Did you see Prakirti’s helpful email?
I would encourage you to rely on your observations of the neighborhood you’re working on as well as your interviews with residents/workers/business-owners in the area. Look for signs of both resistance to and compliance with the proposed changes in the neighborhood. Try to find out if the residents are aware of the changes. If not, why not? Is the area simply a “neighborhood” or a “community”? Are there schools, libraries, community centers, nursing homes, hospitals, daycare centers that might be affected by the proposed changes? How does each side plan to deal with the disruptions to social and economic life? What do you feel needs to be preserved v. changed?…
The following might help you get started:
1. Basic planning definitions and policy ideas: http://www.tompkins-co.org/planning/vct/index.html (VERY helpful for the proposal section of the project).
2. Community district map: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/neigh_info/nhmap.shtml
3. New York City neighborhoods map: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/neighbor/neigh.shtml
4. Building information: http://nyc.gov/html/dob/html/home/home.shtml
5. Census Bureau’s American Fact Finder: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFFacts?_event=Search&geo_id=01000US&_geoContext=01000US%7C04000US36&_street=&_county=&_cityTown=&_state=04000US36&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=geoSelect&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&_submenuId=factsheet_1&ds_name=ACS_2007_3YR_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null®=null%3Anull&_keyword=&_industry=
5. US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) research resources: http://www.hud.gov/library/bookshelf03/index.cfm
6. Major city news sources:
www.gothamgazette.com
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/nyregion/index.html
www.newsday.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/index.html
7. Other York City newspapers: http://www.allyoucanread.com/new-york-newspaper-ny/
8. The Urban Insittute: http://www.urban.org/
9. Finding a City Council member: http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtml
10. Searching City laws: http://www.nyccouncil.info/html/legislation/legislation_llsearch.cfm