In New Orleans it's painfully obvious we cannot rely on the city government to communicate accurate information about the state of recovery--not only is the information easily politicized, the city is probably overwhelmed with the enormity of the rebuilding task (I'm being generous). Alan is right that community neighborhood groups are leading the redevelopment charge, both in organizing collective action but also in disseminating information so that individuals can make informed decisions. And as Rob Goodspeed points out, if it can work in New Orleans, it can work elsewhere.

Thanks to everyone involved in developing this project.

This is an excellent project idea. We lack a robust social mapping platform and the need in New Orleans sounds acute.

However, a social engine designed to store geographic data at the parcel level are needed in many communities for a variety of reasons. Many cities are struggling with vacant properties, and there is a woeful lack of tools to collect and share data. The National Vacant Properties Campaign has specifically called for a "flexible and user-friendly computer-based system" to track vacant building but the planning profession is stuck with expensive, difficult to use and proprietary GIS systems.

I even sketched the outline of an interactive Community Vacant Property Database.

We can't keep re-inventing the wheel in every city. Imagine the power of having a stable system an activist (or gosh, maybe even the government!) can set up, pre-populate with geocoded data, and set free as part of a larger revitalization effort to track demolitions, redevelopment, vacant parcels, etc. What better place to start than New Orleans.

Imagine a Google map that allows one to select a historical view of the topography, New Orleans before or after the storm. Imagine integrating past and present: being able to view current data on old Sanborn Maps. Transparency in this sense suggests a layering of information, free of any sort of pre-determined agenda of what we want to discover. It's about making information accessible and meangingful. Mapping working data (demolition lists or building permits) gives it life. Suddenly these abstract lists of addresses form patterns and relationships. We can go to the house, photograph it, blog it and sometimes actually save it. Usually not. But in the very least, it has been documented before it's history. The current push for demolition before the FEMA money runs out weighs heavy on the collective soul of New Orleans.

As we plan for the future, we ought to revisit the past. I'm thinking about Storyville and the Iberville Housing Projects. The "Big Four" are gone. What will rise up in their place? Can we see their old street grids amidst the live oaks? I'm thinking about having a better understanding of the history of all our neighborhoods, not just the 19th century ones.

The 20th century city of New Orleans suffered the most from the flooding. It had nothing to do with race or income. It's geography. Mapping is destiny and people all over the city are trying to map the madness away. User created content in Google Maps track housing demolitions, housing project locations, shootings in 2008, mid-century modern architecture, unopened schools, schools to be demolished, the Historic District Landmarks Commission agenda, the 2nd district night patrol, and of course New Orleans music.

Integrating these and other maps into a central space with historic and contemporary maps of the landscape could assist the recovery by increasing awareness of what we have, what is lost and for what we will fight to the end to preserve.

- Francine Stock 

Aloha

My english isn't so fluent I'd like. So I'll just post this : your project sounds as a useful one. Maybe either a justice one.

Keep on.

When the owner driven demolitions started in my neighborhood I was glad. Glad that the stench of death and the visual reminders of the tragedy that had befallen my city would soon be gone. It's two years later. Most of the rotting residential reminders are gone or are gutted. Most of the houses that are left are structurally sound. The open doors seem to beckon a new family. The walls inside (many which have been reduced to studs only) beg for new memories. There is no reason to tear down these houses that embody the spirit of such a culturally driven society - especially those whose owners are trying so hard to cut through the red tape of City Hall in order to obtain the proper permits to rebuild.

Thank you, Alan and Karen for devoting so much of your personal time and energy to this much needed cause.

If there's anything New Orleans needs now to keep the original Katrina nightmare from galloping onward, it's transparency and coordinated effort.  Both have generally been in frighteningly short supply. This project provides a quick, clear way for chronically overwhelmed Orleanians to make some sense of a continually morphing landscape, and it follows, to make some good, well-informed decisions in a timely manner.

I looked up my neighborhood and was impressed. I'd never seen up-to-date information all in one place before.

Brave and necessary - a project that may help our city and our people in ways we can't even yet imagine. It's a wonderful intersection of activism and technology that gives me a lot of hope. More transparency and the undivided attention of people like you all on these demolitions may stop the madness. Good luck to you!

Thank you for your work!!!

With the City insisting on speeding up demolitions while turning a willfully blind eye to the evidence of negligence, it's more important than ever to have comprehensive, comrehensible information available. 

I'm having a hard time trimming Kelly's comment. I feel awkward using it in this project description, so I don't want to take too many liberties with it. A technical introduction would not describe the absolute lack of transparency with which the recovery is being run. The question is, What Will Change in the World Because This Project Happens? The answer is best given with that passage. 

Demolitions are just one aspect of this lack of transparency, but a brilliant example. It is so awful that people are having their homes demolished while they wait on the city government.

As Andrew Turner and Homeless Dave suggested, I put  more details on implementation into the proposal, but in different sections.

This project is well underway. It's attracting so much attention now within New Orleans, I can barely find time to blog about it. But, I'm continuing to code. Currently, I'm creating a relational database to bring together the data sources, cross referencing them by a normalized address.

We're also now exploring the use of maps to illustrate the value of historic properties when tax credits for renovation are applied to them. This is, I hope, the antidote to demolition.

GIS seems to be taking over my life right now. Not only the online mapping, but the GIS coworking sessions made possible by Broadmoor / Bard College / Kennedy School. The initial coworking session looks set to start next Tuesday. This will only compliment the online mapping. A real world activity to compliment an online activity.

Alan Gutierrez | alan@blogometer.com | http://blogometer.com/ | 504 717 1428
Think New Orleans | http://thinknola.com/

I can't think of a more important place for this sort of monitoring to take place than New Orleans.  The pace and scope of demolition and rebuilding in the city is unprecidented and likely only comphrended with some form of automated mashup .  This project has the potential to make a real difference in the lives of many New Orleans' residents, but ultimately could affect the level of community around the issue, and even the identity of the city itself.  An additional important step is to empower citizens to participate in the monitoring and training them in what steps they can take if they need help.  Perhaps that can be addressed in a related section of the site and working with local nonprofits to facilitate some training workshops.

Good Luck with your project. A very exciting way to empower citizens of new orleans.

Most people are on their best behavior when they know they are being watched. Our elected (and otherwise) City Officials are no different. Of course we need to monitor them, for their own good as well as ours. Information about recovery activities is fragmented and compartmentalized. I learned long ago to mistrust information from the media. It is always biased to what the owners percieve will boost income. Typically, individual citizens have the most accurate and timely information, but no way to communicate it outside of their circle of friends. A mashup helps bring information from many sources together into a coherent picture. The best ones put the levers of social activitism at our fingertips.

Your efforts are appreciated.

Lets target properties that have begged for demolition for years pre Katrina; e.g. 3619 Camp Street - the old caretaker cottage for the "free school".

This is an excellent tool and would be of great use to anyone planning a significant investment in New Orleans. I think that it will also help expose any efforts by the city and/or state goverment to target certain areas without being totally transparent and admitting that they are targeting those areas.

If it were me, I would try to monetize this tool but Allen's motivations are different than mine.

Christopher Johnston - http://techchris.com

"Accidental demolition" is happening way too often to appear accidental.

Sounds like a great way to create transparency.

This is one of the most pressing issues facing rebuilding in New Orleans, not only because it threatens the historic architecture that forms the backdrop for our lives, but becuase it speaks to the need for transparency in decision-making and use of public funds.