Introduction
In part one of this research, I looked at the relationship between broadband deployment and arts vibrancy in the United States, focusing on Texas. From that research, I identified that, out of the counties that contain Texas’ six largest metropolitan areas, two counties on the border, El Paso and Hidalgo, have the lowest arts vibrancy scores—and by a significant amount. While the level of broadband deployment in those counties is comparable to the other four counties, a Brookings analysis of broadband deployment in metropolitan areas found that, when looking at census tract-level data, these two metropolitan areas have some of the highest percentages of census tracts in digital poverty (defined as both half of households not having a wireline subscription and half not having a wireless subscription). This article examines factors that are driving that digital divide and relatively low arts vibrancy, partially by comparing data with a neighboring county with differing arts vibrancy and broadband deployment levels.
The Relationship between arts vibrancy and broadband deployment
In a first look at the Texas map, it is important to note that the areas of high arts vibrancy do not appear to be concentrated in areas with high levels of broadband access. There are both areas with low broadband access and high arts vibrancy scores and areas with high broadband access and low arts vibrancy scores. For example, the county with the highest arts vibrancy score in Texas, Hemphill county, has an FCC-reported broadband deployment of 1.2%.
Figure 1: Map of home broadband access and arts vibrancy in Texas. Data sources: SMU DataArts Arts Vibrancy Map and FCC.
To look more closely at the relationship between arts vibrancy scores and broadband deployment, Texas counties were divided into three categories based on their vibrancy scores—the first group with vibrancy scores from 67-100, the second group with scores ranging from 33-66, and the final group with scores from 0-32—to determine if there was any difference in the three groups’ average percentages of broadband deployment. The high vibrancy group has an average of 80.2% with broadband while the mid-level vibrancy group has an average of 79.5% with broadband—only a 0.7 percentage point difference. The low vibrancy group has an average of 64.8% of people in counties with broadband, which is below Texas’ average county-level broadband deployment of 72.5%. While the vibrancy differences between the high and mid-level groups do not seem to correspond with differences in broadband deployment, the low vibrancy group does have a difference of 14.7 percentage points in broadband access from the mid-level group and 15.4 from the group with high arts vibrancy. Since this effect is not present between the other two groups, there may be another factor causing both the lower arts vibrancy score and the lower broadband deployment.
Arts vibrancy is a weighted average of three subcategory scores: arts dollars, arts providers, and government support. To determine if one of these was particularly affecting broadband access, I compared broadband deployment with the three subcategories across the same three score buckets. The subcategory that showed the most visible trend was government support. The average broadband deployment for the highest vibrancy score group is 81.0%, 77.0% for the mid-level group, and 67.8% for the bottom group. In this case, counties with low government support for the arts also tended to, on average, have a lower level of broadband deployment. If these two things are correlated, that is concerning since that would indicate that, in the counties where the government has supported less broadband deployment, it is also not supporting the arts, leaving some counties behind others in multiple facets.
Case Studies
Figure 2: Image of El Paso, Texas. Source: Jasperdo on Flickr.
Case studies of three counties on the Texas-Mexico border—El Paso, Hidalgo, and Presidio—offer perspectives on potential causal factors for low vibrancy correlating with low broadband and its potential effects. These counties are significant because a Brookings analysis identified that the El Paso and Hidalgo counties contain two of the metropolitan areas (El Paso and McAllen-Mission-Edinburg) with the worst levels of digital poverty out of all metropolitan areas in the U.S. While FCC data shows that these two counties have fairly high broadband deployment—98.4% and 99.7%, respectively—at the census tract level, the Brookings analysis identified that more than 20% of census tracts are in digital poverty. The El Paso and Hidalgo counties fall in the low arts vibrancy and mid-level arts vibrancy categories with arts vibrancy scores of 44.25 and 38.90, respectively. Presidio county, the third case study county, offers a counterpoint for comparison because, while it has low broadband deployment as reported by the FCC (30.8%), it has a fairly high arts vibrancy score of 88.80.
Additionally, one demographic group identified as having barriers to home broadband access across the U.S. is the country’s Hispanic population, of which all three of these border counties have a high concentration. According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, while 79% of white Americans identified that they have home broadband, only 61% of Hispanic people surveyed said the same. This contributes to a quarter of Hispanic people in the U.S. being smartphone-only internet users. Still, within this group, there are disparities between those born abroad and those born in the U.S. According to Pew, while 87% of U.S.-born Hispanic people own a smartphone, only 69% of those born abroad have the same access. This difference likely also presents itself in home broadband access although Pew did not present data to this fact.
