1. Objective To map opportunity and access indicators and identify potential areas in accordance with levels of opportunity and access for the City of Dallas Previous Research The concept of “geography of opportunity” emphasizes the importance of residential location in the ability of individuals to succeed economically. The Dallas metropolitan region was mapped by exploring the availability of housing opportunities and juxtaposed with access amenities for lower-income and minority households (Van Zandt and Mhatre, 2006). This research provided a report card for the region by mapping indicator levels for 37 cities in and around Dallas. Problem As seen in the maps produced above, the city of Dallas occupies the majority of the Dallas metropolitan region and since the indicators are collected at city-level, the entire city of Dallas is coded with similar values although due to the size and expected cosmopolitan nature of the city, it is expected to exhibit differential values within the city limits. Therefore, it was proposed that the city of Dallas would be analyzed specifically on relatively similar opportunity and access indicators. Data Collection In order to analyze within-region differences, it was proposed to collect indicator data at the zip code level because any more specific unit analysis such as tract level or block group level leaves the analyzes open to neighborhood edge effects and also presents data collection problems. Mapping Opportunity and Access Indicators for City of Dallas Indicator Variables The following variables were selected for mapping: 1.Total Population 2.Percent of educated adults 3.Percent of children enrolled in high school 4.Percent of Vacant Housing 5.Number of Property Crime 6.Number of Violent Crimes 7.Percent of Housing in bad condition 8.Percent traveling 45 minutes or more 9.Percentage using public transit 10.Hispanic/White Dissimilarity 11.Black/White Dissimilarity 12.Black/Hispanic Dissimilarity Opportunity 1.Percent of Vacant Housing 2. Number of Property Crime 3. Number of Violent Crimes 4. Percent of Housing in bad condition Access 1. Percent traveling 45 minutes or more 2. Percentage using public transit 3. Hispanic/White Dissimilarity 4. Black/White Dissimilarity 5. Black/Hispanic Dissimilarity Education 1.Percent of educated adults. 2.Percent of school children Note: All indicator variables are standardized for better comparison and ranking. Access Indicators DistributionOpportunity Indicators DistributionEducation Indicators Distribution Raster Analysis After converting the Feature Class to raster data, we reclassify the rasters on a 4-interval scale i.e. 2 units above zero and 2 units below. These rasters are then used in the Raster Calculator [see formula below] to derive four maps showing differential levels of opportunity and access according to zip code level for the city of Dallas [see adjacent maps]: Good Opportunity Low Access = [Opportunity] <= 2 & [Access] < 3 Low Opportunity Good Access = [Opportunity] >3 & [Access] >= 3 Fair Opportunity Fair Access = [Opportunity] = 2 & [Access] = 3 Good Opportunity Good Access = [Opportunity] = 1 & [Access] = 4 Note: Opportunity scale is reversed. Spatial Statistics In addition to preparing composite maps of differential opportunity and access indicators, the raster maps are used to interpolate values across the region so as to have a better understanding of the spatial trends. Good Opportunity Good Access Fair Opportunity Fair Access Good Opportunity Low Access Low Opportunity Good Access Conclusion As seen in the maps produced above, there is quite a bit of variability as expected, in the access and opportunity indicators in the city of Dallas. The central areas near the downtown (south-west) are indicated as the best areas for access and in the north for opportunity. The north region of the city is high on opportunity and low on access whereas the central regions are high on access and low on opportunity. There are no regions where both opportunity and access is high. Colophon Maps prepared by Pratik Mhatre, URSC. Projection: NAD 1983 UTM Zone 15N Data source: Census, 2000 and Analyze Dallas (www.analyzedallas.com) Van Zandt, Shannon and Pratik Mhatre. Minority and Low-Income Access to High Opportunity Areas: A Report Card for the Dallas Metropolitan Area, Paper presented at Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Fort Worth, 2006. Access: Slope of 0.3 is indicative of fair estimates of unknown values. Root-mean- square is low at 0.4 and close to value of average standard error. Mean Standardized close to 0 (.03) and root-mean-sq stdized close to 1 (.91). Opportunity: Slope of 0.33 is indicative of fair estimates of unknown values. Root-mean- square is low at 0.5 and close to value of average standard error. Mean Standardized close to 0 (.02) and root-mean-sq stdized close to 1 (.97). Education: As seen above in the Moran’s I Test, there is little evidence that education indicators are spatially autocorrelated hence we cannot be confident of the interpolated model for education as shown below.