Imagine being able to look into the future to see what crime and economic trends will be like in your neighborhood. It appears a Stanford fellow has helped the city of San Jose do just that.
The city unveiled an interactive map that it says allows it to predict the future.
But not everyone is happy about it.
The map released by the city's Parks and Rec Department analyzes crime stats, along with child nutrition, obesity, poverty and other factors.
"We wanted to create a map where we can try to look into the future," said Jon Cicirelli, acting Parks and Rec director. "One of the real powers of the map is you can look both backwards and forwards to today. And you can see how neighborhoods shift, some for the better, Some for the worse."
A neighborhood south of downtown was trending toward "worse" Thursday. It’s expected to turn from bright orange to red this year, meaning crime is going up and quality of life is going down.
A father there told NBC Bay Area he worries his daughter is growing up in a red zone.
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The map could create new concerns for property owners. Realtors say the red areas could be less desirable for buyers, hurting property values.
"When they look at buying a property, they look at not only school districts, but they look at crime reports too," said Cristina Gonzalez, a Realtor with Keller Williams.
The city, however, doesn’t see it as negative. Instead, officials believe it provides the tools to map out a plan of action.
"In an ideal world, we’ll be able to look forward and see where neighborhoods might be declining and then be able to invest in them in a variety of ways to help bring them back from decline," Cicirelli said.
The map also shows basic demographics and economics for each neighborhood. And it shows which areas may need help organizing themselves, perhaps in the form of a neighborhood association.
