Who Do We Serve?

One of the most important functions the City provides is the delivery of services. Of those services, they can typically be broken into two groups: public safety and quality of life. Public safety can be thought of as the most critical services cities provide in that they encompass police and fire protection as well as the provision and maintenance of roads.

Quality of life services are those services provided above this baseline in that they seek to improve the well-being of our citizens. Within the City of El Paso, there are several types of quality of life services provided. They are: parks, recreation centers, pools and aquatics facilities, libraries, senior centers, museum and the zoo. For purposes of this study, we examine only quality of life services and focus on parks, recreation centers, pool and aquatics facilities, libraries and senior centers.

The goal of the City is to provide the highest level of service while simultaneously balancing this against the cost of service. Efficiency in the delivery of service, whether for public safety or quality of life, can help reduce the cost of service but in order to do so, we must first know who is using our City services.

To accomplish this goal, the City analyzed de-identified mobile phone data over a three year period (from 2018-2021) to build a demographic profile of users all with the goal of answering this critical question: who do we serve?

The analysis supporting the key findings can be found in greater detail in the preceding text, but the most pertinent insights are:

• Utilization is greatest in Central El Paso;
• Campus operations have significantly higher visitation than standalone, single-use facilities;
• There is a small, but significant, percentage of facility users living in the County;
• New service area boundaries can be determined by examining residents' willingness to travel to facilities;
• There is a positive correlation between younger populations (under 18) and facility usage while the inverse is true for older populations (over 65);
• A negative correlation exists between equity score and facility usage; and
• Most residents travel to City facilities located within the same Planning area they live. The notable exception is the Eastside, whose residents travel primarily to Central El Paso.

Before analyzing the data, it is important to take a 10,000 ft. view and understand what is happening in the City from a macro level. Over the last several decades, the City has experienced  massive population growth . Of this growth, much of this has taken place on the fringes of the City. The map below demonstrates the percentage change of population over a period from 1990-2010.

However, there are signs that  growth in El Paso is slowing down  and that much of the "growth" is the result of existing residents relocating from older established neighborhoods to those on the fringes. As a result of this, many of our City facilities are located in places suffering from population loss.

To answer the question of who we serve, the first place we need to start is where the users of City facilities live. Luckily, mobility data can tell us the home Census block group of the visitor which we can take and sum the total of visitors across all facility types. Because some Census geographies are larger or smaller than others, we take those raw counts and normalize them against the size of the the block group. The result shows the average monthly totals of the number of visits to City facilities.

We can see in the above map and the one below that across all facility types, the highest number of visits and utilization rates are concentrated in Central El Paso.

Below you will find a map and chart that shows the average monthly visitors to City Facilities and their share of visitation to a particular facility type.

Use the visualizations below to see which facilities have the highest share of visitation by facility type as well as which parts of the City use facilities the most.

Based on this data, both Central and Northeast El Paso utilize City services the most, with the lowest rates in Northwest and East El Paso.

The Northeast has the highest number of users for community parks, pools and recreation centers while Northwest residents use libraries the most and Central senior centers.

Additionally, the data suggests that overall city facilities that have more than one service co-located on its campus with another get significant greater usage than standalone facilities. Parks and libraries are notable exceptions, but for all other service types the difference is significant. Based on monthly average attendance, combination facilities are used nearly twice as much (1.87 times, to be exact) than standalone facilities.

A small but significant percentage of City facility users are non-City residents. Across all facility types, 7% of facility users reside in the County, with the highest usage of non-City residents being found at pool facilities.

By knowing where users of City facilities live, we can then examine far they travel to reach the City facility. As the graph below indicates, the distance traveled to reach a City facility is dependent on service type.

On average, people travel the furthest to access senior centers followed by pocket parks. On the flipside, people travel the shortest distances to access libraries and neighborhood parks.

However, where residents live clearly influences the average distances they will travel. With the exception of parks, Eastside residents travel the furthest distance for every other facility type. This suggests that within this planning area, there may be significant facility gaps which can have the effect of inflating average travel distance across all facilities.

But simply knowing Eastside residents travel the furthest distance doesn't tell us whether they are served by other Eastside facilities or whether they travel to other areas of the city outside of their planning area.

In visualization below, we can where residents travel to by examine the travel flows from resident home to the facility location. As would be expected, the largest number of people go to City facilities within the same planning area in which they are a resident, with one notable exception. Residents of the Eastside travel primarily to the Central planning area for their services.

But what about facility type? Again, for each facility type, most residents go to a pool, recreation or senior center, library or park within the same planning area in which they live. For Eastside residents, however, most travel to the Mission Valley for recreation centers and Central for senior centers and pools.

By identifying home locations of facility users, we can use demographic data to understand the characteristics of user of city facilities.

For purposes of this study, we analyzed the following characteristics:

• Income
• Race
• Education
• Age
• Equity, based on the City's Equity Income

The majority of users for all facility types live in block groups consisting of the top two income quintiles in the City. By examining the graphic above, we see those quintiles identified as "Upper" and "Upper Middle", referring to their respective income groups.

Correlations between facility usage and income are relatively weak (r-value .149131), but are strongest with parks (r-value .217933) and libraries (r-value .207909). This demonstrates that to some degree, as income increases so too does facility usage.

Using the  entropy index , we can determine the distribution of population on the basis of race and compare block groups to one another within an El Paso-specific context. In doing so, there is a general pattern that exists across all facility types which shows that users live in block groups that are comprised of above-average Asian and Latino populations and below average Black and White populations.

Another way to examine City facility usage and race is to look at the relationship between the count of users from a particular block group and the percentage of population across different races.

Overall, as the percent of any race group increases facility usage does as well with the exception of Latino population which has a negative r-value of -0.24245. Correlations between facility usage and race are relatively strong overall as well as by facility type, indicating that race can be a factor in predicting facility usage.

The age profile of City facility users holds true across all facility types, though to varying degrees of intensity. Looking at the most common age group by Census block group, most visitors reside in geographies where the most common age range is from 45-54 followed by 25-34.

Perhaps more telling of users' ages and their demand for City services is the percentage of population under 19 and over 65. Use the correlation plots below, we can see that the greater the percentage of population 18 and under, the more demand for services while the inverse is true for population over 65.

Last, we consider facility usage through an equity lens. Using the City's  Equity Calculator , we assigned average equity scores to Census block groups to examine the relationship between facility usage and equity score. A low equity score means there is less need and fewer barriers to equitable outcomes, while the inverse is true for a higher equity score.

In the visualization below, the equity scores are broken into four quartiles based on need, from lowest to highest. Low need indicates a low equity score while high need indicates a high equity score.

In the above visualization, we can see that across the City parks and libraries are most frequented by groups categorized as having the lowest need while senior centers are most likely to be used by those who have the highest need. Pools and recreation centers are used most frequently by those with moderate need.

When analyzing the correlation between facility usage and equity, overall there is a clear trend that the higher the need the lower the usage (r-value -.31599). Correlations between equity score and usage is negative between the two variables for all types except senior centers. Additionally, the negative correlation is strongest for parks (r-value .-37071) and libraries (-.33488) suggesting that the equity score is a good indicator for facility usage.

Using mobility data is an effective way to gain insights into not only the quantity of people using City services, but also to gain insight into who those people are and their willingness to travel particular distances to access those services. Listed below is a summary of the key findings this analysis

Key findings:

• Service area boundaries can be developed and redefined using existing demand and willingness to travel.
• Co-located facilities have greater rates of attendance than single-use facilities.
• A significant percentage of our facilities are used by non-City residents.
• Educated, younger, wealthier and non-Latino populations are most likely to use City facilities.
• There is a significant negative correlation between usage and equity.

Knowing these factors, we can better program City facilities to match surrounding demographics in order to improve usage rates. Additionally, future facilities can be properly located in order anticipate and meet future resident demand.