What makes a neighborhood?

A geographic information system (GIS) lets us visualize, question, analyze, interpret, and understand data to reveal relationships, patterns, and trends, but you can gather your own information to work with:

Walk around your neighborhood or use the internet to figure out the answers.

What are the local specifics of your neighborhood, what are the unique characteristics of its inhabitants, their behaviors and daily routines?

• Pedestrian Accessibility
  Average block length
  Wheel chair accessibility
  
  
• Public Transit Accessibility
  number of locations of transit stops
  number of routes
  route frequency
  route type-bus, train, ferry
  
  
• Public spaces
  parks
  libraries
  museums
  benches/seating
  green spaces
  gardens
  Public art
  Public wifi
  
  
• Car and Bike Shares Car share and bike share locations
  topography
  road connectivity.
  bike lanes
  
  
• Public amenities
  garbage cans
  postboxes
  
  
• Amenities
  grocery stores
  bodegas
  cafes/coffee shops
  bars
  restaurants
  
  restaurants by cuisine
  restaurants by price
  restaurants by features-outdoor dining, kid friendly, late night dining, etc
  restaurants that deliver, fast food
  
  retail—specialty stores,bookstore,clothing stores,drug stores, kid-related stores (clothing, toys),office supply stores
  news stands
  UPS facilities
  post office
  FEDEX facilities
  
  
• Public and private
  schools
  hospitals
  Nursing homes
  churches—denominations
  synagogues
  mosques
  police stations
  fire stations
  doctors
  lawyers
  business offices
  commercial spaces
  residential spaces
  
  
• Economic health
  vacant commercial spaces
  vacant lots
  New construction
  Scaffolding
  factories
  abandoned buildings
  new construction
  condominiums
  single family homes
  cooperatives
  large rental buildings
  small rental buildings
  
  

What other properties or attributes does a neighborhood have?

• Residences by Year Built —When were buildings constructed. Is the neighborhood, new, old, from a particular time , evolved over time, etc
• Population density
• Population by age
• Household income levels
• Household Type by Children Presence
• Unmarried Partner Households
• Population by race
• Household Language Distribution
• Population Citzenships by Birthplace
• Birthplace for Foreign Born Population
• Civilian Employment Industry
• Means of Transportation to Work
• Population by gender
• Education Level
• Employment status
• Cost of living
• Owner vs. Renter Occupancy
• Rents of Renter Occupied Units
• Median Listing Price
• Median House Size
• Homes for Sale
• Recently Sold Homes
• Median $/Sqft
• Number of Schools— private, public, PreK, elementary, middle, high, etc
• Number of Rooms in Residences
• Crime statistics— property, violent
• Land area
• water area

Resources:
walkscore
movoto
http://www.zip-codes.com/zip-code/11201/zip-code-11201-2010-census.asp
neighborhoodlink
zipskinny-2000 census data

What would make your neighborhood better? healthier? more liveable?

Based on your findings, what are some of the specific issues/problems that you found?

In order to make changes you must think about the users.

• Who are you designing for?
• How would your ideas affect your user group/s? In what ways?
• What resources would you need to realize your ideas?
• If you are re-imagining a site, how would that change affect the vicinity and the neighborhood as a whole?

Sample Thesis:

Walkability improves the viability of a community.

Design Challenge

Create a proposal that re-imagines a real or imaginary vacant lot around the school so that you create an intervention that improves the daily life of one specific (potentially underserved) user group.

The final deliverables:

• Problem Statement
• Research (Neighborhood Stats, Facts + user insights)
• Identification of opportunities
• Local Design Principles
• Prototypes and critical evaluation
• Final Proposal
• Future local stories created by the proposals— Write a newspaper article about the neighborhood from a future perspective.

How to develop the final products:

• Conduct secondary research using the internet and other sources
• Use primary research to identify local user needs.
• Brainstorm and develop concepts.
• Make quick solution prototypes and iterate.
• Create a proposal.
• Write story and scenario narratives.

Activities:

• Examine an existing architectural proposal from the neigborhood / Process of Proposals in neighborhood
• Problem Identification, Identify a neighborhood propblem?
  Define and discuss the neighborhood, share personal stories, share news stories. What are some of it's specifics, area, pain-points, social issues, statistics.
• Find at least one article that deals with a problem in the selected neighborhood.
• Defining the Area
  Printing the Area (Caerus Geo)
• Quick 3D Printing Exercise