Portland Civic Lab
What it is
An open civic data dashboard for Portland, Oregon. Eight critical questions about the city's condition—climate, housing, public safety, homelessness, economy, education, quality of life, accountability—each answered with real public data automatically pulled from city APIs and government records.
Open data, open methodology, open books. If we can't show the math, we won't make the claim.
Why it matters
Portland has no shortage of opinions about whether things are getting better or worse. It has a shortage of accessible, honest data. The dashboard pulls from the City of Portland Open Data portals, Multnomah County Health & Social Services, Oregon Department of Education, U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and HUD—with direct links to every source. No projections, no marketing claims. When data is missing or incomplete, we say so.
Built for Portlanders who want evidence instead of narratives.
What it tracks
- Climate commitments and progress
- Housing permits and residential pipeline
- Crime statistics via Portland police data
- Homelessness counts in Multnomah County
- Business activity, employment, and unemployment
- Student enrollment trends
- Parks, libraries, and public services
- Voter-approved measures and how the money is spent