Here are the biggest stories from our data visuals team in 2024

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As in year pastThe Texas Tribune’s data visuals team worked on some of the biggest stories this year. Our data journalists helped cover the ensuing election, reported on the impact of unaffordable housing, looked at the state’s attempt to build a wall along the southern border, and more. Here are some of our best stories from this year.

Elections and voting trends

Every two years, we play a critical role in covering Texas elections. Designer/developer before the March primaries Yuriko Schumacher explained how only a fraction of voters decide who wins the election and leads the state, using images that metaphorically show voters as small fish in a big pond.

She also helped with our voter guides for the primaryj and general elections.

Senior developer Carla Astudillo compiled the most comprehensive pages of election results in the state during both primary And general elections. She also kept track of how many Ted Cruz and Colin Allred raised for their showdown at the general election.

After the primaries, former colleague Andrew Park analyzed attendance. In the same way, Yuriko visualized, after an early vote in the general election attendance trends and then did the same Election Day.

Carla and Yuriko created charts for a post-general election story comparing Donald Trump and Cruz carried out. Then Keemahilldata reporter for the Texas Tribune/ProPublica Investigative Unit, visualized a sharp increase in Republican support over time. border provinces.

Border wall

Yuriko investigated how much of the proposed border wall the state has built along the Texas-Mexico border. The team working on this story found that the state spent billions of dollars over three years building a barrier that is still far from its goal.

Affordable housing

We’ve also made major changes to Texas’ housing issues. In the spring, Andrew helped answer the question of whether Republican efforts were waning property taxes have been successful. Carla spent months collecting and analyzing zoning data from eleven cities across the state to report on the situation in Texas. growing housing crisis.

The most visually ambitious thing was showing a story how dominant single-family homes are through the cities of Texas.

Public education

Education was another topic we covered in depth this year. Dan, along with other reporters from the Investigative Unit, reported on school districts in violation campaign financing disclosure law. Dan and the team also showed the influence of pro voucher billionaires as lawmakers prepare for it possibly vote for pro-voucher legislation next year, while Carla showed who’s next pro voucher MPs will be.

In the summer, Yuriko mapped out the decline STAAR scores in math and science. And Elia examined state data and found a sharp increase uncertified teachers post pandemic.

Meanwhile, education data developer Rob Reid has been working to build education data resources that will help expand coverage of our Texas schools in game-changing ways. His primary focus is analyzing public school budget data and understanding how local schools budget and spend the money they have available.

Extreme weather

In the spring and summer, when Texas experienced extreme weather, the team helped map the impacts. Yuriko and Andreas showed the domain of the East Texas floods in May. This inspired a more extensive story extreme weather conditions in Texas. After Hurricane Beryl hit Houston, former colleague Elijah Nicholson Messmer CenterPoint followed power outage every day.

In the summer, with the help of experts, Yuriko comprehensive analyzed several massive data sets for a story showing the state likely undercounted heat-related deaths. In the meantime, Carla mapped out how growth of tourism in the Big Bend region has caused water problems for local residents.