Stats Shot: Dog Names Among Newly Released Data From Western Pennsylvania
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The new Regional Data Center is also keeping tabs on everything from potholes to city steps.
The Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center's online open data portal has been live for about three weeks now and currently features 118 datasets, mostly from the city of Pittsburgh and surrounding Allegheny County.
Route Fifty ran a story on Monday about the Center, but we wanted to take a closer look at some of the data that has been published so far through its online platform.
Below are a few charts, and an interactive map, which use data published by the county and the city related to dog licenses, 311 complaints and Pittsburgh's 739 sets of public stairs.
Dogs Named Bella and Buddy
One type of dataset now included on the center's open data portal provides information about dog licenses in Allegheny County, including license dates, breeds and dog names by ZIP code.
The data does not currently include pooches in the city of Pittsburgh.
Annual datasets are available for dog licenses valid through years ranging from 2007 to 2015. There's also data for "lifetime" dog licenses.
The data for 2015 includes records for 28,642 licenses.
While there is information about whether dogs are spayed and neutered, and whether they belong to people who are senior citizens or disabled, we chose to look at names and breeds.
Of the roughly 7,300 unique dog names featured on licenses expiring this year, the two most popular were Bella, which appeared on 395 licenses, and Buddy, which was on 348.
The chart below shows the top 50 most common names appearing on dog licenses that are valid through 2015. Some of the names that didn't make the cut: Zoo Zoo, which appeared on only one license, and Pancake, which appeared on two.
In terms of breeds, "mixed" dogs are most common among the canines listed in the data.
But the numbers also show that people licensing dogs in Allegheny County seem to have an affinity for Labrador retrievers and Labrador mixes. Chihuahuas are another favorite. Dog breeds not in the top 50 included xoloitzcuintles and stumpy tailed cattle dogs. There was only one of each listed on licenses expiring this year.
6,738 Pothole Complaints
Pittsburgh has published a dataset that includes 28,651 records of 311 service requests received by the city, which were logged on dates ranging from late April to early November this year.
The city points out that this dataset is still in development and that information for 311 requests directed toward certain municipal departments is being added to it as the year goes on.
Although the dataset may not reflect all of the city's 311 activity, it does provide a strong indication of why most people are submitting requests: potholes.
Of the documented requests, 6,738, or about 23 percent, were related to potholes. The next most common type of request concerns violations involving the disposal of trash.
The chart below shows the top 25 types of service requests.
In addition to providing a window into the type of 311 requests received, the city's data offers information about which neighborhoods and city council districts the requests are coming from.
The following chart shows neighborhoods where there were at least two requests related to illegal dumping recorded. "Null" means that no neighborhood is identified with the request.
And this next chart shows potholes broken down by city council district.
Before anyone calls the office of Natalia Rudiak in District 4, it's worth keeping in mind that these are raw numbers reflecting requests. They don't take into account the size of each district, the miles of street in each district or whether people in the district might be more inclined to call into 311 than residents that live elsewhere. It's also not clear how many of these requests are about the same pothole or potholes.
4.65 Miles of City Steps
Pittsburgh is a hilly town, and according to information published by the city, there are 739 sets of city steps around town that go up and down those hills. Of these, 344 are legally classified as streets. The city says the number of individual steps on the 739 stairways is 45,454 and that together these steps ascend 24,545 feet, or 4.65 miles of elevation. By comparison, Mount Everest is 29,029 feet high.
One of the selections on the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center portal includes files in a variety of formats with information about the steps and geographic data that allows them to be easily mapped.
The map below shows the 739 sets of stairs, color-coding each of them according to the number of individual steps they have and including the year when the steps were built when it is available.
So there it is. A small sampling of what's available through the new data center. If you're interested in taking a look at the datasets yourself, you can find them here.
Bill Lucia is a Reporter for Government Executive's Route Fifty.
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