Development Risk Prediction for Vacant Lots

In recent years, the City of Philadelphia has been foreclosing on tax delinquent vacant properties in bulk. Many of these properties represent cherished community assets including public parks, urban gardens, and side yards. Often, neighbors who have tended to these properties for years never find out that they are up for sale until they have already been bought. A variety of grassroots and legal advocacy organizations have taken up the mantle to explore these options, and more, to ensure that vacant lots remain in the care of the neighbors and communities who have invested in them for years.

In collaboration with our client, Philadelphia Legal Assistance, we developed a story map to summarize this complex issue and a Data Dashboard where users can explore the conditions and predicted development risk of vacant lots in Philadelphia.

The story map and dashboard can be accessed here. A brief presentation for this project is available here.

This project was made in collaboration with Max Masuda-Farkas and Gillian Xuezhu Zhao.