One of the Unified Government’s top priorities is to fight blight across Wyandotte County. Now, the UG is employing a Kansas City-based startup to address these challenging properties, and discover ways to prevent blight altogether.
It’s a move that started in 2016 when UG launched a new open data portal, making county property and code enforcement data publicly available.
Now, the UG and Wyandotte Economic Development Council are forging a partnership with MySidewalk to bring its analytical capabilities to blight prevention and economic development efforts. The tech startup will help to identify blighted or at-risk properties, uncover the factors contributing to that blight, and visualize the results using interactive maps and charts. Then, the team will collaborate to create effective reduction and prevention strategies.
It’s an initiative made possible in 2016 when Alan Howze, UG chief knowledge officer, launched a new open data portal, making county property and code enforcement data publicly available and easy to understand.
MySidewalk has done similar work with the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority. The partnership focused on reducing and rectifying potentially dangerous buildings throughout the region.
This measure will also allow UG and WYEDC to provide data more quickly to potential business clients in hopes of spurring economic development in the community.
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RELATED: Check out a video recap of MySidewalk CEO Stephen Hardy’s presentation at MetroWireMedia’s 2016 Millennials in the Workplace event.