Source Study 2

From The Peopling of New York City

Source Study #2: Parsing the Demography of Staten Island

Source Study #2 is an exercise in gathering and analyzing quantitative data about the demography of Staten Island. Part of this work will be done jointly (in class), while part of the work will be done individually or in small groups. Later in the semester, you will be able to use this data to shed light on information you will be gathering through ethnographic interviews and participant-observation in the ethnic community you will be studying.

Objectives

1. To learn how to mine for data in databases derived from a number of sources (The U.S. Census Bureau, The New York City Department of City Planning, etc.).

2. To learn how to read quantitative data; how to norm, calibrate, and regularize terms to allow for comparison across data sets and databases; and to compare it to qualitative data.

3. To learn how to analyze data through comparison, tracking change over time, and other forms of data “parsing.”

The Process

1. Locate the demographic data for Staten Island’s communities in the following databases

Note the ways that each database gathers and presents its data, as well as disagreements between the various databases, because we will discuss later on how the sources one decides to rely upon will shape the outcome of the research derived from them.

2. What are the top twenty ethnic communities on Staten Island, according to these sources? How does that ranking compare to the top twenty ethnic communities in New York City? Where are they concentrated on Staten Island? Are there “ethnic neighborhoods” which can be identified quantitatively? (Later we will test these identifications against other observable social data in these locations. Also, be sure to record YEARS for your data – we will need to agree on when is “now,” if we will historicize our data, or both.)

3. From among the top 40 foreign-born communities identified for New York City by the Department of City Planning, rank the top twenty foreign-born communities represented in Staten Island. Are these communities the same twenty identified in question 2? Why might there be disagreement between the two sets?

(At this point, we will decide as a class which communities we want to focus on for our research; as part of that process, you will identify a community – “your community” – on which you will focus your further investigations this semester.)

4. How has your community’s population changed since 1990? How have the following changed over time: population levels (both as raw numbers and as percentages of all residents of Staten Island); location of population; percentage of foreign-born? What other indicators can be tracked over this period using the databases listed in question 1?

5. According to the most recent information available (such as that provided in the ACS), what demographic information about your community can you derive? Create a quantitative sketch of your community (we will also compare the indicators that we will all derive here, so that data comparisons can be made across the communities).

The Assignment

What you will hand in as “Source Study #2":

You will provide a demographic sketch of your community (as mentioned in question 5 above), based on the indicators that we as a group decide are most important.

The information you find about your community should be presented in two formats. First, it should be presented in a table which provides both the raw numbers as well as any derived percentages. Second, it should be described in a brief narrative which explains the data provided in table form.

A) These are all things you can derive from Census queries (with a little help from the zip code map and the maps cited below):

1) What was the size of your community’s population in 2000?

2) What percentage of total S.I. population was this group in 2000?

3) What percentage of total N.Y.C. population was this group in 2000?

4) What was the difference in proportional population for your community in S.I. versus N.Y.C. in 2000? (Was the concentration denser in S.I. than in NYC as a whole)?

5) What was the difference in proportional population for your community in S.I. versus the other four buroughs in 2000? (Was the concentration denser in S.I. than in Brooklyn, The Bronx, Manhattan, or Queens)?

6) Where was the settlement of your community densest, by zip code, in 2000? What neighborhood(s) does this represent?¹

7) How did the population of your community change between 1990 and 2000? If, relevant, how did the population of your community change over the course of the twentieth century?

B) The following are things that would require you to use the ACS:

8) What is the most recent estimate of the size of your community’s population?

9) How has that population changed (increased or decreased) since 2000? Identify the population at several points, or even year by year where possible.

10) Where has the settlement of your community been densest, by zip code, between 2000 and the more recent data? What neighborhood(s) does this represent?

¹About Staten Island neighborhoods: The Zip Code Map for Staten Island: http://www.unhp.org/crg/indy-maps-statenzip.html. For information about how the neighborhoods overlap with the Zip Codes, you can consult the maps stored on the Rootsweb site at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyrichmo/background.shtml. In order to better understand the relevant neighborhoods, the WordIQ site provides a listing of Staten Island neighborhoods at http://www.wordiq.com/definition/List_of_Staten_Island_neighborhoods with links to brief historical sketches of the history of each.

From The Peopling of New York City

Contents

Source Study #2: Parsing the Demography of Staten Island

Objectives

The Process

The Assignment