CoP: Data Science: Find data sources through the LA Controller's office

[akhaleghi]

Prerequisite(s)

Skills: Online research

If you would like to work on this issue, please add a comment below and include the following information:

• Your name
• How many hours you can commit to working on this in the next week (minimum of 2)
• Commit to providing an update with a comment before the next community of practice meeting

For example:

• John Doe
• I can commit to working on this issue 3 hours in the following week.
• Yes, I will provide an update on my progress with a comment below.
  Once you have done this, please add yourself to the “Assignees” section on the right and update the issue weekly to document your progress.

Overview

We want to build a library of various local data sources so that we can initiate new data science projects for volunteers that will be useful for the local community. The LA Controller's office seems to have quite a few.

Action Items

• Visit the LA City Controller's website (link below in resources) and create a list of data sets available.
• Find contact information from the Controller's website and get in touch with someone at the office to determine if real time data is available for the public to access. Examples are eviction and LAPD arrest data, which we have historical data for (links below).
• Document any correspondence with city representatives in a comment below.
• If real time data is available, add links to the Resources section.

Resources

LA City Controller Website - In the "Data Sites" section there are various resources that should be looked at to determine which may be of interest to Hack for LA
Google Doc of 2022 LAPD Arrests - We should see if this arrest data is available in real time.
Google Doc of 2023 Eviction Data - Another data set to check if real time data is available.

Spreadsheet

Google Sheet of Summarized LA Controller Data

[FragariaChemist]

Kristina Halbig
I can commit to working on this issue 3 hours in the following week.
Yes, I will provide an update on my progress with a comment below.

[RomyPatel]

Romy Patel
I can commit to working on this issue 3 hours in the following week.
Yes, I will provide an update on my progress with a comment below.

[FragariaChemist]

Started an Excel sheet of datasets on the LA Controller's website with short descriptions and links. Began near end of July and before August break.

[FragariaChemist]

Sent email to controller.mejia@lacity.org requesting access to any real-time public data, particularly on evictions and LAPD arrests. Email sent on 08/14/2024 at 2pm.

[FragariaChemist]

No response to my email about real-time public data. Reviewed first of four pages containing datasets on website. Logged potentially relevant datasets in Excel sheet. Noted name, summary of dataset, date range, update frequency, and API link if regularly updated.

[FragariaChemist]

Excel sheet for datasets reviewed on LA Controller website. This is a work in progress.

la_controller_datasets.xlsx

[FragariaChemist]

Left a message for LA Controller at 213-978-7200 on August 23rd at 9:45am. No response to email.

[FragariaChemist]

No response to email or call directly to LA Controller. Uploaded current work done on a spreadsheet of LA Controller data to Google Drive and pasted a link in description. Unable to come to tonight's meeting, but still working through datasets. Rows with API URL are actively updated.

[FragariaChemist]

Added more dataset links to spreadsheet and uploaded to project.

[akhaleghi]

@RomyPatel You haven't provided any updates on this issue since you started working on it, so please reassign yourself if you're able to work on it and provide weekly updates.

[FragariaChemist]

A complete draft of datasets that could be useful for Hack For LA is now added as a link in the description. Last week there was a discussion about doing a similar project with the City of Los Angeles website datasets, but there are many more and decided that if it was to be done, it should be a separate project with multiple volunteers.

Potential people to contact via LinkedIn since email and phone has been unsuccessful.

• Rick Cole - Deputy LA City Controller
• Andrea Lynn - Senior Performance Audit Analyst for LA Controller