Nate Silver/538 Sports > The Boys of Spring Training Get The Data Crunched By Algorithms

The arrival of spring training brings with it a number of treats - thrills for baseball fans, mega-millions for team franchise owners, media and advertising, and sales tax revenues for cities like Mesa hosting spring training at two city-owned sports spots [an increase of $1M in the second year for a taxpayer-funded investment of $$28M].
If you’re a fan, it’s the hope that this might be the year your team wins the World Series.
For number crunchers, it’s a fresh batch of projections, ripe for statistical exploration.
Let's take a look

2017 Market Summary // Maricopa County Open Data > Assessor's Office

Dear readers,
Visiit the Maricopa County Assessor's Web site.
The office of the Assessor annually notices and administers nearly 1.7 million real and personal property parcels/accounts with a full cash value of more than $402 billion for 2015.
Refer to the News/Press Release page for important information from the Assessors office. This site is designed to serve the public with a variety of informational items. Please spend some time browsing the site to see all of the different pages and options available to the public. We are committed to continuing to improve and upgrade this site. If you have comments or questions about the information which is available please contact the Maricopa County S.T.A.R. Center at 602-506-3406 or contact us using this form.
For a list of changes between our old site and our new site, be sure to check out the "What's New" page. Also, be sure to read the "Search Help" page for a primer on how to use our new search engine.2017 Market Summary: See stats for commercial properties and hotels

Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation.
http://mcassessor.maricopa.gov/news/2017-market-summary/

 

Mapping Services

• Parcel Viewer (Maps)
• Pictometry (Oblique Imagery)
• Maricopa County GIS Portal

 

Beta Website Now Available!

Thank you for visiting the preview of our redesigned website! The new design should also work much better on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers.
The preview (beta) site is not yet fully functional, and we may have some dead buttons. Before we retire the old site, we of course will move any remaining reference materials, forms, links, and other resources to the new design. The search engine works to the same extent, although it shows results in a slight different format. The preview website has links to the beta version of our new parcel viewer (“betamaps”). For serious business, though, please use the old site.
The new parcel viewer (maps) design comes with instructional videos as part of Help. Please take a moment to check them out by visiting Help (upper right of the parcel viewer window) and then selecting a Tool. You might try Basemaps, for instance (http://betamaps.mcassessor.maricopa.gov/help/t_basemap.html). The new parcel viewer design also contains aerial photography from our 2015 delivery, which we shall not post to the old parcel viewer, as browser support for Silverlight will soon be discontinued entirely. The new parcel viewer has slightly different functionality than you've seen before, but each parcel search result includes a handy link to the website parcel details should you need to explore more information.
We'll have the preview versions of our new designs up for at least a month before we retire the old design. The feedback links will provide you an opportunity to provide constructive comments about the new design.

 

 

http://mcassessor.maricopa.gov/

Just In Time For Open Data Day



After a lot of City of Mesa Newsroom fanfare back on August 5, 2015 [seven months ago], an announcement on Twitter by City Manager Chris Brady three months later that a Leadership Board had been nominated, a brief presentation to the Economic Development Advisory Board on January 5, 2016 and another to City Council a week ago - Mesa announced the adoption of an Open Data Policy just in time for Open Data Day today.
Good news, huh?

The Sunlight Foundation made an announcement yesterday
Mesa embraces open data with new Portland policy
By Alyssa Bloom
March 4, 2016, 1:10 pm.
As a part of its participation in the What Works Cities initiative, Mesa, Ariz., has made major progress toward establishing a comprehensive and sustainable open data program over the past several months. Last fall, Mesa adopted an open data policy, and today — just in time for open data day 2016 — the city has taken another step in advancing its open data work with the launch of a new open data portal.
[underlined in blue are links to use]

 

 
The city’s Open Data Management Policy, which was signed by City Manager Chris Brady last October, affirms Mesa’s commitment to joining the open data movement. