The page opens up to an interactive map of available vacant lots with a pop-up window brief introduction. NYC is rendered in a simple black and white. The lots are broken down into a legend of lots-in-progress determined by color and outline color. A small blurb above the legend gives the viewer information on how the data was collected. Further data information is explained under the “About” tab.
Beneath the map is another explanation of the map broken down according to availability and progress. A search bar allows the viewer to search for vacant lots by address. In addition, information regarding current lots can be downloaded in a variety of formats including KML or a spreadsheet. 
When you click on a vacant lot, the Google street view for the lot appears, as well as information regarding the lot’s status including municipal information, current organizers, user generated notes and tips on how to reclaim land. For lots-in-progress, there is a link to the plot’s individual page, which contains social media tools such as an organizing group’s Facebook page, IOBY (In Your Backyard) grant, photos and contact information.
596 Acres even has its own team of “virtual groundtruthers” that use OASIS, satellite imagery, and Google street view to accurately map its vacant lots. Clicking through the site offers well-organized information on how to get involved. Videos, tutorials, and slideshows provide information about the project’s history and success as a community resource. 596 Acres creates the opportunity for DIY activism to change policies and create permanent change.
Application: Gutterspaces & Seed-bombing
596 Acres is a direct inspiration for my mapping project, Urban Agriculture: The Future of NYC’s Rooftops. By unveiling the process behind reclaiming land, as well as providing a community resource, this project gave me the idea to use the same processes for mapping available rooftop space. Another inspiration from 596 Acres stemmed from the mapping of gutterspaces.
In addition to vacant lots, 596 Acres maps gutterspaces, which are defined by Cabinet magazine as “unusably small slivers of land sliced from the city grid through anomalies in surveying, zoning, and public-works expansion”. In the early 1970’s, artist Gordon Matta-Clark bought 15 of theses unused pieces of land in Queens and Staten Island, however, he passed away in 1978 before he had the chance to realize his plans. Below is a schematic drawing of Gordon Matta Clark’s Fake Estates.
Seed bombs, or the Japanese version, Tsuchi Dango Earth Dumplings are little clay balls of manure, clay, and seeds meant to be thrown over chain-link fences. Seed-bombing was first used by Liz Christy in 1973 to pioneer the guerilla gardening movement.
The final layer of my map will use the gutterspace information taken from 596 Acres to pinpoint areas between rooftop farms that are available for seed bombing on a ground level. Encouraging seed bombing on a ground level gives a sense of the vertical space that urban agriculture can inhabit, from a sidewalk square to the rooftops above.