Census Data
Historical and Other
Data
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Introduction
By now you know which neighborhood cluster you’ve been
assigned to. You may or may not have engaged
in background research regarding the neighborhoods prior to this point, but
now your next step is to get into the data and become even more familiar with
your neighborhoods before you conduct the field work portion.
Purpose
The purposes of this phase of the project are for you
- to become familiar with census
data: interpreting maps and demographic data, comparing neighborhood,
city, and national data, using information from the Office of
Neighborhood Involvement, etc.
- to become familiar with the historical
background of the neighborhoods that comprise your cluster by accessing
data at the Oregon Historical Society, as well as online and library
resources
- to become familiar with the
nature of and extent to which the neighborhoods in your cluster are politically
active
- to decide on whether or not you
may want to work alone or in teams or half and half (e.g., do some
neighborhood observation in teams, but project work individually)
- to think about how you may want
to go about presenting your project
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Background/Review
You may already have done some of the tasks below, but now
is the time to do them with the specific intention of learning about your
cluster using available statistical and other information.
As noted, unlike many cities, Portland has an Office of Neighborhood Involvement,
which is actually part of our city government, constituting one of the city
bureaus and overseen by a city commissioner.
Portland is divided into seven
Neighborhood Coalitions (click here for a printable color map),
which make up the "top level" of our neighborhood system. Your
neighborhood cluster does not necessarily correspond with a formal
coalition. You can link to contact information about the coalitions,
including web addresses.
At the level below the coalitions are the individual neighborhood associations
themselves. There are 90-95 associations (depending on whether you
include five that are "recognized" but not affiliated with any
Coalition). You can look at this large
map of street and neighborhood detail to see exactly where your
neighborhood clusters are. Note that Fairview and Orenco are not included,
because they are not within Portland’s city limits.
When you visit the detailed neighborhood map, please note
that it takes a long time to load and will probably appear unreadably small
on your screen. You will need to use the zoom-in tool, located
on the toolbar in Adobe, to click on the general area where you live. Keep clicking
until you see your street and neighborhood clearly.
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Researching Your Neighborhood Cluster
Now you need to find out some very basic background
information about your cluster. This section
will guide you through a few useful research stops.
I. Census and Mapping Data
- Obtain
a “searchable address” for the neighborhood
by looking in the Neighborhood Directory, at http://www.portlandonline.com/oni/index.cfm?&a=65925. These begin on p. 11 of the
directory. For each
neighborhood, the Directory lists officers (e.g., chair, secretary,
etc., and their contact info).
Use the address for the chairperson. For example, for the Alameda Neighborhood Association, the
chair’s address is 2867 NE Hamblet St.
If you are studying Fairview, use the intersection of NE
Halsey St. and NE Fairview Ave.; for Orenco, use the address 1453
NE 61st Ave., Hillsboro.
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- Get preliminary
data from PortlandMaps, at http://www.portlandmaps.com/. To search for neighborhood Census
data, you must enter an address, so enter in the address you obtained for
the chair or other neighborhood officer (or for Fairview/Orenco). What will come up on the first screen
will be some basic information about the property at that address. Ignore that. Instead, click on the “Census” tab
in the upper right. This
will reveal some preliminary Census information about the neighborhood,
along with some graphs and maps.
Keep in mind that these data are not very useful until you
compare them with citywide or national data. Otherwise, they are just stand-alone numbers. back to
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- Get 2000 Census data to learn
even more about the neighborhood
by going directly to the U.S. Census, at http://factfinder.census.gov. Type Portland and choose Oregon;
then click GO. If you are
studying Fairview, type in Fairview, Oregon, and for or Orenco,
type in Hillsboro, Oregon.
Notice that in addition to whole numbers of people in certain
categories, the Census provides percents and also compares the
percent in this city with the U.S. average.
Also, notice that for many variables, there are maps. For example, go down to Median age (years)
and click on map (to the right).
A map of Portland will come up.
You can see areas color coded according to the median age. For
example, you can see that there is a large dark-green area in the far
northwest of Portland, which corresponds with the highest median age
range.
