Text by Professor Juliana Maantay

Students in GEP 350 "Special Projects in GIS," were interested in mapping "quality-of-life" issues affecting residents of the Bronx. They looked at the distribution of vacant land, community gardens, noxious facilities, and public open space. These map analyses were assembled into a poster, which was presented at the American Museum of Natural History in June 1999 during a conference on using GIS in environmental work.

The part of the project depicted here pertains to the distribution of vacant land in the South Bronx, that is to say, Community Districts 1 through 6. These 6 Community Districts in the South Bronx currently contain over 3,000 vacant lots, most in public ownership (e.g., New York City owns them).

The students in GEP 350 mapped the locations of these vacant lots for the Bronx Borough President's Office of Planning and Development, using a database of the street addresses of the vacant lots and geocoding the lots in ArcView by street address. The vacant lots are zoned for industrial, commercial, or residential use. These maps show only those vacant lots zoned for residential use.

The Bronx Borough President's Office and any interested community-based groups may use the information in these maps and database for urban and environmental planning purposes. Such efforts may include finding suitable vacant land for sustainable community-led economic development, affordable housing, community gardens, recreation and open space linkages, and other environmentally-sound uses.

Without community-political pressure to use the vacant land in ways beneficial to the surrounding community, many of these vacant lots are scheduled to be auctioned off by the City to private developers. Traditionally, these projects have not tended to reflect the needs and wants of the residents of the surrounding communities.

GEP 350 Students, Spring 1999:
Juan Acosta
Gail Brandt
Dolores Holguin
Byron Jno-Baptiste
Annette Opler

Instructor:
Dr. Juliana Maantay