Questions I Should Be Able to Ask My City (On the Web)

It's too hard to ask a simple question about a city and get a simple answer.

This notion goes well beyond satisfying the need to know the answers. Our inability to ask basic questions about any city and provide simple answers is a much more profound shortcoming compared to just the answers themselves. Simple answers to basic questions are the foundational elements of more complex analyses.

When we rely on experts and representatives, elected or otherwise, to perform these analyses we expect accuracy and completeness. But how is this measured? No matter what the field of study, the answer has always been references, data sets, and peer review.

Today, especially in matters of public interest, the word "peer" is hard to define. All the more reason why satisfying the first two elements, references and data sets, is of paramount importance.

Cities should provide simple answers to basic questions.

Cities should provide simple answer to basic questions in a URL-addressable, well-formed, text format.

There are many mechanisms cities can use to satisfy this requirement; Web API, online spreadsheet, posted XML documents. Ideally, technology exists and can be integrated so that cities can answer questions via several of these mechanisms.

So what are the questions we would ask our cities, if we could? Following are a few to which I would like to know the answers. Moreover, given the answers to these questions in URL-addressable, well-formed, text format(s) the answers to these questions could make for some rather interesting, useful mash-ups.

1. Where is the location of each road and intersection under construction in my city?
2. How long has road/intersection X been under construction?
3. When will road/intersection X construction project be complete?
4. What is the list of each building construction permit in my city?
5. Where is the location of each building construction permit in my city?
6. What is the list of businesses that pay taxes in my city?
7. What is the list of businesses that pay taxes in my city, by type of business?
8. What is the list of how much each business paid in taxes in my city?
9. Where is the location of each business that pays taxes in my city?
10. What is the list of neighborhoods in my city?
11. How many houses are in each neighborhood in my city?
12. What is the list of schools in the city? (This should include private and church schools, too, if these schools are required to be registered with the city.)
13. What is the location of each school in my city?
14. What is the enrollment at each school in my city?
15. How many cars are registered in my city?
16. What is the list of most traveled streets in my city?
17. What is the list of traffic accidents in my city?
18. Where are the locations of each traffic accident in my city?
19. How many pounds of garbage are collected in my city?
20. How many pounds of garbage are collected in my city, by zipcode?
21. How many pounds of garbage are collected in my city, by neighborhood?
22. What is the list of events in my city?
23. When are events occurring in my city, by time period?
24. Where are events occurring in my city?
25. What is the list of conditional use permits in my city?
26. What is the list of all emergency response stations (fire, police, medical) in my city?
27. Where are the locations of each emergency response station in my city?
28. What is the number of emergency calls in my city, by time period?
29. What is the list of stations responding to emergency calls, by time period?
30. What is the frequency of emergency calls by station and time period?

[To be continued...]

Without a doubt, this list is far from exhaustive. Crime data is one of the most popular and reported-on data sets. I tried to come up with relevant questions for which data are not likely accessible. Certainly, schema are required for declaring the answers to these questions in our required format. Probably every question does not have to be anticipated a priori. We should also not assume that a particular question implies a specific data set. We often can easily get the answer of, for example, the location of each crime. Rarely, however, can we get aggregate data, useful in trend analyses. Perhaps what we need are structured data sets and Wolfram Alpha. In any case, a foundational platform of data is required. In any case, we should be able to formulate a basic question and get a simple answer (on the Web).

Given the simplicity of what is being asked, however, this should not be complicated.