Skip to main content

Homework 4 -- Underused Public Property

Skills Practiced:

Start of course project.

TODO: produce a version of this file https://data.boston.gov/dataset/property-assessment/resource/6b7e460e-33f6-4e61-80bc-1bef2e73ac54 that is smaller -- 76 MB is too large. Maybe start by removing any row with Owner Occupied as Y, since we are going to be looking at either public buildings / lots, multi family, etc. We should probably aim to get below 25MB -- and at that point stick it in the git repo and start seeing how github dev is handling it.

Filtering​

Maybe we could have them take the 76MB file down to something reasonable as at activity? Requires https://github.com/brownplt/pyret-lang/issues/1781

Could then try to do this task:

  1. You will identify existing public property that is unused or underutilized using public tax records.

  2. Once it has been identified, you will visualize where it is.

  3. And compute metrics of desirability for development — distance to public transit, to schools, etc.

Introduction​

You're working with Boston tax assessor data to identify underutilized public property that could be developed for housing under legislation similar to Rhode Island's Create Homes Act. The dataset contains property records with information about ownership, land use, building values, and property characteristics.

The CSV contains the following columns:

  • PID: Property ID
  • CM_ID: City Mapping ID
  • GIS_ID: Geographic Information System ID
  • ST_NUM: Street number
  • ST_NUM2: Second street number
  • ST_NAME: Street name
  • UNIT_NUM: Unit number
  • CITY: City
  • ZIP_CODE: ZIP code
  • BLDG_SEQ: Building sequence number
  • NUM_BLDGS: Number of buildings on property
  • LUC: Land Use Code
  • OWN_OCC: Owner occupied (Y/N)
  • RES_FLOOR: Residential floors
  • LAND_SF: Land area in square feet
  • GROSS_AREA: Gross building area
  • LIVING_AREA: Living area in square feet
  • LAND_VALUE: Assessed land value
  • BLDG_VALUE: Assessed building value
  • SFYI_VALUE: Single Family Year-round Improvement value
  • TOTAL_VALUE: Total assessed value
  • GROSS_TAX: Annual property tax

Problem 1​

Design a function find-public-property that takes a list of property records and returns only those that appear to be publicly owned or vacant. (elaine note: filler problem -- idek whether the table has this info-- dbp response -- there is a BLDG_TYPE "99 - Vacant". In terms of "public" -- relevant owners could be "CITY OF BOSTON", "MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY", there may be others -- i.e., I found a "CITY OF BOSTON BY FCL")

Problem 2​

Design a function calculate-underutilization that determines how underutilized a property is based on land area vs. building development.

  • Utilization ratio = GROSS_AREA / LAND_SF
  • Properties with ratio < 0.1 are "severely underutilized"
  • Properties with ratio 0.1-0.3 are "moderately underutilized"
  • Properties with ratio > 0.3 are "well utilized"

Other ideas:​

  • low BLDG_VALUE vs high LAND_VALUE
  • low number of floors but high LAND_VALUE