Census Analysis (Census Tract 0050/50/178)

The census tract that my blocks reside in started off as tract 0050 in 1950, simplified to simply tract 50 in 2000, and then redefined as tract 178 by 2010. I mentioned in my previous project that the blocks that I analyzed once had two or three rows of homes behind the three large apartment buildings that dominate E. Armour Blvd between Gillham Rd. and Warwick Blvd. Some time in the early to mid-century, those homes were demolished to make way for a massive parking lot. Whether this had anything to do with the overall population of the census tract, I’m not sure, though it could possibly relate to the steep population drop between 1950 (5,972) and 2000 (2,395).

I also discussed in my paper the domination of white residents within the tract, being at 98.76% in 1950, and actually reversing the ratio with white residents making up 39.87% of the tract population and non-white residents making up 57.42% in 2000. I wonder if this could have anything to do with those apartment buildings and surrounding residential plots, and racist/biased leasing policies for the area, though it could also simply be the dispersion of the mere 12.3% of non-white residents that made up Kansas City in 1950 according to the population census.

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