Detroit by the numbers

First written on December 16, 2015

 

Abstract

How the spread of Gentrification in Downtown Detroit is affecting how Black-Owned Businesses (BoBs) are disproportionally displaced compared to the rising trend of non-Black-Owned Businesses. The goal is to use CartoDB to analyze this question based on data from the City of Detroit Open Data Portal and the non-profit organization Data Driven Detroit (D3). The outcome is to see if gentrification is genuinely to blame or are there other underlying reasons.

 

Introduction

There is much information on Detroit before and during the bankruptcy. The City of Detroit has gone through a lot; however, it looks like the city is resurging strongly. Based on data from the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, it would seem that Detroit is one of the cities in which to live. Although this being the 8th largest city in the nation, the population is trending in the negative.

Geography	April 1, 2010		Population Estimate (as of July 1, 2014)
	Census	Estimates Base	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Detroit City, Michigan	713,777	713,862	711,195	702,149	696,746	686,674	680,25

Table 1. Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010, to July 1, 2014, Population Estimates. Courtesy of American Factfinder

 

As mentioned before the cost of living in the Detroit metro area is at 95.1 percent, which means that Detroit is 4.9 percent below the national average. Compared with other major metropolitan areas throughout the United States, Detroit is a very affordable place to live that is a bargain for a significant Metropolitan Area.

Metro Area	Index
Memphis, TN	85.6
Columbus, OH	90.2
St. Louis, MO	93.7
Detroit, MI	95.1
Dallas, TX	95.8
Pittsburgh, PA	96.4
Buffalo, NY	98.2
Atlanta, GA	99.6
Cleveland, OH	100.9
Denver, CO	107.5
Minneapolis, MN	107.9
Baltimore, MD	109.5
Chicago, IL	116.7
Philadelphia, PA	119.5
Seattle, WA	126.9
Boston, MA	137.6
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA	141.6
San Francisco, CA	167.5
Manhattan, NY	222.6

Table 2. Cost of Living for the top metro areas in descending order. Source: C2ER

 

With this information presented before you, it helps put into context the origin of my research, its focus, and yes highlight that there is abundant data regarding the resurgence of Detroit. However, you cannot read any blog, news and, financial magazine without them focusing on how white millennials are “invading” Detroit, in particular, the Downtown area, which is currently the hub of Detroit’s innovative re-birth. I did not want to duplicate research that was done before or is ongoing, and I was pleasantly surprised that there was no comprehensive work in progress or datasets that look to answer my question. I had to creatively restructure my approach as to how I would present/visualize the results.

Of course, there were plenty of maps that interactively showcased that there was little to no gentrification and there was data that provided proof that as the population of Detroit continued to decrease the ration of native-born Blacks remained high compared to the other races living the Motor City. However, there was little to no data with the spatial resolution to showcase the general trend of the upswing in Black-Owned Businesses. Actually, from the Census’ Survey of Business Owners, it has shown that from 2007 to 2012 that there has been a sharp increase in minority businesses in particular Black-Owned Business.

 

Methodology

My original process was to cover a five (5) year period that included Detroit before, during, and after the now-infamous bankruptcy. Also, to visualize the trend using CartoDB to present the data and the outcome dynamically. The challenge is that I found enough data broken down showing the five (5) year comparison; however, it proved very difficult to be able to geocode the data so that we could accurately visualize the upward trend of Black ownership. The various data I found tend to have different components necessary to present the data cartographically accurately. I did come across in my research different SBO or Economic data. However, it all seems impossible that each data block was missing key attributes to be able to combine the appropriate geocode necessary for mapping. Therefore, I present my results not through the cartographic process, but table form.

 

City	State	NAICS code	Meaning of NAICS code	Race code	Meaning of Race code	Year	Number of firms with or without paid employees
Detroit	Michigan	0	Total for all sectors	40	Black or African American	2012	47640
Detroit	Michigan	0	Total for all sectors	30	White	2012	11395
Detroit	Michigan	0	Total for all sectors	40	Black or African American	2007	32483
Detroit	Michigan	0	Total for all sectors	30	White	2007	15668

Table 3. Comparative data by race of the change in the number of Black-Owned Businesses and their White counterparts. Source American Factfinder SBO data.

 

 

Conclusion

From all the data, it would seem that the rate of gentrification is not a factor for the growth of Black-Own Businesses. As it stands until I can get the data with the spatial resolution, I would be remiss to have a map that isn’t interactive, and that speaks to the level of poverty and in essence present via CartoDB that currently, gentrification is not a factor in stemming the growth of Black-Owned Businesses.

Here is a link to my map called Detroit by the Numbers that shows the level of poverty in the various zip codes, 48201and 48226 in Detroit’s Business District (the Downtown area). I would say that between the two zip codes that we have a pretty balanced area. Hover over the areas, and you can see what is mean by my statement. My goal is to continue and refine this project going forward into a true GIS format.

 

 

Page Break

 

Reference

City of Detroit Open Data Portal

 

Data Driven Detroit (D3).

 

Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce

 

American Factfinder

The Council for Community and Economic Research

Governing: Detroit Gentrification Maps and Data

Citylab: Quantifying Downtown Detroit’s Comeback: Exactly how the Motor City is rebuilding its urban core, Florida, Richard, Feb 20, 2013

Global Tax Havens 2013

https://ogabbidon.cartodb.com/viz/aa3a5830-6a14-11e5-8c05-0e5db1731f59/embed_map

Private companies against public growth in America? Of course!

