Counting people is vital to our democracy. Every ten years, the US government has a constitutional obligation to conduct a census that counts everyone living in the United States. This count determines how many Congressional representatives each state receives, the levels of Federal funding for state and local governments and federal programs, and serves as…
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The elections are over, but things are just getting started in Texas. The 86th Texas Legislature convenes in the beginning of 2019, and newly-elected House and Senate members are already filing legislation. Two years ago, we built a map of bills filed for the 85th session. This year, you’ll notice the maps got an upgrade.…
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The “blue wave” of the 2018 midterm elections crashed into Harris County last Tuesday with unprecedented voter turnout for a non-presidential election year. Countywide, voter turnout was up from 34% in 2014 to 52%, according to unofficial counts. That’s more than 520,000 additional ballots than in 2014. Yet, despite high turnout, nine polling locations failed…
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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 session and asked our elected officials to do something about net neutrality. While the City of Houston can’t do much about…
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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 of Houston Planning Department was on hand to teach us how to apply for minimum lot size protection. Minimum lot size restrictions…
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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 heart-wrenching stories about low income tenants and elderly residents of a Harris County subsidized living facility. The Mayor of Houston pushed back, asking private landlords…
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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 quality early child care programs, like Texas Rising Stars, far exceeds the yield of return on most public projects that are considered economic development. -Karla Cisneros, Houston…
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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 books on my shelf that have built a foundation for the way I visually communicate and interpret data. Advice to…
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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 learn from these data. Thanks to generous funding from Microsoft, we developed a new version of the dashboard and a…
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This post is a collaboration between Xin Tan, Lara Haase, and Jeff Reichman. On the surface, the hotel occupancy tax (HOT) is an unlikely hero in the battle over funding for the arts. But Houston devotes more HOT funding to the arts than any other city in Texas. Every time we rent a hotel room, 17% of…
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