Cool happenings in the map-o-sphere

Since I haven’t been contributing much as of late as baseball and knitting have taken up much of my free time, I’d thought I should highlight some cool maps that other carto-philes have done.  I’ll try to update with more as I come across them (or send your picks):

James Cheshire and Oliver O’Brien London Surnames - would love to do a version for New York if data is available

NPR Odd things happen when you chop up cities and stack them sideways – beautiful way of showing street patterns and city characterizations by Armelle Caron

Atlantic Cities New York’s Geography of Complaining - shows what and where we are complaining in New York by Dietmar Offenhuber

Atlantic Cities The High Inequality of US Cities Compared to Countries – how do our cities’ inequalities compare to other countries by Zara Matheson

Energy hotspots

The city is collecting energy data of privately-owned buildings that are over 50,000 square feet in an effort to understand where greatest consumption occurs.  Under Local Law 84, owners are now required to report annual water and energy usage, and the 2011 list just came out.  Several quick conclusions were drawn from this first class of data.  The Architect’s Newspaper reported that early 20th Century buildings tend to be more energy efficient than recent structures including those that are LEED.

What does this look like on a map?

It probably isn’t much of a surprise that large buildings consuming the most energy are located within the business districts of Manhattan.  It was interesting to see that in addition to offices and commercial spaces, hospitals and universities were amongst the city’s greatest energy consumers — New York’s brightest are clearly burning the midnight oil (or watching quality youtube videos).

I have zoomed in on three sections of Manhattan and highlighted a few high users.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do the top consumers compare to like uses in the country?  According to the US Energy Information Administration, large hospitals generally expend close to 234 kBTUs/sf [2007 EIA study] while typical office buildings use under 100 [2003 EIA study].

Click on the detail maps to see some of the highlighted hotspots.

 

It’s a tale of two brooklyns

Brooklyn is not just the  “…coolest place in America” or the name of one of David Beckham’s four children, it’s a wonderful and complex borough.  The Daily News recently wrote about some of the extreme contrasts that exist between Brooklyn neighborhoods — from pricey artisanal horseradish/mayonnaise/chocolate shops to tragic shootings of young children, it is difficult to describe Brooklyn in any general term.  The borough is certainly not all hipsters and high-priced brownstones.

So are there two Brooklyns?  And where do the boundaries lie?

Taking 2010 estimated American Community Survey data, I mapped the borough’s median income by census tract.  Then I drew some crude lines (thick black lines) roughly demarcating areas that are middle- to high-income from those that are low-income.

To see if those boundaries apply to other neighborhood characteristics, I used the same dividing lines on maps showing education attainment:

unemployment rate:

and where food programs, which includes food kitchens and pantries are located (data source comes from NYC Department of City Planning Selected Facilities and Program Sites):

While this isn’t an exact way in determining inequalities in the borough, it does illustrate some definite contrasts between neighborhoods.  Similar patterns of income, education and unemployment are reflected in all the maps.  There are some obvious correlations between income and areas with high concentrations of food programs and unemployment rate.  There are also less obvious conclusions such as income and education.  Tracts that show fairly high levels of education attainment do not necessary mean they also fall under highest income brackets.

So Brooklynites, which borough do you fall in?

How does your ride fare?

Last week, the Straphangers Campaign released its annual State of the Subway Report Card for 2012.  The report rated the 20 subway lines (with the exception of the G train) in the city.  The results, based on data from the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority measuring the quality and quantity of subway services, showed the best and worst routes.  The C received the lowest score, while the Q subway got top marks.

I was curious to see whether socio-economic characteristics of where the routes ran through have any bearing on the quality of their services.  Using 2010 estimated data from the US Census’ American FactFinder, I mapped all census tracts within 1/4 mile of all subway lines by median income (I used a 2010 .shp file created by Steven Romalewski at the CUNY Mapping Services at the Center for Urban Research) to see whether there is a correlation between subway quality to income.

The results from this mapping exercise shows that the MTA doesn’t necessarily neglect routes that run through low-income areas.  While the 7 and J lines rank high, tied in the second place, in Straphangers’ ratings, they travel in census tracts that have some of the lowest average median incomes [within a quarter mile of subway lines].

The four maps show the worst (C) and best (Q) lines, as well as lines that go through tracts with the lowest average median incomes (J) and highest average median incomes (E).  The following chart lists all the lines and their Straphangers’ rank and average median incomes.

Straphangers Ranking Subway Line Average Median Income Median Income Ranking
1 Q    64,155  6
2 7    54,774  16
2 J    45,667  20
4 1    69,822  2
5 6    64,721  5
5 L    52,542  17
7 E    70,009  1
7 F    63,124  8
9 M    57,074  15
10 R    68,983  3
10 3    65,630  4
10 N    61,913  9
10 D    49,580  19
14 4    63,193  7
14 A    57,742  12
14 2    57,528  13
14 B    52,112  18
18 5    60,749  11
19 C    61,403  10
- G    57,079  14

Transit restoration in your neck of the woods?

A few weeks ago, the New York Times reported the Metropolitan Transit Authority will restore and extend services throughout the five boroughs in the next year.  Residents living near Church Avenue along the G subway line will receive  more regular and permanent services, and a handful of neighborhoods will benefit from restored services on the weekends.

I was interested in where people live and whether areas that would be impacted by the restored and extended routes are in fact neighborhoods that have experienced population growth in recent years.  This map is a simple overlay of improved services over percent population change between 2000 and 2010 by census tracts.  New routes are not yet determined by the MTA, and therefore, areas that will be affected by added routes are highlighted by hash marks.

At quick glance, there looks to be some areas that have had tremendous growth in the last ten years that could use some transit links.

Data Source: 2010 Census TIGER/Line ; New York City Department of City Planning 2010 Demographic Tables; MTA