Data will prove its value long after COVID
Big number: 18%, the percentage of the population that’s Black in the areas of Toronto that have the highest COVID-19 case rates, according to Toronto Public Health data. Across the city, about 9% of Toronto’s overall population is Black.
There has been a torrent of data released during this pandemic. We’ve got giant spreadsheets and granular maps and elaborate charts. A data renaissance in the middle of a dark age for Toronto.
And the data is telling us stories.
Consider what it told us about transit, for example. In June, the TTC board was presented with maps showing that even as overall TTC ridership remained way below prepandemic levels, there were some routes where crowding was becoming scary common. Two of the most glaring hot spots were bus routes on Eglinton Avenue East and Jane Street.
The TTC was already considering ways to ease crowding on routes like these, but the data eliminated any doubt. If these routes were still crowded in the midst of a lockdown, that meant they were being relied on by some of the city’s most essential workers, many of whom have no other option for getting around. The pandemic data made clear something that was true before — and will be afterwards: these are some of the most important buses in Toronto.
And so last week, the TTC board greenlit a plan to install dedicated bus lanes on five corridors, prioritizing Eglinton East and Jane.
The plan isn’t perfect — Eglinton bus lanes are scheduled to be installed this fall, but Jane isn’t coming until next spring — and still needs to be approved by Toronto council later this month, but it’s a pretty good demonstration of a platonic ideal of how government should work. Data told an urgent story and government took action — action driven by real numbers, not ideology, partisan politics or a gut feeling.
Similar action should follow. Over the last few weeks, my Star colleagues have been bringing you important stories about neighbourhoods in the northwest corner of Toronto. These stories emerged because Toronto Public Health released neighbourhood-level data showing COVID-19 cases were much higher in this area, which also generally has higher rates of poverty.
It’s not a revelation that this part of the city has suffered from poor access to services and economic inequality, but the pandemic data should make it impossible to ignore. It should shape short- and longterm plans for affordable housing, transportation, education, youth spaces and other government programs.
Future data releases could be even more illuminating. According to Coun. Joe Cressy, the chair of the city’s Board of Health, the city’s public health agency is working to release more anonymized socioeconomic data about COVID-19 cases, including race and occupational data, in the weeks ahead.
Some preliminary data was presented earlier this month, showing the depth of inequity. Black people are nine per cent of Toronto’s population, for example, but have made up about 18 per cent of the population in areas of the city hard hit by the virus.
That should underscore why it’s important to continue an honest analysis of how racism and unconscious bias affect government programs.
Access to data like this doesn’t always come easy. Transparency eludes some public agencies. The ongoing debate about funding for the Toronto police, for example, is hampered by a lack of transparency in the data behind the police budget — only high-level summaries are available, instead of detailed spreadsheets. (A motion approved by council at its last meeting asks police to start releasing detailed budget info this month.)
Coun. Paul Ainslie has been on a mission over the past few years to identify and push departments that aren’t collecting and publishing data to the city’s Open Data portal. He’s had a lot of success, but at times it’s like pulling teeth to get the data.
The effort is worth it, though. Cressy calls data “the counterpoint to anecdote.” And the stakes of this pandemic, along with examples from south of the border, make it clear why government-by-anecdote is a bad idea. Data is better, and will prove its value long after COVID-19.
This pile of maps, charts and spreadsheets contains directions for building Toronto out of this pandemic, and making a more equitable city afterwards. It’s more than just a collection of numbers. It’s a map.