ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

George Hobor, a Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the connection of geography and local conditions to health can be gauged by ever-emerging ways of gathering data.

“We funded a project in Atlanta looking at hospital admissions for injuries due to violence.  We tracked injuries resulting from violence on street, in parks, in public places and compared them to police reports,” he said.

“It shows how accurate is crime reporting.  It revealed a gap in reported versus actual incidents. 

People have an idea of what spaces are dangerous, but with the data – we can chart things to do, we can identify things to fix in a specific area.”

Based on data, RWJF has invested tens of millions of dollars in community development projects. 

The grants pay for restoring and empowering areas as small as a single block or half block. Improved socio-economic standing and access to healthy living has a positive impact on those communities – proven by data.

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

George Hobor, a Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, noted that people don’t spend their entire day in their home neighborhood, so cell phone data can show where a person spends the day and how that could impact their health.

 

“During COVID, you could even use cell phone data to see how well distancing was practiced,” he said. 

“Twitter data can be used, as people develop ways to use it to track eating habits, socializing – combine it with survey results and you get a feel for how geography impacts health.”

 

 

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

RWJF’s Place Matters program in Cuyahoga County – home county of Cleveland, ravaged by job loss and housing stock deterioration -- funded partnerships focused on eliminating health disparities. 

The initiative defined health not as the absence of disease, but “where people live, work, learn, age and play. 

Health includes the social conditions one lives in, such as the jobs we do, the money we're paid, the schools we attend and the neighborhoods we live in, as well as our genes, our behaviors and our medical care.”

Statistics showed chilling numbers in the City of East Cleveland. Its poverty rate was 32 percent and the heart disease mortality rates was 32 percent higher than that of the nation. 

Taking a holistic approach, the team hosted two land use summits focused on integrating of health and equity into land use planning and community development decision-making.

 

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Place Matters program has looked at health disparities and the impact of racism in dozens of communities.

 

“When we saw in highly segregated areas, life expectancies in the mid-50s, but in the 80s at an affluent area right next door, we explored community development,” said George Hobor, a Senior Program Officer at RWJF.

“We wanted to look at statistics to help us answer the question of how do we best invest in communities that have been disinvested in?”

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

 TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

“From my perspective of a public health researcher, investments that could improve health behaviors – such as building grocery stores, increasing exercise opportunities and discouraging smoking – could also increase life expectancy,” Jessica Owens-Young wrote, sharing how data can identify zip codes and neighborhoods in need of initiatives.

“Policies that promote economic prosperity and address the impacts of racial segregation – such as investments in quality education, safe and affordable housing, and improved public transportation – could also help.”

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is a foundation focused on access to health care, public health, health equity, leadership and training, and changing systems to address barriers to health. 

With an endowment of $13 billion, the Princeton, New Jersey-based philanthropic organization has been using data to target community-focused grants for decades.

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

“Neighborhoods with large black populations tend to have lower life expectancies than communities that are majority white, Hispanic or Asian. 

Such racial differences reflect the places in which different races live, not the individual characteristics of people themselves,” she reveals. 

“Research shows that black communities are less likely to have access to resources that promote health, like grocery stores with fresh foods, places to exercise and quality health facilities.

This is true even in middle-class neighborhoods.”

Research from the Census Bureau and researchers at Harvard and Brown universities shows children from places that are economically disadvantaged tend to have worse outcomes as adults. 

Jessica Owens-Young reports that research also proves that where local government spending is higher, life expectancies increase among those with lower incomes.

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS 

Jessica Owens-Young, Assistant Professor of Health Studies at the American University, wrote her interpretation of data showed that at the neighborhood level, longevity differences are sometimes even more drastic, appearing even when communities are only a few miles apart.

“In Washington, D.C., for example, people living in the Barry Farms neighborhood face a life expectancy of 63.2 years. Yet, less than 10 miles away, a baby born in Friendship Heights and Friendship Village can expect to live 96.1 years, according to CDC data,” she stated.

Owens-Young concludes land use, public policy and civic neglect as causes that leave black populations without the amenities needed to live long, healthy lives.

ANALYZING ZIP CODE DATA

TO EXPOSE HEALTH INEQUITIES AND TARGET SOLUTIONS

Being born in the wrong ZIP code can shorten your life – is the jarring headline in a story about disparity published in The Conversation by Jessica Owens-Young, Assistant Professor of Health Studies at the American University.

 

The average live expectancy in the U.S. is 78.8 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 

“However, life expectancy varies widely across geography. A child born in Mississippi today could expect to never reach his or her 75th birthday. 

But a child born in California, Hawaii or New York could expect to reach their expect to live into the early 80s,” Owens-Young wrote. 

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 24

STEEL MILLS

Rail car street art dwarfed by hulking old steel mill just south of Downtown Cleveland.

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 23

STEEL MILLS

I have no idea what the function was of this rail car.

It looks like it carried something boiling hot, maybe dangerous.

It's preserved at the edge of the parking lot of the Steelyard Commons shopping center.

From the shopping center's site:

Steelyard Commons, located at the edge of Cleveland's industrial valley just south of downtown, has risen from the ashes of LTV Steel's abandoned No. 2 finishing mill. 

The mixed-use shopping center combines retail outlets, restaurants, a playground, and hiking and biking trails--all in the heart of the city.

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 21

THE FLATS

Prince lives.

Eating a Homer Simpson pink donut.

In a larger than life piece of street art.

In industrial Cleveland

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 20

THE FLATS

More street art in the Flats district of Cleveland.

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 19

THE FLATS

Perhaps the meaning of this graffiti is that art is art.

It shows  a cop arresting Leonardo Da Vinci, presumably for painting the Mona Lisa.

One could surmise this is a Banksy-like protest of arrests for street artists.

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 18

THE FLATS

This brick building in Cleveland's industrial zone sports Banksy-like street art.

We're not sure if "Please Reconsider" refers to demolishing the stately, but careworn old building.

We hope it does.

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 17

THE FLATS

Brick machine shops, warehouses, small factories -- they all look like they are just waiting for a visionary to turn them into housing, galleries and more.

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 16

THE FLATS

What is it about fire escapes that are so charming from a design standpoint?

It's like Urban Designers and Urban Photographers have to love fire escapes the way music critics and independent record store owners have to love Yo Lo Tengo.

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 15

THE FLATS

We love our adopted hometown of Miami.
But there are virtually no industrial areas.
No ruins of bridges and smokestacks to preserve as art.
No elegant red brick industrial buildings to convert to artist lofts.

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 14

THE FLATS

Cross this bridge under the crooked river that burned, and you will be in Tremont -- one of the most-desirable urban neighborhoods in the Great Lakes region.

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 13

THE FLATS

So many worn out buildings, many occupied by workers for 3 round the clock shifts in Cleveland's hey day, exist in the valley along Cleveland's Cuyahoga River.

INDUSTRIAL CLEVELAND, OHIO -- part 12

THE FLATS

Smoke stacks certainly are symbols of fossil fuel burning that polluted most of the Rust Belt.

But preserved here, this brick tower is as elegant as a commissioned piece of art.