Pittsburgh Neighborhood and Community Information System

The concept of developing a community information system in Pittsburgh goes back to the late 1980’s.  Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR) began experimenting with various sets of government and social data to assist decision making in the areas of crime prevention and neighborhood improvement. As a hub for community information and applied research, UCSUR continued to hone the concept of improving neighborhoods by first improving the analytical view of the community.   

The University of Pittsburgh’s Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC), a federally funded program that supports the intersection of communities and universities, became a key resource for community organizations in the city of Pittsburgh, beginning in 2000.  Through assistance from the COPC program, community organizations were able to deploy students into neighborhoods to tackle the tough challenge of collecting and analyzing data related to the neighborhoods’ real estate stock. By helping neighborhoods to create of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and link databases with corresponding maps, COPC worked with community-based organizations through community organization partnerships.  Using GIS and other analytic tools, COPC student interns were able to collect, plot and display spatial representation of neighborhood activity.  

COPC’s roll in expanding the use of data by neighborhood organizations expanded in 2000 by partnering with Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group’s Vacant Property Working Group on several data collection efforts related to vacant and abandoned property reclamation.  COPC worked on a community information system concept plan.  PNC Foundation provided the initial funding to UCSUR to help develop and promote the community information system plan.     

The Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG) began in 1988 with the goal of helping to create investment opportunities in communities not traditionally served by the private market.  Using federal data related to neighborhood investments is a crucial component to PCRG’s analysis of community investing and their assistance in helping the public and private sectors make investment decisions.   However, local government data and the ability analyze neighborhoods and specific properties were missing from their research and reporting, making it difficult to efficiently direct resources.

 In June of 2003, Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group, community developers, the Pittsburgh Historic and Landmarks Foundation, the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Urban Land Institute, and several local financial institutions hosted the first-ever Pittsburgh Symposium on Vacant Land and Abandoned Buildings.  At the Symposium, a session sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia Neighborhood Information System received much kudos and raised the attention of conference-goers interested in developing a similar system in Pittsburgh.  

Following the Symposium, using information from attendees and the concept brief drafted by the COPC directors, a project team was formed consisting of Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group, 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, the Community Technical Assistance Center, Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Economic Development, and the University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for Social and Urban Research.  The team, using information from attendees and the COPC directors, coordinated several working groups charged to strengthen and build a work plan to bring the community information system to fruition.  

Working with the project team’s vision, the Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development (PPND), a local community development financial intermediary, assisted the team by providing fundraising assistance, management assistance and coordination of the concept team.  

In the summer of 2006, the beta version of Pittsburgh Neighborhood Information System was launched.

© 2006 University of Pittsburgh - Center for Social and Urban Research