The National Trust for Historic Preservation developed the Exploring Neighborhood Change mapping series for 10 cities as a part of an initiative of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. The mapping series is designed to complement a written report entitled Preserving African American Places: Growing Preservation’s Potential as a Path for Equity, which explores the historical and present day context of African American neighborhoods to develop effective preservation-based strategies that promote justice, inclusion, and equity in our movement today.

This initiative is focused on exploring the intersection of preservation and equitable development in African American neighborhoods in 10 cities where the National Trust is actively engaged and holds longstanding partnerships. While the focus of this initial exploration is on African American neighborhoods, we believe the lessons and insights gleaned can apply to other neighborhoods of diverse racial and cultural identity. This mapping tool helps readers of the report visualize census tracts in the 10 cities that have had predominantly African American populations for the last fifty years. The mapping tool offers a snapshot of demographic change between 2009 and 2016 as well as a variety of contextual data layers including transit, presence of institutions, preservation activity, development activity, historical redlining data, among others, to support broader understanding of these neighborhoods where change is taking place.

This map is best used in close reference to the report, and when readers conduct their own supplemental research and/or bring their own knowledge of these communities to bear. Alone, the data presented does not offer insight into why these changes are occurring, but it does serve as a starting point to help readers visualize and explore the complex range of factors that influence neighborhood change. Examples of map uses include:

• Overlaying historic neighborhood risk assessment maps (also known as “redline” maps) created in the 1930s by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation with present day data layers to explore spatial trends in residential and economic segregation, among other areas.
• Exploring changes in population, median income, and housing value between 2009 – 2016 at the census tract level.
• Visualizing neighborhood characteristics, preservation activity, development activity, and zoning data to identify gaps and inform local strategies to strengthen these communities.

The National Trust will continue to work with practitioners and residents of study cities to customize the Exploring Neighborhood Change mapping series to reflect local circumstances that will help advance our understanding of neighborhood change and the factors that drive it.

The Ford Foundation and the JPB Foundation provided the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund with the generous funding to work on this mapping series and the broader campaign.

Since 2018, the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has conducted ongoing research into the challenges and opportunities of preservation in the context of neighborhood change, and the multidimensional and intersectional issues that impact our communities today. From the start, this research was intended to be shared, discussed, and refined collaboratively. To that end, this discussion reflects on the structural barriers within the preservation field and beyond, and identifying preservation-based strategies for equitable development with respect to the historical and present-day context of African American neighborhoods, along with the implications this history and context has for preserving place and African American cultural heritage.

The initial report, which can be accessed here, is not a definitive research study or a comprehensive analysis. Instead, it seeks to elevate emerging ideas, research, observations, and questions on this critically important issue, to catalyze meaningful dialogue and collaboration across the national preservation movement. It is intended as a starting point to understand the role preservation and cultural heritage can play in fostering equitable growth in our communities. New research and practices are continually emerging. We have synthesized information from advisors, partners, and stakeholders, and conducted scans of prevailing research and available data focusing on 10 cities the National Trust is currently engaged in or has longstanding partnerships in, to serve as a resource for the preservation field and allied disciplines.

When the map application loads the user will be presented with the map centered on the focus city and the application’s primary control panel located on the left side of the screen. The primary control panel enables users to turn data layers on and off, use data filters, perform searches and change layer opacity. Popups windows for datasets that are clicked on will appear on the screen’s right side. Zoom controls are in the bottom right corner. If the user needs to load this tutorial screen again it can be accessed by clicking on the ‘About the Map’ text in the top right corner.

Sections below detail the use of the map’s primary control panel, how to access popup window information as well as information on future updates to datasets and tools.

	1.	At the top of the primary map control panel are the map’s primary datasets which are derived from U.S. Census Bureau data and show changes – at the census tract level - in population, housing and income between the years 2009 and 2016. Also featured are areas that have been predominantly African American for the past 50 years. Click on a switch to activate a layer. When a layer is activated the switch becomes orange and a legend item will also appear below.
	2.	Additional context map layers are located below the census tract layers and are grouped by city, development, designation, and historic layers. To access these layer groups, click on the group name and the individual layers will appear below. Many of the context layers have a filter or search capability. If the layer can be searched or filtered a dialog box will appear below when the layer is turned on. To answer in-app questions about individual layers the user can also hover over the question mark icon to the right of each layer for a short layer description.
	3.	Two additional tools are located at the bottom of the main control panel. The layer opacity tool enables the user to adjust the opacity any map layer. To use, choose a layer from the drop-down list and then adjust opacity with the slider. To reset layer opacity, press the ‘Reset’ button. Specific addresses can also be search for using the ‘Find an Address’ tool. Enter an address and the app will zoom to it.

1.	At the top of the primary map control panel are the map’s primary datasets which are derived from U.S. Census Bureau data and show changes – at the census tract level - in population, housing and income between the years 2009 and 2016. Also featured are areas that have been predominantly African American for the past 50 years. Click on a switch to activate a layer. When a layer is activated the switch becomes orange and a legend item will also appear below.
2.	Additional context map layers are located below the census tract layers and are grouped by city, development, designation, and historic layers. To access these layer groups, click on the group name and the individual layers will appear below. Many of the context layers have a filter or search capability. If the layer can be searched or filtered a dialog box will appear below when the layer is turned on. To answer in-app questions about individual layers the user can also hover over the question mark icon to the right of each layer for a short layer description.
3.	Two additional tools are located at the bottom of the main control panel. The layer opacity tool enables the user to adjust the opacity any map layer. To use, choose a layer from the drop-down list and then adjust opacity with the slider. To reset layer opacity, press the ‘Reset’ button. Specific addresses can also be search for using the ‘Find an Address’ tool. Enter an address and the app will zoom to it.

	1.	A popup can be activated by clicking on features in almost every layer. Each layer’s popup is slightly different and will contain a differing amount of information. Primary census tract layers contain information about changes in population groups, housing types and costs, as well as changes in income across groups. Percentage changes are indicated by yellow (increase) and blue (decrease) arrows. Some layers also contain links to websites that contain additional information. Outside links are indicated by light blue text.
	2.	Population and income census tract layers contain additional charts about population and income changes. Scroll to the bottom of the popup window when accessing data from those layers. Hover over the vertical bars for a tooltip with information. Individual year data can be isolated by clicking on the years at the top of the chart.

1.	A popup can be activated by clicking on features in almost every layer. Each layer’s popup is slightly different and will contain a differing amount of information. Primary census tract layers contain information about changes in population groups, housing types and costs, as well as changes in income across groups. Percentage changes are indicated by yellow (increase) and blue (decrease) arrows. Some layers also contain links to websites that contain additional information. Outside links are indicated by light blue text.
2.	Population and income census tract layers contain additional charts about population and income changes. Scroll to the bottom of the popup window when accessing data from those layers. Hover over the vertical bars for a tooltip with information. Individual year data can be isolated by clicking on the years at the top of the chart.

The National Trust envisions that, overtime, the Exploring Neighborhood Change map will be updated with additional city-specific layers or updated versions of layers that currently in the application. When updates are made the changes will be indicated within the app’s ‘About the Map’ window.

The Exploring Neighborhood Change mapping series is a prototype using datasets compiled from the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Park Service, City of St. Louis Open Data and the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab. The primary dataset featured is derived from a research project from 2018 that seeded this campaign, which focused on measuring residential change between 2009 and 2016. As such, data in this initial prototype is limited to residential data. This tool will continue to evolve and build upon this initial dataset, along with the broader campaign. We are still testing aspects of the research product including planned data updates and integration of additional layers. All information presented herein is publicly available.