A 2016 incident in which an executive used the n-word at the Callowhill-based software company was recently surfaced in a Billy Penn report. It's leaving former employees, partners and others in Philly's tech scene considering the company's reputation.

After a racist incident at Azavea, what does accountability look like?

TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox. This article is part of a yearlong reporting project focused on redistricting and gerrymandering in Pennsylvania. It is made possible by the support of Spotlight PA members and Votebeat , a project focused on election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania became less white and more concentrated in and near cities during the past decade, changes that have major implications for state lawmakers as they prepare to draw new political maps. Because of Pennsylvania’s sluggish population growth compared to other states, it will lose one of its 18 congressional seats. That creates a politically fraught task for the Republican-controlled legislature, which is charged with drawing a new map that must be approved by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. A complicated process also awaits the Legislative Reapportionment Commission, a panel of two Democratic leaders, two top Republicans, and an appointed, tie-breaking chair that has the final say over the state legislative maps. The commission is awaiting final data so it can create a draft plan for the public, and population numbers released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau show they’ll face many challenges and choices. “Generally I look at this as a Rubik’s Cube problem,” said David Thornburgh, president and CEO of the good-government group Committee of Seventy and managing director of Draw the Lines. Mapmakers move a boundary for one district, which then requires them to adjust boundaries to a neighboring district and so on — all while meeting standards set out in the state constitution as well as principles widely touted by anti-gerrymandering advocates. Here are four takeaways from the new census data and what it means for the state House and Senate maps:
Shrinking versus expanding
One of the basic redistricting principles is equal (or at least, very similar) populations in each district. With Pennsylvania’s population now topping 13 million, an ideal state House district should have just over 64,000 people, while state Senate districts should have 260,000. There are dozens of House and Senate districts, primarily in rural areas of western and northern Pennsylvania, where the population is lower than the new benchmarks, according to an analysis by Penn student Gianni Hill . Republican-held districts are more affected than Democratic ones. Those districts could be combined with others nearby, while mapmakers could also move districts from the west or north to another part of the state experiencing more population growth. All eyes on the southeast
In 2011, the House map eliminated districts in Allegheny, Erie, and Philadelphia Counties and added seats in Allentown as well as Berks, Chester, and York Counties. Daniel McGlone, a senior GIS analyst at Philadelphia-based Azavea and project manager of the redistricting tool DistrictBuilder , said the choice benefited fast-growing Republican suburbs over urban areas. Now, a decade later, the trend has reversed: Democratic areas are growing faster than Republican ones, he said. Population growth was primarily seen in the southeast and Lehigh Valley, as well as in south-central counties like Cumberland and Lancaster. The Legislative Reapportionment Commission will have a few options when it begins redrawing the maps with the new data. It could start with a clean slate, drawing fresh districts to account for population shifts and the growing number of Hispanic, Asian American, and Pacific Islander residents. “There’s a perception that it’s hard to start from a blank map, but it isn’t,” said Suzanne Almeida, redistricting and representation counsel for Common Cause. In addition to nearly equal population, the Pennsylvania Constitution requires districts to “be composed of compact and contiguous territory.” It also states that “no county, city, incorporated town, borough, township, or ward shall be divided” unless absolutely necessary. There are also additional criteria mapmakers can adhere to as recommended by good-government and anti-gerrymandering advocates , like agreeing to only split a locality when necessary to ensure equal representation for non-white Pennsylvanians. The grassroots group Fair Districts PA pushed to mandate stricter rules , but the legislature failed to take up the reforms. Almeida said the commission will have an incredible amount of public input and data to start with. “They just need to make those difficult decisions,” she said. Thornburgh, of the Committee of Seventy, said starting from a blank map “might be asking a lot,” as the Democratic and Republican leaders involved have 253 sitting lawmakers to consider. The more likely approach, he said, would be to