The poster:
Over the last two weeks we’ve been collecting qualitative and quantitative data—either by ethnographic observation and recording, mapping, or by reading and commenting on the statistics. The texts we’ve read also provided diverse approaches to gathering and organizing information: different ethnographic methods, observation and interpretation of interactions in city environments, drawing a relation between meaning and objects, analyses of physical traces, and mapping and data visualizations. In this Project we reviewed the information about our neighborhood collected on the NYC Census Fact Finder website and other data sites. We had to pick 3-5 entries that cover our neighborhood and find important to describe it. The task was to make an informative poster that would help the viewers learn about our neighborhood and also draw the viewers’ attention to the information we collected. I think what I really learnt from this project is how we can put data about an entire neighborhood and present it in such a simple way.
For my assignment, I chose Crown Heights as my neighborhood because I have never really explored Brooklyn and that gave me an opportunity to do so. However, once I visited it, I couldn’t believe the vast difference between Manhattan and Crown Heights. It was quiet and suspicious, and it felt like I was entering a crime scene. The videos that I saw about Crown Heights were actually similar to what I saw and most of it talked about the Black and Jewish community. I think it was the fact that there was a lack of White background that made people call the neighborhood “shady”.
I looked at 5 parameters/entries from the factfinder websites; Race Demographics, Educational Attainment, Unemployment, Poverty and Substance use and violence hospitalization. The data showed that there were 69.90% African American/Black community present and while walking around I wasn’t surprised at all. There were hardly any other cultural elements present in that neighborhood. With the education aspect, I noticed a lot of learning institutes all over the place, from kindergarten to colleges, I saw a lot of those but ironically, I didn’t see a lot of kids. The educational attainment statistics were very close to New York’s which was surprising because the place is considered to be “not so developed”. Moving from Manhattan to Crown Heights I could definitely feel this development factor because there were hardly any high-rise buildings, malls, huge stores etc. and so I assumed that poverty (8%) did exist quite a bit. Which also led me to think if there was an informal market present or corners where drug dealing happened. While I did see a few men gambling, of course I couldn’t first hand see the substance use or violence. Nonetheless, the entire ambience did make me quite nervous and scared to step anywhere alone.
I believe, unlike other neighborhoods, Crown Heights is not a very family orientated place. Yet there is some sort of disgrace attached to this place because of the issue of race. I think people misconstrue or associate sketchy ideas to this place because of the Black community which makes it hard for the neighborhood to grow. I heard this man screaming “They think Americans are only white, but here it is only Black”. The past is definitely yet attached to this place and is unfair for people living here. With my chosen data, I could vaguely see a poverty cycle forming. Although there is decent amount of education provision, the fact that there is a larger African American community makes it less attractive for organizations and businesses to invest in. This in turn could lead to more unemployment and poverty which could be followed by drug abuse. While this may not actually be the case, but the kind of stigma attached to race could form this path. I compared all my data to New York’s statistics and there is a clear contrast. New York might be a cultural melting pot but if such bold differences exist between cultures then what is the point of diversity? With my data visualization I also hope to spread awareness about unity and equal change being present everywhere. While one nation might move at a faster rate, we must all help in making everything equal. Minorities might differ from place to place but they shouldn’t be ignored. I definitely would like to know a lot more about the jobs and sectors at Crown Heights.
The statistical data websites I used were:
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/data/2015chp-bk8.pdf
