Student Guide .md

# Building Permit Pipeline - Student Guide

## 🏗️ Your Mission

**Build a public dashboard tracking housing development in your city.**

You'll create a website that shows:

- Where new housing is being built

- How many units are being added

- How long projects take to complete

- Interactive maps and charts

**Why this matters:** Housing is a huge issue in most cities. Your project will help community members, journalists, and policymakers understand what's really happening.

## 🎯 What You'll Learn

- Real data science skills

- How your city government works

- Creating public-facing websites

- Portfolio project for college applications

## 🚀 Getting Started

### Step 1: Setup (Week 1)

1. Install Python and Jupyter

2. Clone this repository

3. Install requirements: `pip install -r requirements.txt`

### Step 2: Choose Your City (Week 1)

Does your city have open data?

- Check: https://www.data.gov/

- Search: "[Your City] open data portal"

- Look for: Building permits, zoning permits, construction data

### Step 3: Follow the Lessons (Weeks 2-8)

Complete one lesson per week. Each builds on the previous.

## 📊 Project Phases

### Phase 1: Data Collection (Weeks 2-3)

**Goal:** Get permit data from your city

**Tasks:**

- [ ] Find your city's data portal

- [ ] Download permit data (CSV or API)

- [ ] Document your data source

- [ ] Import into pandas

**Deliverable:** `01_data_collection.ipynb`

### Phase 2: Data Cleaning (Weeks 3-4)

**Goal:** Make the data usable

**Tasks:**

- [ ] Standardize addresses

- [ ] Calculate net new units

- [ ] Filter for housing projects

- [ ] Handle missing data

**Deliverable:** `02_data_cleaning.ipynb`

### Phase 3: Geocoding (Week 4-5)

**Goal:** Add coordinates to each project

**Tasks:**

- [ ] Find geocoding service

- [ ] Add latitude/longitude

- [ ] Validate coordinates

- [ ] Save geocoded data

**Deliverable:** `03_geocoding.ipynb`

### Phase 4: Database (Week 5)

**Goal:** Organize data in SQLite

**Tasks:**

- [ ] Design database schema

- [ ] Create tables

- [ ] Import data

- [ ] Test queries

**Deliverable:** `city_housing.db`

### Phase 5: Analysis (Week 6)

**Goal:** Find interesting insights

**Tasks:**

- [ ] Total units by year

- [ ] Projects by neighborhood

- [ ] Average project size

- [ ] Timeline analysis

**Deliverable:** `04_analysis.ipynb`

### Phase 6: Visualization (Week 7)

**Goal:** Make data visual

**Tasks:**

- [ ] Interactive map

- [ ] Time-series charts

- [ ] Dashboard layout

- [ ] Color scheme

**Deliverable:** `05_visualization.ipynb`

### Phase 7: Website (Week 8)

**Goal:** Publish online

**Tasks:**

- [ ] Create HTML pages

- [ ] Deploy to GitHub Pages

- [ ] Test on mobile

- [ ] Share link

**Deliverable:** Live website!

### Phase 8: Presentation (Week 8)

**Goal:** Share your findings

**Tasks:**

- [ ] Create presentation

- [ ] Practice talking points

- [ ] Invite stakeholders

- [ ] Present!

**Deliverable:** Public presentation

## 💡 Pro Tips

1. **Start small:** Don't try to process all permits. Start with one year or one neighborhood.

2. **Document everything:** Future you will thank present you for writing notes.

3. **Ask for help:** Use teacher office hours, classmate help, online forums.

4. **Iterate:** First version doesn't need to be perfect. You can always improve it.

5. **Make it yours:** Add your own analysis, visualizations, or focus areas.

## 🏆 Success Stories

> "I used this project in my college applications. It showed I could do real-world data analysis and care about my community." - Sarah, Berkeley High

> "Our city council used our dashboard to make housing policy decisions!" - Team Oakland

> "I got an internship at a data journalism startup because of this project." - Marcus, Chicago

## 📝 Checklist for Completion

- [ ] Collected permit data from your city

- [ ] Cleaned and geocoded addresses

- [ ] Created SQLite database

- [ ] Performed meaningful analysis

- [ ] Built interactive visualizations

- [ ] Deployed public website

- [ ] Presented to stakeholders

- [ ] Documented your process

## 🎓 For Your Portfolio

Include in college applications:

1. **GitHub repository** - Shows your code

2. **Live website** - Demonstrates final product

3. **Presentation slides** - Communication skills

4. **Written reflection** - What you learned

## 🤝 Get Help

- **Stuck?** Check `resources/troubleshooting.md`

- **Questions?** Post in class discussion board

- **Bug?** Open a GitHub issue

- **Want to share?** Tweet with #BuildingPermitPipeline

## 🌟 Going Beyond

After finishing the basic project:

**Ideas for extensions:**

- Add inspection data (track construction progress)

- Compare your city to neighboring cities

- Build a Twitter bot for new permits

- Create data stories/blog posts

- Present to city council

- Submit to local news outlets

**Advanced challenges:**

- Real-time updates via API

- Predictive modeling

- Mobile app version

- Machine learning for categorization

Your city needs this information. You can provide it! 🚀