My colleague and friend, Denise McConduit is a local children’s writer and also authors the Times-Picayune’s new Gentilly Warriors column. She was recently forwarded a note by Norm Whitley, Gentilly resident and UNO faculty member, on an armed robbery that took place at 4731 Music St. New Orleans, LA* with the comment, “Wouldn’t it be useful if we could publish neighborhood crime, meeting notices and other information in one central place for all of our community to see?” So, Denise called me.
Without further ado, here is the online presence of the Gentilly Warriors. If you live in the Gentilly neighborhood, please use this blog to “post information on crime (with specific address location using this map) and meeting notices.” Denise and Norm cannot singlehandedly accept and post all emails and notices – if you are a geek or tech-inclined and would like to help these novices get their blog off the ground, please let us know by posting a comment here or at their blog!
“I chose the name “Gentilly Warriors” for this column because our residents have been fighting hard to reclaim their homes. The name also harkens back to a Gentilly area baseball team that played in the 1960s and 70s. It is the spirit of the warrior that will make Gentilly the neighborhood we know and love.”
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* New Orleans needs its own OpenSource Crime Mapping software so badly!
I’ve offered help to these folks.
As for mapping things, there’s a new way to put blog entries on a Google Maps map. I think it’s as easy as installing GeoPress from this site
and then feeding the resulting feed into Google Maps a la what this example looks like this
which is an example of what a Flickr feed looks like on a map.
As for “crime mapping software”, the best I know of this genre is the Chicago Crime Map
http://www.chicagocrime.org/about/
which is intricately tied to the Chicago PD’s database for its data source.
An open access, open source solution is coming. Anyone who wants to chip in is welcome. Right now, we need to work on the NOPD to get raw data in a timely manner.
I’ll link back here in a little while when I have an opportunity. Thanks for reporting what’s happening.