Title:
A Dynamic Map of Some NYC Housing Characteristics in the 2020 American Community Survey
Topic:
For my project, I'm visualizing a dynamic map of US Census data on housing characteristics in all 5 boroughs of NYC: plumbing facilities (kitchen and bathroom), and housing type. This will draw from multiple tables constructed from ACS Data.
Research Question:
How is the built environment represented in Census data, what might this 'view' say about NYC, and what are the spatial distributions of “unusual” housing characteristics?
Significance:
Visualizing this data on maps makes it seem more 'real' and less abstract. It offers a way of exploring space (and how the space of the Census) is constructed, as one aspect of measuring who lives within the geographic bounds of the United States. It then constructs a model on which government entities may feel compelled to act.
I plan to incorporate this visualization project as a pedagogical tool for the class I am teaching this summer on homelessness and social welfare policy. I plan to use this as part of a lesson framing how government agencies (particularly funders and regulators) construct space for action (for instance, seeing insufficient plumbing as a possible code violation or mobile homes as an indicator of 'informal' housing). I will have students use these maps, as well, to imagine all possible junctures at which social workers may be involved in further investigation of, or response to, the data in the visualization.