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MAPPING THE INEQUITIES
SMU researchers take measure of neighborhoods, block by block
Dr. Barbara Minsker and SMU graduate student Zheng Li visit one of the Dallas infrastructure deserts
they identified. Their research was turned into a series of interactive reports. P)HOTOS: COURTESY SMU) KEY FINDINGS
• Low-income neighborhoods in the city of Dallas are up to 3.5 times more likely to be infrastructure deserts, highly deficient in eight or more types of infrastructure, than high-income areas. • Majority Black neighborhoods are up to 4.6 times more likely to be infrastructure deserts than majority-white areas. • Majority Hispanic neighborhoods are up to 3.5 times more likely to be infrastructure deserts than majority-white areas. • A significant percentage of infrastructure deserts are in the southern portion of the city, south of I-30. • Regardless of income level or race, common deficiencies across Dallas neighborhoods include sidewalks, street tree canopy, food access, and medical service access.
By Bethany Erickson
bethany.erickson@peoplenewspapers.com an economic downturn, you don’t have anyone to turn to.
It’s taken a few years, but SMU civil engineering researchers have mapped and identified 62 Dallas neighborhoods that qualify as infrastructure deserts.
And while there aren’t any such deserts in Preston Hollow, Dr. Barbara Minsker, who is heading up the project with doctoral student Zheng Li, said the inequities impact the entire city’s health.
“There are a number of reasons we should all care — there are health issues and safety issues. There are community issues,” she said. “If there are no community gathering places, and you don’t know your neighbors, when the next disaster strikes — whether it’s a pandemic or a tornado or
“We have these spaces that are safe and nice where people gather, and community is a really important piece of the fabric for resilience and for people to be able to function,” she added. “If they can’t thrive, then we’re going to be paying to support them one way or another. So we might as well support them in a way that supports the fabric of the community.”
Most of the neighborhoods are in the southern part of the city and are home to primarily low-income Black and Hispanic residents. Minsker’s team created a computer framework to assess 12 types of neighborhood infrastructure at the census-block level and then used that framework to evaluate and compare nearly 800 Dallas neighborhoods.
Some of the data came from city staff, Minsker said — for instance, public works gave the team sidewalk condition data and pavement condition data.
“There were some things we couldn’t get from them and some things they didn’t know,” she said. “So, for example, for crosswalks - we took aerial images and trained a machine learning model to identify crosswalks in those images.”
In some cases, researchers drove or walked blocks to collect the data.
In turn, they used that information to create interactive reports full of maps and graphics outlining the status of everything from internet access to transportation access to community gathering places. Each neighborhood was rated on a scale ranging from excellent to highly deficient.
Minsker said that those who visit the report would probably notice that some issues — sidewalk and road conditions, for instance — are universally bad throughout the city, but that people should take a drive to some of the infrastructure deserts to see the difference.
“You’ll know it when you see it,” she said.
Minsker said that newer, yetto-be-released research compares Dallas to other large cities.
“We compare Dallas with Chicago, LA, and New York City, and Dallas has the worst infrastructure and the most inequity of any of those cities,” she said. “We have a hypothesis that when we look at the maps of those four cities in terms of neighborhoods that are predominantly Black, predominantly white, predominantly Hispanic, or none of those, Dallas has far more segregation — even though it’s no longer official — than the other three cities do.”
Read more of our conversation with Dr. Minsker and see the full report at peoplenewspapers.com.
The city of Dallas’ Forward Dallas initiative rolled out its Social Pinpoint map, which allows residents to create points of interest or discussion on an interactive map. (SCREENSHOT: BETHANY ERICKSON)
New interactive map allows residents, stakeholders room for discussion
By Bethany Erickson
bethany.erickson@peoplenewspapers.com
Mark Twain aptly pointed out that they’re not making land anymore, and that sentiment is driving the city of Dallas to make it as easy as possible for residents to weigh in on how they want that finite resource used.
Over the summer, the city’s Planning and Urban Design department launched the ForwardDallas Comprehensive Land Use Update, designed to update the city’s original future land use from the 2006 ForwardDallas Comprehensive Plan.
The updates come as COVID-19, climate change, and racial injustices have spurred the movement to reevaluate the city’s land-use policies and create more equity and sustainability across the city.
ForwardDallas project manager Lawrence Agu said that part of that requires making it simple for residents and other stakeholders to weigh in.
Enter the Social Pinpoint map, designed to allow individuals to create pinpoints on an interactive map to explain issues or even opportunities associated with that part of Dallas. Those pinpoints can also launch conversations among other residents, who can chime in to support or provide more information.
“Prior to this — at events and other similar mapping exercises — those were very localized,” he said, adding they often involved paper maps and people gathered around a conference room. “But with the Social Pinpoint map, we can do two things at once — we get to focus people’s attention to their neighborhoods, but then they can also see what other neighborhoods are saying at the same time.”
Agu said that the map is color-coded so users can easily navigate it and focus on one specific area or view the entire city.
“When we go out and conduct community events, community members know their neighborhood and their district, but they might not know as intimately other places, or they might know two locations pretty well — like their home location and their work location,” Agu said. “When they get into the interactive website, they can start to explore other parts of the city that they probably don’t know that well, or that they just drive through, and they have the ability to provide feedback or just read other people’s comments.”
Agu said that the team is compiling all kinds of data to form the city’s revised landuse plan. Perspectives from residents and even others who find themselves in Dallas often are an essential component for tailoring “how different communities, different areas are going to be developed.”
As the ForwardDallas project progresses, Agu said his team would be looking at the way Dallasites are using land to improve the plan and asking questions like these:
“There are so many different neighborhoods and ways of experiencing life in different communities, but how do different land uses work together in particular locations, and how are those different locations unique from each other?
“How does place get developed by just the location of similar work types, or place types, and different parts of the city?”
BE HEARD
Find the Social Pinpoint map — as well as more ways to weigh in on Dallas’ land use plan — at ForwardDallas.org.
