2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

158 Strengthening Communities with Neighborhood Data
they term “data-driven organizing” (Teixeira and Wallace 2013). The
staff at the University Center for Social and Urban Research (the NNIP
partner) was asked to help supply property maps and design a survey to
reliably document housing conditions. The survey, fielded by neighborhood
residents and university students, showed that the problems were
not evenly spread. The group focused on the 30 worst properties (which
became known as the “dirty thirty”) and mobilized other residents to
call the 311 citizen service line to advocate for action by the city on the
targeted set. The campaign proved effective. Within about a month, 23 of
the 30 had been demolished, boarded up, or improved. 8
Sophisticated Uses of Property Data
in the Foreclosure Crisis
The devastating neighborhood effects of the foreclosure crisis of the late
2000s motivated more advanced examples of the use of data in addressing
community issues. 9 These uses entailed assembling a broader array
of relevant data on properties than is available in many local government
information systems, and working collaboratively with a variety
of stakeholders.
In places with weaker housing markets, the foreclosure process can
result in long-term vacant housing, which then deteriorates due to
poor maintenance. Research has shown that as vacancies increase in a
neighborhood, so does the likelihood of crime and other social problems.
The problems spread. As signs of disinvestment become evident
in a few structures, property values erode, and more properties may be
abandoned or otherwise become vacant. These problems have seriously
negative impacts along a number of dimensions on the well-being of the
families, who are either directly affected or living nearby. 10
The foreclosure crisis came on quickly in 2007 and 2008, and most local
governments were ill-prepared to deal with it. Some research documented
the spatial patterns of foreclosure across cities and metropolitan areas, but
other efforts used data to address the problem within neighborhoods. At
the start, the priority at this level was mostly to gain some reliable understanding
of the extent of the problem in a neighborhood and its effects on
physical conditions overall. One example response, by the Southwest Organizing
Project in Chicago, Illinois, is reviewed in Chaskin’s essay.
A second example is a project in the Hickory Hill neighborhood of
Memphis, Tennessee, which was undertaken by NNIP’s Memphis part-