Eviction Map of San Francisco since 1997

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The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project in San Francisco visualizes the locations of evictions caused by the use of the Ellis Act state law. The Ellis Act is a state law which says that landlords have the right to evict tenants in order to “go out of business”. All units in the building must be cleared of all tenants- no one can be singled out. Most often it is used to convert to condos or group-owned tenancy-in-common flats. Once a building becomes a condo it is exempt from Rent Control, regardless of the age of the building, and even if a unit owner subsequently rents to a long-term tenant.

Obviously, there is no limit to the number of times a building owner can “go out of business” (!) Because of the presence of Ellis Act law and as well as the landlords looking for ways to avoid renting to long-term tenants, the housing crisis in San Francisco will only be exacerbated.

This online map is a fascinating tool where we experience activist work and visualized information of evictions at the same time. The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project (AEMP) is a huge project which includes data from active surveys on eviction to the profiles of evicted tenants.

Visualizing San Francisco’s Urban Growth

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The San Francisco Urban Revitalization map, developed by Esri shows the last decade of growth and the change in neighborhoods. Esri collaborated with the city of San Francisco to create this animated map that tracks urban growth over the past 12 years.

The map uses some of the city’s enormous cache of open data to animate change in housing prices, residential and commercial uses and community sentiment over time. The tool uses a simple transition between years with a play/pause button, and includes an interesting dominant lifestyle section that is helpful in gauging the changing character of neighborhoods.

The result is an impressive visualization of the city’s explosive growth, and how it has affected different neighborhoods. Some of the changes are really dramatic; for example the drop of the housing prices after the recession around 2010 resulting in a construction boom in the downtown Civic Center area.