What is this?

This map uses US Census data to depict the racial/ethnic mosaic along Colorado's Front Range,using the "block" designation which is the most detailed level of census data. We are mapping only those census blocks with 5 or more people in them.

How did you dream this up?

Actually, we didn't. We were inspired by the recent work of the CUNY Center for Urban Research who made similar maps for other cities.

What is the point of this?

Besides being interesting, this detailed data is published by the Census to enable state and local governments to comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 during the re-districting process going on now.

Is this a Google thing?

Though similar, this is a custom map that combines the Bing roadmap with our custom data overlays. The open source projects OpenLayers TileMill , and GeoPortal are used here. Color ramps provided by the indispensable ColorBrewer Read more on the blog.