St. Louis has a reputation for high crime. With the leading murder rate in the country, many seek to find potential causes for its high crime rates. Some of the most common noted causes for crime are poverty, substance abuse, and family instability. A lesser known potential cause for crime is vacant properties. The hypothesis is that people buying properties and then abandoning them in St. Louis strains the resources of the communities relying on them, leading people to commit crimes. One thing to consider also: the crime could be the cause of the vacant properties.

     The goal of this project was to see if there might be a correlation between vacant properties and crime rates. The map experience below visualizes the data retrieved. Using the arrows in the bottom right, navigate between views and compare different neighborhoods of St. Louis. Click the button on the bottom left to view charts comparing the attributes of these neighborhoods. Scroll the legend if needed and layers can be toggled in the top right of the map. You can also zoom and pan around the map.

Note: while the symbology changes for the neighborhoods, the parcels are always either red for occupied and blue for vacant. The darkness of the shading represents its assessed value in US dollars.

For mobile users: if the map isn't appearing correctly, try clicking HERE

Data retrieved from slmp.org and stlouis-mo.gov

Scripts used to clean, process, and analyze data at: https://github.com/sdrake0/StlVacancyProject