Now, don't get me wrong. It's definitely not without its kinks. For one, I have never found it by going to the city's main website at http://stlcin.missouri.org. Where is it? This type of tool would be much more useful if it were front and center on the main website. Secondly, it tends to go offline a bit too often; certain links don't work; etc.
Yet, it's a still an immense resource. You can find out who owns a house, how many ordinance violations it has had, whether there's a demolition permit pending, what year the city believes it was built (often inaccurate, especially for older properties, but still), and even images of the property dating back several years. You can grab a property's legal description, assure that a certain parcel is inside a certain neighborhood, find out if it's listed on a historic district. The list goes on regarding the uses of the site (it even has a mini-locational analysis tool whereby you can look at aggregate income and other demographic data of the city with a customizable radius around an area of interest).
For this blog, being able to plug in any address and see whether a demolition permit has been added or whether there's an old photograph of a vacant building on the Preservation Board agenda--it's a lifesaver!
One of my favorite features of this little known site is the "Featured Image" that appears on the main page. From what I can tell, the selection is totally random. Some days we see vacant lots; usually we see vacant crumbling buildings. I always chuckle to myself that the city would "feature" its vacancy and abandonment on this semi-public website, but every once in a while a random photograph showcases the sheer beauty of a restored and revived St. Louis.
Like this home in Gravois Park on Miami:
What a great face to our city! Brick sidewalks, beautiful Second Empire architecture...what could be better?
I appreciate Geo St. Louis for what it currently does and hope the city can find the resources to make it even better. Let's not even discuss their main website, whose outdated interface is like a dingy doormat where wiping one's shoes just gets them dirtier (translation: it's not very welcoming).
4 comments:
I agree about both the usefulness of Geo St. Louis and the awful interface of the main city website. I doubt we'll see an overhaul any time soon (drama in the IT dept. last year, to say the least...). The Geo St. Louis site is linked on the main STL CIN page - just not really front and center. Scroll down to the "Map Online Data" header on the left column.
Geo St. Louis has far more (and more accurate) information than the St. Louis County counterpart. It's another arena where the City has it all over the County!
My wife and were cycling home from our weekly trip to Soulard Farmer's Market when we took a turn onto Miami, and passed this house. We also wanted to take a gander at the new construction just next door. We had a nice little conversation with owner. He was quite proud of his house, and told us that the paint scheme was done by an artist who dabbled in this sort of residential work. Forgive me for I cannot recall the artist's name. Now this is how a Victorian should be done up: three or four different complementary colors applied to the cornice, mansard parapets, and the brickmould. Brilliant. Don't paint brick!
The city's main site has had the assessors office listed for years. Here's where I always go:
Assessor's Property Lookup
Geographic Locator
Kudos to our city for having a good web site. Got something right!
Post a Comment