Over the past year new sources of data on Durham neighborhoods have emerged, and existing sources have been updated. We’ve made and wanted to summarize a few major updates to the Durham Neighborhood Compass.
Updates You’ll See in the Compass
Crime
As part of our antiracist data methods work, we did an evaluation of the “Safety” section of the Compass. After a community conversation in December 2021, we renamed this section “Crime” to more accurately represent the data we are displaying. We also revised the meta data to include some critical reflection on the crime data, including ‘whose perspective is reflected?’ and ‘whose is missing?’.
Urban Heat Islands
Last summer, Durham’s Museum of Life and Science led a citizen science project to measure temperatures across the city on a typical summer day at three different points in time. We’ve added this data to the Compass under the Environment -> Climate tab. You can use it to explore the neighborhoods in Durham which are most impacted by increasing summer temperatures, as well as those which have the most land area in “cool oases” where residents can escape the summer heat. Evening/nighttime temperatures in this study are particularly important for public health, since most Durhamites don’t have the option of leaving their home overnight to escape the summer heat.
Health
We received updated data on chronic conditions in Durham. Rates of chronic kidney disease, diabetes, heart attack, and stroke overall and disaggregated by sex, race, and ethnicity are now in the Compass for 2015 through 2019.
Caveats
We are carefully considering the changes in the 2020 Census data. Some boundaries and metrics collected have changed since the 2010 Census and intervening American Community Survey years. As we incorporate this new data, we will center the stories of Durham’s historically marginalized populations and strive to reflect them in our data visualizations.
What’s Next
Based on our community conversation, we are considering alternative data sources to include in a new Compass “Safety” section that better represent Durham residents’ understandings of safety in their neighborhoods. If you’d like to collaborate with us on this work, please reach out to Libby McClure.
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