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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, August 1, 2011
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Steven Romalewski | 212-817-2033 | sromalewski@gc.cuny.edu
CHANGES IN RACIAL
DIVERSITY MAPPED ACROSS 15 METROPOLITAN REGIONS
INNOVATIVE MAPS PROVIDE MULTIPLE COMPARISON VIEWS
The Center for Urban Research (CUR) at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center today increased to 15 the number of cities it has mapped showing race/ethnicity changes from 2000 to 2010. New cities added include Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, and Charlotte, in addition to the nation’s largest urban regions such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The maps are available at www.urbanresearchmaps.org/comparinator/pluralitymap.htm.
"Our maps visually document the increasing suburbanization of Black, Hispanic, and Asian populations, while also revealing a general increase in diversity within the nation’s major cities," noted Steven Romalewski, director of the CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research whose team developed the maps. "These powerful displays of Census data are important for people interested in policy impacts, legislative redistricting, social service delivery, and anyone who is simply curious about their neighborhoods."
The maps provide three ways of comparing 2000 and 2010 racial patterns: 1) a vertical slider bar dividing two overlapping maps (2000 on the left, 2010 on the right); 2) a side-by-side comparison (two separate maps moving in unison), and 3) a single-map overlay (you can fade between 2010 and 2000).
An initial version of the maps launched in June used the vertical bar technique, integrating it with interactive, online maps for the first time. The Center crafted the maps so you could not only drag the bar left and right but also zoom in and out, click on the map to obtain detailed block-level population counts, and change the underlying basemap from a street view to an aerial image (via Microsoft’s Bing maps), while also changing the transparency of the thematic Census patterns.
The latest iteration of CUNY’s Census maps continues to use the vertical slider but now incorporates this technique with two more comparison options. Each approach serves different purposes:
- The vertical slider bar provides a “before (2000) and after (2010)” visualization of change, either regionally or at the scale of a city neighborhood.
- The side-by-side comparison is ideal for lingering over a given area, especially at the local level, taking the time to absorb the differences in demographic patterns mapped with 2000 Census data on the left and 2010 on the right.
- The single-map 2010/2000 overlay is especially helpful for revealing the increase in diversity over a given area.
For example, you can zoom to
Atlanta, GA on the single-map overlay and see the city’s predominantly Black population in 2000 surrounded by
suburban Census blocks shaded dark blue, denoting a White population of 90% or
more (see images below). As you
transition the map from 2000 to 2010, the dark blue in the suburbs fades to a lighter
shade (indicating a more mixed population demographically) coupled with more
Census blocks shaded green, purple, and orange – each corresponding to
communities that are now predominantly (even if only by a few percentage
points) Hispanic, Asian, or Black respectively.
This pattern is replicated in many of the urban regions featured at the
website.
The maps use the 100 percent count
data from the 2000 and 2010 U.S. Censuses at the block level. They show that
although much of the population of these cities continues to live in geographic
enclaves dominated by one or another major racial group, the intensity and
extent of these patterns have changed pervasively over the last decade. The
visual depiction of these changes provides a new way of understanding local and
regional population changes.
The following list of cities and
their suburbs have been mapped by CUNY: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago,
Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix,
San Francisco, and Washington D.C. The
maps and data are available at www.urbanresearchmaps.org/plurality.
About the Center for Urban Research: Working with CUNY Graduate Center faculty and students, the Center for Urban Research (CUR) organizes basic research on the critical issues that face New York and other large cities in the U.S. and abroad, collaborates on applied research with public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and other partners, and holds forums for the media, foundations, community organizations and others about urban research at the Graduate Center and the City University. The CUNY Mapping Service at CUR assists organizations in realizing the geographic and mapping dimensions of their activities. The CUNY Data Service maintains an extensive data archive from the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources and provides customized analysis of these data sets for CUNY researchers, public and nonprofit agencies, community organizations, the media, and business organizations. The Center’s website is www.urbanresearch.org.
Funding for much of the Center's recent work on Census issues has been provided by the Building Resilient Regions Project of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Hagedorn Foundation, as well as support directly from the CUNY Graduate Center and the City University of New York.
About CUNY Graduate Center: The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York (CUNY). An internationally recognized center for advanced studies and a national model for public doctoral education, the school offers more than thirty doctoral programs, as well as a number of master’s programs. Many of its faculty members are among the world’s leading scholars in their respective fields, and its alumni hold major positions in industry and government, as well as in academia. The Graduate Center is also home to 28 interdisciplinary research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns. Located in a landmark Fifth Avenue building, The Graduate Center has become a vital part of New York City’s intellectual and cultural life with its extensive array of public lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and theatrical events. Further information on The Graduate Center and its programs can be found at www.gc.cuny.edu.
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