Mapping Virginia Beach... (Norfolk, Pembroke: live in, design, best)

[murksiderock]

Core Norfolk has an uncomfortably high poverty and violent crime rate. The eastern edge of the core is lined with housing projects, and elsewhere there are some largely impoverished parts of Kensington, Park Place, and Huntersville...

Norfolk is also markedly more segregated than Virgimia Beach. There's black neighborhoods, there's white neighborhoods, with very little integration and a small population that isn't black or white. Examples:

•Larchmont is 90.5% white
•Ghent is 77.7% white
•Colonial Place/Riverview is 64.7% white

•housing projects area is 90.2% black
•Huntersville is 88.5% black
•Lindenwood is 88% black
•Park Place-Kensington is 77.7% black

Highland Park and Lambert's Point are decently integrated, being around the university, but neither are integrated at a high level...

The Beach is the more integrated half, and later I will get into talking more intimately about Beach neighborhoods as well...

[murksiderock]

Originally Posted by murksiderock

Town Center VB

58.6% white/19.6% black/5.5% Asian/9.9% Latino...

Downtown Norfolk

37.5% white/51.3% black/2.5% Asian/6% Latino...

I nailed the DT Norfolk estimate, but whiffed a little on DTVB, so to clarify:

Town Center/Downtown VB
•1.75 sq miles, pop 8,957
•5,118 ppsm
•57.9% white/20% black/5.8% Asian/9.9% Latino
•$54,838 mhi/11.3% poverty
•89.6% hsd/22.1% BA/10.7% foreign born

Downtown Norfolk
•0.95 mi², pop 7,426
•7,816 density
•37.5% white/51.3% black/2.5% Asian/6% Latino
•$27,188 mhi/60.3% poverty
•71% hsd/14.3% BA/2.1% foreign born

Town Center is still larger, just less dramatically so. DTNfk is still more compact, more urban, with more "stuff" going on. Again, it will be interesting to watch how this changes in years to come as Town Center continues infill and development...

[murksiderock]

Coming back real soon based on 2020 Census information, and I'll pick up with Norfolk, which I never finished, before updating The Beach!

[leighland]

Originally Posted by murksiderock

Coming back real soon based on 2020 Census information, and I'll pick up with Norfolk, which I never finished, before updating The Beach!

YAY! Your mapping is fab and looking forward to it

[murksiderock]

Just trying something out, to see if it works!

[murksiderock]

Originally Posted by murksiderock

Just trying something out, to see if it works!

Okay this is dope, much, much more to come! Admittedly my map-making/editing skills are quite poor but I'll work on getting better!

This was a test, but if anyone can see the screenshot, what I just did was outline the basic quadrants of Virginia Beach. Basically, 264 divides the northern part of Virginia Beach from the southern part, and West Neck Creek divides the eastern side from the western side. If you draw it as a "+" sign, for all intents and purposes you get four quadrants, this isn't based on them all having the same geographical or population size. Its based on where you notice the shift from more developed to more suburban (west to east), and the fact that 264 literally cuts the city in half...

My experience in the city taught me that most Beachers vaguely understand there's a "northern" and "southern" side, but "North Side" and "South Side" aren't part if the local lexicon; does anyone know if they have historical reference? Ditto for "East Side" and "West Side", this isn't how people in the city talk...

Identifying by quadrant isn't a thing either, but given the city has massive size in land area, and there are cultural quirks that separate parts of the city from the others, I find it easier to identify as Northwest, Southwest; Northeast, Southeast...

I'm going to do the same thing for Norfolk, where there is historical precedent for East Side Norfolk/West Side Norfolk, and the three neighborhoods south of downtown are known as "South Side". There is a neighborhood in Norfolk known as "Northside" but people don't really speak of a region or side of town as "North Side Norfolk"; the Northside neighborhood is basically part of Oceanview's orbit, but Oceanview itself would fall into a "North Side Norfolk" region if one identified it as such...

I'm going to outline a map of the different parts if Norfolk too and the defining borders, same as I did and will continue for The Beach...

[vabeachgirlNYC]

I don't think that "plus sign divide" really works for the beach shoreline as far as saying north or south. It is basically dividing the oceanfront at 21st street.

[murksiderock]

Originally Posted by vabeachgirlNYC

I don't think that "plus sign divide" really works for the beach shoreline as far as saying north or south. It is basically dividing the oceanfront at 21st street.

It works because 21st is 264. But also, The Oceanfront alone isn't large enough to use as a measure of where "North" and "South" is in The Beach----there a whhooolllleee lot of city left away from The Oceanfront...

[vabeachgirlNYC]

Ok maybe I'm thinking about it wrong? The hwys already "map it as a plus sign" but, no one calls the oceanfront and the adjacent inland areas "north or south" on either side of 21st street. If our miles of shoreline were straight which they are not, maybe that would make sense to me. Or maybe look closer to greatneck rd instead of staying on 264 as you come closer to the oceanfront?

[citydweller]

That is an interesting map. Locals seem to prefer to call areas by name in my experience rather than by direction such as Pembroke (now Town Center?), Little Neck or Redmill as examples. Perhaps due to water being everywhere that divides or the transient nature of the city.. idk..