tigho is forcery, nyc, real estate, advertising, tech

Since I moved to New York City about six years ago, I've always felt I've walked more than I did in a small town Indiana college.  Even growing up in the rural Pennsylvania, where I tread daily on a half mile walk to and from the school bus each morning, doesn't compare with my daily perambulation in the city. 

And here is why:  The sheer volume of businesses and services available in a city within walking distance dwarves the accessibility of the suburbs. The urban consumer is much more likely to walk to work or the grocery store, because it's so much closer to home.  Suburban commuters are inclined to drive, because they need a vehicle to get most places they want to go.

Here are a several amazing infographics of NYC, reflecting the building height in relation to land value, and mapping Manhattan's development index, according to price per square foot and zoning regulations in relation to property values.  This come from a fantastic data visualization blog, with quite a few fascinating cartographic representations.

Two Dimensional representation of (3 dimensional) building heights.

LAND VALUE  Bill Rankin, 2006 "Tax assessments are a tricky data source, since they do not measure market value — indeed, there are even tax-assessed "values" on public buildings and parks. (Here Central Park is "valued" at $1.9 billion.) But they do give a rough sense of relative values within the city: the pocket of wealth up near the cloisters, and the relative sparseness of the lower east side. Note: even though this map shows building footprints, the land value shown for each building is per square foot of lot size." UNDERDEVELOPMENT 1: a theoretical market  Bill Rankin, 2006 In a hypothetical "perfect market," this map would be a consistent yellow-green. Every lot would be built up precisely in accord with its land value. Lots which were underdeveloped would be torn down and built up again with higher densities. Overdeveloped sites would lower the price of nearby lots, again establishing equillibrium. But government distorts the market (often in very good ways), by building low-density public buildings and monuments in central areas (e.g., the Public Library or Lincoln Center), or building public housing that the market would not otherwise provide (see the lower east side). Zoning also restricts development for the sake of light, air, and congestion. Notice the difference between Midtown and Wall St.: Downtown looks very close to a "perfect market," while Midtown seems restrained by zoning. Notice also underdevelopment along Madison Ave. and Broadway, and the (thankfully) "irrational" presence of churches throughout the city. Note: See also methodological notes about tax-assessment data on the Land Value map. UNDERDEVELOPMENT 2: relation to zoning Bill Rankin, 2006 In response to my original map of "underdevelopment" in Manhattan, urban planner Josh Jackson emailed me from New York with some ideas for a map which would show development in relation to FAR. This is my attempt at such a map. Thanks to Josh for helping me with these ideas; our email exchange is below. New York is the Center of the World From Radial Cartography

WNYC just created a fantastic transit calculator map for travel time from borough to neighborhood to zipcode in New York City. Just type in a desired address, and you can see average travel times to anywhere in the five boroughs. This is my average travel-time living on East Broadway on the Lower East Side.  The red colors indicate a less than ten minute commute, ranging from purple showing over and hour and a half travel time. 

via WNYC.org

This is a great tool if you're looking for a new apartment in a new neighborhood, but aren't sure about how long you'll spend in transit during your work commute.  

 -via columbia.edu