NYC Spatial Equity Tool

This repository is where the code for the NYC Spatial Equity Tool is maintained and documented. In collaboration with the MIT Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) and community organization Transit Alternatives (TA), the tool is an interactive database of maps and information about inequities in New York City’s public spaces.

Project Setup

This digital platform is made using the React framework. It was bootstrapped with create-react-app.

File Structure

The diagram below shows a high-level view of the file structure. Not all files are shown.

📦spatial-equity
 ┣ 📂.github
 ┣ 📂.idea
 ┣ 📂build
 ┣ 📂node_modules
 ┣ 📂public
 ┣ 📂src
 ┃ ┣ 📂components
 ┃ ┣ 📂data
 ┃ ┣ 📂fonts
 ┃ ┣ 📂img
 ┃ ┣ 📂texts
 ┃ ┣ 📂utils
 ┃ ┣ 📜App.css
 ┃ ┗ 📜App.js
 ┣ 📜procfile
 ┗ 📜package.json

• 📂components contains the React components for the frontend.
• 📂data contains the pre-processed data anlysis used to render visualizations. Files include council_districts.json and community_bourds.json which contain data for all metrics across all council districts and community boards. JSON files in this directory will need to be updated accordingly.
• 📂fonts contains ttf files of fonts for the web app
• 📂img contains media such as organization and institution logos
• 📜package.json defines the dependencies and start scripts.

Local Development

Go through the following steps to get started:

0. Make sure you have Node installed and that you can run the npm command in your terminal.
1. Clone the repository using git clone into your local workspace.
2. Once you are in the project root directory, run npm install to install the dependencies.
3. Run the command npm run dev to start the app, which is served by default on http://localhost:3000.

Update Information

Update indicator

Updating data

0. Update rankings.json accordingly
1. Recalculate the least performing issues of each council district and community board by copying the contents of rankings.json into top_three.py and running the script.
2. Update the council_districts.json and community_boards.json files with the correct list of noteable indicators under least_performing

Updating text

0. Navigate to issues.json
1. If the category of an indicator is to be changed, update the issues_data field accordingly. Then under the specific_issues_data field, navigate to the entry of the indicator to be updated and change issue_type_ID field accordingly.
2. If text is to be updated, navigate to the field responsible for the text (for example, specific_issue_name is where the name of the indicator is referenced and specific_issue_solutions is where the list of solutions for each indicator is referenced. Change text accordingly while formatting hyperlinks correctly.

Add new indicator

0. Create a new ID for the new indicator.
1. In issues.json, add the new ID to the list of integers under the all_issues_ID field.
2. In the issues_data field, add the new ID to the correct category.
3. In the specific_issues_data field, create a new entry using the new ID and fill in the fields that other indicators have accordingly.
4. Update rankings.json accordingly with data that takes the new indicator into account.
5. Recalculate the least performing issues of each council district and community board by copying the contents of rankings.json into top_three.py. and running the script.
6. Update the council_districts.json and community_boards.json files with the correct list of noteable indicators under least_performing.

Update demographic data

0. Recalculate bins for demographic data
1. Navigate to demographic_percentage.json and update the perc_list field accordingly.