Author: Steven Romalewski, Director, CUNY Mapping Service
Thought you might be interested in some new data layers we’ve added to the Long Island Index mapping site: special taxation districts and service provider areas for Nassau County.
In Nassau County alone there are 240 special districts that provide fire, sanitation, water, library, parks, parking, police, school and sewer services – in addition to the areas that receive those services from village, town, county, and/or state government. Based on our extensive inquiries at all levels of government and in the private sector, no one as far as we know has mapped all of these districts and areas comprehensively, online, and with an eye toward who is providing the services at the local level. The map layers at the Index mapping website are the result of a year-plus effort between our team at the CUNY Graduate Center and the Long Island Index staff to identify and aggregate the relevant data and digitize the district boundaries.
We’d appreciate any feedback on our boundary maps and attribute data, especially if anyone has better/more comprehensive/more recent information! And we’re in the process of creating the same types of maps for Suffolk County, so any suggestions, data, etc. for Suffolk would be greatly appreciated. The Index’s goal with this project is to give taxpayers and service providers a common and consistent basis for understanding and discussing special district issues.
Here’s a summary of the special district/service provider information that you’ll find at the Index mapping site: http://www.urbanresearch.org/news/long-island-special-districts-mapped-online-for-the-1st-time You can access the maps directly at www.longislandindexmaps.org.
For example, here’s the link to a zoomed-in view in and around North Hempstead showing water service providers (colors indicate who provides the service) overlain with boundaries of water districts along with garbage, parking, and police service provider areas: http://bit.ly/LG6cck You can also click on the map to display a list of all the providers servicing the location you clicked, along with related information (website, office address, and election info if it has special elections).
The Index website provides more background about the project including a report from the Center for Governmental Research and a detailed Excel file with information about all the districts and service providers we mapped in Nassau County: http://www.longislandindex.org/Long-Island-Index-Reports.308.0.html And the new service provider map layers can be displayed along with the wealth of other data already mapped at the Index site, such as demographics, downtown redevelopment potential, land use, transportation, housing affordability trends, aerial photos via the NYS GIS Clearinghouse web service, and more.
Thanks,
Steven Romalewski
Director, CUNY Mapping Service
Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Ave., Room 6202
New York, NY 10016
Phone: 212-817-2033
sromalewski@gc.cuny.edu
www.urbanresearch.org
www.linkedin.com/in/stevenromalewski
www.twitter.com/SR_spatial
www.spatialityblog.com