Dear Hannah,

As the name suggests, The People In My Neighborhood (TPIMN) is a project that helps me learn more about where I live.

It began as an effort to organize the neighbors in our subdivision, then grew into an effort to learn about our adjacent communities - then their adjacent communities, etc.

About one year ago, I was able to formalize the project into a google map with several layers.

These layers include community building blocks like voting wards, subdivisions, apartments, schools, churches, businesses, and crime.

Based on recent direct feedback, nobody cares to be shown how the map was built.

Those are too many details.

Many folks, though, care about what the map reveals.

So, let's use the map to help tell a compelling story - by the numbers.

Let's tackle the numbers first.

I live in a voting ward with 3000 registered voters.

2000 are White - and live North of what I call our "Mason - Dixon Line".

1500 of those White voters live in 5 key "North Side" communities.

The other 1000 voters are Black - and live South of that "Mason - Dixon Line".

I am one of them.

There are two candidates vying to be elected as representatives of our ward.

They both live on the "North Side".

Political campaigns have limited resources.

I would not blame these two candidates if they both focused their resources on targeting the 1500 votes in the 5 "North Side" communities.

So far - neither of them seem to be making themselves visible on the "South Side".

I ain't mad at 'em.

But they are overlooking an opportunity that is hard to see ... unless you have a visual aid.

Roll the demo ...


Love,

Daddy