Stage 6: Theresa Borkowski’s review of Leah Keith

I had the pleasure of reviewing Leah’s final project this semester. Leah’s project was titled, Campus Updates: 1950 – 1980, How Much Do You Know About the History of Your College? I found her deep map to be very impressive and thorough. The map focuses on the updates to Creighton University, specifically looking 20th to 30th street and Cumming Street to the 480 interstate. Leah made sure to give special credentials to the Creighton University Bulletins, which was a handbook that has an updated map every two years beginning in 1950. The Bulletin also documented the development of buildings, parking lots, roadways, and the land that Creighton owned. 

Leah was able to produce an interactive deep map that tells the story of Creighton University while also giving reference to the people those choices affected and the resources they needed. She ensured that the viewer would be able to understand who the university made the decisions that they did and whom those people would affect. An example of this that Leah gives is the construction of the North Freeway. When this freeway was proposed there was very little collaboration with North Omaha even though that would be whom it primarily effected. North Omaha was not consulted but repeatedly ignored when it came to the demolition of houses, schools, churches, and neighborhoods in preparation for the freeway. Leah references the Aerial Plat Book of Omaha to account for the amount of destruction and construction that was done. 

Leah also has a separate section of her map labeled Chronology Collection where she has pictures of what Creighton used to look like and the dates oof each photo as well. When looking at these photos one can really begin to tell when the development of Creighton took off and it was a very nice addition. 

Leah did very well at giving the viewer an overall look into the campus. The map takes you through time but also through a story because you are able to see and read about the progression of the campus. The only thing I would have enjoyed more of would be the mention of architecture. While this might not have been the route that Leah was going for, I think it could have been an interesting direction to take. Even now we can see all of the changing buildings going from old brick to newer sleek buildings with its of windows and sharp edges. It could be an interesting feature to add!

Final Project: Stage 4

I have began working on the actual map now that my data has been acquired. I am looking at the mortality rates of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in 1980, which is the first year anyone had been diagnosed in the continental United States. I have created my shape-files and joined them with the text and .CVS files. I have also gotten my map to be smaller by focusing on just the counties in California, which is also where the first diagnosis took place.

I have attached the map of just California by the separation of counties. I have been working with the attribute table and code book to identify the racial differences and then I will be creating separate layers to use color and identify each county and the predomination of each race. Ideally I will be able to separate each county individually, however, I fear that time may not be on my side.

Eventually I will be implementing this map into a story map, with additional data so it may be easier to read and view at the same time.

Final Project: Stage 3

Bisel, Kimberly, “HIV/AIDS Cases From 2008 to 2021,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 2023, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0009058d46c2464cae6412fcb7cb5e82.  

Celentano, David, A Randomized Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Antiretroviral Therapy Plus HIV Primary Care versus HIV Primary Care Alone to Prevent the Sexual Transmission of HIV-1 in Serodiscordant Couples,” HIV Prevention Trials Network, Accessed 2024, https://www.hptn.org/research/studies/hptn-052#block-views-block-study-detail-block-block-2-3.  

  • Investigating this study also allows me to compare the number of couples and compare it to the data of the 1980s. 

Carstens, A, “What does undetectable Equals Untransmittable Mean?,” The Body, November 2023, https://www.thebody.com/article/hiv-undetectable–untransmittable-uu-fact-sheet.  

  • I am able to look into more recent data and use today’s research in comparison to the research available in the 1980s.  

Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “HIV Surveillance Reports Archive,” Center for Disease Control and Prevention, May 7, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/library/reports/hiv-surveillance-archive.html.  

Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report,” Center for Disease Control and Prevention, January 1991, https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/library/reports/surveillance/cdc-hiv-surveillance-report-1990-vol-3.pdf.  

Department of Public Health, “HIV Health Services,” City and County of San Fransico, Accessed 2024, https://www.sf.gov/departments/department-public-health/hiv-health-services.  

  • This source can be used in part with the research report to combine data and use that to monitor and track the mortality rate.  

Health Resources & Services Administration Data Warehouse, “Find a Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Medical Provider,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources, Accessed April 2024, https://findhivcare.hrsa.gov/?hmpgtile=hmpg-hlth-srvcs.  

HIV Health Services, “HIV Health Services Resource Guide,” San Fransico HIV Health Services, 2024, https://sfhivcare.com/.  

  • This source speaks about the advocacy project and various resources for those infected.  

Kaiser Family Foundation, “The Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic,” KFF.org, July 2023, https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/fact-sheet/the-global-hiv-aids-epidemic/.  

  • The Kaiser Family Foundation has graphs showing the amount of money donated, as well as a list of outbreaks across the country.  

Minority HIV/AIDS Fund, “How is HIV Transmitted?,” HIV.org, June 2022, https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/about-hiv-and-aids/how-is-hiv-transmitted.  

  • This source addresses the transmission and provides a working map. 

Minority HIV/AIDS Fund, “Impact on Racial and Ethnic Minorities, HIV.org, December 2023, https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/data-and-trends/impact-on-racial-and-ethnic-minorities.  

  • This source breaks down the ethnic and racial minorities that were impacted. I will be using this present data to compare it to previous data.  

Target HIV, “Program Locator,” Target HIV, November 2021, https://targethiv.org/community/rwhap-locator?state=All&funding=All&show=map.  

  • This source allows me to track major outbreaks across the country and is also useful for finding treatment centers.  

University of California, Berkeley, “Health Statistics and Data: State and Local Statistics,” The Regents of the University of California, March 27, 2024, https://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/publichealth/healthstatistics/local.  

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “AIDS Public Information Data in the United States for the years 1981-2002,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reviewed November 26, 2019, https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/aids.html#Location

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Atlas Plus HIV/AIDS Diagnosis Map,” June 2022, https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/nchhstpatlas/maps.html

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Atlas Plus HIV Diagnosis 2008-2023,” February 2024, https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/nchhstpatlas/charts.html.  

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Compressed Mortality, 1979-1998 Request,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reviewed November 26, 2019, https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D16

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “HIV Prevention to End the HIV Epidemic in the United States,” Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/policies/profiles/cdc-hiv-california-prep.pdf.  

Whirry, Robert, “HIV Mental Health Services in San Fransico: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities,” San Fransico Department of Public Health and HIV Health Services, January 2024, https://sfhivcare.com//PDFs/Final%20SF%20HIV%20Mental%20Health%20Needs%20Assessment.pdf.  

  • This report allows me to see the affected population in the San Fransico area.  

World Health Organization, “Social Determinants of Health,” World Health Organization, 2023, https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health#tab=tab_1.  

  • The World Health Organization tracks epidemics through many different stations across the country and the globe.  

Mapping Ecological and Economical Disaster

1880

1900

1940

The most obvious change to me was Oklahoma, as we can see in the 60 years of these maps, more data was being collected. This can be verified because the data had become more split up to provide more accuracy. since 1880 it is known that the population in Midwestern states has grown significantly and as the population expanded so did the land use. These maps show an understandable display oof the cultivation od land use through 60 years.

Final Project: Stage 2

For my final project I have chosen to investigate the number of people who have moved on to high education in Omaha, Nebraska. A recent QGIS project I completed about mortgages and loaning companies made me interested in looking at the education levels of. those individuals and comparing the two maps. The scope of my project will be looking at Omaha from 1920 to 2020, in order to receive a wide, but manageable, set of data. The possible sources of data for my project will consist mostly of digital maps and online data. I will be doing research into the typical education of the 1920s and how that has obviously changed when approaching 2020. I will also take into consideration the gender gap and the financial burden of going to school.

My final project will be displayed in a story map format because I feel this is the best way to display the different maps while giving context around and about them. This project will not only show that higher interest rates where given out to communities with typically more of a minority population, as well as those individuals who live in more affluent neighborhoods received higher education from schools with better resources. I feel as though the comparison of these maps will paint a clear and concise point about the red lining that took place in Omaha 100 years ago, but as well as the discrimination and segregation of minority communities.

Mapping Ecological and Economic Disaster

Geoff Confer’s “Pasture and Plows” argues that the “plowing of the Great Plains for crop agriculture did not happen quickly,” which is true to a certain extent. The Great Plains had existed for many centuries before European settlement. The colonization and technologies that they brought with them allowed for the plowing of the American west to be exacerbated which contributed to a significant loos in farmland and various ecosystems.

Before the introduction of the plow, American grasslands were much more abundant. Humans, expansion, and the environment obviously play a crucial part together. As more people were expanding westward, more of the grasslands were being plowed for agricultural uses as well as disappearing all together to created houses, schools, etc.

