Ghost Lots

In the past, vacant lots have been signs of both neglect and development potential. As cities and third-party groups release more nuanced civic data, what might be emerging markers of impending development? For instance, Citi bikes, public wifi, potholes, and surveillance cameras might be telling signifiers of urban shifts. How can vacant lots be used as predictors for new development?

Ghost Lots is an interactive tool that shows predictions of whether a lot that’s currently vacant will convert to a building in the near future. The underlying predictive model was trained on the NYC PLUTO dataset, which contains NYC building and infrastructural data.

Year: 2018