A map of the nation that aggregates data-rich content on the economy.
Lee Banville, Editor-in-Chief of The Online NewsHour, explains how the collaboration is using mapping and data to take a deeper look at the ways communities in the U.S. are coping with the changing economy.
For a more in-depth look at how Patchwork Nation decides which types of communities to follow, check out this slideshow explainer from Patchwork Nation director Dante Chinni.
We all wonder about our neighbors – whether it’s looking through lit up windows during a walk around the block, or getting curious about where and why they are moving when we see for-sale signs.
Patchwork Nation introduces us to 12 different types of communities and how they are coping with the recession. During the election, we were able to look at Patchwork Nation’s work to figure out how these places in America were voting – did military bastions really lean right and monied suburbs left? Just like politics, the recession looks different from place to place as you travel around the country.
In Lincoln City, Oregon, a Patchwork “Service Worker” community, blogger Kip Ward wrote recently about the economic lifeline of Highway 101 and the improvements he’s seen in the past few months.
“Economically, our local businesses are treading water. We have had a relatively good last couple of months after a year or more of progressively bleak economic conditions hitting us like winter squalls. That is very good news indeed.”
But in Plymouth, Massachusetts, hard times have already canceled this year’s July 4 parade.
““Every year we were able to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Not this year,” Ken Tavares, who heads the nonprofit group that stages the Independence Day events, said Monday. “We just simply ran out of money this year.”
When you type in my zip code, you get stories from Southern California, like this piece from KCET’s Southern California Connected on the disparity between the housing markets, noting a jump in defaults on loans and foreclosures.
On the Patchwork Nation map, you can also explore the different types of communities by looking at data, for example comparing the percentage of people who are uninsured to their level of education completed.
Try it out. What does the economy look like in your area? Are there success stories from your area? Share them here.
Jobless rates are still rising, with states like Michigan and California reporting ranks of the unemployed exceeding ten percent for the first time since World War II. So how could things actually be slowly improving?
Looking at the NPR unemployment map, which organizes the May numbers released today state-by-state, the picture doesn’t look good. The entire Midwest is colored dark brown, meaning an unemployment rate of over 10%. The only states with any neutral or positive signs were Nebraska and Vermont.
But those official numbers are only for May – including statistics through last week in June, Patchwork Nation’s hardship index “uses key indicators – unemployment, foreclosures, and gasoline prices – to measure short-term changes in economic stress. Simply put, the index’s scores this month show some improvement,” Dante Chinni, the project director writes in a blog post this week. “The average U.S. score fell some seven points – from about 25 in May to roughly 18 in June.”
Marketplace’s Tamara Keith looks at unemployment insurance rates as an indicator of improvement, but warns that the good numbers we’re seeing this week really only mean things are getting “less bad.”
With an economy larger than most countries in the world, how can the state of California be in so much financial trouble? NPR is taking an in-depth look at how the Golden State went broke, and what’s being done to dig out with a series called California in Crisis.
San Francisco’s KQED has a collection of economic coverage that tracks the California situation, including reports on how small businesses are coping and whether the downturn is actually creating opportunity for the state’s tech hubs in Silicon Valley.
And NewsHour talked to Patchwork Nation’s Dante Chinni about the foreclosures in monied burbs — a key community in struggling California.
Listen to the interview here: Foreclosures in Monied Burbs? and read the full report.
Do you do your banking online? What about using sites like Mint.com to keep your family’s finances in order? Have you been shopping around for bigger savings online rather than running around to local stores ?
If there was any question about the growing relationship between money and the Web, a new report from The Pew Internet & American Life project shows without question that more and more, people are relying on the web to handle their money – and help cope with the effects of the recession.
One interesting side note: The report found that 69% of Americans are using the Web to get information about the recession.
But not everyone has the access to broadband that allows them to use the web at a speed that’s useful for managing money and / for financial news and information. Patchwork Nation’s Dante Chinni writes that this may allow newspapers in more remote areas to survive.
“Less-connected places may allow newspapers to stick around longer, since more people in these places prefer to get their news on paper rather than wait for slow Web connections.”
Conventional wisdom says the income divide prevents connectedness, but Chinni says the Patchwork Nation research suggests the digital divide is largely geographic:
“Maybe most interesting, these numbers suggest a different kind of digital divide in the US – one based less on economic issues than on ones of physical place. This kind of digital divide mirrors America’s urban-rural split.”
Perhaps this divide will be lessened by the $7 billion broadband stimulus package, meant to build infrastructure in rural areas. The USDA maps the areas in rural America that are eligible for the Broadband Initiatives Program, which is distributing those stimulus
It can be a challenge to see where stimulus money is going – and how the the government is using the web to track it. ProPublica examined the accuracy of the federal government site Recovery.gov and found that tracking those funds is “a job worthy of Sherlock Holmes.”
Will a publicly-financed health care system be a further burden on the economy, or can President Obama get a bill passed that doesn’t increase the federal deficit?
President Obama discusses his health care reform initiative, bipartisanship and deadlines in an exclusive interview with NewsHour’s Jim Lehrer.
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The MediaBistro blog FishbowlDC reported that Lehrer was also doing his part to make a child feel better — by inviting a 17-year-old leukemia patient to a NewsHour taping.
At WNYC, a different Lehrer — Brian Lehrer of The Brian Lehrer Show — also focuses on health care reform and spoke with New York Congressman Charlie Rangel about whether he thinks a health care bill will be passed before Congress’ August recess.
But lobbyists are still at the center of the game. Marketplace looks at how any public plan could affect private insurers and drug companies, along with the people who pitch for them.
From Twitter NPR: Economy Nightly Business Report Marketplace Business Desk WNYC: Economy Economy Story: Featured VideosReporters and producers from around the country are attending "economy bootcamps" to understand the current downturn.
A map of the nation that aggregates data-rich content on the economy.
Find timely economy-related public radio content from local stations, independent producers, and news sources.
Resources to help young people understand and navigate the changing economy.
Allows citizens to provide the questions that journalists ask lawmakers.
Get a global perspective on the economy with podcasts and resources for understanding the impact of the recession.
