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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/holzerjm/civichacks-demo/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Real data for real civic projects. These are the same portals that city planners, journalists, and policy researchers use.

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Boston and Massachusetts

Analyze Boston

311 requests, permits, crime, property, schools, transportation

MA Open Data

State-level health, education, criminal justice, environment

MBTA Open Data

Real-time transit data, schedules, ridership

MA Trial Court

Court statistics and case data

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What you’ll find

The City of Boston’s open data portal contains hundreds of datasets including:
  • 311 service requests and resolution times
  • Building permits and code violations
  • Crime incident reports
  • Property assessments
  • Public school enrollment and performance
  • Transportation and parking data
  • Budget and spending information
All data is updated regularly and available in multiple formats (CSV, JSON, API access).
Massachusetts state-level datasets covering:
  • Public health statistics and outcomes
  • Education funding and achievement data
  • Criminal justice and corrections
  • Environmental quality monitoring
  • Employment and labor statistics
  • Transportation infrastructure
Data comes from various state agencies and is standardized for easy analysis.
Real-time and historical transit data including:
  • Live vehicle locations and predictions
  • Service alerts and delays
  • Ridership statistics by line and station
  • Schedule data in GTFS format
  • Performance metrics
Includes both API access and downloadable datasets.
Court system data and statistics:
  • Case filings and dispositions
  • Court performance metrics
  • Access to justice initiatives
  • Specialty court programs
Data supports transparency and criminal justice reform efforts.

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National datasets

Data.gov

300,000+ federal datasets across all agencies

Census Bureau

Demographics, income, housing, population by geography

CDC Data

Public health data, environmental health

EPA Data

Environmental quality, pollution, climate

FBI Crime Data

National crime statistics

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What you’ll find

The federal government’s open data portal with over 300,000 datasets:
  • Agriculture and food safety
  • Climate and weather
  • Consumer protection
  • Ecosystems and environment
  • Education and workforce
  • Energy and utilities
  • Finance and budget
  • Health and safety
  • Infrastructure and transportation
  • Public safety and law enforcement
Searchable by topic, agency, and data type.
Comprehensive demographic and economic data:
  • Population counts and estimates
  • Income and poverty statistics
  • Housing characteristics
  • Business and economic indicators
  • Geographic data down to the block level
The foundation for most civic data analysis.
Public health data from the Centers for Disease Control:
  • Disease surveillance and tracking
  • Health outcomes by demographic
  • Environmental health hazards
  • Vaccination rates
  • Chronic disease prevalence
Critical for health equity and public health projects.
Environmental protection and quality data:
  • Air quality monitoring
  • Water quality standards
  • Toxic release inventory
  • Superfund sites
  • Climate change indicators
Essential for environmental justice analysis.
National crime statistics and trends:
  • Crime rates by jurisdiction
  • Hate crime statistics
  • Use of force incidents
  • Law enforcement demographics
Valuable for criminal justice reform projects.

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Civic tech community

Code for America

Civic tech projects, open source tools

Civic Commons

Reusable civic tech applications

Open Data Network

Search across thousands of open data portals

awesome-civic-tech

Curated list of civic tech resources

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What you’ll find

A national nonprofit network of civic technologists:
  • Open source civic applications
  • Best practices and design patterns
  • Local brigade chapters
  • Annual summit and events
  • Product and service delivery expertise
Great place to find collaborators and inspiration.
A catalog of reusable civic technology:
  • Vetted civic applications
  • Implementation guides
  • Cost and deployment information
  • Community support
Don’t reinvent the wheel — start with proven solutions.
A unified search across open data portals:
  • Search thousands of cities and counties
  • Compare data across jurisdictions
  • API access to standardized datasets
  • Data visualizations
Find comparable data from multiple cities.
Curated civic tech resources on GitHub:
  • Civic data standards
  • Open source tools
  • Research and reports
  • Community projects
Community-maintained collection of civic tech patterns.

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Tips for working with civic data

1

Start with a clear question

Don’t just explore data aimlessly. Start with a specific civic question you want to answer — this will guide which datasets you need.
2

Check data freshness

Look for the “last updated” date on datasets. Some civic data is updated daily, others annually. Make sure the data is recent enough for your needs.
3

Understand the data dictionary

Most datasets include a data dictionary or README explaining what each column means. Read this first — it will save you hours of confusion.
4

Watch for data quality issues

Real civic data often has missing values, inconsistent formatting, or errors. Clean your data before feeding it to your AI.
5

Combine datasets for deeper insights

The most interesting civic tech projects combine multiple datasets — like overlaying 311 data with demographic data to find equity gaps.
6

Cite your sources

Always document where your data came from and when you accessed it. This builds trust and helps others reproduce your work.
For the CivicHacks demo, the datasets in the data/ directory are synthetic but realistic — fabricated for demonstration purposes. For real projects, use the sources listed on this page.

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