The Gold Standard for Civic Data Delivery

Emily Badger is extremely impressed—and for good reason—with the City of Los Angeles' new neighborhood data portal, built in connection with the development a new health and wellness chapter for the city's General Plan.

1 minute read

October 19, 2013, 11:00 AM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


What type of information is important to understand a city's health and wellness? Off-sale liquor license rates? Rates of motor vehicle collisions with pedestrians? The prevalence of childhood obesity? How about all of the above and much much more.

A new web tool launched by the City of Los Angeles as part of its Plan for a Healthy Los Angeles, "maps a tremendous number of metrics about life in the region, at both the city and neighborhood scales" in an easy to digest graphic interface.

"Much of the data comes from the Health Atlas [PDF] the city released earlier this year, which made clear that life expectancies, for example, varied considerably across town. In an interactive mapping tool, however, that same information is now much more accessible, and can be viewed city-wide or by neighborhood," notes Badger. 

Friday, October 18, 2013 in The Atlantic Cities

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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