Knowing the story behind empty storefronts ends the urban legend that all are due to the lousy economy. We found this to be true in our initial reporting on the Valencia St. Vacancies. Plotting the vacancies on four different commerical corridors and reporting on the reasons behind them will give us the data for a map. We've done this for Valencia St and some of Mission St. We want to do this for 24th, 16th and 18th Streets. We then want to take the next step and create an interactive tool where readers can suggest what should fill the vacant spots, what the neighborhood needs, what the neighborhood wants. The data from the initial reporting--cost per square foot etc--will test how realistic residents are being.
The basic reporting and configuring for the Valencia map took two weeks. Here is a link to the story and the map:
The conceptual and design work for the interactive map will take another three weeks. The reporting for Mission, 24th 16th and 18th Streets will take eight weeks. Once the conceptual work is done on the Valencia interactive and it is completed, it should only take another two weeks to do the same for the other commercial corridors.
More than anything, neighborhoods need intelligent development. These interactive maps will encourage this by taking advantage of resident expertise and knowledge.
