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.

本图层旨在展示洛杉矶县（LA County）极端社会脆弱区域内，各类快餐店的分布普及程度差异。本图层依托美国人口普查局（US Census）与美国疾控中心（CDC）的数据，以划定社会脆弱性区域；同时从一份对比洛杉矶县食品荒漠的资料中，提取了快餐店名录。本图层的制作初衷，是为了提升公众对生活条件欠佳群体可及食品类型的认知；而社会脆弱性指数（Social Vulnerability Index）的加入，则可用于分析高脆弱区域为何存在大量虽易获取但品质低劣的食品选择。在对比各类餐饮选项时，部分门店看似无害，实则暗藏健康隐患——以赛百味（Subway）为例，其餐品可能含有高钠成分甚至假金枪鱼。

洛杉矶县对我而言意义非凡。作为曾在此定居的居民，我在人生中亲眼目睹了社会脆弱性带来的种种影响。所幸我本人从未身处此类困境，但结识生活在贫困社区的朋友，让我得以亲眼见证年轻人所经历的真实挣扎。年少时便亲历此类见闻，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来新的审视视角。

快餐店几乎占据了洛杉矶市中心的餐饮市场。洛杉矶作为多元人口的大熔炉，各类餐饮选择可覆盖不同社会经济阶层的人群，但对于弱势群体而言，快餐店或许是他们获取任何形式营养的唯一途径。洛杉矶县境内的头部快餐品牌包括赛百味、麦当劳、汉堡王等。本次收录的数据集，聚焦于高度社会脆弱区域内的所有快餐店，旨在重新唤起公众关于可及性健康食品的讨论。

我在德鲁大学（Drew University）的地理信息系统（GIS, Geographic Information System）课程中，于丽莎·乔丹教授（Prof. Lisa Jordan）的指导下，学习了本数据集与相关图层的制作方法。