Data
What Computer Scientists Can Teach Planners About Design
Architect Dave Hampton reviews the 2nd annual Urban Sciences Research Coordination Network workshop held June 11 in Chicago.
Special Delivery: Housing Data Provided by the United States Postal Service
If you're looking for more data on housing in the United States, a dataset produced by the United States Postal Service has many advantages.
Tracking Chicago’s Potholes
A new animated map presents the reported cases of potholes in Chicago since November—the maps colorful and provides insights into how the city, and our relationship to it, can change with time.
Friday Eye Candy: Mapping Urban Exercise Patterns
An enterprising blogger has produced a slew of urban maps with an overlay of publicly available data on exercise routes. In addition to being fetching, the patterns revealed show how runners make use of the public realm.
Using Data to Design St. Louis' Redevelopment Efforts
A HUD funded project has provided the city of St. Louis with a fine-grained map of residential real estate conditions across the city. Officials are hopeful the data will better guide the distribution of precious community development dollars.
What the Data Says About Life in the City
Cities can be undersold or oversold in equal measure, but they never fail to present a shortage of data. With its #citydata series, This Big City explores the sometimes surprising facts about cities that emerge from the din of urban life.
Where to Find Federal Data During the Shutdown
When the federal government shut down last week it took many agency websites along with it, depriving planners around the U.S. of resources they use daily. The blog Data Insights has put together a list of alternative sources for federal data.
Can L.A.'s New Mayor Drag the City's Operations Into the Digital Era?
With a goal of improving the quality of life for the city's residents, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is embarking on a titanic task: using technology, transparency, and accountability to transform the city's "lumbering" bureaucracy.
Philly Prioritizes Public Access with Hiring of Chief Data Officer
Self-described "civic hacking veteran" Mark Headd has joined Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter's administration as the city's first "chief data officer," with the mission of "improving public access to information the city collects."
Is Any City Truly Unique?
As new research data on cities pours in daily, interesting patterns emerge regarding income, green space and urban growth. Like people in their genetic make-up, are cities fundamentally all the same?
So We've Got All This Data. Now What?
Ben Hecht offers his insights on what civic leaders should do to capitalize on big data and how efforts in Chicago are turning these ideas into reality.
Choosing Ignorance is Stupid
People love statistics. They let us understanding the world beyond our own senses. USA Today publishes a daily Snapshot which presents a graph of random statistics. Sports talk and business analysis are dominated by statistics. We measure our progress, or lack thereof, and compare ourselves with others, based on statistics about our size, activities and accomplishments.
Is Vienna the Quintessential Smart City?
Adie Tomer looks at how Vienna contributes to Europe's smart city movement through innovations in sustainability, place-making, and data utilization.
The High-Tech Urban Experience, Now Standardized
The seven largest metros in the nation are teaming up to unify the technologies that are revolutionizing life in the city, Steve Towns reports.
What's the Big Deal With 'Big Data'?
Ben Hecht contemplates the currency of the digital age and how it will transform the cities we live in.
The Coming Urban Data Revolution
Historically, data sources for urban planning have remained relatively stable. Planners relied on a collection of well-known government-produced datasets to do their work, including statistics and geographic layers from federal, state and local sources. Produced by regulatory processes or occasional surveys, the strengths and limitations of these sources are well known to planners and many citizens. However all this is beginning to change. Not only has the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey introduced a bewildering variety of data products, all with margins of error, three interrelated categories of new data are growing rapidly: crowdsourced, private, and "big" data.
Putting Alternative Fuel Stations on the Map
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Energy released an interactive map displaying thousands of alternative fuel stations around the nation.
The Environmental Impact of New Cars
The new "Eco-Drive Index" offers a mode of comparing the average monthly environmental impact by an individual U.S. driver who has purchased a new vehicle that month.
How Taxi Data Can Help Solve Public Transit Problems
Data on taxi pick-up and drop-off points can be a useful tool to better understand urban mobility, and how taxis can function as an aspect of public transportation, according to this post.
Data and Maps Aiding Police
Geomapping data is helping police in cities address problem areas, improve unsafe intersections and improve overall efficiency.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
KFH Group Inc.
Greater Baltimore Committee
Eagle County Government
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
