Data Con LA 2020 Description The City of Los Angeles launched its open data program in 2013, making department-level data open to the public. This initial release of data was welcomed by the research and data science community. However, focus groups and discussions with citizens revealed that it was less accessible to a broad public audience. To address this, the City of Los Angeles is making the data more accessible through the Know Your Community platform which makes neighborhood-level insights and training sessions available for the public. Speaker Preston Mills, City of Los Angeles, Community Data Manager

1. Data Power to the People
Community Data Manager, Preston Mills
LA Mayor’s Data Team

2. Census
Outreach
+
Data

3. Using city open
data to uncover
meaningful
insights
Map identifies prominent business
industries in proximity to LAUSD
schools, using LA city open data
Data for example purposes and for any other purpose

4. 1000+ datasets
1000+ community users
geohub.lacity.org

5. 40M+ views
1.7M+ dataset
downloads
data.lacity.org

6. The power of data in civic engagement
● Bring new voices into policymaking
● Uncover inequities and community data stories
● Empower residents to use this powerful tool for advocacy

7. Common challenges to leveraging data
sources (pg 4)
What is data? How do I use it? Is the data credible?

8. Community Data Literacy with Neighborhood Councils
LA’s 99 Neighborhood Councils form the
grassroots level of the Los Angeles City
government. They represent our communities
and help make the City more responsive to local
needs.
empowerla.org
Neighborhood Councils advocate on issues like
homelessness, housing, land use, emergency preparedness,
public safety, parks, transportation, and sustainability.
At the start of 2020, we worked with Neighborhood Councils to
provide community-based data literacy trainings

9. Community Data Literacy Workshops

10. Data Opportunity: Insightful and Comprehensive
Platform
Current Open Data Challenges
● Not very accessible to most residents (access isn’t equitable)
● Designed as a public warehouse of city data
● Not community focused
Open Data Opportunities
● Real-time city data
● City resources
● Data literacy initiative
● Growing geohub community

11. Know Your Community Platform
Objective
Provide Angelenos a place to learn more about their community, from what local events are
happening and what city services are offered to upcoming roadwork and open 311 calls.
Our Approach
1. Work with residents and Neighborhood Councils to formulate platform vision
2. Build Platform
3. Receive Feedback
4. Launch and Iterate

12. Initial Stakeholder Findings
● Most people saw demographics as most interesting, but necessarily the
important issue
● People are most interested in:
○ Recreation
○ Transportation
● Education was not ranked high in the general poll, but people who were
interested found it important
● Respondents are also seeking a mechanism for community feedback

13. know-your-community-lahub.hub.arcgis.com

14. New WebApp: Community Window

15. New WebApp: Neighborhood Council Demographics Reports

16. New WebApp: Resilience WebApp

17. New WebApp: 311 App

18. Included WebApp: Streetwize

19. Included WebApp: CleanStat

20. Exploring the Know Your Community
Platform
know-your-community-lahub.hub.arcgis.com

21. Q&A

22. Interested in supporting or
learning more? Get in touch.
mayor.opendata@lacity.org