Fast Food Restaurants in High Socially Vulnerable Areas - LA County 2020

The purpose of this layer was to show which fast food places are more prevalent than others in extreme socially vulnerable areas of LA County. This layer used data from the US Census and CDC to get areas of Social Vulnerability. It also took a list of fast food restaurants from a resource comparing food deserts in LA County. This layer was made in hopes to be spreading awareness as to what types of foods are accessible and not to people who may not be in as safe a living condition as others, the addition of the Social Vulnerability Index allows to also make analysis as to how the area of high vulnerability has many poor quality but accessible food options. While comparing options some may be more desirable, for example Subway, sneaky things like high sodium or fake tuna can be present in those seemingly innocent foods. LA County is an area very near and dear to my heart. As a former resident of LA County, I saw the affects of social vulnerability throughout my life. Thankfully I was never in danger of these events myself, but having friends that were in tough areas put me in positions to see young people go through real struggle. After experiencing that at such a young age this project allowed for me to reconnect with my area and shed light on something we see all the time. Fast food restaurants dominate downtown Los Angeles. The accessibility to all kinds of socioeconomic groups allows for LA to be a melting pot of demographics, however, for the less fortunate these restaurants are the only option to get any kind of nutrition. Some of the biggest brand names in LA County consist of Subway, McDonalds, Burger King, and more. This data that I've included takes a look at all the fast food restaurants that are within the highly socially vulnerable areas to bring that conversation of accessible healthy food back up. I learned how to make this dataset and layers within my GIS class at Drew University, under the purview of Prof. Lisa Jordan.

本地理图层旨在展示洛杉矶县（Los Angeles County, LA County）极端社会脆弱性区域内，各类快餐店的分布普及程度差异。本图层采用美国人口普查局（US Census）与疾控中心（Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC）的相关数据，以界定社会脆弱性区域；同时参考了一份对比洛杉矶县食物荒漠（food deserts）的公开资源，获取了当地快餐店名录。制作本图层的初衷，是为了提升公众对特定人群食品可及性的认知——这些人群的居住环境安全程度不及他人。新增的社会脆弱性指数（Social Vulnerability Index, SVI）则支持进一步分析：高脆弱性区域为何存在大量质量欠佳但易于获取的食品选项。在对比各类食品选项时，部分看似无害的食品实则暗藏隐患：以赛百味（Subway）为例，其产品可能含有高钠成分或人造金枪鱼。洛杉矶县是我心中极为珍视的故土。作为曾在此居住的居民，我在人生中亲眼见证了社会脆弱性带来的种种影响。所幸我自身从未身处这类险境，但结识了生活在困境区域的朋友，让我得以亲眼目睹年轻人经历的真实挣扎。年少时便亲历此事，本项目让我得以重新联结这片故土，并为我们日常司空见惯的现象带去关注与阐释。洛杉矶市中心几乎被快餐店所主导。作为社会经济群体多元的人口大熔炉，洛杉矶本应具备覆盖各类群体的餐饮可及性，但对境况较差的弱势群体而言，快餐店往往是获取任何形式营养的唯一途径。洛杉矶县的主流快餐品牌包括赛百味、麦当劳、汉堡王等。我本次收录的数据集聚焦高度社会脆弱性区域内的所有快餐店，旨在重新唤起关于可及性健康食品的讨论。本数据集及相关图层的制作方法，是我在德鲁大学（Drew University）的地理信息系统（Geographic Information System, GIS）课程中，于丽莎·乔丹教授（Prof. Lisa Jordan）的指导下学习掌握的。