A laudable example of municipal transparency: Arlington opens municipal construction project tracking database to the public

Residents in Arlington County, Virginia soon be able to track municipal construction projects like this one in Lyon Village Park, on a publicly accesible Web site. Photo by John Shinkle/For The Examiner.

The Examiner reports, in "Arlington opens database to public," that Arlington County Virginia is providing access to citizens of the previously internal database used to track county construction projects. The database, called CAPTrack, allows residents to search by neighborhood, street, status, program and project type to instantly find out what's being done and when it will be completed. Residents can communicate via email with the project manager of specific projects.

Talk about transparency.

Does anybody know what's happening with this piece of property that is owned-controlled by the DC Department of Housing and Community Development? A comprehensive government property database with project information is a necessary step towards transparency.

Oh, about three years ago I suggested that more of DC Governmental communications from agencies such as the Zoning Commission, Board of Zoning Adjustment, the Office of Planning, the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs,l and other agencies put information into a similar database that would also be searchable by Ward, Advisory Neighborhood Commission, and ANC Single Member District.

While various agencies are doing more, the information that is available is often incomplete and surprisingly erratic.

In the People's Property Campaign about the selling off of the public's assets to developers, charter schools, and other avaricious agencies, organizers have been stymied in part because there is no master database of properties owned by the DC Government and/or its related instrumentalities.

This is something else that could and should be done in the city of Washington.

1207 H Street NE, Washington, DC. This building and parking lot is owned by a for-profit subsidiary of the H Street Community Development, which has received millions of dollars of federal Community Development Block Grant funds over the years.

Index Keywords: civic-engagement; governmental-best-practices