Fighting segregation in housing: There’s a map for that
February 6, 2014 10:14 AM   Subscribe

A single mom, Nicole just completed a degree in early childhood development at the local community college. She has been patching together part-time work around her studies and Joe’s schedule. Until 2009, Nicole and Joe lived in a poor neighborhood in Baltimore. Now they’re in Columbia, Md., half an hour away by car, but a world away in terms of opportunity. At Joe’s former elementary school in Baltimore, 97 percent of the students are low income, and 97 percent are African-American. His middle school in Columbia is one-third low income, with white, Asian, Hispanic and multiracial students making up just over half the population. In their old Baltimore neighborhood, Nicole says, she saw a man get shot in the leg in front of a corner bar as she held baby Joe in her arms.
posted by josher71 (12 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 


I'm not having trouble with the link, but thanks for doing that.
posted by josher71 at 10:23 AM on February 6, 2014


Interesting that they don't include Montgomery and Prince Georges counties. I wonder if that would have skewed any results?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 10:36 AM on February 6, 2014


The other problem with affordable housing in Maryland and lots of other places is that landlords are allowed to discriminate based on source of income. I noted that Ms. Smith moved to Howard Co., perhaps partly because Baltimore Co. landlords are notorious for not accepting payment from the state.
posted by postel's law at 11:10 AM on February 6, 2014


Now that I'm no longer on my phone, here's a link. That story is from 2011, but we're still working to get the HOME Act passed in 2014.
posted by postel's law at 11:50 AM on February 6, 2014


A map of Canadian cities would show that with some exceptions the "best" public schools are always inner city. And nobody moves to the suburbs "for the schools." At least I've never, ever heard of such a thing.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 12:57 PM on February 6, 2014


> Interesting that they don't include Montgomery and Prince Georges counties.

Montgomery County and PG County are part of the Washington, DC metro area. The map in the link restricted itself to the Baltimore metro area.
posted by needled at 1:27 PM on February 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


The map in the link restricted itself to the Baltimore metro area.

The map is titled "Baltimore Region" and includes places outside the Baltimore metro such as southern Anne Arundel and North East Hartford counties which are more part of the DC and Wilmington, DE metro areas respectively, so why not include PG which has parts that certainly could be claimed to be part of the Baltimore metro?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 5:03 AM on February 7, 2014


There is an official definition of each metropolitan region in the country, based on commuting and other patterns, called a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Each MSA is assembled at the county level, hence all of Anne Arundel county belongs to the Baltimore region, while PG and Montgomery are entirely claimed by DC. For comparison purposes, regions can't overlap.

Analysis of many questions is much easier (and frankly the data is often more meaningful) at the MSA or county level. It is also much harder to come up with your own definition of what makes a region, so most people stick with the official one.
posted by postel's law at 3:09 PM on February 9, 2014


Montgomery is it's own MSA per the spreadsheets, however all of the above are part of the DC/Baltimore Combined Statistical Area.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 5:49 AM on February 10, 2014


I think you must be looking at Montgomery, Alabama or somewhere similar, not Montgomery County, Maryland. The county is most definitely NOT its own MSA.
posted by postel's law at 11:57 AM on February 18, 2014


I think you must be looking at Montgomery, Alabama or somewhere similar, not Montgomery County, Maryland. The county is most definitely NOT its own MSA.

Per your link:

Metro Division Code: 43524
Title: Silver Spring-Frederick-Rockville, MD
CSA: Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA
Includes MoCo as the "central" and Frederick Co. MD as "Outlying"

Metro Division Code: 47894
Title: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
CSA: Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA
Includes DC; most of NOVA; PG, Charles, and Calvert Counties of MD; and all the way over to Jefferson County, WV
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 8:02 AM on February 20, 2014


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