look at the House and Senate districts, see which ones are above or below the new population benchmarks, and make adjustments from there — while keeping in mind public input and constitutional requirements. “This is why most folks say this is more art than science,” Thornburgh said. Moving one of the least populated House districts from the northwest or southwest to Philadelphia — home to some of the most overpopulated districts — might seem like a no-brainer. But McGlone of Azavea noted that mapmakers must also be conscious of existing so-called majority-minority districts that satisfy the Voting Rights Act and ensure non-white Pennsylvanians are given the opportunity to elect the candidates of their choice. There are districts in north Philadelphia that have lost population, for example, but mapmakers can’t let them grow into whiter areas too much without tipping the balance. Republicans may argue that Cumberland County is a better fit for a new House district, he said, as it saw some of the greatest population growth during the last decade. An uncertain future for rural Pa. The new census data showed large population declines in rural counties in western and northern Pennsylvania, as expected. To accommodate the changes, some rural House and Senate districts will become geographically larger. That’s a problem for residents in those areas for a few reasons, according to Kyle Kopko, director of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. These constituents are less likely to have internet access and, because they are unable to contact their legislators digitally, will need to drive long distances to meet in person. “I think this is going to raise some resource allocation issues, anything from school funding to transportation to health care,” Kopko said. The cost per capita of providing services in rural areas will increase, he said, because the remaining population will be spread out. Rural school districts have already experienced this issue as it relates to rising transportation costs for students, a report by the center found. In testimony to the Legislative Redistricting Commission, Kopko said mapmakers “may wish to consider the ease of transportation within a district and the (in)ability of residents to effectively engage with legislators and their staff through broadband access.”
Expanding broadband in rural Pennsylvania would help level the playing field, he said, but it won’t be a panacea to stop population decline. Measuring success (or failure)
A decade ago, piano teacher Amanda Holt produced her own maps in Excel because she was concerned that lawmakers had split localities unnecessarily and failed to meet constitutional standards. She later became a plaintiff in a case against the state House and Senate maps and won. Now, there are several free tools — including DistrictBuilder and Dave’s Redistricting — that allow anyone with internet access to build their own congressional and legislative maps. “It’s a huge change, and it’s a really impactful one,” McGlone said. Thornburgh said these tools have democratized the process and will empower citizens to spot problems when state lawmakers release drafts of the new maps. Pennsylvania was once considered ground zero for gerrymandering — when a map’s district boundaries are manipulated to benefit one political party over another. “Unfortunately, the reason this has become a hot button issue is that this process has been abused in the past,” Thornburgh said. The state Supreme Court threw out Pennsylvania’s last congressional map in 2018, finding it unfairly benefited Republicans. The House and Senate maps haven’t been subjected to the same level of scrutiny, although Spotlight PA and Votebeat previously found that computer-based techniques used in the 2018 legal case show the maps skew toward the GOP . Experts and analysts will apply those same tests to the new maps this year, and the public will be able to access those scores. RepresentUs and the Princeton Gerrymandering Project recently launched a Redistricting Report Card that will include metrics like competitiveness and compactness. Ideally, the commission should explain what criteria it plans to use to make the maps, how it will prioritize those standards, and how feedback from Pennsylvanians will be used during the process. “We know not all of the public testimony will be implemented, but we do want them to take it seriously,” Almeida said. Once the preliminary plan is released, the commission needs to set aside time to hear from the public about where the maps fall short and make adjustments based on that feedback, Thornburgh said. “If you are serious about transparency and accountability,” he said, you have to get people’s reactions to a map.”
WHILE YOU’RE HERE… If you learned something from this story, pay it forward and become a member of Spotlight PA so someone else can in the future at spotlightpa.org/donate . Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. Support Local Journalism and help us continue covering the stories that matter to you and your community.

4 takeaways from new Pa. census data and what it means for redistricting

Accessible data frameworks
ADoT wanted to show that an investment in Proposition B would greatly expand the impact of Proposition A, but they couldn’t do it alone. ADoT is one of the more advanced city transportation departments when it comes to data, and they have staff with deep data science knowledge. However, it would have been prohibitively expensive for them to collect and process the data needed to demonstrate Proposition B’s importance to the City Council. Luckily, due to past collaboration, they knew they could call on PeopleForBikes and quickly get accurate data from the BNA framework. This framework, notes Rebecca Davies, the Bicycle Networks data manager at PeopleforBikes, “made what would have otherwise been a tedious and prohibitively expensive task fast and easy”. Accessible data and compelling visualization to push public policy
By using data in the BNA, PeopleForBikes quickly complied statistics for ADoT to present to the City Council showing that Proposition B would amplify the effect of Proposition A, leading to a significantly improved transit network. The planned improvements in Proposition A alone would expand access to 146,749 people who would now be within biking access to public transit (Map B). By also passing Proposition B, for a relatively small additional budget of $460 million, they would increase access to 429,494 people in total (Map C). Map A: Existing conditions when Propositions A and B were put forth. (Image by PeopleforBikes via Azavea)
Map B: Proposition A improvements. (Image by PeopleforBikes via Azavea)
Map C: Propositions A and B improvements. (Image by PeopleforBikes via Azavea)
The results were so staggering that leaders simply could not ignore the value that biking would bring to supporting transit. The City Council added Proposition B to the ballot and it passed along with Proposition A on Nov. 2. The benefits of open source and easily customizable software
The BNA was an effective source of information for ADoT for two key reasons. First off, BNA uses OpenStreetMap , an open source map of the world. Given the open source nature of OpenStreetMap it was very easy to update and modify data sets. Therefore the BNA always had updated maps of Austin that reflected any recent street changes. Secondly, Azavea had updated the BNA to make it more customizable per city to highlight factors such as individual street speed limits. Previously BNA used a de facto street speed limit on residential streets. When Propositions A and B were put forth in Austin, residential street speed limits were considerably higher than most of the nation, making biking less safe in many areas. This updated information in BNA highlighted the greater impact that Austin bike lanes would have in streets with these higher speed limits. Azavea was proud to have supported this effort through our work on the BNA. This case exemplifies how accessible data can push public policy forward. It can help cities rethink their urban mobility plans as well as a variety of other factors that also contribute to climate change and longterm sustainability. Want to learn more about how we can help your city? Reach out; we’d love to talk .

More data, more bikes: An Azavea-built tool is improving city transit networks via data viz and public policy

When Zoe Cohen was finishing up her Master’s of Arts in International Development and Economics from John’s Hopkins University nearly a decade ago, she likely wouldn’t have predicted she’d now be running the partnerships and business development arm of a Philly-based tech company. For the last year, Cohen has been working remotely for Azavea , a geospatial technology and social good company founded in 2001. She came to the company via a year-long stint at Philly-founded fintech startup RenoFi . It was her first job back in the U.S. after years-long periods abroad — first in Peru and then Kenya — working for nonprofits and social enterprises, which were the focus of her degrees. Cohen hadn’t really considered the startup world until she arrived in the East African country, she told Technical.ly. “There was so much going on in Kenya and specifically, Nairobi, in terms of social enterprise and impact businesses and the tech startup scene,” she said. “So I just started to meet people, both Kenyans and foreigners, who were working in this tech startup social enterprise sector and I got more and more interested.”
After falling in love with living there, Cohen networked her way to a small startup called Echo Mobile. It’s a mobile tech SaaS service for organizations, educational services or companies to communicate with folks who didn’t have internet access. She was one of three or so “pretty junior” people figuring out how to build the platform, and took on the role of CEO. “My interest in the tech world really started there, in that very specific environment,” Cohen said. In her early 30s, after about six years in Kenya, Cohen said she began to consider moving back to the states. Her family is from the Philly area, but she was drawn to the scene and the outdoor environment in Seattle. It ultimately came down to the people and networking in Philadelphia, she said — a large contrast from what she experienced in Seattle. Advertisement
When picking a destination, it ultimately came down to the people and networking in Philadelphia — a large contrast from what she experienced in Seattle. “I was overwhelmed with the amount of support and engagement I got from folks in the Philly tech scene, the Philly startup scene,” she said. Early on, she connected with Guru’s Rick Nucci , who in turn made the intro to Azavea CEO Robert Cheetham . But she first worked worked as head of partnerships at RenoFi, where she said she learned a lot in her first experience with a venture-backed company. With Azavea, the initial connection with Cheetham and the company’s focus on international work, its B Corp status, and its civic, social and environmental impact drew Cohen in to the company. It was a tech company with a deep social impact mission. She and the CEO began talking about the company’s partnerships role, and she joined Callowhill-based team right after the pandemic began last year. The company itself builds tech to work on climate change-related matters, like watershed issues in Philadelphia. Cohen said she believes technology can play a huge part in having an environmental impact. There is an incredible amount of data and orgs that can visualize it that will drive people to create change, she said. Cohen stressed that each of her career moves and changes came with a lot of patience. Envisioning how she could fit into the tech space came with the realization that tech is integral across many industries. It’s more than deep technical skills, but also the soft skills and the phycological understanding of how people operate. She attributes finding clarity in her career path with testing out a lot at the beginning of her career, and taking on roles and responsibilities that showed what she did and did not want to do. “A lot of my work was around coming up with the narrative of what I had done, and looking inside and thinking through the narrative of what do I want to do in the future,” she said.

How I Got Here: Zoe Cohen on her path from international development to biz partnerships at Azavea

(Courtesy photo)
This article appears as part of the  Most Diverse Tech Hub  initiative and is underwritten by the  City of Philadelphia Department of Commerce . It was independently reported and not reviewed by this partner before publication. Philadelphia’s tech sector is growing at a slow-but-steady rate . But as the need for new and specialized talent increases, local leaders will need to continue to look in less traditional places for new talent. And, in an inversion of the mentality frequently discussed alongside business diversity in general: It’s not just good business sense, but a racial equity question, as Black Philadelphians and other people of color are less likely to benefit from tech’s wealth. Businesses are increasingly feeling the urgency to enact change so their local tech sector better reflects the demographics of the people who make up their city or region. The Microsoft Leap Apprenticeship Program , for instance, is an example of how a corporate entity is training underrepresented technologists. Launched in 2015, the program recruits and upskills hundreds of professionals from different backgrounds around the world. Through a partnership with more than 100 coding academics and bootcamps across the country, Leap graduates have gotten tech jobs at companies ranging from software engineering roles to UX design and project management, with some getting opportunities to work at Microsoft. The Leap program makes it a point to recruit people who are parents who stopped their careers to focus on being caregivers; focusing on people who are changing careers as recruits and who may not have a computer science background but an affinity for tech is also a priority. According to a company spokesperson, Microsoft hopes to build a more inclusive workforce as a result of the program. Since its inception, the Leap program has scaled to assist apprentices over 14 North American cohorts and three Nigerian and Kenyan cohorts. Of the 17 cohorts, 98% of apprentices work at Microsoft or other tech companies. Advertisement
This work is happening locally, too. Technical.ly spoke to leaders from nonprofits and tech companies from around the region to gain insight on how tech employers can support the reskilling and upskilling of professionals with adjacent skills who are underrepresented in the technology industry. This is part of a three-part series of case studies on diversifying the tech workforce. Read the first edition here . In part three, we’ll explore best practices for the attraction and retention of existing diverse talent. Case study #1: Partner with workforce development-focused organizations training potential future employees. Old City-based cloud hosting provider Linode’s work in contributing to a more diverse the tech jobs pipeline began with employees using volunteer time that was built into their PTO to give back. According to VP of Customer Support and Success Richard Myers, Linode employees supported Camden tech training nonprofit Hopeworks participants by hosting mock job interviews and assisting with code competitions. A more advanced version of that work came after some relevant internal changes to the company’s own hiring processes. “We started an internal training program and decided to teach skills” that Linode looked for in candidates, Myers said. “You had to have a computer background and we’d teach the rest. That led to an incredible, more diverse, dedicated support team that yielded unforeseen results.”
In August 2020, Linode’s in-house training team began devoting four to five hours a week to working with Hopeworks students — so far, five total. Linode employees found early on that they had to find a way to accommodate different learning styles and that a large portion of students were visual learners. For the first time, the Linode training team made videos to guide their lessons. Being able to directly work with a company like Linode was something that Hopeworks Executive Director Dan Rhoton considered a vital part of the process. Hopeworks trains Black and brown students who may have a history of trauma and works to ensure that they find a comfortable fit at the tech companies that hire them. “All too often, we have young people with the right skills, but it may not be the right environment for them as Black and brown people,” he said. “We trust Linode. For young people that are terrified to step in a space, that is critical.”
In the Hopeworks tech training center. (Courtesy photo)
Myers believes that companies should aim to reflect the full spectrum of tech jobs in their training, and not just ones that feature coding or more well-known skills. “We are severely narrowing people’s choices in saying you have to be a developer and that has to stop,” he said. “Of 250 people [working at Linode], a small portion of them are developers. Tech support is a real career in the tech world. We have accounting, marketing, backend and a million other things. I think that we need to expand what young people who want to be in tech focus on. We’re telling people development is the thing to do. But there are a million other things you can do in tech that’s not support.”
Myers believes that bootcamps often miss the mark by focusing so much on development that they miss out on teaching other important aspects of full-stack engineering, such as teaching participants how to show off their skills online. “If we can introduce those other concepts, we can create way more attractive and well-rounded candidates and add things on their resumes,” he said. Just as it is important for companies to maintain solid relationships with nonprofits working in the tech training space, building and maintaining solid relationships with corporate partners is an aspect of developing programs that Rhoton said nonprofits like his cannot avoid. “I can’t tell you how many times a person said they were trying to help an organization but no one called them back,” he said. “We in nonprofits are so focused on our mission that if we want help, we have to be helpable.”
Business action item: For companies, partnering with organizations that are actively training new tech talent is mutually beneficial and keeps companies competitive while providing opportunities to qualified individuals. And if they don’t call you back, show up at an event they’re hosting to make an in-person connection and start to build trust. Case study #2: Hire bootcamp grads. Zip Code Wilmington Executive Director Desa Burton believes that providing a gateway for Delaware residents into tech jobs can improve the community overall. Given how the pandemic has reduced the number of jobs in sectors such as hospitality , the tech training that coding bootcamp Zip Code provides has an added importance now. “When people get older, maybe you worked in hospitality, retail or had a career where you went to college, or your career is coming to a dead end,” she said. “Maybe you’re coming from a distressed industry. These people come through Zip Code Wilmington for a 12-week, full-time training as a full-stack developer.”
At the graduation of Zip Code Wilmington’s January 2020 Java cohort. (Courtesy photo)
Zip Code has worked with JPMorgan Chase to place its graduates at the second-largest private employer in Delaware throughout a pandemic that saw many companies endure hiring freezes. JPMC’s executive director of technology for social good, diversity and inclusion, Jen McDermott, is a proponent for the professional development of Zip Code’s graduates. “In their own vetting process, Zip Code focuses on determination, grit, interest, aptitude, coachability — all of those are important skills that we think about when hiring too,” she told Technical.ly in January. “So as part of their standard process of selection, they’re already aligning with us.”
Desa Burton. (LinkedIn)
Since Zip Code Wilmington was founded in 2015, diversity has been a top priority. Each of its cohorts to date has been 30% African American and Latinx and 50% women. Zip Code’s next cohort will be 32% African American and Latinx and 59% women, Burton said. The ED believes that students’ investment in a bootcamp and the chance to go from earning almost $15,000 a year to earning a starting salary of $70,000 in a tech role justifies the cost of participating in Zip Code Wilmington’s bootcamp, which is $6,000. Scholarships are available for students 200% below the poverty line, as well as living stipends donated by BlackRock. Laptops are also loaned to students who do not own them for the duration of the program. Burton said that Zip Code gives its participants an advantage by showing them what is trending at tech employers and factoring that into its trainings. “The first thing we did was go out to companies and ask, ‘What does it take to put this together, what are you looking for in employees? '” she said. By not focusing on training in a vacuum, Burton believes that ZipCode has created a bootcamp that is intuitive and speaks to prospective tech employers’ needs. Of Zip Code’s 465 graduates, Burton estimated that 75% stayed in the Wilmington area, including 200 Zip Coders who work at the JPMorgan campus. That number of technologists staying home to support an emerging tech ecosystem is important and can lead to an economic boost within the community. Business action item: An influx of tech talent can help support the infrastructure of a community if that talent is given the opportunity to succeed in the spaces that they live. By partnering with local entities, companies can employ the next generation of tech talent and strengthen communities with the people that know them best. And make it clear what roles and skills you’re hiring for, so bootcamps know what skills to train potential future employees in. Case study #3: Train tech workers yourself. For Callowhill-based GIS software company Azavea , training their own future employees has proven to be a viable way of attracting new