About
What is this?
NeighborhoodPins is a community-driven tool for reporting and tracking neighborhood issues like potholes, broken signs, and trash pileups. Instead of waiting on the towns, locals can pin and share problems in seconds. This was highly inspired by the way Waze will show crashes on your drive.
What did I learn?
The stack I used is Next.js, Auth0, and Neon PostgreSQL. This site is a remake of one I made at the end of college, with a completely different stack that failed me after some time. Everything from auth to database was handled for me, so this time I wanted to do everything myself. I've only ever used traditional SQL, so learning PostresSQL felt very natural and was very easy. Building it all myself gave me a much deeper understanding of how all the parts of this moving engine work together.
What I did
I designed and built the site from the ground up. Creating an interactive map used for this kind of user reporting was one of the most challenging parts, especially getting it to look well across devices. Working with external APIs and learning how they interact with the frontend taught me a lot about handling async data, rate limits, and user experience trade-offs. Designing the backend, especially the database schema, was the most fun part. I focused on keeping things efficient, scalable, and easy to query, even as more pins and users are added. I also handled authentication, user sessions, basic access control, and error handling across the stack.
Have any questions or feedback?
If you have any questions about the project or want to get in touch, feel free to reach out: