Save for the border they share with each other, the cities of Highland Park and Hamtramck are completely surrounded by Detroit. Despite that, those two small cities did not receive the benefit of the Motor City Mapping project that occurred earlier this year. That all changed Monday, Oct. 20, when that project, which cataloged every parcel of land in the city of Detroit, kicked off a week of documenting properties in Highland Park and Hamtramck.

Blexting -- a portmanteau of the words 'blight' and 'texting' -- is an app that has allowed people to document the physical shape of their communities, in turn allowing municipalities to better tackle issues of blight in those neighborhoods. Developed by Michael Evans of Loveland Technologies, the app is available on both iOS and Android smart phones.

This week, surveyors will canvas the two cities, taking photographs of parcels of land and then detailing each property with information regarding vacancy, damage, blights, and similar variables. For the project that occurred in Detroit, residents can now update that information through the app. Residents of Highland Park and Hamtramck will soon be able to do the same.

20 surveyors have been hired to document the roughly 6,600 parcels in Highland Park and 6,700 parcels in Hamtramck. Funding has been provided by the Skillman Foundation and Kresge Foundation with support from Loveland Technologies, Data Driven Detroit, and Rock Ventures. It's predicted that the surveying will take about one week to complete.

Blexting was developed by Detroit programmer and technology enthusiast Michael Evans in 2013. Having shared a co-working space with Loveland Technologies at the Department of Alternatives in downtown Detroit, Evans eventually joined Loveland to develop the app. Since its initial use in Detroit in late 2013 and early 2014, a number of cities have showed interest in the app, including New Orleans, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh.

Source: Rock Ventures press release
Writer: MJ Galbraith

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