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TIMES, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015 • 14 Mapping Out Bushwick Needs Community Group Tracks Neighborhood’s Housing Situation The North West Bushwick Community group’s map of the Bushwick housing stock. by Anthony Giudice Bushwick is in the midst of some big changes, and a local civic organization is working to chart the community’s course. To help the members of the community The North West Bushwick Community Group (NWB) is set to launch The North West Bushwick Community Map this spring to its website. Throughout Bushwick, as housing investors buy homes and raise rents, they kick out longstanding low-income tenants through illegal intimidation tactics or by questionable legal actions. Many residents do not know how to stand up and fight against these changes. The members of the NWB felt the need to provide a free, community-owned and community-directed map to help residents understand what is going on in their neighborhood. This mapping project will provide residents and community organizers with housing and urban planning data of their neighborhood to help track the changes in Bushwick. The Bushwick Community Map serves as a community map displaying city and housing data including: PLUTO tax information, landlord/ownership, recent building constructions, DOB violations and other important data that residents may not be aware of. This map sorts through all of the available databases to bring forth the most relevant information to members of the community and organizers in an easy-to-navigate and understand format. NWB team mapping coordinator Brigette Blood told the Times Newsweekly in a phone interview, “we want to understand what is going on in our community and not be caught off guard,” in regards for the need of this community map. “We wanted to know where we were strong in the community and where we were vulnerable,” she added. The Bushwick Community Map is hoping to add participatory data sets which will allow members of the community to engage and contribute to the tracking of changes in housing, resident communities, and land use. The data collected from map-users, residents and ex-residents will be potentially framed to help track changes and vulnerabilities. They also want the map to be a constantly updated map, with proposed new buildings and zoning changes, so community members and organizers will not be surprised by a new development in their neighborhood. The website and map were created by: Brigette Blood, NWB Mapping Team Coordinator; Tres Myers, Lolo Haha, Sandy Nurse, Jenny Action, Henry Gomory and Josh Carrera, NWB Mapping Team; Michael “Ziggy” Mintz, Creative & Technical actualization of NWB initiative and the Lead Map-Maker; Chris Henrick, Daniel Mastretta, Gabriel Gianordoli and Namreta Kumar, Technical and Design Skills.


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