Sources Data Dictionary

Chicago Cityscape has documented most of the data, map, and policy sources it uses.
Can't find something we've shown elsewhere on the site? Contact us.

Data that we don't have

Crime data

Chicago Cityscape doesn't show or have data about reported crimes: it is very biased as many communities are overpoliced, often represents alleged and unconfirmed crimes, poorly represents actual threats or danger, has sometimes been published with errors or is amended later; and, when mapped, crime data can imply "hotspots" that are based on temporary, community, social, and contextual situations rather than geographical (place-based) factors.

Additional resources about crime data

Other data we don't have

A typical reason for why we don't have a given dataset is because it's not available in an easy-to-obtain format that can be automated.

Certain permits & licenses

  • Public way use permits and Grants of Privilege (GOP). The City of Chicago does not provide this on its data portal.
  • Business license applications (pending). The City of Chicago does not have a public-facing database of people applying for business licenses.
  • Occupancy inspections/certificate of occupancy. These occur when a renovation project or new construction project is completed and requires a final inspection and sign-off from the Chicago Dept. of Buildings that it's ready for occupancy.However, the Chicago building permits data does say which stage the project is in (inspections, occupancy certificate required, and so on).

Appraisals

  • Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago and Chicago Rehab Network are collecting stories from people who've experienced low appraisals. (added 2/6/22)
  • Appraisal information. Read about Cook County Assessor Kaegi's efforts to have the Government Sponsored Enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) to publish these reports.

All other categories

  • Certain lending and investment: We don't have CDFI, mission lending, Illinois treasury small business lending risk backstop.
  • Water records. In Chicago, this information is stored in old books at City Hall and can be requested via FOIA.
  • Where gentrification and displacement is happening. We recommend looking at the Displacement Pressure map that the Institute of Housing Studies keeps updated.
  • Evictions data. However, the Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing provides aggregate evictions data for Chicago.
  • Vacant Building Registry. The City of Chicago does not provide this on its data portal, nor as a downloadable file. Note: This was added as a beta feature in March 2023. The data was obtained via FOIA request.
  • Illinois corporations and LLC database

Miscellaneous

We are always gathering feedback on what data people want and need, even if it's already been investigated and placed in the lists above. Community and industry needs change, and we want to create data partnerships even where it's difficult to obtain and integrate data into our system. Please contact us to request that we add data or to explain how you use data.

Chicago Cityscape relies on the City of Chicago's data portal. The city's digital team publishes a blog that describes some of the new or changed data sources.

The Chicago zoning map colorway comes from Second City Zoning.

This page is part of a collection about website service & status information.

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The office uses this data primarily for valuation, assessments, and reporting., A list of Cook County parcels., Information the CCAO uses to assess commercial properties., Cook County Assessor mailing addresses, Information about traffic crashes in Chicago, Information about the people involved in traffic crashes in Chicago.