After months of development, a group of Code for America fellows has unveiled a new web application that seeks to assist communities in identifying and cleaning up New Orleans's blighted properties, reports Emily Badger.
BlightStatus is a new tool meant to help address the enduring problem of blighted properties that has vexed residents and officials in New Orleans since before Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. According to Badger, "The searchable mapping tool reveals when a property was inspected and
just what its problems were (shattered windows, broken gutters, missing
roof tiles). Residents can then track open cases all the way through
their court hearings, judgment, and resolution."
"Throughout the city, [Code for America fellows] Pandel and Tejeda say, people seemed to be relieved
when BlightStatus was launched. The site, simple as its interface
appears, conveys that city government is tracking residents' problems,
right down to the peeling paint on a house next door. But even more
crucially," says Badger, "the app also proposes a new kind of more productive
communication between the two groups that moves past angry and
frustrated citizens on one end, and a paralyzed city on the other."
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