(Click on chart images for larger sizes)

This is a map of small business owners’ representations of their neighborhood by the names of ethnic groups they put on their awning to draw in customers.  The map provides an alternative perspective on the ethnic makeup of Bed-Stuy, to the one provided by census data shown on the NY Times map.  Not that the Times map doesn’t provide a useful perspective on the city as a whole, but a more dynamic and flowing map like the above may provide a more tangible example of the lived experience in a neighborhood through how people identify their neighbors. Individual peoples’ identities are not static, and the river with different currents is also more indicative of the way people generally self-identify.

While the above map provides a glimpse at a new way to imagine the neighborhood, of course it is not perfect and far from scientific.  Chinese food is ubiquitous and not necessarily representative of the make up of the neighborhood, and the existence of Thai and Japanese point to another trend I address below.  There is also an interesting layering that happens amongst different immigrant groups, where the latest to arrive group puts all the names in their awnings, giving more weight and importance to words like “American” and “West Indian” than perhaps they deserve.  For example, all the Bangladeshi store owners put “Bangladeshi, Indian, African, West Indian, and American” in their awnings.  Africans generally put “African, West Indian, and American”, and West Indians put “West Indian and American.”  Those who identify culturally as American generally put “Southern or Soul Food” reflecting their migrant connection to the U.S. South.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the section of the map where the most non-immigrant identifying “Americans” live are the places where they are not represented on the map and vice-versa.

The next two maps can go deeper to show a more comprehensive view of different cultures in the neighborhood.  Food consumption, and dietary preferences are measures of how culture and class interact in the neighborhood.  Compare individual blocks to see how different food consumption trends correlate to the various ethnic identities.

In the above chart, I lumped different food places into 5 major categories, and mapped their prevalence along the Fulton street strip.  The breakdown provides further insight into food behaviors in the neighborhood:

• The blue strip is all small businesses that prepare food to buy as individual dishes, take out, ethnic eateries, and local chains like Golden Crust, and Crown Fried Chicken.
• The gray outlining above are national chains like KFC, Popeyes, and Applebys. They are ubiquitous, but gain a larger proportion the further east you go, meaning there are less options for healthy dining (see below).
• The red are Cafes, Lounges, and Coffee Shops, places that are often associated with gentrification.
• The yellow are Buffet style restaurants that serve pre-prepared food by weight.
• The green section are sit-down restaurants where people may go for a dining “experience”.  These are totally concentrated in Clinton-Hill a sign of its state of economic development.  The former stomping ground of Notorious B.I.G. perhaps means that these establishments are a true sign of gentrification.  Also I would argue, they tend to commodify their advertised ethnicity, instead of serve as cultural anchors for an ethnic group, as evidenced by a supposed Little Asia in Clinton-Hill.
• The purple group, the largest, is represented by Delis, Groceries, Supermarkets, Butchers, Bakers, and convenience store.  This is the biggest group and probably deserve their own map.  What they have in common is that they all serve food for you to take home and prepare on your own.  Many of them prepare a sandwich or other simple meal for you to take home, which probably earns them extra money.

See a graph of this same chart here.

This last chart is the most simple and I left it in graph form to show how significant the differences are amongst areas of Fulton Street.  Dietary subscriptions due to culture, whether religious or lifestyle choices, are a key indicator of who lives in an area.  The above chart when cross checked with the above two maps show some interesting correlations:

• There is one “local food” shop in the Clinton-Hill section of Fulton street surrounded by several shops that advertise “organic products”.  These two food preferences are non-existent once you cross Franklin, and the only store that had it past Classon (the official border of the two neighborhoods) was a supermarket chain.  It makes the art installation marking an the symbolic border of two neighborhoods all the more interesting.

• The Halal mountain corresponds nicely with the most diverse area of Bed-Stuy meaning the diverse Muslim population is mixing in interesting ways, as referenced in the Bed-Stuy Patch.  The spike also corresponds with the Buffet eateries near the Mosque which were the most linguistically diverse places I visited.
• Lastly the growing proportion of “healthy” signs in store windows as the proportion of national fast food chains goes up shows a significant attempt by business owners in the community to fight unhealthy eating habits in the neighborhood.  I also think that “healthy” corresponds to the existence of a Rastafarian community, as in other West Indian neighborhoods you see a similar preoccupation with health (Ital Foods).

For my initial research questions see my first two posts (here and here). For more in-depth observations on individual sites, visit my map where you can click on various icons.  You can also see pictures of various awnings in the neighborhood on my flickr page.