Mapping construction permits over time

Stage

Maintaining

README

Mapping Construction Permits

Project Description

Mapping the change in construction permits over time to see if it indicates neighborhoods in change.

Help Needed

The data is now pretty old. I'd like to restart it. I've begun working with Ruby so I'm thinking about rewriting the project with Rails.

Project Activity
Log Buzz

Insane Surge in Philadelphia Gentrification

The project was referenced by PhillyMag on an article they did on gentrification in Philly.

Read the full article on www.phillymag.com… Published 17 Feb 2015

Update #8

I've been nominated by Philly's Pen and Pencil Club, as Civic Hacker of the Year for the construction permit heatmap. Voting is closed and the competition is steep, James and Kat pushed really impressive projects that called attention to real issues. But it was a nice surprise to get nominated.

http://technical.ly/philly/2014/11/26/civic-hacker-awards-pen-pencil/

Update #7

I found a forum post on an investors website using my map as a guide to real estate investing.

Mapping gentrification in Philly by tracking permits

Newsworks did a story with audio and put me on the radio talking about the heatmap.

Read the full article on www.newsworks.org… Published 21 Feb 2014

Morning Headlines: Which Neighborhoods Are Hot, and Which Are Not?

Code for Philly – a community of web developers and “hacker citizenry, dedicated to re-imagining City government through civic apps” —has a new map showing which Philadelphia neighborhoods have seen an increase and decrease in new projects between 2007 and 2013.

Read the full article on www.phillymag.com… Published 19 Feb 2014

Update #6

went live, got a write up:

http://technical.ly/philly/2014/02/18/gentrification-map/

Gentrifying Philly: This map shows neighborhoods undergoing change

Can new construction point to a neighborhood’s revitalization?

That’s what Jim Smiley, civic hacker and also Technical.ly’s contributing web editor, wondered as he made Gentrifying Philly, a map (with, you might say, a slightly loaded name) that shows which neighborhoods had the biggest jumps, as well as drops, in construction from 2012 or 2013.

Read the full article on technical.ly… Published 18 Feb 2014