The Children's Corridor » Map

Population Density by Race and Ethnicity, 2010

Piton Staff — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 18:06:58 +0000

This map allows you to quickly glimpse at an area and see its racial/ethnic makeup and population density. Each dot on this map represents 25 people, and dots are placed randomly within each Census Tract. Dots are color-coded by race/ethnicity. Areas with more dots are more densely populated, and areas with fewer dots are less densely populated.

For example, looking the five neighborhoods in Near Northeast, you can see Five Points, Cole and Whittier are more densely populated than Clayton and Skyland. And while Cole has a predominantly Hispanic population, Whittier is more heavily African-American and white.

This map was made using 2010 Decennial Census data from the U.S. Census Bureau. For more visualization and analysis of Census data, visit piton.org/census2010.

Download a PDF version of this map.

35,000 Kids at Risk

Piton Staff — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:54:07 +0000

Roughly 35,000 kids – representing two-thirds of the under-18 population – are living at risk in the Children’s Corridor. These kids were born to teen mothers or mothers without a high school education, or their family’s income near poverty the poverty level, qualifying them for free and reduced-price lunches. Because of these factors, these kids are less likely to perform well in school, putting them at a disadvantage when it’s time to enter the workforce.

We already know, from many different metrics, that the level of need in the Corridor is immense. This map simply puts that need into stark relief.

Using this map, we can identify areas that have the most vulnerable children in terms of sheer numbers (East Colfax/Original Aurora and Montbello) and in terms of the percent at-risk (Globeville/Elyria-Swansea and Montbello). One of the most striking things about this map is that Montbello and East Colfax/Original Aurora are among the top within the Corridor, no matter which way you look at it.

Taken as a whole, the Children’s Corridor stands out above the rest of Denver in that it has a higher concentration of children, and a higher percent of children who are vulnerable. That is, even if so many children were not at risk because of their family’s income of their mother’s education level, these neighborhoods would still be an areas of focus because they are so child-dense.

Here is the breakdown of vulnerable children by Corridor hub (using the 2010 Census population counts as a baseline):

In East Colfax and Original Aurora, 11,409 children, or roughly 73%, are at risk.
In Montbello, 8,946 children, or roughly 80%, are at risk.
In Green Valley Ranch, 4,940 children, or roughly 49%, are at risk.
In Stapleton, 473 children, or roughly 13%, are at risk.
In North and Northeast Park Hill, 2,469 children, or roughly 56%, are at risk.
In Globeville and Elyria-Swansea, 2,650 children, or roughly 80%, are at risk.
In Near Northeast, 4,061 children, or roughly 69%, are at risk.

When we expand the picture to include all of Denver and Aurora, here is what we see:

Download a printable PDF version of this map.

This map was made using October count data from Denver Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools for October 2010, as well as birth data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for 2006 through 2010.

Mapping early childcare services in the Children’s Corridor

Piton Staff — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:31:52 +0000

Where can parents go to find early care services — such as day care and preschool — in the Children’s Corridor? This map shows the licensed care providers, alongside the under 5 population displayed by census tract. By exploring this map, you can see which areas have a high demand for child care services and whether there are facilities to meet those demands. In one three-tract region in northeast Original Aurora, for example, there are 1780 children under age five and only two early childhood care locations.

This map can help identify gaps and potential opportunities for service expansion.

Here is a printable map that displays the same data. On this version, the under 5 population is compiled by Corridor hub (click the image for a larger version or download a pdf):

Data notes: Service provider list up-to-date as of February 2012. Population data is from the 2010 Decennial Census.