Henry Gannett’s map of the westerly plains shows that with the technological state of the 1900s, there is a clear limit to man’s ability to completely alter a landscape. As noted in the map above, we can see that there was some land that was unable to be stripped of its natural state and converted for agricultural use.

References

Cunfer, Geoff. 2005. On the great plains. Texas A&M University Press, pp. 16-37.

Gannett, Henry. 1903. “Production of Wheat per Square Mile at the Twelfth Census 1900.” DavidRumsey.com.

Mapping Disease

During the mid-1880s in London cholera outbreaks were taking over the city. London was growing rapidly and by 1851 it was the largest city in the world. Due to the sheer amount of people in such a small space, waste management, or lack there of, became a tremendous problem. This problem was amplified by the popularity of water closets and the lack of a functioning sewer system (Johnson, 12). Because of these problems, cesspools that contaminated drinking water were causing a massive cholera outbreak.

John Snow’s Cholera Map from 1855 uses a type of bar graph to chart the number of deaths surrounding the Broad Street water pump which was the main source of contaminated water. This map aided in the development of the theory of disease transmission through water. This theory was seen as ground breaking because many people had thought the disease was spread through the air, because of the horrible smell due to improper waste management.

Alexander Johnston’s map the was produced a year after Snow’s, depicts the spread of disease on a global scale. Johnston attempts to link a natural phenomenon and disease transmission, he more or less links human movement and disease. This is very similar to the way Snow ties foot traffic around London to cholera contaminated drinking water.

Johnston’s map shows the British navy in blue and the routes they took around Africa and southwest Asia. It is noted that diseases are more widespread here than in places like Australia were the British had no contact at. I feel as though Johnston’s map would be easier to follow if he were to have focused on one disease, one color, and a wider area other than multiple diseases, multiple colors, and a smaller area. In my opinion John Snow’s map is easier to read and has created a better argument for the spread and progression of diseases.

References

Johnson, Steven. The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic — and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. New York: River Head Books, 2006.

Johnston, Alexander. The Geographical Distribution of Health and Disease, in Connection Chiefly with Natural Phenomena. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1856. David Ramsey Historical Map Collection, https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24722~940061:The-geographical-distribution-of-he.

Snow, John. Cholera Map. 1855. https://kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/21/121/15-79-54-30-johnsnow-a0a1d5-a_16430.jpg.

Final Project: Stage 1

How has the level of education changed over the past 100 years in Omaha? Why does the number of college students seem to rise and fall so quickly? I feel as thought it would be interesting to look into the level of education across the city of Omaha from 1920 to 2020. One of our recent QGIS projects looked into the mapping of mortgages and interests rates given out to buy homes. From that project we were able to see that the higher interest rates were given out in communities with typically more of a minority demographic. I think it would be interesting to map the changes in education levels and compare it to the map I made of interest rates as well. 

Practicum: Redlining and Interpolation

What patterns do you see between mortgage companies and locations that supplied lendees in Philadelphia?

After completing my map I was able to see a clear distinction between where race, mortgage companies, and housing availability. Many mortgage companies were only supplying White people with the option of a mortgage and it tended to be in more affluent neighborhoods.

Which regions had the highest interest rates?

The regions with the highest interest rates tended to be areas of people of color, specifically African Americans. One would think that because White people are given more opportunities for raises, jobs, and equality that White people would have a higher interest rates because they would be buying more expansive properties with more income but many companies where dishing out higher interest rates to communities of color even though they were typically making much less of an income.

What indication do you see (if any) that HOLC maps caused redlining (as opposed to
mapping preexisting discrimination). If none, what additional historical evidence do you

think you might need to establish this relationship?

An indication that was clear to me from the beginning was the almost perfectly clear dividing line that separated where people of different races were allowed to live and the rates that they were given to do so. I believe these maps caused redlining because they were deliberately discriminating and not allowing people of color to live in certain areas, and if they were allowed to then they would end up paying much more than there White counterparts.

What additional data layers do you think might supply evidence of discriminatory housing
policy/segregated urban development that you don’t have access to in this exercise?

I think that an additional layer to add that would be very interesting would be a salary layer or an educational layer. I believe these would add to the map because typically people of color were less likely to extend their education because they were not given the resources to do so and adding that could be interesting to see how it lines up with what races lived where. I also believe that adding a yearly salary layer could help because it would show a clear division in the salaries made by the homeowners, where they lived, and the interest rates which they were given

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