Introduction to Opportunity Mapping

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Introduction to Opportunity Mapping
Presentation to Opportunity Mapping Planning
Committee Massachusetts Law Reform
Institute February 11th 2007
Jason Reece, AICP Senior Researcher
Reece.35_at_osu.edu

• Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race
  Ethnicity
• The Ohio State University

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Maps Powerful Visual Tools

• Why is a map an excellent visual tool to inform
  someone about an issue/problem or solution?
• Maps are incredibly efficient, compacting volumes
  of data into single pictures that can be
  understood at a glance
• One map may contain tens of thousands of pieces
  of information than can be understood in seconds
• A good map can enable you to tell a story or
  solve a problem
• Research has shown that people can solve problems
  faster with map based information, than by
  looking at charts, tables or graphs

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Analytical Capability

• GIS has tremendous analytical capability because
  of the ability to overlay many layers of
  information
• Allowing for statistical, geographic analysis of
  large amounts of data
• GIS systems are also incredibly efficient for
  storing large volumes of information in a format
  that can be easily referenced and analyzed

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Demand
Connection
Supply
Layering of Information
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Space and Regional Equity

• Why are maps particularly effective in dealing
  with issues of equity?
• Regional, racial and social inequity often
  manifest as spatial inequity
• Maps are naturally the best tools to display this
  spatial phenomena
• Maps give us the opportunity to look at our
  entire regions or states
• Informing people about an issue at a scale they
  may not usually think of or linking communities
  sharing similar problems

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Opportunity MattersRace, Place and Life Outcomes
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Place and Life Outcomes

• Housing, in particular its location, is the
  primary mechanism for accessing opportunity in
  our society
• For those living in high poverty neighborhoods
  these factors can significantly inhibit life
  outcomes
• Individual characteristics still matter but so
  does environment
• Environment can impact individual decision making

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Racial Segregation, Opportunity Segregation and
Racial Disparities

• Housing policies, discrimination, land use policy
  and patterns of regional investment and
  disinvestment converge to produce continued
  racial segregation in our society
• Producing a racial isolation in neighborhoods
  that are lacking the essential opportunities to
  advance in our society (fueling racial
  disparities)

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Housing location determines access to schools.
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jobs
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neighborhood amenities
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Opportunity Mapping

• Opportunity mapping is a research tool used to
  understand the dynamics of opportunity within
  metropolitan areas
• The purpose of opportunity mapping is to
  illustrate where opportunity rich communities
  exist (and assess who has access to these
  communities)
• Also, to understand what needs to be remedied in
  opportunity poor communities

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background (contd.)

• Evolved out of neighborhood indicators project
• Neighborhood Indicators
• Census 2000 data provided detailed neighborhood
  indicators
• Resulted in surge in neighborhood indicators
  based analysis
• Provided a snapshot of social and economic health
  of neighborhoods
• Shortcomings
• Each indicator is analyzed and mapped separately
• Overlay provides a complex view, hard to
  interpret

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background (contd.)

• Resulted in a methodology that captures region
  wide opportunity distribution, in a comprehensive
  manner and it is reflective of todays
  metropolitan characteristics
• Ignores Urban-Suburban dichotomy
• Reflective of new trends decline of the inner
  suburbs, exurbs, inner city gentrification
• Reflective of the unique nature of each
  community e.g. Austin, TX vs. Cleveland, OH

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Methodology (Overview)

• Opportunity mapping methodology
• Requires a comprehensive assessment of local
  indicators related to opportunity
• Economic conditions, education, neighborhood
  health, housing etc.
• Would be extremely difficult without Geographic
  Information Systems technology
• Standardize indicators for comparison
• Average across multiple indicators to create
  opportunity index
• Break Census Tracts into quintiles (based on
  opportunity index score) to distinguish between
  various opportunity categories (very low, low,
  moderate, high, very high)

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Methodology

• Identifying and selecting indicators of
  opportunity
• Identifying sources of data
• Compiling list of indicators (data matrix)
• Calculating Z scores
• Averaging these scores

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MethodologyIdentifying and Selecting Indicators
of High and Low Opportunity

• Established by input from Kirwan Institute and
  direction from the local steering committee
• Based on certain factors
• Specific issues or concerns of the region
• Research literature validating the connection
  between indicator and opportunity
• Central Requirement
• Is there a clear connection between indicator and
  opportunity? E.g. Proximity to parks and Health
  related opportunity

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MethodologySources of Data

• Federal Organizations
• Census Bureau
• County Business Patterns (ZIP Code Data)
• Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• State and Local Governmental Organizations
• Regional planning agencies
• Education boards/school districts
• Transportation agencies
• County Auditors Office
• Other agencies (non-Profit and Private)
• Schoolmatters.org
• DataPlace.org
• ESRI Business Analyst
• Claritas

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MethodologyIndicator Categories

• Education
• Student/Teacher ratio? Test scores? Student
  mobility?
• Economic/Employment Indicators
• Unemployment rate? Proximity to employment? Job
  creation?
• Neighborhood Quality
• Median home values? Crime rate? Housing vacancy
  rate?
• Mobility/Transportation Indicators
• Mean commute time? Access to public transit?
• Health Environmental Indicators
• Access to health care? Exposure to toxic waste?
  Proximity to parks or open space?

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Methodologyeffect on opportunity

• Examples
• Poverty vs Income
• Vacancy rate vs Home ownership rate

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MethodologyCalculating Z Scores

• Z Score a statistical measure that quantifies
  the distance (measured in standard deviations)
  between data points and the mean
• Z Score (Data point Mean)/ Standard
  Deviation
• Allows data for a geography (e.g. census tract)
  to be measured based on their relative distance
  from the average for the entire region
• Raw z score performance
• Mean value is always zero z score indicates
  distance from the mean
• Positive z score is always above the regions
  mean, Negative z score is always below the
  regions mean
• Indicators with negative effect on opportunity
  should have all the z scores adjusted to reflect
  this phenomena

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MethodologyCalculating Opportunity using Z
Scores

• Final opportunity index for each census tract
  is the average of z scores (including adjusted
  scores for direction) for all indicators by
  category
• Census tracts can be ranked
• Opportunity level is determined by sorting a
  regions census tract z scores into ordered
  categories (very low, low, moderate, high, very
  high)
• Statistical measure
• Grounded in Social Science research
• Most intuitive but other measures can be used
• Example
• Top 20 can be categorized as very high, bottom
  20 - very low

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Methodology Averaging Z scores

• Z score averages assume equal participation of
  all variables toward Opportunity Index
  calculations
• No basis to provide unequal weights
• Issue of weighting should be considered carefully
• Need to have a strong rationale for weighting
• Theoretical support would be helpful
• Arbitrary weighting could skew the results

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Opportunity MapCleveland, OHMSA
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Data sources

• Census Data
• Non-Census Data

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Census 2000 overview

• Information about 115.9 million housing units and
  281.4 million people across the United States
• Census 2000 geography, maps and data products are
  available
• Website www.census.gov

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Geography hierarchy
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Census 2000Short Form and Long Form
Short form
Long form
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Short form

• 100-percent characteristics A limited number of
  questions were asked of every person and housing
  unit in the United States. Information is
  available on
• Name
• Hispanic or Latino origin
• Household relationship
• Race
• Gender
• Tenure (whether the home is owned or rented)
• Age

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long form
?
For the U.S. as a whole, about one in six
households received the long-form questionnaire.
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long form (contd.)

• Additional questions were asked of a sample of
  persons and housing units. Data are provided on
• Population

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long form (contd.)

• Housing

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Census 2010

• For Census 2010
• No long form questionnaire
• Short form questionnaire only
• To all residents in the U.S.
• Ask the same set of questions
• American Community Survey (ACS) to collect more
  detailed information
• Will provide data every year rather than every 10
  years
• Sent to a small percentage of population on a
  rotating basis
• No household will receive the survey more often
  than once every five years
• It might take at least five years, and some data
  aggregation, to get Census tract or smaller
  geography level data

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Available short form data

• 100 data or short-form information
• Summary File 1
• Counts for detailed race, Hispanic or Latino
  groups, and American Indian/Alaska Native tribes
• Tables repeat for major race groups alone, two or
  more races, Hispanic or Latino, White not
  Hispanic or Latino
• Geography block, census tract
• Summary File 2
• 36 Population tables at census tract (PCT) level
• 11 Housing tables (HCT) at census tract (HCT)

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Available long form data

• Sample data or long-form information
• Summary File 3
• 813 tables of data
• Counts and cross tabulations of sample items
  (income, occupation, education, rent and value,
  vehicles available)
• Lowest level of geography block group
• Summary File 4
• Tables repeated by race, Hispanic/ Latino, and
  American Indian and Alaska Native categories, and
  ancestry 336 categories in all.

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Census basedmaps

• Fairly simple in calculations
• Easy to display
• Easy readability for the audience

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Census data issues

• Historical data hard to get
• Inconsistent categories
• Block group and census tract boundaries are
  regularly updated
• Private data providers such as GeoLytics provide
  historical census data normalized to 2000
  geographies
• Inconsistency in data categories are minimized
  but still exist

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Non-census data

• Data not available at census is gathered from
  other sources
• Good news!! It is available
• Bad news!! It might not be available at the
  geography of analysis (census tracts)
• Data needs to be manipulated to represent census
  tracts

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Non-census dataExamples

• School data
• Student poverty, test scores and teacher
  experience data might be available at
  school/District/County/State level
• Transit data
• Transit route data might be available with the
  local Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)
• Bus-stops or train stations might be available as
  a point theme
• Environmental data
• Toxic sites and toxic release data available at
  EPA as point data
• Parks and open spaces are available as shapefiles
• Public health
• Hospital locations might be available
• Main issue How to represent this data at census
  tract level

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Thinking About Indicators

• Considerations for our 2pm discussion
• What are the common indicators utilized and
  supported by research?
• What are the specific issues/questions you need
  to address?
• What new issues will the data uncover?

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Questions or Comments? For More Information
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