Where To Move?

An Analysis of Potential Housing Sites in Flint

By Brian Acheff and Zach Hayes

Concept

Objectives:
Flint went from being one of the best places to live during the 1960s and 1970s to
presently suffering from population decline. There is hope as within the past decade the city
has seen an economic boost centered in the downtown area. We think that there is now an
expanding market for families who are looking for the best place to move in Flint that are
near grocery retailers and schools and away from areas of crime. Our project utilizes GIS to
display these factors in a clear map that families can use to help them narrow down their
preferred move-in destination. GIS is needed to compile our various criteria for housing
prospects.
Concept - Where to begin?
Data Layers:
Data Collection
Flint Boundary Layer

Crime Data

Schools
Housing locations was Grocery Stores
the only data from a
3rd party source Parks

Zip Code Boundaries

Subtypes: 48501 - 48507,
48532

Main Roads

Rivers
Methods: Preprocessing
Select by Attribute queries were used several For the crime selection query, the selection
times. was based on two variations of the type of
Select roads within the city limits of Flint crime.
Select Feature Classes that are within the city limits of Violent or Property
Flint Murders or Burglaries / Breaking & Entering
Schools
Parks
Grocery Stores
Crimes
ZIP Code
Methods: Geoprocessing Scale = 1:62,500
Cell size = 250m^2
Map radius = 1225
Density:
Using the Point Density tool, a distribution of crimes points was Area = (1225)^2
processed into a statistical visualization. The image has a
graduated color scheme that is classified based on the density of
crimes point that are located near each other in a specific vicinity.
Pockets of red to dark red indicate high crime density & areas of
light red to yellow indicate low crime density.
Processes

Selecting Potential Sites from Trulia

Analyzing Data: Raster
calculation depicts areas in blue
where less than 200 crimes have
occurred.
Processes

Non-spatial Data
Geocoding

Spatial Data
Obstacles
Throughout the process of this project, we ran into
problems when it came to matching various layers
coordinate systems with each other to make the
map look uniform. Using the the define projection
and reprojection tool in ArcMap we tried to remedy
the situation, but were not able to successfully
accomplish it.
Result
Potential Improvements:

Link housing points to pictures

or Trulia.com listings

Add additional data to the

attribute table for the housing
points such as what the lead
levels in the water are.