Play around with the tools at this site. With the tool in the upper right-hand corner, you can zoom
down to 12 miles across, 4 miles across, etc. You’ll be able to see actual street names. With the tool in the upper left,
you’ll be able to click on the i to get information about the specific are you’re
looking at. To do this,
- first click, the i and then
- to avoid pop-up problems, press your control key, and keeping it pressed,
- click
on the neighborhood or area of interest (hold the control key down
until all the information appears).
- Keep in mind that
for Fairview and Orenco, Census data will be for the general Hillsboro
and Gresham areas and will not be representative of those two planned
communities. You will need to
zoom in to get to the specific locations.
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- Compare the
Census data from Step 3. You can look at maps of Portland to
see how sociodemographic data are arrayed and, comparing the Census maps
from Step 3 with the Portland neighborhood map at http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=60599,
you can find information about the neighborhoods you’re looking at
(e.g., median age in Alameda is 34).
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- Look for patterns. The neighborhood clusters are made up of
neighborhoods that have some key sociodemographic or cultural features
in common. You might notice, for
instance, that the neighborhoods you’re looking at in one of the
clusters has a relatively high percentage of black or Hispanic
residents.
Take notes that will help you choose a cluster. Remember, one of the goals of this
exercise is to learn about the variety of communities in the Portland
area, so look for clusters that contain sociodemographic variables that
are of interest to you. back to table of contents
- You can also
get a street-level map of each
neighborhood at http://www.portlandonline.com/oni/index.cfm?c=35281.
II. Historical and Other Information
Visit public and university libraries
online and search for materials using some of the following types of keyword
search phrases:
Portland neighborhood history
Portland Oregon history
Portland urban history
[individual neighborhood name]
You should also visit the Oregon Historical Society (OHS)
online and perform similar searches of the OHS library catalog. In addition, you
can find historical photos at the OHS Portland Photo Categories Webpage.
You may use those photos free of charge as long as you are using them for
educational purposes. You will need to check with the Oregon Historical
Society for the library’s hours. If you show your student ID, admittance is
free.
Also, visit the neighborhood's web pages by going first to
the City of Portland's Office of Neighborhood Involvement, at http://www.ci.portland.or.us/oni/index.html and at http://www.neighborhoodlink.com. See what you can find out about the
personality of the neighborhoods in your cluster, as well as the nature and
extent of their political activism (some neighborhoods are very busy,
constantly involved in city politics, while others are much less involved – why?).
For Orenco and Fairview, do a web search for
“Orenco Station” and “Fairview Village.”
http://www.movingtoportland.net/ has a
lot of information about neighborhoods in and around Portland; just remember
that it’s a real estate page site and is meant to attract people to
Portland. It has an inherent bias,
but also does provide interesting factual information and history.
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Think About Your Approach to the Project and
Presentation
Do you like to work alone or in teams? There are at least two people assigned to
each cluster. You’ll be given an
opportunity to meet to decide whether you want to work alone or together or a
little bit of each.
Also, begin to think about how you will want to present
your field study. You’ll be doing
some actual field work (see “What’s Next?” below) and combining your field
observations with the information you’ve obtained from census, mapping,
historical, and online sources. You
will have three minutes in which to make your presentation (more about that
later), so you need to decide what kind of presentation you will probably
want to make. The basic
choices are:
Poster
PowerPoint presentation
Web Site creation and presentation
Regular paper, with short (3-minute)
oral presentation to class
Online digital photo tour (which
should include some factual information and have a focal point – not just
random pictures J
Printed photos – in a portfolio or
poster, again, along with factual information and a focal point
Other (art, poetry, collage, etc.,
but, again, with a message and focal point)
You will learn some basic design principles and
presentation methods to help you with your project. By the end of this week, you should know what type of approach
you will want to take.
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What’s Next?
Once you’ve become familiar with your neighborhood
clusters in terms of statistical, historical, and other information, and are clear on what your process of
investigation will be, it's time to enter the field!
See Ethnography Overview to review important
issues associated with field work, observation techniques, guiding principles, etc.
Finally, you’ll begin putting together
your final project.
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I need help with this
assignment.
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