Mapping technology has contributed a lot to understanding the impact of geography on public well being. Luckily, you don’t have to be a GIS whiz to work with geographic data. The US Census Bureau provides a pretty solid tool for analyzing geographic disparities.
For instance, let’s look at the way poverty is distributed throughout Franklin County, Ohio, using only Census Bureau tools. Below you can see a map of poverty prevalence in Franklin County generated using the Census Bureau’s tools. To generate this map, I simply used the American Fact Finder’s search for census tract five-year average poverty rates from 2017 then chose an arbitrary point - 25% poverty, and split the census tracts accordingly. I played with a few different poverty thresholds and tried three classes and four classes, but I think this two-category split best shows the concentration of poverty within the county.
Figure 1. Concentrated Neighborhoods of Poverty in Franklin County
Zooming in, we can see which neighborhoods have the most concentrated poverty. Overall, this visualization suggests six neighborhoods of concentrated poverty: Downtown/Near East Side, the East Side, the South Side, the West Side, Linden, and Ohio State Campus.
Downtown/Near East Side
Figure 2. Concentrated Poverty in Downtown/East Side
Besides a little pocket in the King-Lincoln district, every census tract from the Scioto River to Alum Creek and between I-70 and I-670 is over 25% poverty. This may seem surprising to people talking about the “gentrification” of what is coming to be called “Old Towne East” along with the rapid building of downtown condos, but poverty is still quite persistent on the Near East Side and downtown. These numbers may change, though, over the coming years. Since this data lags back to 2012 in order to increase sample size, there is a possibility we will see this area start to turn more green in the coming decade.
East Side
Figure 3. Concentrated Poverty on the East Side
Poverty on the East Side stretches from the Fifth Avenue neighborhoods north of Bexley to the neighborhoods east of James Road and west of Yearling Road in the Eastmoor/Whitehall area all the way down to the old Eastland Mall area. While the west side of Whitehall has tracts of concentrated poverty, the east side of Whitehall is notably better off.
South Side
Figure 4. Concentrated Poverty on the South Side
South side neighborhood poverty is an interesting story. You can see the Brewery District, German Village, Schumacher Place, and Merion Village neighborhoods around Schiller Park are all under 25% poverty, but to the east in Southern Orchards and to the south in Hungarian Village, we still see concentrated poverty. We also see concentrated poverty in the Driving Park and Alum Creek Road areas to the southeast and even poverty stretching all the way down the Lockbourne Road area before it gets to Obetz and South High Street all the way down to the 270 loop. With development around Parsons Road, some are wondering if the Southern Orchards area will see declines in poverty rates, but poverty still seems to be persistent in the area for the time being.
West Side
Figure 5. Concentrated Poverty on the West Side
Concentrated poverty on the West Side of Columbus is kind of a tale as old as time. Tracts of concentrated poverty predominate Franklinton and much of the greater Hilltop area and even the tract hugging the west side of the Scioto River opposite Marble Cliff. Notable are two tracts of concentrated poverty outside the 270 loop, signaling some suburban concentrated poverty on the West Side. A bright spot is the Westgate area, which is experiencing lower poverty rates than Greater Hilltop around it. Eyes will be on Franklinton as large development projects may impact local poverty rates in East Franklinton over the next few years.
Linden
Figure 6. Concentrated Poverty in Linden
Linden is another neighborhood that has garnered a lot of attention for its poverty. The area of concentrated poverty centered in Linden also spills over into the Northland, North East, and North Central areas. Many City of Columbus antipoverty projects have been centered in the Linden area, likely because of its geographic size and the extent of concentrated poverty in the area.
Ohio State
Figure 7. Concentrated Poverty in the Ohio State Campus Area
Probably the strangest neighborhood of concentrated poverty in Franklin County is that around the Ohio State University campus. As we’ve written before, college student concentration can impact poverty rates quite substantially, so much so that the Census Bureau has written briefs on how college students impact poverty rates. Dealing with college poverty can be deceiving because it is often (but not always!) temporary, volitional, and maybe even incorrect. Place-based poverty interventions in this neighborhood should likely take different forms than those in other neighborhoods due to the unique circumstances of poverty in a college area.
As you can see, some simple mapping can tell you some very interesting stories about poverty in a place like Franklin County. Using maps like this can help guide policymakers towards place-based policies to reconcile these geographic disparities. But place-based approaches need to be tailored towards specific neighborhoods. For instance, a keen eye may have noticed a dot of red on the southern border of Franklin County that didn’t get an analysis here. Well that tract covers the Rickenbacker National Guard Base, which means the “poverty” problem here is quite different from that in Linden or on the West Side. This type of mapping only gets you so far on its own: you need to marry this geographic data with an understanding of the local conditions each neighborhood is facing in order to craft smart place-based antipoverty policy.