Chicago Open Data Portal Status Blog

As of April 14, 2017, this site has moved to dev.cityofchicago.org/blog.

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We have moved

This blog is now hosted on dev.cityofchicago.org/blog.

The most recent posts at any time can also be found on the new Developer News section of the City of Chicago Data Portal.

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Building Permits not updating

We are having a technical error updating the Building Permits dataset.  The data last updated Sunday morning, although little or no new data is generated over a weekend so today is the first day the dataset is behind in any significant way.

We are working on tracking down and solving the problem and will post any substantial updates as edits to this post -- including when the dataset updates have resumed.

Update 3/30/2017 - The dataset has been updating properly since 3/23/2017.

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New Data Portal login page

The City of Chicago Data Portal login page recently got a new look, along with other Socrata sites.  Users need not do anything different but since the change could prompt concerns about the legitimacy of the page, we wanted to verify the change.

Should you ever have concerns about the legitimacy of a page or anything else related to our site, we encourage you to reach out to us at [email protected] or @ChicagoCDO.  You can also contact Socrata directly through its support site.

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Additional datasets are missing records

We have discovered that, in addition to the earlier problem with the Food Inspections dataset, other datasets are also missing records, either just the last day or two or larger numbers.  This includes the 311 datasets.

We are continuing to investigate and will post significant updates to this post.

Update 2/1/2017, 11:20 am - Today’s updates ran correctly so all affected datasets are up to date.  We think we have solved the root problem.

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Food Inspection records are missing

We are aware that most records from the Food Inspections dataset are missing and are working to restore them.  We will post an update to this post when we know more or have restored the records.

Update 1/31/2017, 10:00 am - We have restored the records.

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Changes to Business Owners

We have made two changes to the Business Owners dataset:

Records now go back to 2002 (previously 2006) for compatibility with the Business Licenses dataset.

We changed the source for the Legal Name column so that it more accurately displays the legal name.  Previously, it sometimes displayed a related name for the business.

Before these changes, the legal name issue created some unintended duplication of otherwise-identical records. Therefore, the fix reduces the number of records but that reduction happens to be approximately offset by adding four years of data so the end result is only a small change in record count.

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Data Portal Outage

Because of an ongoing, widespread internet outage, the City of Chicago data portal is unavailable. This impacts both visitors to the webpage itself and those using the API.

We fully expect the portal will be available as the internet outage is resolved.

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Replacement of Street Closure Permits - Current

As discussed in a previous post, the Street Closure Permits - Current dataset has been replaced by the Transportation Department Permits dataset.  Street Closure Permits - Current no longer contains any data and will be removed soon.

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New columns in Transportation Department Permits

We have added three columns to the Transportation Department Permits dataset:

UNIQUEKEY - A permanent, unique identifier for the record. The APPLICATIONNUMBER column cannot be used as a unique ID because, while it is unique for an application, a single application covering a long address range can be broken into multiple records.

XCOORDINATE and YCOORDINATE - Supplementing LATITUDE and LONGITUDE, these columns contain the starting position of the address range in State Plane Illinois East NAD 1983 projection.

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Divvy Bicycle Stations - Historical not updating

We became aware today that Divvy Bicycle Stations - Historical has no new data since 8/13/2016.  We are investigating the problem.

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Some data sets not updating since 8/19

An error has prevented a limited number of data sets from updating on the open data portal. The 311 data sets and food inspections has not successfully updated since Friday, August 19th. We’re aware of the problem and working to resolve it.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Update - 9/6/2016

The issue has been resolved and these data sets are updating regularly. 

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West Nile Virus Mosquito Test dataset changes

We have made two changes to the West Nile Virus (WNV) Mosquito Test Results dataset:

We have added a TRAP_TYPE column.

Because addresses are presented at the block level, the LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, and LOCATION columns are designed to be on the correct block but not necessarily at the exact trap location. However, any given trap should appear in the same place for all test records, unless it has actually moved to a different block.  We discovered and fixed an error that was causing the locations to move between tests.  This should only improve the experience for most users but, since most records have moved, anyone sensitive to that sort of change should take note.

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Filtered views for the Ordinance Violations dataset

We recently released a dataset of ordinance violations related to the Department of Buildings.  However, we will be adding violations from other departments so it is not advisable to use links to the full dataset for purposes that relate only to that department.

We have created a filtered view specifically for Department of Buildings violations.  That view can be treated like a dataset for most purposes and will always stay in sync with the full dataset.  We will be creating similar filtered views for other departments, as we add them. You can find the filtered views for any dataset -- as well as other manipulations and presentations of the data -- by clicking the purple “More Views” button at the upper-right of the page 

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Towed Vehicles dataset is not updating

The Towed Vehicles dataset, which normally updates every 15 minutes, has not updated since 10:01 am today.  We are investigating the cause and will post any significant changes -- including when the updates resume -- as edits to this post.

Services making use of this dataset, such as http://www.wasmycartowed.com, will also be affected.  We are not certain but initial indications are that the City of Chicago’s Find Your Vehicle page also has not been updating for towed vehicles since approximately the same time.

Please note that the Relocated Vehicles dataset updates separately and appears to be working properly.

Update 8/10/2016, 12:43 pm - The dataset appears to be updating properly again.  We will continue to monitor but this will be the last update unless the problem returns.

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Public Chauffeurs data delayed

Due to issues with the data source, the Public Chauffeurs dataset is not showing same-day data.  Updates will occur in the mornings, using data up-to-date through the previous day.

We hope to return to same-day updates sometime in July and will update this post as we have more information.

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Consolidation of Public Health Clinic Datasets

The Chicago Department of Public Health has historically published three datasets showing the locations, hours, and other information about different clinic types it operates.  Those datasets have been consolidated into a single dataset, with associated map.

Please update any references to the old datasets and maps:

Mental Health Clinics: Dataset / Map

STI Speciality Clinics: Dataset / Map

Women, Infant, Children Health Clinics: Dataset / Map

These old datasets and maps will be removed on or after 7/15/2016.

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Missing time slices in beach automated sensor datasets - 6/2/2016

The hourly updates for the Beach Water Quality - Automated Sensors and Beach Weather Stations - Automated Sensors datasets have been failing since 5 am. We are investigating the problem.

Unlike some datasets, the nature of how these datasets are updated means the missing time slices will not be filled in, even after the underlying problem is fixed.

Update 6/2/2016, 2:10 pm - The problem has been fixed and the datasets are updating.