Dangerous Buildings in Kansas City
“The Otherside of Troost: Dangerous Buildings in Kansas City”Why
The data I chose was the Dangerous Building List from OpenData KC. I found this data to be interesting because I pass several of the dangerous buildings on my commute to UMKC. The buildings on this list are failing to meet building codes. The owners are given 30 days to fix the code or the City will take action. In Kansas City there are 331 houses on the dangerous buildings list. I also want to draw attention to the fact that the racial dividing line in Kansas City is still affecting our city today.
What
56 of the homes on the dangerous building list are in the 64130 zip code. In addition, in the zip codes 64128, 64127, 64132, 64131 there are 130 dangerous buildings. All of the zip codes are on the east side of Troost Avenue, the historic racial dividing line in Kansas City. These zip codes are very close to UMKC. This means that the neighbors of UMKC are living next to these dangerous buildings. I hope to impact change to clean up these buildings draw attention to the that the racial dividing line in Kansas City is still affecting our city today.
Context
Visual Art provides an opportunity to bring awareness to this issue. The graphic helps the viewer to quickly view raw data in a more engaging way. The graphic also will help the viewer visually see the comparison between the zip codes with dangerous buildings.The awareness of the dangerous buildings could help create clean up projects for the city.
Process
I found my topic because it has been on my mind since I saw a dangerous building on my way to UMKC. I saw a home that was surrounded by caution tape and looked as though it was going to fall forward at any moment. This dangerous building made me nervous about anyone going near it and getting hurt. I was surprised to find how many homes are on the dangerous building list. I also was surprised that half of the dangerous buildings in Kansas City are in 5 zip codes all on the east side of Troost Avenue. This made me feel more passionate that something must be done to clean up the dangerous buildings in those zip codes.
How
I created a graphic of a building with broken windows in Adobe Illustrator. The building has 56 broken windows. This represents the 56 dangerous building in 64130. Above the building is a sign that reads “64130.” I then went on to create the rest of the five zip codes with the highest amount of dangerous buildings. I changed the size of the buildings to also show the comparison to each zip code. I created the other four buildings in the same way I created the building for “64130.” I made my graphic into a bar-graph-like graph. I feel like this was a good choice for my comparison between zip codes. I think my graphic is more dynamic and eye-catching than a normal bar graph.
Changes in Final Submission
I decided to widen my data shown in order to compare the zip codes in the area. I added the zip codes 64128, 64127, 64132, 64131. I found it interesting that each of these zip codes were on the east side of Troost Avenue, so I titled my piece, “The Otherside of Troost.” I hope that this change shows that this is a problem with the historic racial dividing line in Kansas City. I hope my change also makes my graphic more impactful for the viewers.