Understanding technology adoption patterns by race is significant to the three identified border counties because significant portions of these counties are made up of Latino/a/x people. According to zip code-level data from Esri Tapestry Segmentation, the primary “LifeMode” in these three counties is Ethnic Enclaves, more specifically Southwestern Families. Within this segment, many residents were born abroad and many households have residents who only speak Spanish. Eighty-two point five of the population in this group is Hispanic. The median household income and median net worth are also below the U.S. average. Regarding internet access and use, Esri identifies that about two out of three households are connected and that that connection is used primarily for entertainment.
The following section will look closer at the profiles of El Paso, Hidalgo, and Presidio counties.
El Paso County
El Paso county has a population of 839,238, 82.9% of which is Latino/a/x. Eighteen point eight percent of the population is below the poverty line—about 8% more than the national average. According to the U.S. census, 78.5% of households have a broadband internet subscription and 87.6% of households have a computer. The county’s arts vibrancy score is 44.25 (46 for arts providers, 43 for arts dollars, and 42 for government support).
Hidalgo County
Hidalgo county—which contains the McAllen-Mission-Edinburg metropolitan area—has a population of 868,707, 92.5% of which is Latino/a/x. Twenty-six point nine percent of the population is in poverty, which is over twice as high as the national average of 10.5%. The U.S. census indicates that 64.4% of households have a broadband internet subscription and 86.1% of households have a computer. The county’s arts vibrancy score is 38.90 (36 for arts providers, 46 for arts dollars, and 20 for government support). Despite its almost equivalent population size to El Paso county, Hidalgo county lags behind on poverty rate, home broadband, and arts vibrancy—particularly in the government support category.
In addition to the Southwestern Families segment identified by Esri, Barrios Urbanos—also part of the Ethnic Enclaves LifeMode Group—also have a notable presence. In this segment, multigenerational households with kids are common, and more than one in four households is below the federal poverty level. While there are not any details about internet use, the profile notes that magazines and Spanish-language radio are popular forms of media.
Figure 3: Table of county-level data. Source: U.S. Census QuickFacts and SMU DataArts.
Presidio County
Presidio county (pop. 6,704) is more rural and sparsely populated than the Hidalgo and El Paso counties, but has a significantly higher arts vibrancy score of 88.8—the fifth highest in Texas. The subcategory scores are 78 for arts providers, 98 for arts dollars, and 96 for government support. Presidio county’s population is 82% Latino/a/x, and 19.2% of the population falls below the poverty line. The U.S. census identifies that only 48.4% of households have broadband and 66% own a computer.
While Presidio county performs worse than El Paso and Hidalgo counties on broadband access, its poverty levels are in line with El Paso’s, and its arts vibrancy score is significantly higher. Part of the reason for this is that Presidio county is home to Marfa, a contemporary art destination that started with artist Donald Judd. While neighboring counties have a significant population of Resort Dwellers because of Marfa’s popularity, Presidio is still predominantly Southwestern Families and Rooted Rural, according to Esri’s Tapestry segmentation. These residents likely benefit from the county’s artistic presence and investment and would further benefit from increased broadband access.
Figure 4: Table of arts vibrancy scores by county. Source: SMU DataArts.
Solutions
The prevalence of the Southwestern Families segment in all three of these counties indicates that, for the families without home broadband, the kids likely have more trouble completing their school work—an issue that has come to the forefront with remote learning. Given that the government support subcategory of arts vibrancy decreases alongside broadband deployment for counties in Texas, it is likely that government support is needed to bolster both of these things. According to Pew’s State Broadband Policy Explorer, the most recent act passed in Texas related to broadband access appropriated $25 million to an E-Rate matching program for fiscal year 2018. The funding was intended to support “projects that build high-speed broadband infrastructure to and within schools.” This policy, however, does not solve access issues caused by remote learning.
The FCC’s federal E-Rate program “provides discounts for telecommunications, Internet access, and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries.” Texas’ E-Rate matching program only boosts the school portion of this funding. If the state also implemented a similar matching program for libraries, more people could take advantage of this internet access, even when school is not in session.
On tribal lands, the areas with the lowest broadband access across the United States, some policies, such as the Tribal Connect Act, have been introduced to expand access through the federal E-Rate program. The Tribal Connect Act amends some of the federal E-Rate program’s eligibility requirements to allow more tribal libraries to take advantage of the program and establishes a pilot program “to permit tribes without libraries to designate an alternative tribally-owned facility open to the public and used for educational purposes as eligible for E-rate support.”
South Texas could benefit from a similar program, potentially integrating cultural centers and cultural programming to boost arts vibrancy alongside broadband access. All three of the counties discussed in the case studies could benefit from increased broadband access, and the success of Presidio county’s arts sector could help support locations for internet access. Pew identified that state-level solutions are key to remedying the digital divide on the national level, and Texas could be part of this solution by introducing a pilot program similar to the Tribal Connect Act that would allow cultural centers as well as libraries to have discounted broadband access through the federal E-Rate program.