How does a city figure out how many and which of its properties are blighted?
- If the city is Mobile, Alabama, then it adopts Instagram
- How did Mobile pay for this data driven blight program?
- Mobile won a three-year $1.65 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies
- Created a municipal “innovation team,”
- The innovation team is a handful of people who seek fresh, data-driven solutions to longstanding urban problems
- What data does Mobile have on blight now?
- Old blight data existed solely via a 311 call log
- The photos help Mobile discern when the photo is that of an unkept yard from a photo of a fire damaged house that is a public safety threat
- Mobile geo tags the photos so that the location of the property is documented
- In 2 weeks, 926 blighted properties were identified
- Mobile is up to 1,256 identified blighted properties
- The 1,256 blighted properties are being prioritized by technology that allows for data share among city departments
Governing | How Mobile, Alabama, Used Instagram to Address Blight