Dear friends and colleagues,
The health and economic crises of 2020 have not affected everyone in the New Orleans metro equally. When these crises converge at the neighborhood level, they reflect legacies of racial segregation and uneven neighborhood investment. The underlying causes of social inequities and health outcomes—before and during the pandemic—have long been based, in part, on where you live.
Today, The Data Center releases the first chapter of Placing Prosperity: Neighborhoods and Life Expectancy in the New Orleans Metro, a three-part report on how neighborhoods shape people's chances to live long, healthy, and prosperous lives. Providing a "snapshot" of place-based health inequality before COVID-19, this chapter unpacks differences in life expectancy across neighborhoods in the 8-parish New Orleans metro area. In some parts of the region, neighborhoods separated by only a few miles in distance may have a ten-year gap in how long their residents can expect to live. The analysis puts these neighborhood differences in the context of mortality patterns, racial health disparities, and health outcomes at the regional level.
This project began before the pandemic, but the past six months have only underscored the ways that place, race, economic opportunity, and health outcomes remain inextricably linked. More than ever, understanding what makes these links so persistent can help to inform the evolving COVID-19 response and, eventually, to fuel a more equitable recovery.
The series will continue over the next couple of weeks with the release of a second and third chapter, but for now, check out our newest report, Placing Prosperity, here at:
Bringing you the data you need to make informed decisions,
The Data Center Team
Dabne Whitemore, Jenna Losh, Don Asay, Robby Habans, Lamar Gardere, Cody Brumfield, Amy Teller, Rachel Weinstein, Arthur Rymer, Katrina Andry, Erica Amrine, and Allison Plyer
