Covering Housing Workshop at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
March 18, 2017
Presentation here
Before and after images
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Open up JuxtaposeJS, an easy-to-use tool built by Northwestern's Knight Lab. We'll be using two screenshots of maps created for the Urban Institute's Our Changing City: Housing project about Washington, D.C.
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Click "Make a slider now."
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In left image, paste in this url: http://www.storybench.org/nieman/ui2003.png
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In right image, paste in this url: http://www.storybench.org/nieman/ui2013.png
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Delete Apr. 2005 and Nov. 2013 labels.
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Click "Update preview."
Introduction to mapping
Using Google My Maps, we’ll quickly map some addresses and then plot "shapefiles" of public housing in New York City.
Mapping points
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Download point data of lead kit requests here.
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Import this CSV into Google My Maps.
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Style the lead kit request points by selecting "uniform" and then customize their icon and color.
What is this data?
(This is pulled from NYC 311 data found at opendata.cityofnewyork.us/.
311 service complaints data, by the way, is a huge list, with everything from rodent complaints to noise complaints to illegally parked cars.
So, we will filter it down here in the Filter tab by complaint type: lead, status: open, created date: after 2.1.2017. Then we'll download a CSV in the Export tab.)
Mapping buildings/shapes
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Download shapefiles of NYC public housing here.
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Import the KML file into Google My Maps.
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Style the public housing buildings by "borough."
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Set labels as “development.”
What is this data?
(This is pulled from Data.gov where we did a search for "nycha" "new york."
Click on KML below Map of NYCHA Developments. It will bring you to this page. Click Download in top right.
KML is essentially a list of shapefiles. Shapefiles are polygons – or, more specifically, a list of coordinates outlining a polygon. A triangle has three coordinates. A square has four. A state like Colorado will have fewer than Rhode Island.)
Mapping boroughs or neighborhoods
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Download shapefile of NYC boroughs here.
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Upload the KML of NYC boroughs to Google My Maps.
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Style by "BoroName."
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Download shapefile of NY neighborhoods here. Upload to Google My Maps.
What is this data?
The NYC boroughs KML file was converted from a shapefile zip I downloaded from NYC.gov here. I converted it using My Geodata Converter.
The NY neighborhoods shapefile was found on Zillow and converted using My Geodata Converter into KML.
