Cora Funke: My Summer with the City of Chelsea’s Open Data & Digital Communications Initiatives
By Cora Funke (KHC/CAS ’23). Cora was the Initiative on Cities’ 2022 City of Chelsea: Open Data & Digital Communications Initiatives Summer Fellow.
Over the summer, I had the opportunity to work for the City of Chelsea for eight weeks through the BU Initiative on Cities. I worked closely with Cate Fox-Lent, who is the Business and Grants Manager for the Chelsea Department of Public Works. I was involved with a variety of projects related to Chelsea’s Open Data and Digital Communications Initiatives. I really enjoyed the variation of my work, and I learned a lot from my experience.
Over the first week, I learned how to use the geographic information system software ArcGIS via some online trainings. Before my fellowship I had never used this program before, so it was helpful to get my bearings and try out some exercises. Cate also showed me lots of mapping and data management techniques.
Several of my projects revolved around creating content for the Chelsea Open Data Hub. The goal of this platform is to publish information about the city and make it available to the community to facilitate more transparent government. To convey Census data, I made interactive maps using demographics such as population, household size, median household income, and age. I also made maps about commuting habits, environmental justice neighborhoods, snow emergency protocols, hazardous waste sites, and city council, school committee, and state legislature representatives. It was challenging to find the best way to visualize these varying types of data, but eventually I became familiar with ArcGIS and the options available. Another project I worked on for the Open Data Hub was compiling research about air quality in Chelsea. In combination with demographic data, I identified neighborhoods with particularly vulnerable populations.
Chelsea has also been working on updating their official website to make it more efficient and easier to navigate. I sorted through the DPW pages to identify where information could be condensed, edited, or deleted. I collected links to all the pages Cate wanted to transfer to the new website, which she further organized.
Several departments in Chelsea are working together to revamp their rat baiting program. To help with this, I made a mobile survey. High school students interning with the City Manager’s Office will go door to door with this survey to identify where traps are needed and obtain consent from property owners to participate in the program. The data automatically connects to an ArcGIS map, which also displays information from the Inspectional Services Department about where traps have been placed previously. Hopefully this tool will allow the city to systematically target areas with especially bad rat problems.
Cate took me along with her to meetings so I could get a sense of what other people at City Hall were working on. I sat in on discussions about safety protocols for a carnival, the Chelsea Capital Improvement Plan as it relates to buildings and grounds, implementing website updates, water and trash rates, and the work of the North Suffolk Office of Sustainability and Resiliency. The most impactful meeting I attended took place at the Chelsea Police Station and was about the Hub program. This is a collaboration between 25 agencies offering social services across the city which aims to support the most vulnerable neighbors. They coordinate resources and develop integrated responses, which has allowed them to help hundreds of people. The program has been so successful that several other cities have modeled programs after the Chelsea Hub, and I felt fortunate to see the work firsthand.
I also went to a City Council meeting, which was a great opportunity to see local politics in action. I attended a photo voices gallery event hosted by GreenRoots, a prominent environmental justice nonprofit working in Chelsea and East Boston. The event featured photos taken by community members along with their testimonials about the effects of extreme heat. This is part of a collaboration between GreenRoots and the BU School of Public Health called C-HEAT, whose work I referenced while researching air quality in Chelsea. I went to a training about NearMap which is an aerial imagery program used by the governments of Suffolk County. The event took place at Boston City Hall, and I learned about the program’s new features along with other city employees.
Later in the summer, I used NearMap to count all the parking spaces in Chelsea. This was tedious, but worthwhile because the Housing and Community Development Department hopes to use this data to better estimate Chelsea’s population. This can be difficult, because due to the large undocumented population Census data likely underestimates the number of people living there. Using NearMap I also identified all the white roofs in Chelsea and measured the square footage. White roofs are an important climate change mitigation tool because they reflect heat rather than absorbing it.
Cate took me along on tours of City Hall and the Chelsea Senior Center, which is also home to the 311 Center. We walked together around the city to the Police Department and some of the fire stations, which helped me orient myself. Looking at the city from satellite images and maps is much different than walking the streets. I also became more familiar with the layout of the city by taking MBTA buses to work each day.
Chelsea is an incredibly multicultural city with a rich history of immigration, and there is a huge variety of cuisines from around the world. I tried a famous pizza bagel from Katz’s Bagel Bakery (they claim to have invented them). I also had pupusas from El Salvador, which are delicious (my favorite is bean and cheese). Trying classic Chelsea foods was a fun way to immerse myself more in the community.
On my last day at City Hall, Cate brought me up to the attic to see the inside of the clock tower. City Hall is a beautiful historic building which was built in 1908, and the clock tower was recently restored. We also went for a drive around Chelsea, first to visit the site of some planned sidewalk updates and where they hope to install a mural. I worked on securing approval from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation for this project, so it was great to see in real life. Cate brought me to the top story of a parking garage with a stunning view of Chelsea looking across the water to the Boston skyline.
Looking into my senior year at BU, I am bringing several aspects of my fellowship with me. I am taking EE 365, Introduction to GIS which builds on what I learned using ArcGIS this summer. We use a different program called QGIS in the class, and I’ve learned a lot so far.
Additionally, I will be completing a Kilachand Honors College Keystone project called Mapping Mutual Aid, much of which was inspired by my time in Chelsea. I am researching the history and political theories behind mutual aid and will also create an online map to display mutual aid organizations in Boston such as community fridges, buy nothing groups, and community mutual aid pods. My hope is that this resource will make information about community support more accessible and help people in times of need. Through my Keystone process so far, I have thought a lot about what I learned in Chelsea about making technology and information accessible.
I am grateful to have spent my summer working for the City of Chelsea. Everyone I met was welcoming and enthusiastic about serving the community. It was a fantastic growing experience for me, and I am excited to continue using the knowledge I gained in my life!