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Text Mining the City of Houston Bright Ideas Program
Last year, we helped the City of Houston launch a cost-savings crowdsourcing program called Bright Ideas. I was reading through some of the responses, and I got curious about terminologies, priorities,...
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Houston Maps and Data: May 2016
This is our monthly series Houston Maps and Data, where we provide a roundup of interesting Houston stories using maps and data that help us understand the region by the numbers. In mid-April, the...
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Mapping Houston’s Capital Improvement Projects By Location and Budget
Every year, the City of Houston goes through a capital planning process where they allocate about $8 billion over five years. I wanted to know where these projects are, and how much we’re spending on...
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Where Barbershops Are Disappearing
I read an excellent article on Gray Matters in the Houston Chronicle called Why Barbershops Are Disappearing. The article points out that, culturally speaking, the barbershop is more than just a place...
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Mapping Low Level Marijuana Arrests
Back in February 2016, Texas Lyceum published the results of a survey that found fewer than 20% of Texans believe that low level marijuana offenses should be criminal. Currently, Texas law states that...
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Finding your Houston civic club
There are over 200 civic clubs in the City of Houston. They have fancy names, like Timbergrove Manor and University Oaks. Some of them even have websites. But what do they actually do, and why should...
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Houston Maps and Data – October 2016
It’s been a few months since I’ve posted a roundup of Houston-focused maps and data projects. There have been some really great stories while I’ve been gone. Here are some of my favorites: Find...
View ArticleMap of Bills Filed by Texas House and Senate Members
Updated December 21. Last week, the Texas Legislature published bills filed by our newly elected House and Senate members. The Texas Legislature only meets for six months every two years. These bills...
View ArticleMap of (Potentially Legal) Areas to Light Fireworks in the Houston Area
Fireworks can be a lot of fun, but the rules surrounding them can be confusing. The City of Houston uses its authority under the fire code to enforce a citywide fireworks ban, which means, for the most...
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Building a Data Dashboard for the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition
The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition advances solutions to build healthy, safe communities across Texas. Access to meaningful data is critical to informing the development of policies that will improve...
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Building a Research Map for Early Matters and Children at Risk
This is a post about how we built an early childhood education research map prototype for two Houston-based education advocacy groups and a coalition of 70+ partners. This is the end of the first phase...
View ArticleMap of Harris County Precinct Chairs (Republican & Democrat)
Every county in Texas is divided into voting precincts. The two major parties have precinct chairs who serve as election judges, as well as manage a ton of on-the-ground activities for the party. A...
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Mapping Child Care Deserts in Texas
Over the summer, we worked with Children at Risk to develop a map of child care deserts in Texas. The map shows where there aren’t enough child care providers, as well as where there is a lack of...
View ArticleThree Hurricane Harvey Maps: Damage, Response, and Debris
This is the story of how we helped the City of Houston visualize and communicate the impact of Hurricane Harvey. You may have already seen these maps on Harvey by the Numbers. This isn’t a story about...
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How Houston (and Texas) Can Improve Broadband Competition
Last week, I published an article outlining what the City of Houston can do to promote broadband competition. I was responding to a group of citizens who came to Houston’s city council public comment...
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Minimum Lot Size in Houston: Maps to Protect Your Block
A few weeks ago, I attended a civic club meeting where we talked about minimum lot size restrictions. Many of my neighbors were concerned about townhouse developments in the neighborhood, and the City...
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Evictions in Houston After Harvey
Immediately after Hurricane Harvey, everyone in Houston figured that evictions were going to be a problem. There was a lot of media coverage about evictions of vulnerable populations, including some...
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Automatic Data Screening for Collaborative for Children
Investing in quality early childcare is a powerful economic development strategy that directly affects the quality and productivity of our future workforce. The long-term benefits of investing in...
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Top Five Books to Boost Deep Understanding of Data Visualization
I’m often asked about book recommendations for folks getting started in data visualization. A lot of excellent resources can be found online, and I list a few below, but there are a handful of physical...
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The decline of low level marijuana cases in Harris County
Last year, we partnered with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition to develop the first version of the TCJC Dashboard. Since then, we’ve been working behind the scenes to push the limits of what we can...
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