Urban Tensions Hackathon: Visualizing stories of cities and conflict

    See event website

    From gentrification and increased evictions to trucks in the bike lane, Boston, like many cities, is filled with stories of urban tensions. But are there data to illustrate these conflicts? Can you find, merge and visualize data and other layers of information that can help reveal new, original insights about the city’s urban tensions?
     
    On Saturday, April 8, from 9am to 3pm, Northeastern University will be hosting "Urban Tensions," a hackathon where participants will explore urban data – from crime to housing to transportation to energy – to tell compelling stories of cities and conflict.
     
    Who can sign up and who will be there?

    The event is open to both students and professionals from any field. It will be kicked off with lightning talks on urban data, evictions and gentrification by:

    Ben Green, Boston’s Open Data Project
    Christine Dixon, deputy director of Project Hope
    Wenfei Xu, research associate at MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab.

    What kind of stories are we looking for?

    - From the innovation district to East Boston, what does the push-and-pull between affordable housing and commercial real estate development look like?
    - Is Boston violent? Highlight the waxing and waning of crime across the city.
    - Quantify Boston’s aging infrastructure to pinpoint where it might fail first as well as where it's being updated.
    - How many bike lanes are overrun by 18-wheelers? Is there another way?
     
    How will projects be judged?

    A panel of Northeastern professors from across the College of Arts, Media and Design will judge the submissions. Projects will be judged on their originality, the rigor of their data sourcing and analysis, and the accuracy and appeal of their visual storytelling.

    What are the prizes?

    Annual Hubway bike-sharing memberships.

    What kind of datasets are we talking about?

    Housing

    Boston approved building permits here or here

    Zillow Boston Median Listing Price per sq. ft. here

    Boston Airbnb listings, reviews data

    Boston neighborhood blight and building data here

    2015 Greater Boston Housing Report Card here

    Housing a Changing City Boston 2030 here

    Housing data 1950-2010 here

    City of Boston-owned property here

    Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council housing data here

    Freddie Mac fixed-rate mortgage dataset from 1999-2015 here

    Transportation

    Boston Hubway bicycle trip data here

    Bicycle collisions in Boston (2009-2012) here

    Boston existing bicycle network here

    Boston taxi data May 2012 – Nov 2012 here

    Cambridge daily traffic counts 1972-2017 here

    Massachusetts real-time roadway travel feed here

    Crime and complaints

    Boston homicides data here

    Commonwealth Connect data (2009-2015) here

    Boston FIO (field interviews and observation) data here

    Boston crime incident reports (2015-now) here

    Boston Police Dept. license plate scanner data here

    Boston precincts data here

    Other

    Boston food pantry data here

    Boston schools public here and non-public here

    Boston census data in JSON here

    Boston 2010 census tracts here
    Geographical data layers for Boston here

    Location

    Northeastern University
    Boston, United States

    Dates

    From 8th April 2017 - 09:00 AM
    to 8th April 2017 - 04:00 PM