Analyzing Quality of Food Across Economic and Racial Groups in Chicago

For grading, please see NKMG_Milestone_3.ipynb.

Abstract

There is a large variation across the quality of food available across the world due to economic and cultural variations. In order to analyze the inequality of quality of food across different social and economic groups, we aim to inspect the correlation between food quality and other social and economic factors, such as income level and race, in a local level. By using data on food inspections in Chicago and supporting data, we aim to understand how inequalities found in the city are also instituted in the food available to different communities. With our work, we plan to infer whether neglected groups are also left with lower quality food, which could lead to various diseases and social isolation. With our results, we aim to raise awareness to the distribution of food across a global metropolis, showing whether prejudice can also be found in the food available to Chicago citizens.

Research Questions

  • How does the quality of food differ across Chicago’s regions depending on their dominant race, income level, and crime activity?
  • Is the food available to socially neglected groups of lower quality than the one available to majorities in the city of Chicago?
  • Do food inspection authorities favor certain neighborhoods based on their demographics?
  • Do some particular restaurants suffer from low quality food distribution based on restaurant type and origin?
  • Does the quality of food differ across different stores of the same chain of restaurant?

Dataset

A List of Internal Milestones Up Until Project Milestone 2

  • November 1st - Document all datasets
  • November 6th - Code the map plotting pipeline
  • November 13th - Clean data from all datasets
  • November 18th - Calculate correlation between food quality and supporting data
  • November 22nd - Plot results of data analysis
  • November 25th - Milestone 2 report

Milestone 2 Report

We used the geojson library to plot different maps of Chicago in respect to different criterias. These maps in html format can be accessed in the folder "maps" and visualized easily in the browser. Moreover, we studied the correlation between the four datasets: some were concluding, while others need to be taken a closer look, using other tools.

Team Members

  • Gabriel Lima: Problem formulation, initial data analysis and plotting, revisions, data story, poster, and presentation
  • Kenyu Kobayashi: Problem formulation, dataset exploration, map plotting, poster
  • Murat Topak: Problem formulation, dataset exploration, map plotting, poster
  • Niko Masiero: Problem formulation, deeper data analysis, initial plotting, time-series analysis, poster

Questions for TAs

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