After meeting with Erin Kemple last week we decided at our first plan would be that I read through the Connecticut Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, which is a report hat is still in the process of being completed. This document is over 200 pages and includes a lot of information so while going through it I made a list of data that I think we should make available using visualizations. Erin Kemple is also going to go make her own list so that at our next meeting we can compare and decide together what information we think is significant to use and then we will have a better idea about how exactly to display he selected data. Although there is still much to be decided on, I have come up with some ideas for design choices, with some guidance from Erin about where I can look for some inspiration.
Since a significant portion of the report addresses racial segregation statewide in Connecticut, I have been thinking about and researching different ways racial segregation has already been shown using maps. The Atlantic Magazine has a very interesting map of racial segregation throughout the United States that uses individual dots to display population density by race in different parts of the country, as soon below.
A map similar to this would be useful for Connecticut Fair Housing, but only if other variables can be added that are related to impediments to housing opportunities that would allow viewers to have a better understanding of what groups of people are being affected by certain housing practices and policies, mostly focusing on people of color, people with lawful sources of income other than employment, people with disabilities, single-parent households and LGBT people.
I also came up with another idea that I thought of by looking at a Comprehensive Opportunity map on the Al Jazeera America website as well as a map displayed in the Impediments to Fair Housing Choices report of how two programs, the federal Housing Choice Section 8 Voucher program (HCV) and the State Rental Assistance Payment program (RAP) have statewide patterns of that their participants are living in areas that are disproportionately low income and have a significant population of people of color. This means that these programs are handing out vouchers to their participants (who are disproportionality made up of people of color, those with disabilities, single-parent households) in low income areas, which most likely means that there are little opportunities in these areas. The map of the Comprehensive Opportunity Index for the Baltimore Region shows different sections of various levels of opportunity in terms of jobs, safe neighborhoods, and good schools. While I do not know if it is possible to obtain this information about opportunity index scores throughout Connecticut, it could be significant if I am able to get data about something such as where good schools are located and created a map that compares this data with where housing voucher participants are living.
Emily, you have some good ideas about ways to visualize spatial data in the CFHC report. My advice is to focus with your community partner on the two ideas:
1) My understanding is that much of the map-creation work has already been done with ArcGIS software. Ask to obtain a copy of the data & maps in that format (which they also may refer to as ArcGIS tables and shapefiles). These may be too large to have someone send to you via email, so think about transferring via Dropbox or a flashdrive.
2) If they used ArcGIS to create maps, most were probably generated as static PDFs for the entire state of Connecticut, and inserted into a Word document. If we can host live ArcGIS files on the web (will explain more when you obtain the data) or convert some of them into a Google map format, that would allow viewers to zoom into particular sections of the state. Always think about what we can do on the web that your partner cannot do on paper or PDF alone.
As you move further into this project, try using some of the design language on the DataViz book site, and schedule appointment time with me to discuss details.