- Lobbying Disclosure Act - Senate Office of Public Records. All lobbyists for the federal government have to file a Lobbying Disclosure Act form. What specific issues are their clients interested in influencing and how much money did they spend? Local organizations and even universities may have lobbyists in Washington.
- National Land Cover Database. Government agencies work together to put out data on land cover. They look at land use locally to show the growth of development in various parts of a city or area. They put out data every two years, since 2001.
- Low Income Housing Tax Credit database. Largest federal housing program for affordable housing. Not all affordable housing are projects, they are low income houses.
- FEMA Individuals and Household Program. After a federal disaster, FEMA has different programs that individuals can apply for. Assistance for housing our other issues. Has acceptance rate and other categories. For example, FEMA did not give a lot of assistance to people affected by fires in Oregon.
- FEC. Who is giving money to campaigns? How are campaigns spending the money? FastFEC is a tool to parse through FEC filings that can give a lot of CSV-formatted data on local candidates.
- HUD physical inspection scores for federally-subsidized properties. This is a program that rates the physical condition of a property from 0 to 100. Anything under 60 is considered a failing property.
- EPA Outdoor Air Quality. There are thousands of air monitoring properties across the nation. The tool can be used to aggregate data from individual counties or states. You can look at specific particulates that may lead to specific health issues.
- Housing market. There is a lot of ground that RedFin and Zillow provide. New listings, pending sales, how quickly things went of the market, sales prices. Zillow can provide data at the national, metropolitan and ZIP Code level.
- Your Local Code Enforcement Database. When did people become aware of issues?
- House member representational allowances. House members have to file reports on how they spent their money. Money is allocated to them by taxpayers to pay for things in their offices. Where do house members buy food?
- Bridge conditions. National Bridge Inventory has information on status or condition of bridges across the country. Structural condition, when it was built, etc. There is a 2016 IRE tip-sheet.
- City Police Department Data Portal. Adds context to breaking news. These data portals are often glitchy in terms of data collection or mapping.
- College Scorecard. Can tell you information about higher education institutions that are federally funded. Graduation rates, average annual cost, amount of loans, etc.
- NOAA daily climate summaries. An aggregate of land stations around the world that produces a daily historical record of temperature, rainfall, snowfall, etc.
- AJC’s Dangerous Dwellings Database. Find the most dangerous apartment complexes in your neighborhood through a compilation of various other databases.
Data Is Plural
- House financial disclosures. House members have to disclose their personal finances. What do they own and what do they owe? What kinds of investments do they have? What are conflicts of interest? Periodic transaction reports are issued when members buy or sell stocks.
- Energy generation. Energy Information Administration shows data on power plants on where and how electricity is being generation (solar, wind, coal, etc.). You can create a breakdown of the electricity generated in your state and how green and renewable it is. Plants have longitude and latitude coordinates.
- New Markets Tax Credit. Incentivize development in low-income areas by the Department of the Treasury. It is often criticized as a boondoggle. It is listed by Community Development Entity.
- DSIRE/NC Clean Energy Center Technology Center. Track all subsidies at state and local level for energy saving programs. How many energy incentives are for consumers or businesses? How much in tax savings can you get? Are they broad or specific?