Neighborhood Warning System (NEWS) Case Studies

Los Angeles uses Neighborhood Knowledge California, www.nkca.ucla.edu, maintained by UCLA's Advanced Policy Institute. It is a publicly accessible web-based system with data on code violations, tax liens, and building permits by individual property. The site also includes census data. Users can map data to identify concentrations of problem properties or analyze trends in tax delinquency or abandonment.

NEWS is a Chicago based information system accessible via a website, www.newschicago.org, and developed by a non-profit, the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Data is available on properties in the city of Chicago and Cook County. Indicators on code violations, housing court cases and fire records from several city and county agencies are combined with the Department of Planning information into a single, computerized database.

Philadelphia's Neighborhood Information System, established by the University of Pennsylvania, offers Internet access to municipal real estate records linked to GIS software. Address specific information includes size of property, owner's name, date of purchase, purchase price, tax delinquency status, gas and water account status, city code violations and other data. Access to site-specific data is limited to authorized users which include city agencies, city council members, and more than 100 non-governmental organizations, mostly CDCs. Other information on the site is available to all users and includes mapping of census data on housing conditions and maps, reports, and data on vacant property and neighborhood revitalization issues. www.cml.upenn.edu/nis