1940s New York City - a seriously cool website

Back in 1997, a copy of a 250-page document was purchased from a local bookstore. It was "NYC Market Analysis", published by four newspapers in 1943, "with photos, maps, data about each [city] neighborhood....it offers a unique window into New York [City] from another era.

"The Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center is making the 1943 profiles available to provide context for the 1940 Census records and to offer a research aid to historians and anyone else interested in learning more about New York from the 1940s..."

The Welcome to 1940s New York website displays a map of New York divided into the 116 neighborhoods that are covered in the 1943 Market Analysis.

Monday's New York Times highlights the project along with some neat then-and-now photos and Census stats.

The Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center website has more background, and Steven Romalewski, Director, CUNY Mapping Service, has blogged about the project.

I thank Steve for previewing this site at the State Data Center affiliates meeting last week.

Updates to CUNY's Census maps

The team at the CUNY Center for Urban Research has updated its interactive maps showing block-level race/ethnicity patterns in 2000 and 2010 in major US cities.

The maps are available at www.urbanresearchmaps.org/comparinator/pluralitymap.htm. Steven Romalewski has a blog post with more detail HERE. The news release is here.

Some updates:


1. Block-level coverage for all of New York State, as well as New Jersey and Connecticut. For example, here are links to Albany and Syracuse and Buffalo and Babylon/Islip on Long Island.

2. More cities. There are now 15 major urban regions mapped (Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.).

3. The maps now have three ways of comparing 2000 and 2010 racial patterns:
- a vertical slider bar dividing two overlapping maps (2000 on the left, 2010 on the right);
- a side-by-side comparison (two separate maps moving in unison), and
- a single-map overlay (you can fade between 2010 and 2000).

4. Color-coded the population change data in the popup window. Population increase is shown in green; decrease is shown in red. (A minor thing, but hopefully it makes the change values clearer.)

All three options for viewing are included so people can pick and choose which they like best, or which suits their particular needs. The vertical slider bar provides an effective "before and after" view. The side-by-side comparison works well for lingering over a given area, especially at the local level, taking the time to absorb the differences in demographic patterns. The single-map 2010/2000 overlay seems especially helpful for revealing the increase in diversity over a given area (as areas shaded with darker blues, oranges, etc fade to lighter shades indicating a more mixed population demographically) or vice versa.

CUNY Center for Urban Research has received some good feedback already on people's favorite comparison techniques. If you have a preference and have used the maps for a particular project, they would love to know.