GTography: Race and City Council Members in Georgetown

This map shows the distribution of Hispanic populations in Georgetown and city council districts.  Georgetown has 7 city council districts and a high Hispanic population (21.8%).  Cities are typically racially segregated, as seen in GIS lab #18.  Here, it is apparent that some council districts (like that of Councilman Gonzalez) have high populations of Hispanics, while other districts (like that of Councilman Hesser) have very small Hispanic populations.  This means that issues faced by Hispanic populations might be dealt with more heavily by those council members located with heavy clusters of Hispanic populations.  The city council person for Southwestern University is Rachael Jonrowe, District 6.  Data for this map was obtained from the city of Georgetown and Williamson County GIS databases.

This article talks about the geographic features of Florida. The natural landscape of Florida, specifically southern Florida, is the everglades. These areas are wet and unpredictable which makes it especially difficult to build structures. The slow, constant flow of water from Lake Okeechobee is a natural phenomenon that disrupts the plan of man.

In order to change this and make the land usable for construction, the Everglades Drainage District (EDD) and the Internal Improvement Fund (IIF) spent about $18 million towards the drainage and maintenance of the land to build structures. People took advantage of this and the water flow and are now growing crops in these areas. Despite an immense growth in the economy, these actions are disturbing the natural ecosystems of this region and we are not sure what long-lasting effects it may have.

 Robert Walker & William Solecki (2004): Theorizing Land-Cover and Land-Use Change: The Case of the Florida Everglades and Its Degradation, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 94:2, 311-328