There are many different causes that create boundaries within the city. One of the most apparent ones that I noticed was the highways and how they divided striking distinctions in population. This physical boundary causes distinct differences in the population where one side of the road was heavily populated and the other was almost deserted. However, there are also some boundaries that are not as physical as road and highways. Things such as household income and flood areas create great boundaries, too. For example, there is a very clear correlation between poverty levels and the density of public schools. Along with these, the high school graduation levels also align with these maps.

The most intriguing overlap for me was between the hospitals and population density maps. The area where most of the hospitals are located is not heavily populated. However, around the North Baton Rouge, where there is a significant population density, there are limited hospitals, which are mostly closed, anyways. Priorly, I’d think that hospitals are built according to the level of necessity. I thought more population would lead to a higher need for hospitals, but apparently, this is not the case in Baton Rouge. The area around Bluebonnet is one of the places I’d investigate further to learn what required two hospitals to be built there within a mile radius.

After the interview with my aunt, she suggested that Government Street would be an interesting place to investigate. I didn’t realize it before, but when I compared the maps again, I realized how the area around Government Street was a mix of all qualities. There were houses with both high and low incomes. Thus, there were a few public schools along with some private ones. Also, this area was one of the few where both races (black and white) were almost mixed, instead of having a clear separation like in the other parts of the city. I agree with my aunt now that the area around Government Street would be an interesting place to investigate. Seemingly, there are no clear boundaries in the area, but maybe I’ll get a different view if I go there.

One thing I’ve learned throughout this assignment was how we couldn’t consider one aspect of the city by itself. Most of the layers we’ve compared aligned really well with each other and showed many parallels, such as the household income and high school graduation rate maps. With these maps, I also had the chance to take a step back and look at the city as a whole. Looking at the city, I saw the inequality and the stark separation between races. Northern areas here African American people were more present were also the areas with most condemned houses. Why were these two features directly proportional, though? Was it also because of the low household incomes? To understand one fact about the city, we may need to look through many layers and only when we put every layer together and take a step back, we can see the actual map of Baton Rouge.