Stuart Gallacher
JRNL 4165: Data Journalism
Assignment #2: Data Update 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.
- 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.
- 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.
I will also be able to make an interactive map of the locations of the food trucks.
- 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.
- What are some questions you hope to answer with you data? List at least three.
- What were the most popular
types of cuisine in ranking order?
- Where were the most popular
locations? Are there clusters?
- Is there any identifiable
correlation between the type cuisine and location of the vendor?
- When in the year did the most number of vendors open?
Note: I’m
still looking for datasets in other years: 2011, 2012 & 2013.
I like that you've chosen a data set that isn't too serious. I'm excited to see the map with the locations of the food trucks and see exactly where they tend to congregate. I might have wrote the blog post a little differently though. Rather than write out "What are some questions you hope to answer with your data?" Just write These are some questions I hope to answer with my data. It would just make your blog post easier to read.
ReplyDeleteStuart,
ReplyDeleteI really like the topic you've chosen, specifically because I love to eat. Your data will answer some fun questions that are publicly appealing (given the extreme popularity of food trucks right now). Since there is an overwhelming amount of Hot Dog trucks in Vancouver versus other types of cuisine, what could be neat is focusing on regular hot dog vendors v. specialized hot dog vendors (ie. Japadog, or strictly german-style wieners). Ultimately, this sounds like it will shape up to be a very clear and straightforward story! Good luck!
Hey Stuart, love the idea for this. Since your data is more location and business-type focussed, I'm interested to see how you are going to assess the impact of food trucks on already existing local businesses since the data you have chosen doesn't really reflect this impact. I'm assuming you will be chatting with local pre-existing food businesses. You could also try to search for data or info on how much total revenue food trucks have brought in per year over the last few years and compare that between the overall food & beverage industry revenues over the past few years and see if those dollar figures have changed. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI think the map you're going to make is going to be super helpful, but I wonder if food trucks are allowed to have multiple locations to set up shop? That might make things difficult for you.
ReplyDelete