This map, titled “Vancouver’s Homes in One Family (RS) Zones,” displays the single-family homes in Vancouver that a family could and couldn’t afford to buy based on their income. The goal of this map, created by Jens von Bergmann as part of a blog post entitled “Zoned for Who?”, is to show that single family homes are largely unaffordable, and this space should instead be zoned for multi-family units. It may seem that the map does not contain any bias because it only displays one piece of data, and therefore it is straightforward and objective. However, it is the very lack of data that presents the bias.
There is no reference to the data source on the map nor in the blog post. The map only includes data on single-family homes; there is no information included about the cost of other units for sale or any units for rent. Many areas on the map do not have any data, and there is no indication as to whether this means data does not exist for this area or if there are no single-family homes in the area.
The map focuses on a particular aspect of the housing crisis in Vancouver and offers a solution to this aspect of the problem: rezone the land. The housing crisis in Vancouver is an important issue to shed light on, and this map advocates for middle and lower income residents, who are negatively affected by the crisis. However, the housing crisis is a complex issue, and by only including information about one aspect of the problem, the map ignores the complexities of finding an effective solution. There is an underlying assumption of the map that rezoning the land for multi-family units would make properties more affordable. However, there is no data included on the map to show that this is true. In a CTV article about the map Judy Graves, a city council candidate at the time of publication, is quoted saying that even if new units are built to replace single-family homes, those units will still be unaffordable to most. This means the assumption may be incorrect, and without any data to back it up, the map is somewhat biased to serve the argument that rezoning single-family homes would make housing more affordable.
The solution to this bias is to add more data, and there are variety of different ways this could be done. One possible addition is to include data on the prices of non-single-family units to compare to the data that is displayed. Another possibility is to include graphics, such as a scatterplot, to show the correlation between population growth of the city and increasing cost of housing, or, alternatively, to show the correlation between increasing cost of housing and decreasing vacancy rate. These graphics would help demonstrate that the rising cost of housing is correlated to, and likely caused by, growing rates of demand. The challenge with this information is that is still would not model the effect of increasing housing density on the cost of housing, but potentially the data could be extrapolated and used to make predictions.
At first glance, the map is not biased because it simply displays one piece of information about housing costs in Vancouver in a very straightforward way. However, this map was made to support the argument that rezoning One Family Zones to denser housing units would decrease the cost of housing, but the data shown is not adequate to support this argument. The main flaw is that there is no evidence provided to show that changing the zoning would actually decrease the cost of housing; it is just assumed. More data is needed to adequately represent the complexity of the housing crisis and propose effective solutions.