Highlights
CITY AWARDED 2023 GOLD LEVEL “ WHAT WORKS CITIES ” CERTIFICATION FOR EXCEPTIONAL USE OF DATA FROM BLOOMBERG PHILANTHRPOPIES
# Leveraging Technology
The City of Arlington is proud to announce that it has once again been awarded the Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities Certification at the Gold level for exceptional use of data to inform policy decisions , allocate funding , improve services , evaluate program effectiveness and engage residents . What Works Cities Certification sets the standard of excellence for data-informed , well-managed local government .
Gold Certification is now requiring cities to show that they meet an internationally recognized standard on at least one of three outcomes : air pollution , the percentage of households with highspeed broadband subscriptions , or a high-priority outcome the city chooses that aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals ( UNSDGs ). Click here to read more .
About What Works Cities Certification :
The What Works Cities Certification program , launched in 2017 by Bloomberg Philanthropies ( bloomberg . org ) and led by Results for America ( results4america . org ), is the first-of-its-kind standard of excellence for data-informed , well-managed local government . What Works Cities Certification recognizes and celebrates local governments for their exceptional use of data to inform policy decisions , allocate funding , improve services , evaluate the effectiveness of programs and engage residents .
Some of the City of Arlington ’ s recent data quality improvements and innovations include :
• Being the first city in the United States to publish a Data Service Standard in November 2022 , which is designed to ensure all City data is transparent , accessible to all , user friendly , and can be used to solve real-world problems in our community .
• City enhancement of its Open Data Portal to now include nearly 50 downloadable datasets and 13 interactive web maps and applications with new user-friendly categories , step-by-step guides on accessing and interacting with datasets , and a survey for users to input their own ideas for inclusion .
• The City transitioned its on-demand , rideshare public transportation service from pilot program status to a traditional city service as the result of analysis of five years of ridership data . Residents can now affordably access almost 50 % more of the city ’ s jobs , hospitals , and schools within 30 minutes than they could prior to the launch of the service in 2017 .
To read more about how the City of Arlington is Using Data to Enhance Community Services Click Here