talent, through both apprenticeships and fellowships. Azavea CEO Robert Cheetham said its apprenticeships are an option when the company hires for entry-level roles. Its software engineering ladder consists of Engineer I, II, III and Senior Engineer, and the apprenticeships are pathways to the Engineer I role. Its two formal fellowship programs for those earlier in their careers or still in school are on hiatus this year due to limited resources, but expected to return in 2022: one for geospatial data analysts, called Summer of Maps , and one for software engineers, our Open Source Fellowship . The fellowships are both aimed at offering “a real-world professional opportunity for students,” he said. Each of the programs span 12 weeks from June to August and are paid — an emerging trend for tech training programs that’s been noted as important for racial equity . The Summer of Maps fellowship ran from 2012 to 2020 and has hosted 24 technologists, while the Open Source Fellowship has run for approximately three years and has hosted six technologists. However, “these programs all rely heavily on mentoring capacity by other colleagues,” Cheetham said, “and while we pulled it off last summer, this year, we are short-staffed, and we are putting our energy into apprenticeships.”
Jenny Fung. (Photo via LinkedIn)
Technologist Jenny Fung started at the company as an apprentice where she trained to eventually become a full-stack software engineer. The B Corp’s size and personal care stood out to her when considering next steps for developing her tech career. “[Azavea] is a small company at about 50 people and is human-centered,” she said. “If you’re applying for a job at a big company, I don’t know if you can make those [same] relationships. I’ve noticed the value of throwing my resume into the ether doesn’t seem productive to me.”
According to Azavea People Operations Manager Brigid Woolery, nearly 500 applicants recently applied for what was initially one apprenticeship role. After seeing the large number of applicants, Azavea decided to bring on three apprentices instead of one. The company has hosted around eight apprentices total. Woolery said the apprenticeship programs are ways to help people with nontraditional tech experience like Fung, who previously worked in environmental studies, gain access to tech jobs. “Azavea sees a responsibility to help people break into this field when you can,” she said. “You can’t always hire an entry-level [technologist], but [at Azavea] you have the opportunity to help someone grow in a company.”
Former Azavea VP of Finance and Administration Karissa Justice noted to Technical.ly in December that apprenticeships can also help retain employees . “I really believe that the value of an apprenticeship is in part that retention,” she told Technical.ly in December. “You can retain people by investing in them much longer. We know the industry has a lot of attrition of people of marginalized backgrounds and a lot of people leave the industry at a higher rate than those entering it.”
Business action item: By providing apprenticeships, companies have an opportunity to show their commitment to professionals from nontraditional backgrounds and provide access to lucrative tech careers that were previously only available to people with certain academic or professional qualifications. Read about how Azavea  strategically built its own talent pipeline for ideas. Michael Butler is a 2020-2021 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.

Case studies: How can employers help underrepresented tech pros get hired via upskilling?

World Bank, a member of the World Bank Group, is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. The bank's mission is to fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results, and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity, and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors.

World Bank

DRIVER is the open-source platform created by Azavea in partnership with the World Bank to mitigate road crashes through data collection , management , and analysis .

By Stacy Henderson on January 15th, 2019.
Reducing Road Crashes with DRIVER - Azavea - Beyond Dots on a Map

Carto is a spatial analysis platform that enables users to leverage data to optimize their business for use cases, such as risk management, behavioral marketing, and data monetization.

Carto

Center for Security is a professional locksmith agency that provides security solutions services. It is based in Clifton Park, New York.

Center for Security

Department of Agriculture provides leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, and related issues based on sound public policy, the best available science, and efficent management.

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Esri's GIS (geographic information systems) mapping software helps you understand and visualize data to make decisions based on the best information and analysis.

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