Population Density for US Cities

My Twitter feed showed me this article today.  It includes interactive maps showing the population density in 200 US cities. 

As I find sites like this on Twitter I'm always hoping there is a person, or group of people, in each of these cities doing exactly what I've been doing since 1993 to build an information base, with maps, that people can use to understand where kids and families need more help, where existing youth tutor and/or mentor programs are located, and ways to help each program get the talent and dollars on an on-going basis that enables each to be great at helping kids through school and into adult lives.

Sadly, I'm not finding such people.

I'm @tutormentorteam on Twitter.  If you know people doing what I'm describing, which includes maintaining this blog, the Tutor/Mentor blog, and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web sites, please introduce us.

If you're a benefactor, please support us.

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.

Race Riots Hit Milwaukee - Missed Opportunity

Pent up anger has now been unleashed in Milwaukee, following a police shooting. This follows Ferguson, MO, and Baltimore. What city will be next?

I started the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in Chicago in 1993 with a goal of helping volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods.  I used a quarterly newsletter to share this vision and to share information from my web library. In the mid 1990s I was invited by the Milwaukee Foundation to add about a dozen organizations from Milwaukee to the distribution list, which I did.  In the following years I met with leaders from Milwaukee, and people representing Milwaukee programs came to Chicago for the spring and fall Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences.

However, this never led to adoption of the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy in Milwaukee.  It's never been adopted in Chicago, either.

Below is a map that shows the racial concentrations in Milwaukee. I've pointed to this mapping platform below, showing racial distribution in Chicago.

If someone in Milwaukee were leading a T/MC strategy they would be able to produce a map like this, with overlays showing locations of non-school tutoring, mentoring and learning programs.  Using that map the would be leading a year-round marketing campaign intended to draw volunteers and donors to existing programs, while helping groups create new programs where more are needed. They would have people meeting regularly to share ideas and they would have people connecting with programs in Chicago and other cities to borrow ideas from more places.

The first map below was created using the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, which the T/MC built in 2008, but which has not been funded since 2010. It's a model that should be duplicated. It is also a starting point for people who want to partner in stead of starting from scratch.

This second map is from a Brookings.edu article, showing cities around the country with the same problems as Milwaukee, Chicago, Baltimore, etc. I wrote about it here.

Leaders in everyone of these cities should be reading this article that I shared on the I-Open Blog, which focuses on the Cleveland, OH area.

If you cannot answer "YES, We do." you should be creating a team to begin digging into the ideas I have been sharing for the past 20 years, and you should be inviting me to meet with you to help you understand and apply those ideas.

It's not a quick fix.  But you don't want to look back in a few years an say "I wish we had done that."

8-21-16 UPDATE:  Here's a New  York Times article titled "Affluent and Black, and Still Trapped by Segregation".   In addition, here is a concept map showing the research section of the Tutor/Mentor web library, which included many articles related to place, race and poverty.   Until many more people are reading these articles, and combining their learning with direct interaction across race and poverty boundaries, too few will have enough information or commitment to actually find solutions.

12-27-16 UPDATE:  Here's another article that uses maps to focus on violence in Milwaukee.  Here's article I wrote showing need for groups of people --a village-- to form in different neighborhoods to try to solve these problems.

8-4-17 UPDATE:  Here's article titled "Structural Causes of Racism and Economic Segregation in SE Wisconsin.

11-10-17 Update: Here's an article showing "The 5 Worst Cities for Black Americans".  Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin are on the list.

2-7-2018 Update:  Brookings report: City and metro income inequality data through 2016- article

Maps of 10 Most Distressed Communities in the U.S.

Here's a 2016 CityLab article with maps showing the 10 most distressed communities in the U.S.  Chicago is included.  Put these maps and charts into advocacy campaigns intended to mobilize people, talent, dollars and other resources needed to help the people in these neighborhoods overcome the challenges they face.

Above is a concept map illustrating the problems people in high poverty areas face. They have many of the same challenges as do people in affluent areas, but many other challenges that are not common in affluent areas.

People in more affluent areas have more resources and a broader network of other people to help them overcome their challenges than do people in high poverty areas.  It's for this reason that the Tutor/Mentor Connection has supported the growth of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs that draw people from different work, education and income backgrounds into the lives of youth and families in high poverty areas.  

Anyone who uses this information anyone can form a study/reading and discussion group with others and use the ideas to take an on-going, and strategic role, in helping needed programs grow in one, or many, high poverty neighborhoods.

If you're doing this, describe what you do on your blog, and share the link in the comment section of this blog.

Find more articles like this on the Tutor/Mentor blog.

Maps showing most segregated cities in USA

Business Insider has posted maps showing the 21 most segregated cities in the US.

My hope is that leaders will use maps like these and those on this blog and the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator to develop strategies that draw volunteers from beyond these neighborhoods into ongoing tutor/mentor programs that help build bridges connecting youth and families to ideas, opportunities and resources beyond these highly segregated areas.

You can also see these maps on Flickr at this link.

Violence Hits Cities Hardest

These maps illustrate that the heaviest concentrations of gun violence are in big cities. The top map is from a March 22, 2013 Huffington Post article and the bottom is from the Maps of the World web site.

To me the maps illustrate the challenge we face in obtaining national political consensus on any type of gun control, or effective education policy. People in some parts of the country don't live with the same problems that people in other parts live with. Big city problems are far different than problems of smaller communities and rural areas. In a system where votes are tied to geography, getting enough votes to support policies important to one or another geographic regions requires compromise, or tremendous empathy, or both.

While we look for national compromise, I look to connect with people in big cities who have youth populations of 75,000 or larger, with concentrations of poverty isolated geographically and politically from the rest of the resources in their regions. If we can connect on-line and in face-to-face events we can talk in a common language, about common problems, and perhaps innovate ways to resolve these problems without dependence on national consensus.

Join me on Facebook, Linked in, the Tutor/Mentor Connection on Ning.com, or in the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference held in the spring and fall.

Or, invite me to places where you're bringing people from big cities together to innovate solutions to these problems.