Demographic data help pinpoint disparity in city's teen programs

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, Jan/Feb 2004 by Little, Darnell

One of the many challenges of investigative reporting is turning anecdotal information into quantifiable facts. A reporter covering a beat often develops impressions and makes observations that lead to potential stories. But a solid investigative piece requires that those impressions and observations be supported by real data.

For reporters and editors, few other data sources will prove as continually useful as the decennial U.S. Census, the endlessly rich collection of social and economic information on the American population. Many newsrooms trot out a ritual demographics story when the Census Bureau has a major data release, but the information can be tremendously useful at all times to support daily or enterprise pieces.

Recently, a team of metro reporters at the Chicago Tribune made effective use of demographic census data to help examine how fairly the city of Chicago distributed public park programs among its teenaged population.

Because of a persistent problem with inner-city juvenile crime, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and other city officials have in recent years touted government-run programs for teenagers as a potential remedy to youth violence.

Last spring, Tribune metro editor Hanke Gratteau and city editor Michael Cordts asked metro reporter Liam Ford to examine what the city, especially the Chicago Park District, offered for teens.

Since juvenile crime is a much bigger program in Chicago's economically deprived neighborhoods than in its more affluent counterparts, the editors wanted to check if poorer areas were getting their fair share of recreational programs compared with the city's wealthier neighborhoods.

Comprehensive profile

To begin his reporting, Ford used the Park District's Web site to determine the number of available programs aimed at teenagers for each ZIP code in Chicago. The Web site gives information for all programs available within one mile of each ZIP code, and Ford transcribed the information into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

After compiling a list of park programs by ZIP code, Ford wanted to compare them to the number of teenagers in each of those same ZIP codes. He asked if I could provide him with the population of teenagers for each ZIP code along with the area's racial makeup and median household income.

Thanks to continual improvements to its Web site, the Census Bureau has made it simpler than ever to access census information for a variety of geographical areas. Using the American Factfinder tool on the Web site, I was able to quickly download the data that I needed for all of the ZIP codes in Chicago.

The Summary File 1 release of the 2000 Census contains the 100 percent count of the U.S. population. It also contains the population by age for a variety of geographical areas. I constructed a table of every 13- to 19-year-old for all of the city's ZIP codes, broken down by race and by Hispanic origin.

The Summary File 3 release of the 2000 Census contains the sampled, long-form questionnaire information on the U.S. population. This is where the economic data we required for the story was to be found. Using SF3, I downloaded the median household income for Chicago's ZIP codes.

By combining the Census data with the Park District data, we had a comprehensive profile of where the programs were located, the number of teenagers in the area and the area's racial and economic makeup.

A quick examination of the data found that although some ZIP codes had both high numbers of teens and high numbers of programs, areas with large numbers of minority teens had fewer programs than affluent areas with even small numbers of teens.

The analysis led to the top three paragraphs of the story:

"More than 20 years after the federal government sued the Chicago Park District for neglecting field houses and playgrounds in minority neighborhoods, teens in those areas are being shortchanged in recreational programs compared with peers in more affluent areas, a Tribune analysis has found.

"The underserved areas encompass a swath of primarily black and Hispanic neighborhoods with many teens and high levels of poverty and crime.

"Mayor Richard Daley and his wife, Maggie, have long pushed recreation programs for teens as an alternative to gangs and drugs and as a way to lower the crime rate. But the Park District has lagged behind because of competing priorities and what Supt. David Doig describes as a history of inertia and ineffective management."

Sorting the ZIP codes by population and by the number of park programs revealed that the area with the most teenagers in the city (the mostly Hispanic 60623 on Chicago's West Side) ranked 11th out of 50 in the number of programs run by the Chicago Park District.

Meanwhile, the heavily white ZIP code 60618 on the city's Northwest Side had the most park programs, although it ranked 12th of 50 in the number of teenagers. The census and Park District data had pointed out two perfect areas for the reporters to compare in the story.

A compelling narrative

Armed with the census and Park District data, a team of reporters interviewed dozens of teenagers, parents, program directors, funding agencies and city officials. After doing initial reporting in a number of neighborhoods, reporters zeroed in on ZIP codes 60623 and 60618 to examine park facilities. Their findings provided the following passage in the story: