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2018 Westchester GIS User Group Meeting

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Westchester County GIS has been fortunate to build a broad and diverse community of GIS users and followers over the past two plus decades which is embodied at the our annual GIS User Group Meeting each May.  Similar to many first generation GIS government programs which were created in the late 1980s/early 1990s, most of the first decade worth of geospatial programs and applications Westchester County GIS developed were government focused.  But as geospatial technology grew at warp speed in industry and business and combining the development and availability of a high accuracy countywide Westchester County digital base map,  the visibility of the program quickly expanded.  Interest from public safety, nonprofit, academic and civic groups soon followed.   And not to minimize the importance of the continued political support the program has maintained over the past two decades at both the county and municipal level.   Illustrative of this year’s May 17th meeting held at Purchase College, nearly 170 representatives from  government, industry and business, utilities, academia, nonprofits,  community groups, and the military convened for the sharing of presentations, geospatial solutions, and best practices to move the countywide and regional geospatial agenda forward.

2018 Agenda

In years past there had always been an effort to keep the presentations and agenda diverse – a little bit of everything.   While this has generally served us well over the years, this was the first year we had a specific theme:  GIS for Resiliency and Sustainability.   This was in response to recent work our GIS program had completed in context of investigating potential impacts of projected sea level rise on county-owned assets as well as administrative changes in the Westchester County Executive  office as a result of the November 2017 elections.  In the process of bringing these two issues together and including the Office of Sustainability at Purchase College, we were able to add Westchester County Executive George Latimer and Purchase College President Thomas Schwarz to our agenda.  Both mentioned and acknowledged the importance and relevance of technology and geospatial in supporting the regional sustainability agenda.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer talking with 2018 User Group meeting attendees. He made reference to the use of geospatial technologies in confronting Climate Change issues.

2018 Speakers

Working with the theme of GIS for Resiliency and Sustainability, we were able to include two well recognized state government speakers in Mark Lowery, Climate Change Analyst with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and Amanda Stevens, Project Manager with New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Environmental Research Program.  With the County’s work in this space increasingly including nonprofit groups, representatives from both  Abundant Efficiency and the Westchester Community Foundation were also on the agenda.  In the mix were talks by SUEZ North American (water utility) and BetaNYC – an open data advocacy organization based in New York Ctiy.   Additionally, we continued to feature our ongoing relationship with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point with a noon presentation by Lieutenant Colonel Jared Ware.  Our afternoon session of Lightning Talks and panel discussion featured Sustainable Westchester and representatives from five local governments.

In the morning session, Amanda Stevens provides an overview on NYSERDA’s work and research efforts in the area of climate change – which includes programs in the Lower Hudson River region

Bringing it Together

Admittedly there is always a little luck in hosting conferences such as this and it only takes a day of bad weather for attendance to bottom out (been there).  Of course, nothing beats an agenda based on current and cutting-edge geospatial topics backed with recognized speakers, but there are a couple other factors worth noting that seem to help make all of this work for us, including the following:

All Things Local:    For all the benefits and advantages of the larger shows, localizing the day’s content and message for local/regional like-minded individuals goes a long way.  Geospatial business needs and problems – and often the solutions – are conceptually very similar.  Familiar faces with familiar issues.  The organic approach.

Affordability:   Offering such events at a discount, like free as in our model, makes the event more attractive to more people.   However,  if its free, it is easy to not show.  Nothing paid nothing lost. And we have the historical numbers to show as such.  Over the past six-seven years we’ve seen a 25%-30% no show rate from the actual number of pre-conference registration numbers.    That said, we’ve learned to factor this variable in the printing of conference materials and sizing break refreshments and lunch.  We’ve also learned over the years that other groups and professional societies we’ve tried to partner with in hosting the show may be hesitant to collaborate because they (other organizations) do not want to send a message to their memberships that meetings, and certainly ones that offer Professional Development Units (PDU), are available for free. The bottom line for us is that we continue to make the show free based on vendor fees and affordable food services from the venue location.  And besides, there is no capacity to collect money online and/or to deal with bank accounts.  What little money management needs we have are handled graciously through the college.  Getting pass the bouncer at the door for free works for us.

Vendor Interaction:  I can’t say enough about how important this is.  We put a lot effort into making sure our sponsors have ample time for interaction with the attendees. Information gathered by attendees in the exhibitor area only adds to the overall value of their day.  Food and refreshments are close by so everything (and everybody) is in reaching distance of the vendors.  We also have vendor “Vendor Bingo Card” game that encourages attendees to visit each vendor table to qualify for a prize drawing.  Pretty nice incentive as this year the prize was a vendor donated iPad.   All sponsoring vendors are entitled to 5-minute “Vendor Spotlight” presentation over the course of the day.  Without vendor support the day doesn’t happen so we make it worth their while.


Everything is nearby at the Westchester GIS User Group Meeting. Vendors, refreshments, and the main auditorium are all intertwined and close. Making the experience interactive and personal on many levels. It’s a win-win for everyone in attendance. Who are those folks in pink?

The Venue:   For the past seven years, Purchase College has graciously made their facilities available to us to host the show.  Prior to that we bounced around the County at other locations, but given our relationship with the faculty in the Environmental Studies Program this became a logical spot. Centrally located in mid-Westchester.  Easy access.

A naturally lighted vendor area, albeit small, adds to the personal “feel” of the show.  One of the main reasons we originally went to Purchase during the third week in May was that the Student Union cafeteria was still open we could make lunch “on your own”.  Avoiding all the overhead and cost of providing lunch.  We’ve since been able to work with campus caterers to provide us with an affordable lunch menu which is vendor sponsored.   This “grab lunch and go” format enables users to eat where and how they want –  attending special lunch time presentations, continued discussions with vendors, or simply going outside to eat on the campus plaza.  The entire agenda is plenary format held in a cathedral style 150-seat auditorium.    We once tried a concurrent sessions format but it just didn’t work and feel right so we went back to the basics.  Post-meeting training sessions have proven to be hit or miss.  Just seems that just come 3PM after a long day of presentations, networking, and interacting with vendors, most folks are running to the exits.  Or the no-host reception down the street.

One of the ironies – and downsides – of having the show on a college campus in mid-to-late May is that spring semester is already over and students have fled campus, though  there is normally a handful attending looking for summer or full-time work and passing out resumes.    But we clearly do not have the college student attendance that is seen at comparable conferences such as GIS-SIG.

Engage the Professions:  We make a significant outreach to the “aligned” professions including engineering, public works, surveying, police and fire departments, government administrators, the planning community and increasingly nonprofits.  I wish there was an easier entry point into the 41 school districts here in Westchester County – and particularly their uber large budget bus transportation systems – but we’ve never been able to find it.     We  focus our efforts to reach the professions with individuals and technical staff that use geospatial technology.  Day-to-day work flows that has geospatial intertwined –  but is not the only focus of their business day.  Truth be told, there simply aren’t a lot of individuals locally who only do GIS work during the course of their business day.  The carrot that we offer across the board – and the common denominator – is the geospatial content we publish from our program via our data warehouse or map services.

Summary

Declining government budgets and  travel restrictions positions the Annual Westchester GIS User Group meeting as the primarily, if not only, major GIS event many of our government attendees get to each year.   It enables us to craft a geospatial message in context of local needs and applications as illustrated in this year’s theme “GIS for Resiliency and Sustainability”.  And keeping in mind the importance of their support, the event provides a great framework for industry and business to showcase their product and services.  And none of it possible without the support of the great folks at Purchase College.

Cognizant of the many differences and capabilities within the regional GIS communities,  it is often difficult to host such events on a reoccurring basis.  Perhaps some of the elements of our event can be used in helping build capacity for creating similar events for other regional GIS user communities across the Empire State.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geospatial Public Health Research in the Empire State

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It was at the 2015 NYS GeoCon Conference in Albany that I saw only a portion of Dr. Tabassum Insaf’s presentation entitled “Lessons Learned in Small Area Spatial Analyses of Health Outcomes” which started an interest in the state of applied GIS/geospatial activity in medicine and health care across the Empire State.  Having yet to approach the topic as part of eSpatiallyNewYork and finding an almost complete absence of health sciences content at the exact same state GIS conference this past fall in Lake Placid, I decided to circle back to Dr. Insaf to see if I could begin to scratch the surface on the use of geospatial in the NYS  health sciences research communities.

The Albany Connection

After initiating my correspondence with Dr. Insaf, the use of geospatial technologies in academic health care research across the Empire State became apparent..  Given the presence of NYS Dept. of Health in Albany, research in this space at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health is an obvious location.  Further review of the subject matter identified similar research programs at other academic institutions including Columbia University, New York University, and CUNY.

Like several other New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Research Scientists, Dr. Insaf holds an appointment at the School of Public Health.  At NYSDOH, Dr. Insaf is the Acting Research Director at the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology.  Her research interests are in understanding the role of environmental, social and behavioral factors in health disparities. Her work encompasses longitudinal and multilevel data analysis, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and spatial epidemiologic methods.

With regard to the shortage of health sciences presentations at New York State GIS conferences, Dr. Insaf suggests the issue may be threefold:  (1) While the use of geospatial technology is common in their work, results in this space are often not presented or used as maps or other visual aids. (2)  Health data is often confidential and locations cannot  be published, and  (3) there may be more due to a lack of awareness in the health community that there may be interest and audience for this type of work in the GIS community.

Illustrative research efforts of Dr. Insaf include:

Social Determinants of Health for Low Birth Weight (LBW)

This research utilizes a variety of NYS public health records with the intent of better understanding and identifying potential social determinants of low birth rates focusing on data from selected census tracts in the metropolitan areas of Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and Westchester/Long Island.   Applying geoprocessing tools and analysis, research findings suggest that census tract-area proportions of LBW was highest in areas with larger Hispanic or Black populations and high smoking preferences.  Spatial Regression analysis was used to  predict prevalence of LBW based on these major social determinants to identify areas of high risk of LBW.

Predicted rates (%) for low birth weight prevalence based on a spatial error model that incorporates social determinants as race/ethnicity, prenatal care, smoking prevalence and maternal education.

It’s worth noting that her work in this space included collaborating work with Tom Talbot, now retired, who was an early champion of GIS technology in NYSDOH.

Health Impacts from Increased Temperatures Due to Climate Change

More recently Dr. Insaf has been working with several state agencies (bringing together New York State Department of Health, Florida Department of Health and New York City Department of Health) to develop indicators of localized climate trends, review and develop public health relevant heat warning messaging and develop local assessments of vulnerability to extreme heat for specific communities using remote sensing data from NASA satellites.

The team has worked with multiple stakeholders and collaborators including the CDC Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, State Climatologists, National Weather Service offices, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Office of Emergency Preparedness and local county health departments to develop climate information relevant to their mandates and jurisdictions.  Researchers  spatially linked satellite derived modeled data for air temperatures and heat index at a 12KM resolution with geocoded health outcome datasets (Hospitalization and Emergency Department visits for heat stress, renal disease and cardiovascular disease).  The team then estimates the risk of adverse health outcome for each 5-degree change in temperature and have also developed heat health profiles combining heat, health and vulnerability indicators for each county. The county profiles will be available soon as downloadable pdfs at the NYS Department of Health Climate, Weather and Health website.

The initial assessment of Climate in NYS that was the springboard for this more recent work is published here.  In an analysis of the U.S. Historical and Climatology network dataset for the 60 year period of 1948-2008 it was found that the most representative extreme weather indicators in NYS for warm weather are growing season length and warm nights. The most representative indicators during cold weather are a decline in cool days and ice days.  Most other temperature indicators are also consistent with the warming trend.    The precipitation indicators in the study report all point towards increasingly wet conditions over time.  The most representative indicators were total precipitation and the simple daily index.  Data also suggests the Great Lakes, Northern Plateau, Champlain Valley and Coastal New York regions may be particularly sensitive to changes in extreme climate events.

The map shows the predicted rates (in %) for low birth weight prevalence based on a spatial error model that incorporates such social determinants as race/ethnicity, prenatal care, smoking prevalence and maternal education.

Her team is currently using a spatially contiguous satellite derived dataset to build upon this work and to estimate health risks of heat exposures in rural and urban areas of New York. She is working with the National Weather Service offices to inform guidance on heat warning issuance in the area based on local thresholds.  The ongoing work is sponsored through a NASA ROSES (Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences) grant. A great poster presentation on this work can be found here.

Estimating Health Care Access Times

Dr. Insaf has been focusing research on data from a newly established congenital heart defects (CHD) surveillance program funded by the Center for Disease Control (CDC).  Analysis uses geocoded data from surveillance datasets to determine patient access times to Cardiac Surgical Care facilities using the Google driving distance/time Application Programming Interface (API).  These driving time estimates are then compared against travel times from the same address using public transit (where available in more urbanized areas).   It is widely accepted that differences in travel distance to appropriate care among individuals with birth defects can have a significant impact on healthcare utilization, and it has been suggested that geographic barriers may play a role in cessation of care among those with CHDs.

Calculated drive times in minutes for congenital heart defects patients to Cardiac Surgical Care facilities in Westchester County and the Bronx.

Other Representative Statewide Efforts

Dr. Glen Johnson, Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental, Occupational and Geospatial Health Sciences at the City University of New York School of Public Health, focuses geospatial aspects of health, with particular application to environmental and community-level social determinants of health outcomes. Research in the Bronx  includes examining the relationship between walkable access to healthy food sources (HFS) and the risk of anemia in pregnancy.   After geocoding patient residences, street network distances were obtained for the closest healthy food sources, which were identified from multiple databases.  For lower-income patients, as indicated by Medicaid or lack of health insurance, those who lived less than 0.25 miles from a healthy food source were less likely to be anemic when compared to those who lived farther away.  Patients with commercial insurance showed no effect.  These results continue to help to understand how a nutritionally-mediated condition such as anemia during pregnancy can be affected by one’s built environment, while also highlighting the importance of conditioning on socioeconomic status for these types of studies.

The primary variable of concern in the Bronx study: The street network walking distance to a Healthy Food Source (HFS) for a pregnant woman.

Most recently he has been working with the Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CUCE) who implement multiple programs aimed at improving overall population health in communities throughout NYC.  Examples range from community-based educational programs in nutrition and parenting to 4-H STEM programs for children.  Keeping track of the “where, when and who” of many ongoing programs in the largest city in North America is challenging. Online GIS mapping has provided a partial solution to this management challenge.  The poster below was presented at the New York State Health Foundation conference last December.

Johnson’s work also appears as  “A Community Needs Index for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program Planning: Application of Spatial Generalized Linear Mixed Models” in . Maternal and Child Health Journal.  He is a former biostatistician for the New York State Department of Health and a faculty member of the University at Albany School of Public Health.

Also at  CUNY  Dept. of Environmental, Occupational, and Geospatial Health Sciences is Dr.Andrew Maroko, Associate Professor. Past research involves the use of geospatial tools focusing on the health outcomes of (unhealthful) food-and-beverage advertising in subway stations  This research focused on the correlations between ad exposures and sugary-drink consumption, fruit-and-vegetable intake, and diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol rates. Subway-station ads for “less-healthful” items were located disproportionately in areas home to vulnerable populations facing diet and diet-related-health challenges. The fact that uneven ad placement did not relate to total rider counts suggests ads were not directed at the largest possible audiences but rather targeted to specific groups.

Ad placement did not relate to the number of riders entering at stations. Instead, exposure to food-or-beverage ads generally, and to “less-healthful” ads particularly (specifically ads in Spanish, directed at youth, and/or featuring minorities), was directly correlated with poverty, lower high-school graduation rates, higher percentages of Hispanics, and/or higher percentages of children in surrounding residential areas.

Other Maroko NYS geospatial-based research work includes “Integrating Social Determinants of Health With Treatment and Prevention: A New Tool to Assess Local Area Deprivation” and “Direct observation of neighborhood stressors and environmental justice in the South Bronx, New York City”.

Dr. Jessica Athens at New York University School of Medicine, Department of Public Health, is part of the Health Geographics Research Initiative (Health GIS).   One of her primary focuses at the present is City Health Dashboard presents data on health outcomes and the upstream determinants of health for 500 Cities across the U.S.  Her team produced a pilot version with four cities which can viewed at www.cityhealthdashboard.com. Starting on May 15, the site will include data for 500 cities will be available at the same URL.

Dr. Athen’s other work includes the NYC Health Atlas which is sponsored by the New York Community Trust. The application provides direct service providers and public health researchers easy access to data needed for program planning, funding requests, and evaluation.

Also in the region at Columbia University, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Drs. Christina Hoven, George Musa and Lupo Geronazzo-Alman are working on several projects using geospatial analyses to understand the effects of neighborhood quality, safety and socioeconomic status on psychopathology.

Summary

The combination of  world renown medical research facilities and the growing use geospatial technologies at  these organizations is an evolving environment the New York State GIS community should take advantage of and nurture.   As we find ourselves amidst major public health challenges impacting our communities from issues such as the growing influence of Climate Change, the spread of infectious diseases, and the ubiquitous opiod crisis among others, the use of geospatial tools in collaboration with the health care research community will bode well for increasing the visibility of the profession across the Empire State.

 

BetaNYC:  Championing the Open Data Cause

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Background

In 2008, friends, hackers, open data/open government enthusiasts, and other professional acquaintances began to gather and discuss the state of open governance in New York City and created the NYC Open Government Meetup by Hailey Austin Cooperrider.   In 2009, this group was relaunched as the Open NY Forum under the leadership of Philip Ashlock, Cooperrider, and Noel Hidalgo.  Over the next 3-4 years, the group met periodically to discuss and push for an Open Data agenda in the city.

The movement and discussion on open data in the metropolitan region was augmented by ongoing work of Council Member Gale A. Brewer who at the time was Chair of NYC Council Committee on Technology in Government and was campaigning for an Open Data  statue for the City of New York. In June 2009 she hosted a public hearing on open data standards legislation.   Another public hearing was held in June 2010. The law has finally passed, and was signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg on March 7 2012. In 2013 and after New York State Governor Cuomo launched Open NY, the state’s Open Government initiative, the group renamed to BetaNYC.

In 2013 the BetaNYC community embarked on a five borough tour and authored The People Roadmap to a Digital New York City – and agenda setting publication identifying community values and 34 ideas for successive administrations and Council to work on. Since this this time, BetaNYC and the civic tech community have seen several policy and legislative victories — better Freedom of Information tools, NY City Record Law, expanded Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA), and the expansion of civic innovation challenges.

During the same time period, the City of New York partnered with Code for America to enlist a team of fellows to build technology to address criminal justice issues as well as initiating a search to hire a local community organizer.  Noel Hidalgo was hired to fill this position and bringing a broad understanding and connections with the open data/open government community across New York City as part of his involvement with betaNYC. It was at this time BetaNYC became Code for America’s official NYC brigade.

In 2015, BetaNYC became a “Partner Project” of the Fund for the City of New York (FCNY) continuing its mission to “improving lives in New York through civic design, technology, and data.”  A purpose which clearly augments the New York City Open Data program, though with a uniquely different and more clearly refined focus on community groups and city residents.  As FCNY had been one of the organizations supporting the City’s first data datalog,  being a Partner Project had enabled the city’s efforts towards open government and open data to come full circle.

With FCNY as fiscal sponsor and Noel being selected as a fellow at Data & Society, BetaNYC began work with the Civic Innovation Fellowship program out of the Manhattan Borough President’s Office. BetaNYC and the FCNY have continued the partner project relationship. As of April 2017, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has provided the funding for the Civic Innovation Fellowship program, and the FCNY continues to manage those funds.

BetaNYC Today

BetaNYC supports a broad range of programs focusing on geospatial-focused efforts in the city’s civic technology arena, open data, and community neighborhoods.  Of particular focus in their outreach and mission are the city’s community boards which are the appointed advisory groups of the community districts of the five boroughs. There are currently 59 community districts: twelve in Manhattan, twelve in the Bronx, eighteen in Brooklyn, fourteen in Queens, and threehttps://communityprofiles.planning.nyc.gov/ in Staten Island.

Manhattan’s 59 Community Districts covering the five boroughs

Data

At the core of BetaNYC’s offerings is its data portal which currently includes 130 datasets (BetaNYC sponsors 27) from 22 different organizations.  The interactive portal offers developers and individual users access to a wide range of data formats.  Illustrative of their work in advocating open data and access, BetaNYC sponsored its third NYC School of Data conference on March 3, 2018.  This community-driven conference included conversations, panels and workshops intended to empower community members to improve neighborhoods across the city.  The conference is framed to celebrate NYC’s transformative open data law and International Open Data Day, while kicking off NYC’s second annual open data week. Conference attendees are encourged to participate in #hackhall — a daylong open space for open source civic & government technology projects. In the #hackhall, attendees collaborate, connect to new libraries/projects, and improve open source projects.

BetaNYC’s data catalog is leveraged to support the development of apps, websites and visualizations.  Selected datasets are featured in media articles, news reports and blog posts across the region and are highlighted in the Showcases collection on their website.

Programs and Activities

Community Boards

As the result of a three year partnership with the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, BetaNYC designed tools and customized trainings specifically intended to help Community Boards access, analyze, map and use data to inform decision-making. The workshop introduces the easy-to-use BoardStat tool to query NYC 311 – service requests and explore trends in health, safety and quality of life concerns.  BoardStat is designed for community. Not only does BoardStat empower a community board staff and its members to gain timely insights, it is furthering the Manhattan Borough President’s long-standing goal of making government transparent and responsive, reactive, and moving beyond open data access to meaningful use.  BetaNYC’s most recent event in this space was March 5th.  Examples of documents and materials used as part of this BetaNYC training session are available in this Google Drive shared folder.

Attendees at BetaNYC’s School of Data March 5th focusing on NYC Community Boards

#BetaTALK – Affordable Housing: Data, Policy, People

In July 2016 BetaNYC hosted a lunchtime discussion at Civic Hall centering on the topic of affordable housing in New York City.  The event was to share knowledge about this extremely important and complex topic focusing on a wide range of housing-related topics (and data) including, but not limited to, rent-stabilization, New York City Housing Authority and Section 8 voucher statistics, proposed building plans and Landmark Laws, and NYC government datasets such as Pluto, ACRIS, Department of Buildings, and the Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development as well as the American Community Survey among others.   Other BetaTalks are available for viewing on YouTube.

BetaNYC is committed to continue the conversation and help the Civic tech community grow ideas, analyses, and projects on this topic by building more accountability, clearer, and up-to-date information on rents across the City at a highly localized level, since differences can be stark between blocks, buildings, professional even within buildings.

Testimony & Advocacy

On behalf of BetaNYC, Executive Director Noel Hidalgo frequently provides expert testimony to the New York City administration and legislature on a wide range of open data/open source, new technologies, and government transparency issues.  BetaNYC has been instrumental in Over the past 18 months, illustrative efforts in this context include presentations on the Automated Decision Systems Local Law 49, testimony on both the Open Data Examination and Verification Report, and Intro 1696-2017 (Open Algorithms Bill).  

Data Jams

Data Jams are occasional BetaNYC “hands-on” events focusing accessing and interpreting  specific NYC government program datasets. Recent Data Jams have centered on program data from NYC311, NYC Dept. of Planning, and NYC Parks.  

NYC School of Data

Held in conjunction with NYC Open Data Week (March 3-10, 2018), BetaNYC’s School of Data is a community conference showcasing NYC’s civic design, civic/government technology, and open data ecosystem. It seeks to build a framework of relationships that can demystify data and technology, foster democracy, build cross-borough relationships, and mentor a new generation of civic leaders. 2018 topics focused on four key areas: digital literacy & privacy, smart & wise cities, effective & open government, and lastly, civic

Summary

BetaNYC continues to champion the open data and government transparency intersection in New York City.  Best illustrating how grassroots efforts can have significant and game changing impacts on public policy in the new technologies realm.  For the taxpayers and by the taxpayers.

Their broad catalog of programs and activities offers many opportunities for involvement much of which is centered around their long-standing and highly visible BetaNYC Meetup platform. And by extension, collaboration with several other Meetups (GeoNYC, New York Tech, Civic Hall) Code for America, Coalition for Queens, Dev Bootcamp, OpenPlans, Silicon Harlem, NYC Digital, NYC Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics, NYC Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation, NYC’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, and NYC 311 has broadened its footprint as well.  While this critical mass of geospatial infrastructure, to say the least of visible and strategic political support, has contributed to the development of BetaNYC’s success and unique position on the Manhattan geospatial landscape, it can serve as a model to other metropolitan areas across the Empire State in establishing frameworks for similar open data and civic technology causes.

We are pleased to have BetaNYC on our agenda for this year’s Westchester GIS User Group Meeting May 17th at Purchase College.  We anticipate considerable discussion and attendee involvement focusing on open data and government transparency as part of our  “GIS for “Resiliency and Sustainability” theme.  The BetaNYC community is encouraged to attend.

For more information, BetaNYC contact Noel Hidalgo and Emily Goldman or visit the betaNYC website.

10 Questions: Steve Romalewski

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Steven Romalewski is currently director of the Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research at The Graduate Center / CUNY.  During his 32-year career he has helped hundreds of nonprofit groups across the country leverage the power of GIS; helped develop more than two-dozen online mapping services analyzing environmental issues, social services, transit routing, demographic trends, voting behavior, and legislative representation.  He has also coordinated the work of community groups and others across New York to advocate for sensible environmental policies at the local, state, and federal levels.  For the past 10 years, he has taught students at Pratt Institute how to use GIS in their urban planning careers, and helped educate many others through presentations about the value of GIS.  He lives in Manhattan.

eSpatiallynewyork:  How did you end up in your current position at Center for Urban Research?  

Romalewski:  Before joining CUNY I ran the Community Mapping Assistance Project (CMAP) at NYPIRG for about eight years, providing mapping services to nonprofit organizations across the country.  (Before that I was an environmental researcher and advocate at NYPIRG.)  By 2004 or so, CMAP’s work had started to outgrow our advocacy-oriented parent organization. Internally we discussed options of spinning off CMAP as a social business venture, merging it with another organization, or launching it as its own nonprofit.

At the same time we were going through a strategic planning effort for the OASIS project, and one of the key findings was that OASIS would benefit from an institutional setting such as academia where the OASIS website would be able to leverage more stable technology resources and organizational support.

One of the academic programs we talked with was the Center for Urban Research (CUR) at the CUNY Graduate Center.  I had worked on projects over the years with CUR’s director John Mollenkopf, and he was a big fan of our work. It seemed like a great fit, and in January 2006  I moved to CUNY.

eSpatiallynewyork:  How do CUR projects come to be or developed?

Romalewski:  We’re fortunate to have a good amount of leeway in deciding on projects.  Generally CUR engages in applied research projects in the areas of neighborhood change, immigration, and urban development broadly speaking. Within those areas, we look for mapping projects where we can have an impact, where we can leverage CUR’s mapping skills and expertise in analyzing urban trends, and that come with funding support so we can cover staff time and related expenses.

We’re especially interested in working with our colleagues throughout CUNY, as well as within city government (since CUNY has a close relationship with New York City agencies), but we also take on projects with a wide array of partners.

If the project involves an online mapping component we try to structure it so we can incorporate the latest and greatest interactive web and mapping techniques and technologies. Continue reading →

SAVI Builds a Metro NYC Presence

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The last couple years I’ve been watching the growth of GeoNYC Meetup group and continue to be amazed at the far-reaching representation of individuals and companies now involved in the broad field we call “geospatial”.  One person shops, start-ups, open source/open data techies, apartment and loft based companies, strong business and private sector representation, community based mappers, and everything in-between.  A much different composition and representation than that of the other existing statewide geospatial/GIS communities and organizations that I and other colleagues of my GIS generation came through.   To date I have published three previous blog posts focusing on other contacts made through GeoNYC:  Mapzen, Mapillary and NiJel.

Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative (SAVI)

Also establishing a niche in the expanding geospatial space are community facing programs associated with and supported in academia environments.  One such program, which I was also introduced to through GeoNYC, is the  Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative (SAVI).  It was launched in 2013 and is at Pratt Institute.  SAVI is a GIS-based research lab and service center that focuses on mapping, data analysis, and visual storytelling, providing students, faculty, and community groups with the resources they need to communicate information in compelling ways. The first and only New York City college-based GIS lab open to community organizations and civic groups, SAVI offers computer access, technical assistance, professional training, workshops, and research that empower local organizations to create their own visions to improve the quality of life for their clients and constituents. At Pratt, SAVI supports students and faculty whose work reaches beyond the Institute’s campus to engage and benefit New York City.

Leading the SAVI program is Jessie Braden, who was appointed Director in the Fall of 2013.  Prior to SAVI, Braden spent three years at the Pratt Center for Community Development, a non-profit affiliated with Pratt Institute that provides technical services to community organizations.  She has also been an adjunct professor of GIS in Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Program since 2010.  Braden initially started SAVI with Pratt Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development (PSPD) Professor Juan Camilo Osorio as a volunteer side project in 2011 with the guidance of then Department Chair John Shapiro.  In addition to PSPD, Pratt Center and the Graduate Communications Design Department offered their official support, allowing the lab to come to fruition and solidifying SAVI’s focus on communities AND design.  Pratt Center also secured a $670,000 grant from NYC City Council to renovate a physical space on Pratt’s campus so SAVI can serve community organizations and students.  During the time the program was being institutionalized at Pratt, Osorio took a full-time position as Director of Research at the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. Though not involved in day to day operations, Osorio remains a trusted advisor to SAVI.

SAVI consolidates the Institute’s GIS resources with an eye to social benefit. This means putting data analysis in the hands of community activists, students, and faculty. It also means making the products of GIS expertise visually legible and compelling so that the stories they tell will have as much impact as possible.

“At the end of the day, visual representation is as important as the quality of data analysis,” Braden observes. “Our vision for SAVI is to produce outstanding multidisciplinary projects  with the highest-caliber visual display— making the invisible visible, both inside and outside Pratt’s gates.”  Its Jessie’s belief, which I share,  that a well designed map should be able to stand on its own.  Such a product enables the reader to conduct the “spatial analysis” based on the distribution and rendering of the map data itself – with only minimal accompanying narrative to explain or describe the map.

Braden points to specific mapping projects which exemplify the SAVI cause:
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NiJeL Expands its New York State Presence

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Established by Nancy S. Jones, JD Godchaux, and Lela Prashad in 2007, NiJeL is a company founded on the goal of helping organizations and communities building interactive dashboards, infographics and maps, building strong advocacy tools, and to connect with their communities and sponsors.  Ms. Prashad (CEO) currently leads NiJeL, while Mr. Godchaux (CTO) serves as the primary interactive developer, and Ms. Jones provides management oversight and strategic direction.  NiJeL began after the three had volunteered as American Friends for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Phoenix, Arizona while attending Arizona State University as graduate students.

After the successful launch of one of their early online mapping applications in support of Duet – a metro-Phoenix nonprofit dedicated to supporting and improving the quality of life for senior citizens – NiJeL relocated main staff in 2011 to Brooklyn, and since then have been engaged in a number of Empire State oriented geospatial projects.

NiJeL uses standard statistical, mapping, and database software, and develop custom open applications for websites, mobile devices, and desktop computing.  “What makes us different from other groups like us in this space is our custom process to assess current data, metrics, and technology workflows with regards to the organization’s culture and specific goals” notes JD Godchaux .   NiJeL works with  a wide variety of organizations and their focus on using open-source components allows the firm to be flexible in how projects are approached and ultimately designed.  Their commitment to open-source tools allows to provide training for technical staff to manage and make changes to the technology solution they deliver to the client.  Illustrative projects include: Continue reading →

Rochester GIS Scholars

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GIS Scholars is a Rochester community-based youth program, serving ages 14-21, which started in 2012 at a small neighborhood agency.  Its origin can be traced back to as early as 1988,  when under the support of Joseph Becker,  who at the time was  employed with  the City of Rochester Bureau of Planning,  started a program which provided local youth the opportunity to learn and work with GIS technology by establishing training and employment opportunities.

Since 2014, the GIS Scholars program has collaborated with the Rochester City School District’s Schools Without Walls (SWW) to begin to integrate geospatial learning into overall educational offerings.   In addition to providing office and administrative support, SWW continues to occupy an important role in the Scholars initiative towards helping identify students as potential candidates for the GIS program.  While the relationship with SWW continues, Monroe Community College (MCC) has more recently become a major sponsor of the Scholars program by donating office, administrative, and computing space at their downtown Rochester Damon City Center facility. Additional volunteers, financial donations, as well equipment and software donations from companies such as ESRI, continue to support the underlying purpose of the program.  One Scholar has already completed the Digital World course and two have started the Business GIS course thanks to a donation to the MCC Foundation. Continue reading →