Introduction
Women have been hit particularly hard throughout the pandemic in terms of loss of childcare, jobs, and economic stability. This project aims to identify and elevate awareness of resources of all types for women throughout New York City.
Inspiration
When I think of digital maps, I think of Yelp and Google Maps and how a user can filter and interact with points on the map to explore a particular area of a city. Navigating this way is intuitive and user-friendly since it provides location relative to the user and the ability to navigate to any given location’s page for more information such as hours, services/menu, etc.
Materials
For this exercise, I used Carto which is a cloud computing platform that provides GIS, web mapping, and spatial data science tools. Carto is very powerful and versatile. The platform can be used to optimize routes, identify business opportunities, influence policy change, among many other purposes involving data that has a spatial component.
I used a dataset from The NYC Women’s Resource Network, which is a free, user-friendly database of over 1,000 nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies that work to advance and benefit women and families in New York City. The dataset includes organization name, location (latitude & longitude), contact information, and services offered/description.
Methods & Process
My first step was to get the base layer of each borough set up as a map which came from the City Planning Department.
Next, I added the layer that included women’s resources and started exploring styling and widgets.
I then added a layer of analysis to intersect and aggregate the locations with each borough to show which areas of NYC have a higher concentration of resources available. This information could also indicate which areas could be lacking resources for governmental and non-profit consideration.
I then began to finalize the styling, labels, legend, pop-ups, and filters for greater clarity and context.
Results & Analysis
Below is a final screenshot of the map and the live version can be found here.
It didn’t surprise me that Manhattan has the greatest density of resources; however, I was a surprised at how few locations are in Staten Island. Queens and the Bronx are less dense with resources and it’s unclear from the data I had available why that could be the case. Additional factors would need to be considered to determine if there are unmet needs in these boroughs.
Reflection
Like most of the data tools throughout the semester, it was difficult to get started with importing the data correctly and navigating a tool that is new to me. Once I got to the styling phase, though, I felt more comfortable. While I like that I was able to add a search filter by name, I wish I was able to have added a primary filter by borough and/or category for better usability. I believe the data would need to be reformatted and expanded in order to make these features possible.
Sources
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/01/from-jobs-to-pay-the-coronavirus-pandemic-has-hurt-women.html
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/data-maps/open-data/nybb_metadata.pdf?ver=21a
https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Social-Services/NYC-Women-s-Resource-Network-Database/pqg4-dm6b/data