

San Francisco's Drug Geography - laurenmo
http://lmart999.github.io/2015/02/28/gis/

======
joshuahhh
I am impressed by how quickly the notebook goes from raw data to interesting
patterns. Nice.

If I wanted to be picky about statistics (I generally do), I'd note:

1\. Equating enforcement-related statistics with usage-related statistics is a
dangerous thing to do. For example:

a. The rate of non-CRACK incidents in TENDERLOIN is probably low
(disproportionate with actual use) due to the focus limited police resources
put on crack.

b. I would bet that the high rate of WEED incidents in INGLESIDE / BAYVIEW vs,
say, MISSION, is due to police using weed enforcement as a weapon against
gangs (and minorities). I mean, people smoke a lot of weed in the Mission.

2\. Putting "AMPHETAMINE"-related crimes under "METH" is inaccurate, as is
putting "OPIUM"/"OPIATE"-related crimes under "HALLUCINOGENIC".

------
ihaveajob
This is an awesome exercise in data visualization. It's most striking to see
how crack use was essentially flat until 2008, and then it started a steady
decline. Looking at the charts, I would venture to interpret that the wave of
gentrification following the market crash had the effect of disproportionately
displacing crack users.

I wonder what this same study would look like across the bay, in Oakland.

------
galago
It would be interesting to compare police data with a sewage study like this:
[http://www.addictionjournal.org/press-releases/wastewater-
an...](http://www.addictionjournal.org/press-releases/wastewater-analysis--
a-new-source-of-monitoring-illicit-drug-use-in-europe)

My guess would be that San Francisco's marijuana and cocaine consumption is at
a per capita all-time high, even as police incidents decline.

------
leftcoaster
Why are opiates classified as hallucinogenic and not rolled in with heroin?

------
dmix
[http://lmart999.github.io/assets/drug_agg.png](http://lmart999.github.io/assets/drug_agg.png)

Looking at this chart and being a bit assumptive, is it safe to say crack use
has declined and meth has increased?

Maybe meth isn't really a new epidemic with a new user group, crack users just
transferred to meth. Basically, those looking for cheap escapist drugs
targeted at the very poor have moved onto a new product.

I'm curious which one is worse for society and the users?

~~~
j_baker
Meth is quite possibly the most dangerous drug in existence. It's cheap. It's
almost as addictive as heroin. It makes people aggressive, impulsive, and even
violent for hours.

Now, don't go trying to convert meth-heads to doing crack. They're both very
harmful.

~~~
dmix
> It makes people aggressive, impulsive, and even violent for hours.

Source?

Meth is an amphetamine like Adderall. I'm pretty sure using a strong stimulant
just increases the negative (and positive) attributes already in people.

This sounds like the nonsense about bath salts making people murderers.

People love conflating mental health issues with the drugs people take.

*Not that I'm defending meth users, but I doubt that needs to be said.

------
j_baker
Maybe I'm just obtuse, but this graph makes no sense to me:
[http://lmart999.github.io/assets/cluster_gis.png](http://lmart999.github.io/assets/cluster_gis.png)

What exactly do the colors mean? And what do those brackets at the top and at
the side mean?

~~~
valleyer
The colors are to normalize the different districts. The darkest color is
always the most prevalent drug in that precinct, and the other colors in that
column are relative to that drug.

The brackets are presumably an explanation of how the "clustering" was done,
though with such a small data set it could have been done manually.

------
stevesearer
Are there any resources on how to properly format raw data t make it most
useful for display on a map? I'm hoping to do a crime map for my city and
haven't quite found a good place to start.

~~~
clay_to_n
Look into d3.js if you want it in a browser, there are a lot of examples.
You'll have to re-format the data probably which might be annoying on a large
data set, but I think there are tools out there.

~~~
stevesearer
I've been playing around with cartodb but am more looking for how to first
format the datasets to then display them in a meaningful way

------
lqdc13
That seaborn lib cut down on the code a lot. I can imagine it would be 10x
more if you implement all of those graphs with pure matplotlib.

------
leeoniya
i would much prefer to see the columns in the initial chart to be horizontal
so that the labels were legible. my neck hurts.

------
valleyer
No precinct covers the Presidio?

~~~
joecasson
The Presidio is considered federal land. So if I'm not mistaken, the crimes
reported there wouldn't go to the city database, but a federal one. This is a
guess, but seems likely to me.

