Mapping the Segregation of Metro Atlanta’s Amenities

This article completely fails to address the reality of visiting South DeKalb. Go drive around in Google Street view and you'll see abandoned commercial property after abandoned commercial property. Businesses struggle to exist there.

The problems there cannot be fixed by zoning more commercial real estate and the comments about healthy restaurants are laughable: look at the restaurants that thrive in the area in question and look at the areas with the abundance of healthy restaurants. There's zero overlap.

If a salad bar chain could do well in South DeKalb, they'd have no shortage of venues to consider. Atlanta is self-segregated in a multitude of dimensions that are much deeper than race.

One thing that is missing from the maps is the interstates, 20/75/85/285. Atlanta is very much defined by its interstates and it contributes to our overly divided mature. Leaving them out clouds the analysis of the food part, though the others seem to mostly stand fine without it, but it’s still be nice to see.

I own a home in Atlanta and I've noticed this too, but I think this article misses a bigger point: Crime. If you're a corporation, or business owner, it seems obvious you'd want your business in a lower crime area. The city wants you to build in neglected areas because the hope is commerce brings higher incomes, which may result in safer streets, etc. Which begs the question: Who should take the lead in this, the businesses, or the government? I think it's asking a lot to ask/demand businesses take the risk first, before the government has done a better job of reducing crime, poverty, and improving infrastructure.

Segregation is common in US cities, and not just in the South. A friend in civic tech likes to say, "there is only one map of Chicago". Over time I've found it to be true: whether you're looking at these types of amenities, census data, crimes, health metrics. If you look at mapping apps like Runkeeper, you'll be able to point out U.Chicago as an island of activity within the South Side.

Over time, ideas of how our cities are and ought-to-be get cemented in and polarized. Housing prices reflect that pretty well and businesses listen to that before opening a new location. When economies do grow, instead of gradual betterment of everyone living there, you see a neighborhood flip/gentrify so quickly; look at Bushwick or Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

> persistent segregation which was caused by government and private market policies and practices.

It could also be related to crime. The researchers should overlay their data with a map of crime.

In Seattle, bank branches in some areas have the tellers protected by bulletproof glass. In others, there is no protection at all. These are branches of the same bank. My neighborhood bank closed and left because of regular armed robberies.

An interesting article

But a very bad GDPR opt-in experience. You can't say "no thanks", only "set preferences". From that popup I couldn't spot how to continue without opting into to anything. Very "dark pattern" feeling, which is silly for a company that has put any effort at all into GDPR compliance. If a company puts in the hours making sure you don't opt in by default, why risk the wrath of regulators by trying to funnel opt-in? It's like they read the rules without groking the spirit of them.

Luckily I was on an iPhone so I just hit the reader view without accepting anything.