# Interesting Link: City maps of racial and ethnic diversity. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 23, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717 "2010-09-23T00:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/1 "2010-09-23T00:36:00Z")
I saw some of [Eric Fischer’s maps](http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/sets/72157624812674967/) linked to on Gizmodo and I found them incredibly fascinating. By in large it shows that our living habits are (still) strongly segregated. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/2 "2010-09-23T01:03:56Z")
Our state capital looks [a lot better than it used to](http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/5011038768/in/set-72157624812674967/). In much of the city, the red dots and blue dots are mixed in together. Neat little project. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/3 "2010-09-23T03:04:54Z")
I was jokingly wondering to myself if he would have Burlington, Vermont. But amazingly [he did](http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/5013422089/in/set-72157624812674967/). ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/4 "2010-09-23T03:41:43Z")
It’s neat to see it in dots like that, but I can’t say that it’s terribly surprising. I used to live in Chicago, and while the North Side is fairly well-integrated between whites and Latinos (you have some neighborhoods that are more white and some that are more Latino, but overall there isn’t a great deal of segregation), and then there are some neighborhoods that have large Asian populations, much of the South Side is nearly entirely black. The sharp line is really startling and obvious. I don’t know a whole lot about the history involved in creating this, but as I understand it, it’s the result of many years of redlining. It’s been like this for such a long time that I have a hard time envisioning how Chicago could ever achieve anything close to integration. ---
**Author:** ![Terra1041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Terra1041](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terra1041)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/5 "2010-09-23T19:23:28Z")
Wow, Eight Mile is really obvious on the Detroit map, at least on the east side. On the west side you have a lot of Blacks in the suburbs. I’m in Seattle now, which is more integrated, but still has certain neighbourhoods where various ethnicities live. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/6 "2010-09-23T19:35:32Z")
> [@Terra1041](#): > > Wow, Eight Mile is really obvious on the Detroit map, at least on the east side. On the west side you have a lot of Blacks in the suburbs. My first thought was to see if Detroit was as bad as I expected, and yep other than Southfield you might as a well have a wall. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/7 "2010-09-23T22:39:20Z")
It is from the 2000 census. It would be more interesting to compare and contrast changes over the past ten years once that data comes out. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/8 "2010-09-24T00:20:11Z")
Not surprisingly, Sacramento is a pretty well-integrated confetti sea. Go Sacto, way to not be too incredibly segregated! ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/9 "2010-09-24T00:32:36Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > It’s neat to see it in dots like that, but I can’t say that it’s terribly surprising. I used to live in Chicago, and while the North Side is fairly well-integrated between whites and Latinos (you have some neighborhoods that are more white and some that are more Latino, but overall there isn’t a great deal of segregation), and then there are some neighborhoods that have large Asian populations, much of the South Side is nearly entirely black. The sharp line is really startling and obvious. I don’t know a whole lot about the history involved in creating this, but as I understand it, it’s the result of many years of redlining. It’s been like this for such a long time that I have a hard time envisioning how Chicago could ever achieve anything close to integration. Yep, I’m in the little rainbow of the North Side on [the map that inspired this project](http://www.radicalcartography.net/index.html?chicagodots). We’re about as integrated as it’s possible to be, but the rest of the city, not so much. Time may take care of that, or it may not. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/10 "2010-09-25T03:18:40Z")
Not to take anything away from Mr. Fischer, but here’s the map that presumably inspired his map: [http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1762.html](http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1762.html) I drew it in 2003. It’s interesting that he cites the [companion choropleth map](http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/3889.html) from the _Encyclopedia of Chicago_ as an example of the kind of map that can be misleading about racial patterns, but doesn’t mention the map I worked very hard to include (on the very next page) in the book as a counterbalance. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/11 "2010-09-25T03:41:30Z")
