpreting your analysis. Add a border/neat line around all elements of your GIS poster.

What was fun about creating this poster was the freedom given in the assignment. As I mentioned, the difference between whites and non-whites in terms of where they lived and whether they lived in housing units as renters or owners jumped at me. 

So, why are people living where they are? As a community organizer, this verified what I had already observed in the work I do - that race is one factor (of several) determining where and how people live. As an activist, I might use this poster to aid in an investigation of racism in home ownership opportunities such as mortgage lending or real estate market practices. Since it is generally more costly to own a home in Southeastern Mass than to rent an apartment, perhaps I would use the poster to investigate economic opportunity based on racial identity, using the data on renter-occupied versus owner-occupied housing units and the racial composition of city populations.