by Michelle Mullen

On July 10, volunteers armed with clipboards, printed maps and pencils fanned out across Mosholu Parkway in small groups. One volunteer counted benches, while another noted whether drinking fountains worked. Others logged amenities like trash cans and lighting, stopping to mark each feature on paper maps that divided the neighborhood in quadrants.

The fieldwork was part of Mapping for Equity, an initiative by civics and tech literacy nonprofit Beta NYC, in partnership with Council member Eric Dinowitz. Mapping for Equity aims to train the public to document amenities and services in under-mapped areas before uploading the information to OpenStreetMap — a free, crowdsourced map used by governments, researchers, nonprofits and websites around the world.

“We really just try to get people to be thinking about the parks that they’re in and the amenities that are there,” said Duncan Ballentine, Beta NYC’s director of public programs. “What’s there, what isn’t, and what is being logged and not being logged. It’s all part of that exercise of digital literacy.”

Ballentine, who was among those leading the Bronx event, said OpenStreetMap could be best equated to “the Wikipedia” of maps, explaining it relies on public contributors to stay accurate and up to date. These maps, he said, often help guide public investment, a sentiment Dinowitz echoed.

“Open data allows for better oversight of our city, for community members to hold government agencies accountable for making sure we’re receiving the services that we deserve,” the council member said.

Projects like Mapping for Equity give residents another way to advocate for their neighborhoods, Dinowitz said. If benches, drinking fountains or accessible pathways aren’t documented, communities might be overlooked by government agencies and elected officials looking to identify gaps for improvement.

Residents in the greater Riverdale area and beyond have been contributing to OpenStreetMap for years, whether correcting information about neighborhood businesses from their phones or improving the accuracy of New York City’s subway system from hundreds of miles away.

One of those contributors is Riverdale resident Rose Hall, who began editing the digital map a few years ago after noticing small inaccuracies while using it in everyday life. Rather than setting out specifically to map her neighborhood, Hall said she updates information whenever she spots something that no longer matches reality.

“If I’m going out on a walk and [OpenStreeMap] is claiming this thing, and that just isn’t true, I use this little app to help me contribute that from my phone,” she said.

Most of Hall’s edits are modest, such as updating storefront hours or fixing other details she encounters during routine errands. She said those small changes help improve a resource used by thousands of people every day.

“I think it’s like we all use and benefit from this data a little bit,” Hall said. “So I think it makes sense to, in little ways, contribute back.”

However, not every volunteer has to live in the neighborhood they help map.

Clay Smalley, a student teacher in Chicago, has spent years improving the accuracy of New York City’s subway infrastructure in the map without leaving Illinois, including the 1 train line in Kingsbridge and the Metro North line that runs along Riverdale’s outer edge. Using satellite imagery, railroad diagrams and public records, he and other volunteers have refined the locations of underground tracks that cannot be seen from above.

“It was me and another person,” Smalley said. “He did a deep dive on the New York tax database and found where there were tunnel easements under buildings so that he could accurately map the routes of subway lines. Now the New York subway routes are, for the most part, pretty accurate.”

Smalley said contributors often build on one another’s work, continuing to refine and update information and gradually creating datasets that become valuable far beyond the OpenStreetMap community. Anyone can use that data to build seperate maps focused on a particular purpose, whether helping wheelchair users find accessible routes or assisting city planners in identifying gaps in public amenities.

“The more I take in from other sources and contribute and make the map complete, the more people will end up using it and learning things from it,” Smalley said. “I’ve already seen the OpenRailwayMap app get used in a lot of news articles.”

The Mosholu Parkway workshop focused on a much smaller scale, said Beta NYC Development and Strategy Manager Naeema Haque, who joined Ballentine in leading the event.

“We’re trying to help advocate for people to collect this data on their own and learn how to put their perspective on the map,” Haque said.

Mosholu Parkway resident Maite Duquela said she was drawn to the event because it offered an opportunity to improve her own neighborhood through data.

“What gets recorded gets maintained, gets funded, gets improved,” Duquela said. “What doesn’t is just insignificant. So we need to know that here there aren’t trash cans, and that’s why there’s more littering. We need to know that the benches are in good condition so people can use the park better.”

Rather than uploading the information immediately, participants will return later this month for a second workshop, where Beta NYC organizers will teach them how to create OpenStreetMap accounts and transfer each handwritten observation into the online map. Organizers also recorded 360-degree video throughout the park using GoPro cameras, allowing volunteers to verify locations before publishing the data.

The goal, Haque said, ultimately extends beyond creating more accurate maps.

“We think the government makes these maps or someone else makes these maps,” she recalled one participant saying. “But we can also put our own thoughts and our community expertise there.”

Keywords

Mapping for Equity,

Beta NYC,

OpenStreetMap,

Mosholu Parkway,

Bronx,

Riverdale,

open data,

digital literacy,

community mapping,

park amenities,

civic technology,

public data,

neighborhood advocacy,

public services,

GIS,

crowdsourced maps,

Bronx parks