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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Steven Romalewski | 212-817-2033 | sromalewski@gc.cuny.edu
CHANGES IN METROPOLITAN AMERICA AT THE SWEEP OF YOUR MOUSE:
BLOCK BY BLOCK DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES MAPPED ACROSS MAJOR U.S. CITIES
The Center for Urban Research (CUR) at the CUNY Graduate Center today expanded its selection of maps showing block by block demographic changes in the last decade by adding nine major urban regions in the U.S. (in addition to New York City). The maps now show the changing racial and ethnic make-up between 2000 and 2010 in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Boston, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Francisco and their surrounding suburbs. Additional cities including Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, and Charlotte, NC will be launched this summer. To access the maps, visit www.urbanresearchmaps.org/comparinator/pluralitymap.htm.
"At the sweep of the mouse, the maps reveal extensive demographic changes taking place across metropolitan America," noted Steven Romalewski, director of the CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research. "These changes have important implications for legislative redistricting, providing social services, and better understanding the impact of a wide range of public policies."
The maps use a website technique in which a vertical "before and after" bar divides two overlapping images. The image, or map, on the left shows the predominant race/ethnicity patterns block by block in 2000, compared with how those patterns have changed by 2010 on the right. Sliding the bar left and right reveals how each community's demographics have changed over the decade. The Center has added interactivity to this technique, enabling you to not only drag the bar 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 (while also changing the transparency of the thematic Census patterns).
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.
Examples of these changes include:
- In the New York area, the city overall experienced a substantial decrease in the non-Hispanic White and Black populations that has been more than offset by large increases in the Asian and Latino populations. But one of the more striking changes was in one area of the traditional Black community of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where the White population grew by 633% (an increase of almost 16,000 people), increasing the White share in that neighborhood from 4% in 2000 to just over 25% in 2010.
- In the Los Angeles area, the maps highlight notable changes such as a decline in Black population combined with a Latino population increase from Compton northwest through Inglewood. In the area from Monterey Park northeast through Arcadia, the already substantial Asian population grew in concentration and geographic extent.
- In the Chicago area, the maps visualize the growing Hispanic population in areas such as Portage Park (an area with a predominantly White population) and the near suburb of Melrose Park.
- In the Washington D.C. area, highlights include the growth in the White population along with a decrease in the Black population in and around Capitol Hill, as well as increasing diversity in and around the area of Brightwood Park.
- In the Boston area, the maps highlight the growth of the Asian population in North Quincy, as well as an increase in Hispanic population in many areas of East Boston and Chelsea.
- In the Phoenix area, the maps emphasize where Hispanic population growth has occurred, such as the area in and around Glendale.
A detailed geographic file with block-specific population attributes for New York City prepared by the Center based on US Census Bureau data is available for download from the site. Data for other cities and states can be provided by request by visiting CUR's website: www.urbanresearchmaps.org/plurality/othercitymaps.htm.
The Center plans to update its maps and analysis when the Census Bureau releases more data later this year detailing specific Hispanic and Asian groups and age categories block by block across the city.
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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