LA looks precisely like LA. A neat view, though. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/12 "2010-09-25T13:01:54Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > Not to take anything away from Mr. Fischer, but here’s the map that presumably inspired his map: > > [Chicago's Residential Patterns According to Census Racial Categories in 2000](http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1762.html) > > I drew it in 2003. > > It’s interesting that he cites the [companion choropleth map](http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/3889.html) from the _Encyclopedia of Chicago_ as an example of the kind of map that can be misleading about racial patterns, but doesn’t mention the map I worked very hard to include (on the very next page) in the book as a counterbalance. Is that the same map I linked to in the post above yours? I think it is, albeit a different webpage than that you linked to. If so, he does mention it; I got the link from it from his website: > [@](#): > > I was astounded by [Bill Rankin’s map of Chicago’s racial and ethnic divides](http://www.radicalcartography.net/index.html?chicagodots) and wanted to see what other cities looked like mapped the same way. To match his map, Red is White, Blue is Black, Green is Asian, Orange is Hispanic, Gray is Other, and each dot is 25 people. Data from Census 2000. Anyhow, great work! Thank you for starting the ball rolling. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/13 "2010-09-25T13:14:11Z")
I saw this a few days ago, but was unable to download the pictures. I presume I was doing something wrong. Super maps. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/14 "2010-09-26T06:46:34Z")
These are fascinating! I look forward to an update because my neighborhood in Nashville was just beginning to change then. Newark really got my attention! I realize that had to do with the density of the population making the colors so bright. But it is almost as if there are barriers between the races. California cities seem to be doing very well on their integration. But Northern cities are still as segregated as the South – moreso in many cases. ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/15 "2010-09-27T03:32:21Z")
I was inspired by this thread to draw [a similar map for Cape Town](http://adrianfrith.com/census2001/cpt-race-dotmap.png) (South Africa), where I live. The effects of the Group Areas policy are still very visible, seven years after the end of apartheid (the map being based on data from 2001). ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/16 "2010-09-28T02:00:31Z")
I wonder what you’d see if you overlaid that map with a map based on crime statistics. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/17 "2010-09-28T02:15:22Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > I wonder what you’d see if you overlaid that map with a map based on crime statistics. I’m probably not alone here, but in Milwaukee the maps would be pretty similar. As soon as the newscaster says “There was a triple shooting today…” It almost always ends with “…On the North Side” whereas if it’s about gangs or graffiti it’s on the South Side. The burbs tend to be pretty tame, at least compared to what happens in the city. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/18 "2010-09-28T02:25:58Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > > [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > > > I wonder what you’d see if you overlaid that map with a map based on crime statistics. > > I’m probably not alone here, but in Milwaukee the maps would be pretty similar. As soon as the newscaster says “There was a triple shooting today…” It almost always ends with “…On the North Side” whereas if it’s about gangs or graffiti it’s on the South Side. The burbs tend to be pretty tame, at least compared to what happens in the city. Segregation map [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/4150/4981419889_76b332b32d_b.jpg "Race and ethnicity: Milwaukee") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/4981419889/in/set-72157624812674967/) Crime Map > **[Milwaukee Crime Rates and Statistics - NeighborhoodScout](https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/wi/milwaukee/crime)** > > Most accurate 2021 crime rates for Milwaukee, WI. Your chance of being a victim of violent crime in Milwaukee is 1 in 68 and property crime is 1 in 36. Compare Milwaukee crime data to other cities, states, and neighborhoods in the U.S. on... Now, it should be noted that this crime map is just a random map I found on the internet, I have no idea of it’s accuracy. Also, it just populates the data from the City of Milwaukee and not the entire Milwaukee County, but you still get the idea. If you look above the big blue section on the segregation map, you’ll see a smaller blue area…that’s reflected on the crime map as well. Also, I know this comes off as racist, but, most people around Milwaukee will tell you, given the choice they’d rather drive through the Mexican part of town then the black part of town, and you can see why based on the crime map. I’m not sure how dangerous the North side of Milwaukee is compared to other cities, but every morning when you turn on the news, you always here stories about the overnight activities in that area. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-link-city-maps-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/554717/19 "2010-09-28T15:33:44Z")
I’d be interested if there’s an income map as well, just to see how well that correlates vs. self-reported race.