Saint Paul Property Vacancy

A Theory of Vacancy in Downtown

When walking through the streets of downtown Saint Paul we are faced with an eerie sight. Vacant store fronts and empty streets. This may be the scene in some parts of Saint Paul but to describe the entirety of it in such a way is reductive at best. Its a big place, there are lots of different sub-cultures and economies. In this series of data analytics I hope to explore the data of the economies throughout Saint Paul in an effort to better understand the driving factors and effects in our local economies.

Begin the Exploration

To start the analysis I wanted to explore where the vacancies are in Saint Paul and see if it can inform identifying policies or local cultures that exacerbate low vacancy. To begin this exploration I downloaded the raw data from the City of Saint Paul on vacant properties.

Data Features

In the initial data from City of Saint Paul there are a few notable features that I explored seeking an initial understanding of the city.

• Ward
  • Local regions of the city, represented by different city council members (from what I understand)
• Type of Property
  • Commercial, Duplex, Mixed Use, Multi-Family Residential, and Single Family Residential
• Property Category
  • The state of the property. I didn't initially know what this value was however on examining the available data features it peaked my interest, especially since the initial research indicated the Category defines who has to agree to property sales and what requirements must be met.
  • The Category rating goes from 1-3.
    • Category 1: Can be sold and just registration and fees must be paid. The city must be notified of the sale however they don't have strong requirements on who can purchase or what needs to be done before purchase.
    • Category 2: Properties which have, generally, multiple code violations that must be addressed before the property can be sold.
    • Category 3: Properties which have failed inspections and there can be no sale without a Certificate of Code Compliance or Certificate of Occupancy.