Streetscape Asset Management
As stewards of one of Manhattan’s most heavily trafficked commerical corridors, The 34th Street Partnership is tasked with monitoring district conditions such as retail vacancy as well as ensuring the upkeep of streetscape elements such as light poles, bike racks, and street signage.
The Partnership’s army of Streetscape Inspectors are constantly patroling the district, taking detailed report of these attributes and forwarding their findings on to the appropriate party. If a streetlight is out, the inspection reports make their way to the Partnership’s Capital Department to ensure timely repairs.
As District Planner, I transformed what had previously been an analog process — reporting done with clipboards, paper, and pens — into a digital one. Built on top of the Fulcrum data reporting platform, the new system allowed inspectors to track their findings via a new mobile app. Inspection results are sent to the appropriate party in seconds, supplanting a tedious paper-to-excel issue tracking system.
The new platform expanded instantaneous data access to multiple users, allowing for increased accountability and allowed the Partnership to leverage data science workflows to produce new and unique insights. If multiple incidents of geographicly clustered streetlight outages had been reported, this indicated that a more widespread issue may be at play, allowing quick identification and elevation to external parties such as ConEdison.
As stewards of one of Manhattan’s most heavily trafficked commerical corridors, The 34th Street Partnership is tasked with monitoring district conditions such as retail vacancy as well as ensuring the upkeep of streetscape elements such as light poles, bike racks, and street signage.
The Partnership’s army of Streetscape Inspectors are constantly patroling the district, taking detailed report of these attributes and forwarding their findings on to the appropriate party. If a streetlight is out, the inspection reports make their way to the Partnership’s Capital Department to ensure timely repairs.
As District Planner, I transformed what had previously been an analog process — reporting done with clipboards, paper, and pens — into a digital one. Built on top of the Fulcrum data reporting platform, the new system allowed inspectors to track their findings via a new mobile app. Inspection results are sent to the appropriate party in seconds, supplanting a tedious paper-to-excel issue tracking system.
The new platform expanded instantaneous data access to multiple users, allowing for increased accountability and allowed the Partnership to leverage data science workflows to produce new and unique insights. If multiple incidents of geographicly clustered streetlight outages had been reported, this indicated that a more widespread issue may be at play, allowing quick identification and elevation to external parties such as ConEdison.
March 2018
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Inspection dashboard of Bike Racks within the 34th Street District.
Inspection dashboard of Bike Racks within the 34th Street District.