New example of using maps in planning

Below are two maps from an interactive tool created by Kindred Futures, that maps pathways to building collective Black wealth in the Southeast part of the USA.

 

These two maps are part of a set of maps that you can find at this page.  While the story features Atlanta, the interactive platform enables you to create map stories for any part of the states shown on the map.  If enough of these stories are created and shared, they can attract more interest, volunteers and investors to support the goals stated on the website.

If you browse through articles I've posted on this blog, and the Tutor/Mentor blog you'll see that I've encouraged people to create map-platforms that provide information that informs and can be used in planning.  

What's next?

My only hope is that the developers will take a further step and collect information about existing youth tutor, mentor and learning programs and plot that on maps, the way I've done for many years.  This article highlights 30 years of using maps. 

In this article you can see how I share maps created by others and show how they might be improved by adding some of the features that were put into our mapping  platforms between 2004 and 2008. 

In total, these articles are intended to stimulate thinking and innovation in how intermediaries collect data and share it on interactive platforms, with the goal of drawing resources directly to youth serving programs shown on the map, or to help leaders see where more programs need to be built.

If you're creating a platform like the ones I'm showing, post a link to your site in the comment section. Then connect with me on one of these social media channels. 

TIF Districts in Chicago

 I use this blog to show ways GIS maps can be used to share information and to provide resources that people can use to tell stories showing where people need help.  Below is a screen shot from Chicago's Interactive TIF Data Map.

The website shows that "Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is a special funding tool used by the City of Chicago to promote public and private investment across the city. Funds are used to build and repair roads and infrastructure, clean polluted land and put vacant properties back to productive use, usually in conjunction with private development projects."

The red and yellow dots on the map show infrastructure projects (yellow) and redevelopment projects (red).  You can turn on or off layers showing community area boundaries, planning regions and wards. You can click on any of the red or yellow dots to find information about that project.   You can zoom into the map down to the neighborhood level.  

Note: one of the most vocal critics of the TIF program is Tom Tresser, who I met via the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences in the 1990s.  Here's a site where you can learn about Tom's concerns.   Frankly, I'd love to see a TIF map where there was a third set of dots, representing non-school youth tutor, mentor and learning programs funded with TIF dollars.  That would support the campaign I've led through the Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present) and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present)  for the past 28 years.

 

At the left is a screen shot of the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator which my organization built in 2008 to share information about Chicago youth tutor, mentor and learning programs.  The site has not been updated since 2011 but remains a model for what needs to be created to help mentor-rich youth programs grow and thrive in every high poverty area of the city.

The TIF map is an example of the type of platform that could be developed in a new version of the Program Locator.  Something like this could be developed in any city of the world and shared via open source to every other city.  If you recognize the need for this in your city, or want to  help rebuild the Program Locator, and Tutor/Mentor Connection 4-part strategy, for Chicago, please reach out to me.

You can connect with me on any of these social media platforms. 

Exploring Neighborhood Change. Exploring Big Oil to Big Energy

Below I'm sharing two mapping platforms that I've discovered recently.  They both are interactive, meaning you can add or subtract layers, zoom into neighborhoods, and find useful information.

In both of these the description I'm providing comes directly from the website.

"The National Trust for Historic Preservation developed the Exploring Neighborhood Change mapping series for 10 cities as a part of an initiative of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. The mapping series is designed to complement a written report entitled Preserving African American Places: Growing Preservation’s Potential as a Path for Equity, which explores the historical and present day context of African American neighborhoods to develop effective preservation-based strategies that promote justice, inclusion, and equity in our movement today."

The view I'm showing is Chicago. Visit this page to choose from nine other cities. I've added a layer showing colleges and universities. You can turn on or off different types of demographic information. 

The second map, shown below, is a resource created by Time To Change / Just Transition. The introduction from the website says "Together, map and website form a geographic information system. Its aim is to provide swift and trustworthy access to geolocated knowledge about the North American energy landscape. Publicly available data, compiled by government agencies and civil-society organizations, has been collated into three thematic sections, covering the oil & gas industry, coal and its devastating environmental consequences, and emergent electric power production based on renewables."

This platform has three maps for  a) oil and gas; b) coal and ash; c) wind and sun energy categories. The one I'm featuring shows oil and gas pipelines in North America. There's also a global version. 

As you zoom in on this map extra layers of information are provided. The blue circles are videos embedded on the map.  There's an icon for refineries. There's an icon for accidents. Click on any of these and a pop-up will provide identifying and explanatory information.

As I discover new resources such as this I've been adding them to the Tutor/Mentor web library and/or to a blog article about the climate crisis.  Below is a Tweet pointing to the new additions I made to that article. 

I've been building a library of links to #socialcapital articles & research for more than 15 years. I update blog article's like this, w new links. #NextEducationWorkforce https://t.co/8MqVoIVctg pic.twitter.com/AwGO9zSnsf

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) February 2, 2021

These show just two platforms sharing useful information via Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Scroll through articles on this blog back to 2008 and you'll find many more.

Below you can see how I've copied a map view from a mapping platform, then pasted it into Power Point, where I added a screen shot from a local news story about a shooting in Chicago, that took place in the area I've highlighted on the map.  I've been doing this since 1994 to try to draw attention and resources into high poverty areas of Chicago to support volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs.

Just building the mapping platform is not enough if the purpose is that the information is used to solve a problem.  You need a strategy that turns map views into on-going stories that draw attention to the problem and draw people together to innovate solutions, then actions that over time will solve the problem, or at least reduce it.

On the Tutor/Mentor blog I've three sections with articles using maps (look at tags on left side of the blog). Read some of these and then create your own articles, from the resources above or from other GIS  platforms.  

Once you've done this share your stories on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and/or Linkedin. I'm in all of these places (find my social media links here).  I look forward to seeing how others use these map platforms. 

Thanks for reading. 

Chicago Community Area Maps - Invest SW Chicago

 If  you've read many of the articles on this site I show ways maps can be used for planning that fills specific geographic areas with a wide range of needed supports, including mentor-rich non-school tutor, mentor and learning programs.  I share maps created in past years by my organization and maps and data platforms created by others.

One such resource is the City of Chicago's Invest South West initiative.  The home page of the website shows a map of Chicago and the 10 featured community areas.

The Invest South West Initiative was launched in 2019.  According to information on the website, its planning conversations "have helped guide decision-making on concentration and alignment of public investments, as well as efforts to catalyze additional private investment for the 10 target neighborhoods."

For each community area a PDF map is available. The one below shows Englewood.

This map has a lot of detail but since it is in PDF format I doubt that it will do much to support planning and a deeper understanding of assets and opportunities. There's no parallel map that shows where investments have been made, or what those investments support.  Maybe that will come in the future.

I've been aggregating links that use interactive maps to support planning and I share some of these in the concept map shown below. 

Then in articles like this, on the Tutor/Mentor blog I use maps in stories intended to focus attention and resources on specific parts of the city.  The city GIS department could borrow ideas from some of these.

If you've examples of interactive maps supporting city planning, or supporting the growth of non-school youth tutor/mentor programs, in Chicago or in any other city, please share the links.  The more we can show how some people are doing this the more we can influence others to do the same, and even better.

That's the goal of the information-based problem solving strategies piloted by my organization and myself since 1993. 

Cook Country GIS Portal - Cook Central

Last week at Chicago Hack Night we were introduced to a new GIS portal, called Cook Central, which was launched on December 1, 2017.  View the video below to see some features, then browse the site and get to know it better.

Mapping Indiana After School Programs

There's a lot to like about the map/directory on the Indiana Afterschool Network web site. They not only are collecting location information, but through surveys and data analysis are providing an overview of that information.  Take some time to browse the site.

The 2018 Indiana Summit on Out-of-School-Learning will be held in Indianapolis on Monday, April 9, 2018. Out-of-state programs might find this useful.

Example of How Maps Can Be Used

Chicago SunTimes, 1994

This 1994 Chicago SunTimes illustrates how I was trying to use GIS maps to fill high poverty inner city neighborhoods with mentor-rich, non-school tutoring, mentoring and learning programs.

I was introduced to GIS mapping in early 1993 by a volunteer from IBM who was working on a project with the city of Chicago. I attended presentations where the maps were projected on a large screen, and were interactive, meaning the people leading the conversation could build greater understanding of what the map was showing than you could get just looking at a map in a book. In the last decade there have been a few TV police shows using maps this way.

Last night I toured the Electronic Data Visualization lab at  UIC. We met in a classroom where one entire wall was made up of computer screen panels. You could project a single image to fill the entire wall, or you could have mutiple screens open at the same time. Then I experienced the 3-D CAVE where you could walk "inside" a map or a diagram, along with many others, to get a better understanding of what was being discussed.

I've never had the money to apply any of this to my own efforts. So when I see stuff like this, I feel like a "kid in a candy store". I drool with envy.

Well, I just had another similar experience.  The image below is from an ESRI story map, showing food insecurity (hunger) in the Washington, DC area.  I hope you'll open the map and read through the analysis. As you do, imagine the thinking and collaboration implied in this process.

Here's one PDF showing how I have been trying to use maps.  Here's another.  Read articles on this blog, and the Tutor/Mentor Blog and you'll see many more. Then imagine being able to put this into story maps like the DC folks have done, and to be able to bring people into a technology center like at Microsoft or UIC and lead a conversation, using the maps, focused on generating the public will and resource flow needed to support the growth and on-going operations of mentor-rich non-school, youth-serving programs which are expanding the network of adults helping kids go from first grade through high school and into adult lives with a job and a career free of poverty.

In the image I'm showing above, the red and yellow dots are partners who help distribute food to those who need it in the DC area.  What I don't see on the story map is a discussion of funding. Not the funding of the Capital Area Food Bank, and this mapping project, but the funding of all of the organizations who need to be involved in this food distribution network.  How are all of these organizations supported? Do they each have the money, talent, technology and resources needed to do this work as well as it needs to be done.  Are there other potential food distribution and education partners, such as non-school programs, which could be another layer of information. Who are the businesses, faith groups, colleges and hospitals who could be involved, or who are already involved?

Those are additional layers of information, conversation and analysis that could go into what is already a fantastic use of GIS technology and data visualization.

In the 1990s I met with folks at the Chicago Food Depository and we talked of their use of maps and my goal for using maps, however, this never led to any of the types of collaboration that might have happened if I had been able to bring more resources, or civic leadership, to the table with me.

It's not too late. The newspapers keep reminding us that we need better strategies to reach youth with alternatives to gangs and violence.

If you can imagine this, can you help me build a team of people, and find the money, to build such a capacity and use it in Chicago and other cities?

Mapping Slums of Buenos Aires

This article introduces a mapping project that puts the slums of Buenos Aires on a map.  That's the first step in community building and collaboration efforts that would fill map areas with a wide range of needed learning supports and jobs programs, 

Another Example of Data Mapping

Visit this Urban Institute page and see a story about crime changes in Washington, DC from 2000 to 2014. Not sure if this is yet available in other cities.

Use Community Commons Portal to create map stories

If you browse through past articles on this blog you'll see examples of how the Interactive Tutor/Mentor Program Locator has been used to create maps of community areas of Chicago where indicators such as poverty, poor schools, violence, etc show a need for more youth and family supports, such as organized volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs.

Due to a lack of talent and resources since 2010, features of the Program Locator that allow you to zoom into zip code, community area and political district boundaries are not working. In addition demographics still represent the 2000 census and the tutor/mentor programs shown on the map no longer represent close to 100% of those organizations operating in the Chicago region.

Thus, in many of my articles I point to other mapping and data platforms. One that I encourage you to browse and learn to use is the Community Commons portal. Visit this page and you can enter Chicago, Detroit or any other city, and see an interactive map showing poverty levels for that city. These maps also include info on political districts.

Using this information many users can create map stories, like this one, that they share in blogs, web sites, presentations, etc. which are intended to build attention, and participation, in efforts that fill the map areas with programs that reduce the levels of poverty over a period of many years.