Cable companies want to stop the best internet in America from growing.

So this was the title of an article on one of my favorite news site…yeah I believe that The Verge can be labeled a news organization. Well anyway it was not surprise the findings in this article. It just shows that Capitalism is going a bit too far, and it just a matter of time before it’s fall just like Communism, and bell bottoms went out of style.

Check out the full article from The Verge

 

 

 

Detroit a lesson in Urban Renewal

So I’ve thinking a lot about moving to Detroit, but of course everybody, family and friends alike have mentioned that would be a bad decision. However, I think that this is city that will make a come back much like New York did after the 70s and the 80s. We can even make a more likely comparison such as how Philadelphia is on the upswing. I’m reading right now the Detroit Future City: the strategic framework plan developed in 2012 for the revitalization of this city. It’s not only a great experiment in urban planning and design, but also a great experiment self determination for the Detroitians that decide to stay and make a go of making their city great again.

I know a lot of people see that this might happen as Detroit was seen as total lost as portrayed in the 1990s classic film Robo Cop. However, I looked at the film in another way, and that new more resilient city can arise, and not from the ashes but from creative and thoughtful decisions.

Learning to exercise the brain by playing chess.

So everyone ask why are you so obsess with playing chess, the truth is that I like anything that let’s me stretch my brains “walking legs”. Chess is just one of those strategic mind bogglers that is both addictive to play. For me I’ve won some games and I’ve lost quite a few as well but right now I realize it’s because I quick to play and not focused on the game.

Like this current game I’m playing on line with a friend of mine (he’s one own that last 4 games straight, what can I say it’s been a very hectic month). This game could either way if one of us makes a mistake right now (which I already made).

However, it important and maybe it’s just the competitor inside me that keeps me going back to wanting to do win and makes my brain work that much harder and pushes me to be more open and plan even further a head.

For those of you who what to learn how to play chess, you are welcome to follow me and learn the basics as well as how open up your mind to winning at this awesome game. Here is a link via Wikipedia as to basics in starting out on playing chess.

learning how to play chess

Join me here as I will also be upload screenshots of my on going games and you can comment on game style as well as challenges you notice each player facing off has. I’m hoping that I’ll be able have challenging gameplay from other readers of this blog as well. Until next time

-the flawed designer

How I became obssessed with Donkey Kong

So I was on one of more favorite website for reading up on the latest advances in society, okay maybe some of the stories are little out of this world. However, I began to think about why this is such a popular site and what they bring to the table as a media outlet. I never really got the chance to be all engrossed into the world of video games. As a matter of fact my first system as outdated when I got and that was the Atari 2600, which by that time was replaced by Coleco Vision, Commodore 64, and this two machines Sega and Nintendo.

this was what in knew to be the Atari 2600 (found in writing this article that it was referred to as the Jr.)

Okay so what am I rambling on about? Well while on reading on my favorite site, I came across a particular story and it happen to be about the world’s 13th best Donkey Kong player. What’s awesome about this was that when I got my second gaming console in my early 30’s that was the Nintendo Wii. What was interesting was that I only bought games that reminded me of my childhood such as Pac man, Metal Slug and of course Donkey Kong (I got every new variation). I would of course got much newer games, well only FIFA as I am an avid football (soccer being in the US and all) fan, but I always went back to Donkey Kong. This was a game of problem solving at its best, and reaching to the highest level and even beating the game would be such a monumental task. What I would love research on was what the minds of these “super” individuals would be like? Most interest I would think.

I believe that the answer to solving the massive puzzle in Donkey Kong can be loan to solving the revitalization of our decaying cities like Detroit. However, you will have to tune at another time to find out what I mean by that. In the mean time please enjoy this short courtesy of  The Verge.

The world’s 13th best Donkey Kong player has something to prove.

Change Management on a grand scale

How do start to get people to ditch their old ways of thinking. Besides from the stubbornness of generational in grained conditioning; you campaign as to be close to foolproof and really simply understandable.

I’ve seen that this is entirely the case today as “the sheep” = everyday man is lead to proverbial slaughter by the “wolf packs” = corporate profit interest. No I’m not a extremist, liberal or conservative; just an analytical citizen. What I’d like to see is really common sense policies implemented with common sense (which I understand is not so common).

What do drug cartels, Amazon and Google have in common

What do drug cartels, Amazon and Google have in common

The concept of great operational organization is applied not only at Amazon and Google but also at various Mexican drug cartels

Brooklyn, NY 2001-2013

Brooklyn, NY 2001-2013

Mayor Bloomberg will visit each of the five boroughs to highlight key Administration initiatives and success from throughout the last 12 years.

Smarter City

This is an excerpt of an interesting article I read.

For example, the City of Lyon is piloting a first-of-a-kind IBM Research project to use analytics to improve the flow of transportation for freight. Part of a massive transportation project this pilot will help freight operators, trucks and delivery vehicles become more efficient, from knowing where to park to make a delivery, to knowing which route is the most economically and environmentally friendly. IBM Research is working with the City of Lyon to build new intelligence into roadways. Read more