Government
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Tracking Eater Chicago’s “24 of Chicago’s Most Anticipated Fall Openings”
I saw this post on Eater today: 24 of Chicago’s Most Anticipated Fall Openings. As is usual with Eater, it was an amazingly well-researched post, with tons of detail and specifics about who’s doing what where. The actual dates of restaurant openings are a notoriously inexact science. There are lots of movable parts to opening a new…
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Primer on the US Ignite Event at the White House
Last week I attended the US Ignite launch event at the White House, where a number of Obama administration officials made a series of announcements about programs around broadband policy. There are many entities, technologies, and programs that fit together to form a path toward United States leadership in superfast broadband, but it takes some digging and…
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BatchGeo, Socrata, and Vacant Building Service Requests in the City of Chicago
I was knocking around on the City of Chicago’s Data Portal recently and I was impressed to see this data set: Vacant and Abandoned Buildings Service Requests. Here’s how they describe it: Data set contains all 311 calls for open and vacant buildings reported to the City of Chicago since January 1, 2010. The information…
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Using the Chicago Inspector General’s HRAIL Efficiency Report as a Jumping-Off Point for More Contract Learnings
I like to read contracts generated by the City of Chicago. They help me understand how things work. I don’t mean to be coy or world-weary about that. I just mean that when we’re forced to codify what we’re willing to pay for, we expose ourselves. I also like the Office of the Inspector General…
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Actual Civic Legislation, Actually Being Published, Reviewed, and Debated, Right Here in Chicago
Take a look at this post from the Reader's Ben Joravsky, helpfully subtitled "Mayor Daley proposes watered-down 2016 oversight to replace Manny Flores's oversight compromise". Basically it chronicles a development at City Hall yesterday, whereby Alderman Manny Flores introduced a draft ordinance requiring strict oversight of the activities of the Chicago 2016 Committee, including details…