project-sandbox

Project Sandbox is a pilot program that helps us reimagine the relationship between a civic tech community and its local government by putting open data platforms at the core of how work gets done.

We will use maps and GitHub to better understand how the City can use the properties it owns to drive economic development - specifically as this ties to Business Improvement Districts, City Council Districts, surplus land, and other areas we might find interesting. See definitions of these and other terms below.

MaptimeLA and the city will hold a series of workshops to teach the public how to use government data to create maps and answer questions.

The outcomes and lessons learned from this unusual collaboration will be shared for others to build off from.

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our goals:

• Document and Open Data: keep a log of the steps, questions, decisions, and key milestones or discoveries that make this type of partnership work for all involved.
• Map: map publicly-owned vacant properties owned by the City of Los Angeles
• Explore: explore possible uses of this land, specifically: (1) Business Improvement Districts, (2) City Council Districts, (3) surplus land and other areas.
• Workshops: Hold a series of workshops with Maptime
• Retrospective Lessons: share our lessons with likeminded people

Exploration Maps

• LA City owned Parcels near a Business Improvement District
• LA City owned Parcels within a City Council District
• LA City owned Parcels near a transit station / park or school

do you want to contribute?

See something you want to edit? Want to add a file -- a link to a dataset, a dataset itself, an image of a map, an HTML map file, or more text files? Here's how to do it:

1. Make sure you have a GitHub account.
2. Log in to GitHub.
3. To edit a file, go to the file's page and click the Edit or To edit the README.md, for example, you'd go to this link in your browser: https://github.com/maptimeLA/project-sandbox/blob/master/README.md and click the Edit button. It should lead you to: https://github.com/maptimeLA/project-sandbox/edit/master/README.md
4. Make your edits in the file.
5. Write a Commit message: Tell us what you changed and why.
6. Click the second option that reads: Create a new branch for this commit and start a pull request.
7. Click the Propose file change button.

important terms and definitions:

• Open Source: Code, data, files, programs that are free of charge to the public to use, copy, read and participate in the making of.

• Economic Development: Efforts that seek to improve the quality of life and opportunities for business and innovation to occur at a local level.

• Parcel: A quantity of land identified for taxation purposes with set boundary lines and a designated use.

• Business Improvement District (BIDS): a defined area where businesses are committed to funding special and unique projects that help grow traffic, appeal, and business opportunities. In BIDs, business are required to pay an additional tax (or levy) in order to fund projects within the district's boundaries.

• City Council Districts: Los Angeles has 15 of them, each lead by a Councilwoman or Councilman. The Districts carry a certain level of autonomy, have set boundaries, and each have a core set of priorities and visions for their communities.

• Surplus Land: Parcels (see definition above) of land with set boundaries that have been prioritized by the City to be sold, leased, and/or utilized as fast as possible because there is easy-to-access economic development opportunities ready to be unlocked.

• Vacant land:

• Lease:

• County Assessor: County agency responsible for discovering, keeping inventory of, and listing all taxable properties in the County.

• Assessed Value:

• Lot: A recognized subdivision of property with a written legal description that addresses permissions or constraints upon its development.

• Slivers and Remnants: Pieces of land left over from construction projects. They tend to have weirdly shaped boundaries and sometimes lack a clear use.

• Housing & Community Investment Department (HCIDLA): An LA public agency responsible for

• General Services Department (GSD): One of LA's many public agencies. Responsible for buying goods for the City, and also the manager of multiple pieces of land.

• Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA): Designated local authority for real estate redevelopment.

• Assessor Identification Number (AIN): A unique number assigned to each parcel of land.

• Tax Area Rate:

• Property Location: What most of us consider our physical/mailing address - where an organization would be located or where a person would live.