Population Density of Largest US Cities

Population Density map

My Twitter feed brought to my attention this map showing population density in the largest US cities.  You can find the article describing contents of the map here, and the interactive map here.

I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago in 1993 to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty areas. As the Internet became a tool for me to gather and share ideas, I've sought out people in other big cities, because the challenges of concentrated poverty, segregation, inequality and population density are similar.

That means that some day I should be able to produce a map, with icons on each blue circle, indicating one, or more, people from that city is following me on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, reading my blogs, and interacting around the same challenges and questions I ask every day.

In the map below I show people who attended Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I held in Chicago every six months from May 1994 to May 2015. If you compare it to the population density map, you could see that I was connecting with people from some of these cities.

May 1994-May 2014 conference participation map - click here

However, those connections did not turn into on-line connections and, for the most part, on-going connections.  They also did not include business leaders, funders and/or policy makers, which is one reason I no longer host the conferences and struggle to keep the T/MC alive in Chicago. 

I'm still trying, but I think it will take finding others from different cities to help with this effort. 

In addition, each city should have someone creating maps showing who is connecting on a regular basis to help needed youth serving programs grow in that city. The map at the right shows participation in one of the Chicago conferences. You can see several maps like that on this page. 

If this were happening it would indicate that groups of people are meeting within a city, and within neighborhoods of each city, and that they were connecting with people in other similar cities, with a common goal of helping economically disadvantaged kids more successfully through school, which has a economic benefit to the business sector and the entire urban region.

So far I don't see this happening.

Thus, if you're reading this. Share it with people in your own community and network who might also be focusing on filling high poverty areas of their city with a range of mentor-rich programs that reach more k-12 kids, last longer, and result in more being in jobs when they are in their mid 20's than what is the reality today, in 2018.