Due to resource constraints, the Property Assessment History datasets will only be available for the most recent three years moving forward. As a result, the 2015 Property Assessment History dataset will be removed on June 24th, 2019. Please contact opendata@arlingtonva.us with questions or concerns you may have.
Arlington Data Matters Blog
We use this blog to update the community on dataset changes and other topics of interest. Most posts written by the Department of Technology Services.
Open Data Portal Update – Data Removal
Pursuant to our practice on data that is not unique to Arlington County, the following datasets will be removed on June 10th, 2019. Please contact opendata@arlingtonva.us with questions or concerns you may have.
- At-Place Employment
- Civilian Labor Force
- Average House Prices
- Housing YTD New Listings
- Housing YTD New Pending
- Consumer Price Index Housing
- Taxable Retail Sales
- Police Incident Log (Last 90 days)
The following datasets were removed without notice given the contract requirements with the subscribing agency.
- Office Absorption
- Vacancy Rates
- Monthly Hotel Average Daily Rate
- Monthly Hotel Occupancy
- YTD Hotel Average Daily Rate
- YTD Hotel Occupancy
Library Usage & Performance – Published
We’ve published data on Library Usage & Performance on Arlington County’s Open Data Portal – view here.
APR-JUN 2018 Metered Parking Transactions – Published
We’ve published data on Metered Parking Transactions (APR – JUN 2018) on Arlington County’s Open Data Portal – view here.
Administrative Change Requests – Published
We’ve published data on Administrative Change Requests on Arlington County’s Website – view here.
Employee Demographics – Published
We’ve published data on Employee Demographics on Arlington County’s Website – view here.
Enjoy Arlington Activities & Enrollments – Published
We’ve published data on Enjoy Arlington Activities and Enrollments on Arlington County’s Website – view here.
Employee Postal Codes by Department – Published
We’ve published data on County Employee Postal Codes by Department on Arlington County’s Website – view here.
Try It … It’s Free
The Data Matters blog is one year old. What a year’s it’s been, with so many perspectives on data presented. But presentation is a one-way conversation. What this blog really aims to do is to encourage every reader to actively engage with the data around them, and each other, to get the most value out of this unique asset. As the data message spreads across the County, one aspect seems to really resonate with almost everyone – data visualization. Data visualization at its simplest is taking an Excel spreadsheet and turning it into a bar chart – many of us have been doing this for years. Today’s data visualization offers many more tools than pie and bar charts, and perhaps most importantly, allows you to interact with your data any time. For example, if you produce a report listing how many services provided annually and you are asked how many services were provided by a particular team, your report might not have that. Data visualizations allow you to show a graphic and then pick which data elements appear in the graphic. You could take the same services report and look at the data quarterly or monthly, by division or individual, by category of service, by where the service was provided. And the best part is that it’s really not that hard to do and there’s a really great tool available for FREE. Microsoft’s PowerBI can be installed on your computer for free and in a few minutes, you can pull in a spreadsheet and present an insightful graphic. Try it today … and tomorrow!
Where Can We Find Open Data?
Since Feb 2016, Arlington County has been publishing datasets to its Open Data Portal. The site currently has close to 200 datasets. Most of the datasets are essentially reports from County systems that record the activity related to County services, for example real estate property values, tennis court reservations and construction permits. But tax dollars pay for a lot of other kids of data collection and data analysis, and consequently, there are numerous other sources of open data. For example, the County regularly conducts surveys to gauge constituent opinions on a wide range of topics. This data – with all possible personally identifiable information removed – is a candidate for open data. Aggregated data is another source of information that could be published. A report offers a line of data for every transaction but aggregate data summarizes and organizes this information in useful and reusable ways. Aggregate data is also a way to share information securely when sharing the individual transactions would be a breach of privacy. When you have a challenge or an opportunity that could be informed by data, be creative. That dataset may exist and could be just a request away.