Interactive NYC Homicide Map | Hacker News Reader

Interactive NYC Homicide Map

projects.nytimes.com

38 pointsasnyder24 comments

One thing that jumps out at me, being from NYC, is the complete lack of anything in Central Park. There's this widespread belief that you can't go in the park after dark, since it's /so dangerous/, but apparently statistically that's not the case.

The one thing it's missing that would be neat to see is color-by-motive, since one of their motive bins is "Gang." It would be interesting to see if they common beliefs about the location of gang activity also holds any water.

The NY Times has always been hugely impressive in their use of data and web technologies, and this is no exception.

There's this widespread belief that you can't go in the park after dark, since it's /so dangerous/, but apparently statistically that's not the case.

Could that widespread belief perhaps have led to folks deciding not to go to the park after dark, though?

Or am I completely off-base? I'm not from NY (been there twice, and love it), so I have no idea. Do people go to the park after dark pretty regularly?

No, I'm pretty sure people don't. In general, I think the attitude is to avoid parks at night. I would imagine that it's hard for police to maintain visibility that well when there's all kinds of bushes and trees in the way, not that much ambient light, and a lot of ground for them to cover.

I have also heard that Central Park has improved tremendously in the past decade.

This is a map of homicides. A map of muggings or some other crime may show a different trend in the park.

I lived in North Brooklyn from 06 - 08, and in my line of work, was very familiar with the gang activity and homicides that were occurring in the area. There are several homicides that I know for a fact took place that aren't listed on the map. So although it doesn't explain the complete lack of homicides in Central Park - I'm willing to bet that their data is less complete than the say.

This would be really useful if it tied into all crimes, not just homicides. Furthermore, an option to go beyond NYC and tie into national police databases would be very desirable. I could see this becoming a very useful when considering moving.

A heatmap feature would also be nice. Similar to a real life Sim City map.

http://everyblock.com

What's interesting is that we've come to see a high murder rate in big cities as natural and expected. It wasn't always like this. (And yes, I know it was even worse at one time.)

I know it is a big city, and yes, I must be naive, but I am actually pretty floored by the number of homicides that occurred each year.

The map shows 3402 homicides from a 6 year period, an average of 500 a year.

If I recall correctly, in 1900 there were something like 50 homicides in Manhattan with roughly the same population and much more poverty.

The per capita murder rate is quite low for a large city. New York City's population is so much higher than any other city in the country that it tends to skew your perception.

Having grown up in the NYC media market, it's a lot better now than it was in the late 80's/early 90's when there were a few murders per day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_New_York_City

In 1990 there were 2245 homicides, 4x more than last year. That's scary.

As a European I find it interesting that blacks comprise 61 percent of both perpetrators and victims and Hispanics make up most of the rest. And even more interesting is the fact that ethnicity is reported openly -- that would never happen in my country, even if most people would understand anyway that the majority of perpetrators are Arabs and Africans.

It's interesting that Manhattan has so many murders, diverse ones at that. Consider Philadelphia:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/multimedia/15818502.html

In the rich areas like Center City, Manayunk, and Mount Airy there are few murders.

When I saw the words "interactive" and "homicide" so close together, I really expected to see something different....

LA Times has had something like this for quite some time: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/crime/homicidemap/

The Wall Street Journal should be taking notes.

I think most of you might have overlooked the fact that this was created by the NYTimes... the publications need more of this stuff. It is so fricken cool.

Investing in Interactivity is a great solution to survive.

Ever since Khoi Vinh joined NYT in 2006, they've been producing some of the best interactive design on the web. One of my recent favorites[1] showed how tennis strategy was affected by the different surfaces.

[1]: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/08/25/sports/tennis/...

I was impressed with their interactive graphic of the Buffalo plane crash[1]. I'm pleased to hear that such graphics are common.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/13/nyregion/Buffa...

> Investing in Interactivity is a great solution to survive.

How do they make money from it? It's definitely cool, but I certainly didn't click any ads there. And making that stuff costs money.

They could easily integrate real estate listings into a map like this. "Not sure you want to live within one block of three gang shootings? Call Smith Real Estate Associates today!"

Don't let any visitors from Mars look at this.

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