Broadband and Equal Access to the Internet in New York City

• Finding #1: About a quarter of New York City households lack broadband service at home and the percentage is even higher for Black, Hispanic, low-income, and senior households.
• Finding #2: For some community districts — many in the Bronx and high-poverty areas — over 40% of households do not have high-speed broadband service.
• Finding #3: Between 11 and 13 percent of NYC DOE students in each borough lacked access to adequate internet at home during remote learning.

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Data Sources

• 2021 1-Year ACS Survey (using R library censusapi)
  • Table B28002, “Presence and Types of Internet Subscriptions in Household"
• 2020 5-Year ACS Survey (using R library censusapi)
  • Table B28002, “Presence and Types of Internet Subscriptions in Household"
  • Table S1701, “Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months”
• Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) 2020 5-Year ACS Survey (using R library tidycensus)
• NYSED remote learning survey
• NYC Planning Community District Tabulation Areas (CDTA)

NOTE: Broadband is defined as "Broadband (high speed) Internet service such as cable, fiber optic, or DSL service"

Code

If code is numbered, run it in order.

• 00_load_dependencies.R: Load libraries and common functions.
• cdta
  • 01_census_pull_cdta.R: Pull census internet subscription, population, and poverty data at census tract level; Aggregate to community district tabulation area (CDTA); Identify CDTA's with least amount of access.
  • 02_cdta_maps.R: Interactive and black & white maps of broadband access and poverty at the CDTA level.
• pums
  • 01_pums_pull.R: Pull census (PUMS) data for demographics and broadband access; Create a dataframe to use for plotting.
  • 02_pums_map.R: Map broadband access at PUMA level.
  • 03_pums_plot.R: Create plot of access to broadband across demographic groups.
  • 04_pums_plot_interactive.R: Create interactive plot of access to broadband across demographic groups.
• student_survey
  • 01_student_survey.R: Plot NYC DOE student internet/device access using NYSED-Remote-Learning-Survey by County.
  • 02_student_survey_interactive_plot.R: Make student survey plot interactive.
• census_pull_county.R: Pull census internet subscription and population data at county level; Aggregate to NYC.