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Press and Media

The results of our work have been cited by over 100 media venues, including The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The International Herald Tribune; online at The Huffington Post, Smart Planet, and on Youtube in Tim Berner's-Lee's TED-Talk; as well as in multiple radio and television venues. While much of the coverage was concerned with individual cases, there is also coverage of the over-arching issues involved, as well as of our use of data and mapping to address inequities.

Not all of the coverage mentions us by name, so you might not know that it is our work unless you follow the thread to other news on the same topic.

We have no public relations person, so much of the press we feature here is from intermittent web searches. If you see something out there we've missed, please let us know.

New York Times (12/2014) recognizes "The Commercial Use of Big Data Can Help Improve Equality" and commends Cedar Grove. Read more...
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Introduction to Cedar Grove Institute:

Using GIS to Map Inequalities in Communities from University of Alberta, Canada Extension on Vimeo.



Mapping Social Justice
January 29, 2010

The Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities in Mebane is a labor of love for husband and wife team Ann Moss Joyner and Allan Parnell. They combine Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with Census data and other publicly accessible statistics to generate maps that prove long-term and systematic discrimination through denial of basic services. They've helped in several annexation cases and a landmark access-to-water case. Ann Moss Joyner and Allan Parnell join host Frank Stasio and Mark Dorosin, from the UNC Center for Civil Rights, to explain their technique and their strategy for victory.

Listento the discussion.


The Year Open Data Went Worldwide
Tim Berners-Lee, February 2010

Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the World Wide Web and leads the World Wide Web Consortium, which oversees the Web's standards and development, used one of our maps (of Coal Run Road in Zanesville, Ohio) as an example of the power of data. A video of his talk is on TED.com.


Successful Challenge of Selective Code Enforcement!
Lisa A. Carmona, Senior Attorney, Florida Equal Justice Center, Inc., 2010

"Our case relied heavily on GIS mapping to demonstrate the discriminatory impact of police referrals and overall code enforcement inspections on neighborhoods that were occupied predominantly by Latino residents, particularly those of Guatemalan Mayan origin. Cedar Grove Institute's work was instrumental in proving our case." To read more, click here


Denied Water Service Because of Race, African Americans Win $10.85 Million in a Jury Verdict.
Clearinghouse Review, Journal of Law and Poverty, November/December 2009

"The maps of these data were more powerful than any oral description of the evidence of discrimination."
Read article (PDF)


The Revolution Will Be Mapped
Miller-McCune Magazine, January/February 2010

"GIS mapping technology is helping underprivileged communities get better services — from education and transportation to health care and law enforcement — by showing exactly what discrimination looks like."
Link to article here.


A Blow Against Exclusion
News and Observer, July 23, 2008

"This month a jury in Zanesville, Ohio, awarded $10.9 million to residents of a mostly black neighborhood after finding that the local government discriminated against the community by denying access to public water service, even though it provided water to [adjacent] predominantly-white neighborhoods [and though the residents' water was contaminated with coal mine toxins]. Low-income and minority neighborhoods across the country face similar discriminatory patterns of municipal exclusion. The Zanesville verdict has a larger potential as well: It presents a unique opportunity for state and local governments to review and revise laws and policies that have created and entrenched similar patterns of discrimination and exclusion, and to aggressively move to remedy the ongoing impacts of such patterns."
Download full article (PDF)


U.S. Open Used in Drive for Inclusion
Charlotte Observer, June 5, 2005

"Residents say economic bias denies them better services, stronger voice"
Download full article (PDF)


The View From the Other Side of the Tracks
NPR's "The Connection", June 10, 2005

"The Connection" hosted a discussion of underbounding and its results.
Click here to listen.


Annexation in North Carolina - Who's In, Who's Out?
NPR's "The State of Things" June 14, 2005

WUNC-FM's "State of Things" hosted a discussion of underbounding and its results. In and around Pinehurst, poor communities are asking to be annexed by the wealthier town, while in other parts of the state, notably around Cary, residents resist annexation. Host Melinda Penkava talks with guests about the lines that separate town and county, and the debates surrounding North Carolina's annexation laws. Guests include: Allan Parnell, vice president of Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities; Ellis Hankins, executive director of the North Carolina League of Municipalities; and Ron Thoreson, Chairman of Stop NC Annexation.
Click here to listen.


A History of Separation Studied
The Fayetteville Observer, May 2, 2004

"Civil rights organizations are studying the way black communities have been affected by their exclusion from some Moore County towns. The Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities, a nonprofit organization in Mebane, uses advanced mapping technology and North Carolina census data to find boundaries drawn along racial lines. It also looks at where utilities are built..."
Download full article (PDF)