Mashup map tracks community ‘teardowns’
Steve Safran October 2nd, 2006
I love it. Amy Gahran at Poynter has found Baristanet’s Teardown Map, a Google Map mashup that tracks “teardown” homes in Montclair, NJ. The information is simple and compelling: a picture of the house, what it sold for, and what it resold for. It’s a valuable aggregation of local information, presented compellingly, and it’s exactly the kind of information a local site should be providing. Real estate information is more than just what’s for sale. And so help me, I don’t even know why, but I think it may be a combination of news and performance art…
7 Comments Add your own
1. Kerry | October 2nd, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Does Google Maps allow advertising-related posts? Could you make a mashup where you’ve sold each pinpoint?
2. thedetroitchannel | October 3rd, 2006 at 5:43 am
that’s one positive thing about having a downright sh#tty economy in s.e. michigan; you can get alotta house for your money.
the home pictured in that screenshot, even in the nicest neighborhoods, would run you about 25% less.
even the mansions along lakeshore are taking their lumps this time around with many on the market for over a year and prices reduced every few months.
of course, we don’t have a huge zipper that runs halfway thru town like the fine folks pictured above.
3. Amy Gahran | October 3rd, 2006 at 8:25 am
Thanks for writing this. You wrote: “Real estate information is more than just what’s for sale.”
Actually, I think that’s true of any statistical information — like Adrian Holovaty showed with ChicagoCrime, another great Google Maps mashup.
Too often reporters and editors ignore these opportunities to cover ongoing trends because it would be “just another boring numbers story.” Well yeah, it will be if you don’t put any thought into it, or apply any new interactive tools to it!
I think these kinds of mashups have a lot of potential to revitalize coverage of local issues that have become drastically under-covered because they just aren’t exciting in traditional text narrative form.
IMHO, of course.
- Amy Gahran
4. Alyssa | October 3rd, 2006 at 1:28 pm
Amy has made it a lot easier for preservationists and urban planners to see what’s been lost, what’s changed, and etc…
5. Safran | October 3rd, 2006 at 6:34 pm
Amy:
You’re absolutely right. These kinds of maps give actual value to crime/fire stories. Mashup maps that show me where the crimes and fires have been over the last year help me decide where to live, work, send my children to school…
You’re putting information into context. That’s news. Journalists who don’t want to do that are lazy.
“Just another numbers story?” My life is my salary, my mortgage, my taxes, my car payment, my savings, my checkbook, the value of houses in my neighborhood… numbers are everything.
Great, great work.
6. Lohness | September 15th, 2007 at 5:57 am
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7. Ratboy | January 19th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Wow, thanks for the excellent information!
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