Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2015)/Day 3 Projects/Civic data

Building and visualizing datasets using data.seattle.gov and Google apps

In this project, we will explore a few ways to gather data from data.seattle.gov using the Socrata API, the Google Maps API, and Google Fusion tables.

Today's dataset

Click here to view the Seattle Building Permits database

Today's scripts

Click here to download the today's scripts

Goals

• Collect data on building permits in Seattle, by neighborhood and by year awarded.
• Combine those data with neighborhood data from the Google Maps API
• Download the results in a CSV file
• Upload results to Google's Fusion Table visualization engine

Topics we will cover

• creating API queries and filtering and grouping the results
• combining results from multiple APIs
• downloading API results as CSV files
• building visualizations of timeseries and geolocated data

Questions we will (attempt to) answer with our data

1. which Seattle neighborhoods have had the most multifamily residential construction (apartments and townhomes) since 2010?
2. how much has the rate of apartment construction increased since 2010?
3. where are the most expensive construction projects currently being built?

Other questions you can answer with these data

1. which Seattle developer has built the most apartments and townhomes since 2010?
2. where in Seattle are the most single-family homes being constructed?

Resources

If you are confused by anything today, go back and refresh your memory with the Day 0 setup and tutorial and Day 0 tutorial

Sample API queries

• Building permit data: https://data.seattle.gov/resource/mags-97de.json?$where=issue_date%20IS%20NOT%20NULL%20&action_type=NEW&category=MULTIFAMILY&$limit=100
• Google maps location (using street address): http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=5601+22ND+AVE+NW+Seattle+WA
• Google maps location (using lat/long): http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=47.66979666%2C-122.38570052

Sample charts/maps

• Google Fusion table map of permits 2010-2015 [1]

Help resources and inspiration

• About Google maps API: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/#ReverseGeocoding
• About Google Fusion tables: https://support.google.com/fusiontables/answer/2571232
• Google Fusion Tables mapmaking tutorial: https://support.google.com/fusiontables/answer/2527132?hl=en&topic=2573107&ctx=topic
• API sandbox tool: https://www.hurl.it
• API-powered app: http://web6.seattle.gov/mnm/
• Socrata API help resources: http://dev.socrata.com/consumers/getting-started.html

• filtering results: http://dev.socrata.com/docs/filtering.html
• dealing with timestamps: http://dev.socrata.com/docs/datatypes/timestamp.html
• writing API queries: http://dev.socrata.com/docs/queries.html

Other data.seattle.gov datasets with neighborhood, timeseries, and/or location data

• Seattle Cultural Space Inventory
• MTS trail bike/ped traffic
• Burke Gilman trail bike/ped traffic
• Road temps in Seattle
• SPD 911 incident respose

Instructional videos

• https://data.seattle.gov/videos
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlKzXTrTLOQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whfp8ojMf0U
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd6bwz3ivVA

Other Socrata sites that use this API

• https://data.austintexas.gov/
• https://data.cityofchicago.org/
• https://data.cityofnewyork.us/