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Assignment #2: Data Update 1

Stuart Gallacher

JRNL 4165: Data Journalism

Assignment #2: Data Update 1

1. What dataset will you use for your final paper? (Include a link).

I will be using a dataset from the City of Vancouver that contains the locations of new food vendors in a 2010 pilot program and the type of food category they’re in. The vendor locations are all within the city of Vancouver. 

http://data.vancouver.ca/datacatalogue/foodVendors.htm

2. Describe the dataset. What kind of data does it contain?

This dataset is fairly straightforward. It contains the names of vendors, the date they opened, the type of food they sell (cuisine), and their location.

3. How will you use this data as the basis for your news story?

There was some debate by restaurant owners when the Vancouver City Council proposed to issue more licenses to street vendors—specifically food trucks—arguing that they would take away business, amongst other points. 

I aim to focus on three elements in my story. First, I will highlight the category of cuisine that was the most popular amongst the vendors at the time. Second, I will examine the argument against food trucks and the specific concerns of restaurant owners opposing them. Lastly, I will examine the effects of street vendors on local businesses to see if there were any observable consequences, as business owners and the opposition predicted there would be.       

I will also be able to make an interactive map of the locations of the food trucks.   

4. Is there anything about your dataset that you don’t understand?

Like I said, it’s a fairly straightforward. The only grey area might be the type of cuisine each food truck is categorized as serving, but how ambiguous can it really be? For example, a hot dog stand is a hot dog stand and that’s all you expect to see on the menu. However, some food trucks have menus with more diversity in their menu and the dataset obviously doesn’t take that possible overlap into consideration. It is, however, a very minor point.

5. What are some questions you hope to answer with you data? List at least three.

1. What were the most popular types of cuisine in ranking order?
2. Where were the most popular locations? Are there clusters? 
3. Is there any identifiable correlation between the type cuisine and location of the vendor?
4. When in the year did the most number of vendors open?

Note: I’m still looking for datasets in other years: 2011, 2012 & 2013.