PRESS RELEASE: Charlottesville City Council Passes Open Data Resolution Forthcoming policy set to support civic innovation Charlottesville, VA, September 20, 2016 Last night the Charlottesville City Council unanimously adopted a resolution in support of open data. The resolution calls on the city manager to develop an open data policy for Charlottesville. With this step, the[…]
The city council meets tonight with two big things on its agenda. 1) Toward the end of the meeting, an open data resolution will be put before the council. This resolution, sparse in detail, explicitly calls on the city manager to create an open data policy for the city. It’s a big first step for[…]
In the past two years, the open data conversation in Charlottesville has come a long way. Next week, the City Council will take a first important step toward enacting an open data policy for the city. Key questions and hurdles remain, but if the proposed resolution (below) passes, it will be a critical first step. […]
On August 14, 2016 Smart Cville published the following article as an op-ed in the Daily Progress. Below you’ll find an excerpt of the essay that calls for the use technology to improve transparency and engagement. It’s no surprise, then, that the same faces appear again and again at these public meetings. Each person represents[…]
Today we celebrate National Bike to Work Week and Infrastructure Week with some visualizations of bike commuting in Charlottesville. This is a very simple visualization where we mash up Census ACS data on who bikes to work in Charlottesville with the city’s bike lane GIS maps. There are a variety of threads to pull on[…]
Today we’ve launched a procurement alert system for the City of Charlottesville. This system will alert subscribers to any new projects posted on the city procurement website. Additionally, it will send alerts regarding procurement project updates, including project awards. Previously, interested parties would need to review manually the city webpage and search for new awards[…]
From April to October 2016 the City of Charlottesville is sponsoring year two of its City Market composting program. The program collects compostable material from anyone willing to drop off bags at the composting station. This is a free service for free and all participants get the bags necessary to collect the compost. If[…]
April 12, 2016 Dear Council Members, Thank you for your service to the City of Charlottesville. In a letter to the editor the majority of the Council described a recent change in meeting procedures as “intended to create more transparency, broader engagement and a more efficient Council; less talk and more action means more tangible[…]
Shocking though it may seem… minor household leaks result in 1 trillion gallons of water being wasted each year. The insanity of this can be appreciated by citizens of all political stripes. With some basic awareness and programs, we can improve greatly on that number. The City of Charlottesville is a leader in the EPA[…]
It’s unclear how closely the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary will parallel 2008. Certainly the candidacies of Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders are very different in nature. Their trajectory and momentum, however, must feel eerily familiar to Hillary Clinton. In the 2008 Virginia Democratic Primary, Obama overran Clinton winning by 28.2%. That margin was even more[…]