This page used to have a map of vacant public land and underutilized NYC parks buildings. Watch the video above to see how it used to work.

The map was part of a strategy to make the scars of urban renewal visible and help neighbors take action to create new community spaces. It was built by 596 Acres in 2014, at a time when data about public land was difficult to find and City agency support for creating new spaces was nearly non-existent. 596 Acres was part of a movement that changed that— our efforts together forced the City to recognize the value of creating new community spaces and to find staff to support those community efforts.

You can find help transforming a vacant lot in your life directly from the NYC Parks Department. Start here: nycgovparks.org/greenthumb/start-a-garden

You can also now find the City’s property data with geographic information through MapPLUTO, and a lot of other data is on the City's open data portal.

Learn about 596 Acres at 598acres.org, and the open source code for this map and other tools are on GitHub.