Vacant New York, An Interactive Map Highlighting Vacant Commercial Properties in Manhattan

Vacant New York is an interactive map created by Justin Levinson that highlights vacant commercial properties in Manhattan. Users can zoom and scroll through the map, then hover over the vacancies marked in red for the address.

The project is meant to raise awareness of the city’s high-rent blight problem. Levinson laid out some of the causes for the problem in his post about the map along with some potential solutions.

The vacancy problem is immediately visible but lacking in hard data. The intent of this project is to provide some background around commercial vacancies and use a map to give some insight into the extent of the issue, ideally doubling as a tool for community groups and policymakers to identify areas for intervention.

via Om Malik