Maps and Data Sources for Community Planning
Make Your Own Maps
You can make your own maps online or to print to support your own work. We have created step by step directions to make printable maps.
Neighborhoods, Land Use, and Housing
Making Neighborhoods: NYC Neighborhoods in Transition, 2000-2010 (Citizens Housing Planning Council): this map characterizes neighborhoods according to race, income, age, educational attainment, presence of immigrants, and family composition. By showing all of these factors together instead of one at a time, this map creates a powerful image of the type of communities present in each area and how that community is similar to, or differs from, other NYC neighborhoods. You can also view how neighborhood types changed from 2000 to 2010.
Neighborhood Data Portal (Pratt Center): includes a huge amount of information, in particular demographics and housing (such as rent burden and rent stabilized units).
ESRI Zip Tapestry: A map that condenses demographic and consumer spending information into profiles at the zip code level.
FloodHelpNY.org: Flood plain maps of New York City. Search by your address to find the level of flood risk where you are.
OASIS: OASIS compiles data from many different sources on environmental features, open space, public assets, transit, land use, demographics, and more.
Accidental Skyline (Municipal Arts Society): this map depicts the amount of unused air rights in every neighborhood - the amount that developers can legally build without having to go through a public approval process.
CoreData.nyc Housing and Neighborhoods Data Hub (NYU Furman Center): Interactive map with land use and real estate data breakdowns by geography as well as housing subsidy information.
State of New York City’s Housing & Neighborhoods (NYU Furman Center): This annual report provides a compendium of data and analysis about New York City’s housing, land use, demographics, and quality of life indicators for each borough and the city’s 59 community districts. The single-page summaries for each community district are a great source of information about who lives in your neighborhood and what housing challenges people face.
Fair Housing Act Portal: This is the HUD AFFH Data and Mapping Tool that will assist program participants in completing an Assessment of Fair Housing. A user guide is available here.
Demographics and Census
NYC Census Factfinder: Census data for New York City from the Decennial Census and American Community Survey
Social Explorer: Census data for the entire US, 1790 – present
DCP’s American Community Survey page groups Census data from the American Community Survey according to NYC-specific geographies