
Ask HN: Data science for urban planning tips - DrNuke
There is an urban planning open contest in my city for the improvement of the train station quarter, now degraded because of uncontrolled migrants roaming and making it a no-law-zone at night. I have a plan to mess with data science, smart city paradigm and low cost solutions already, but a proper HN brainstorming would be much appreciated. Any tips? Thanks.
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brudgers
Having predetermined that a community of 'outsiders' are the cause of a local
problem, the historical data regarding municipal planning by lay people does
not usually result in a story that reflects well on the municipality.

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DrNuke
Thanks for this. More than a pogrom, something favouring the encounter would
be the nice approach here and the aim of this contest. The point is to make
that quarter modern and attracting enough while spending next to nothing. I am
pretty sure many are gone for good from that quarter, but youngsters may still
find a way to integrate and coexist. Hipsters they are not, more open to
contamination than parents and grandparents though. Aggregation spots and
green areas may do half the trick, the other half being in rejuvenating the
very old buildings in the proximity of the train station.

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johnhenry
> now degraded because of uncontrolled migrants roaming and making it a no-
> law-zone at night

I feel like the data science part is worth a discussion, but I, and I assume
others, am bothered by your reasoning for why the city needs improvement.

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DrNuke
Unfortunately that is the exact reason why locals are relocating in mass from
that quarter, there comes the contest.

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neom
What is the city? I work in the city tech space, we have a platform cities can
use to deploy really good streaming open data APIs, wondering if it's worth
reaching out to them.

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DrNuke
It is a 160k city in Southern Italy named Foggia, the aerial map picture of
the quarter involved is here:
[http://www.nukepep.com/2017/02/14/ds-1-foggia/](http://www.nukepep.com/2017/02/14/ds-1-foggia/)
. They are calling for ideas from architects and engineers. No chance there
will be the opportunity to do it for real any soon, but a way for them to
stimulate the mayor.

