City DNA

Advances in web technologies and user interface design have provided Social Compact with the opportunity to dramatically increase the value and reach of their research by placing it more directly in front of a contingency of stakeholders with diverse needs.

Social Compact, in partnership with Universal Mind is developing one of the most innovative web-based GIS and information platforms in the country, CityDNA.  In many ways, cityDNA equates to a democratization of GIS by allowing a wide variety of stakeholders (many whom have never heard the term GIS) to be GIS practitioners rather than simply recipients. By providing intuitive and easily accessible analytical and visualization tools based on accurate and timely data, Social Compact can break down information barriers to facilitate coordinated and effective decision making among investors, government and communities. Social Compact’s mission providing CityDNA to users is to provide the most accurate and timely data to all sections of the investment class including investors, public sector and community development organizations.

New Information Platform

1. Platform levels the playing field between investors, government and communities – The spatial tool created by Social Compact, creates a comprehensive and common information platform that can be easily used by a wide range of stakeholders. Because the tool employs user-friendly and cutting-edge technologies all that is required to use the tool is access to a computer and the internet. The use of the tool has no technological prerequisites (i.e. GIS). Social Compact uses the same technologies employed by NASDAQ- easy to modify and update as frequently as necessary.
2. Enhancing existing data and data privacy.- The application allows users to easily upload their own unique datasets in commonly used formats (i.e.. excel, csv files) and all of the tool functionalities (e.g. querying, charts, reporting, comparison, etc) can be applied to these new datasets. For instance, a bank will be able to upload their own portfolio, run any necessary queries and save that information using its own protected data protocols without having to make their portfolio publicly available. In addition, Social Compact has designed the information platform with different control levels to manage the access barriers for different users.
3. Platform greatly enhances the analysis of “bottom up” data – Datasets (which can be defined at the point/parcel level) are based on address level information, therefore, there is no subjective filters applied to these datasets. For example, point-level information is not lost within aggregating the datasets to block groups.
4. Users can customize their own geographic boundaries – Because the information is built on addresses and points, users can aggregate the data based upon the exact boundaries the user wants, with the desired calculations (average sales, average household income etc) recalibrating automatically, in accordance with the new geography. This gives very unique power to the user to analyze information, not based on census polygons, but rather based on practical boundaries, like trade or CRA compliance areas while controlling for the presence of geographic barriers (i.e. rivers).
5. Information is available in all its intellectual capacity – Ordinarily, users have to manage several data programs to successfully analyze data. In Social Compact’s tool, datasets are simultaneously and centrally visualized within charts (values), queries on charts (values), tables, reports, time series, and maps (comparisons within datasets, within variables in the same dataset). It is essentially, a one-stop-shop for all the information analyses users would need.

Potential applications

1. The tool’s development represents a quantum leap in the advancement of the application of Social Compact’s four key principles that underpin a new paradigm in economic development; information-led development. These principles are:
2. Every neighborhood is a market – The basic demographic information underpinning the tool will be accurate and timely data on market size, buying power, market change and market risk factors generated by Social Compact. Demographic targeted toward the investment class.
3. Information barriers impede investment – The tool will provide a level playing field in terms of access, analysis and application of the most accurate and up-to-date local market data in the country.
4. Investment and development is always local – The tools capabilities combined with the granular nature of the data will allow users to target their activities down to specific intersections or even addresses.
5. Investors, the public sector and communities must make decisions underpinned by a shared data platform – For the first time, local governments, investors and CDCs will be making investment and policy decisions underpinned by a common understanding of the local market environment.
6. These four principles drive the piloting of this tool in Detroit, MI.

City DNA at Work

Below are some examples of how stakeholders in Detroit can and plan to use the tool.

1. Banks (Financial): Upload portfolios and compare with city-wide, up-to-date information (HMDA, First American and DrillDown) to determine counseling strategies, risk and loss mitigation efforts, and establish appropriate local partnerships.
2. Retailers (Commercial): Filter according to their costumer-profiles and site selection criteria, draw appropriate geographies and include their performance measures, match that information with DrillDown and expenditures data to make informed decisions about site selection and merchandise.
3. Detroit’s Foreclosure Mitigation Team (Community and City): Obtain a sense of the current and future conditions of the foreclosure crisis and compare and contrast that information to local assets (i.e. presence of informal economic activity, large presence of stable businesses, etc.) and strategize accordingly.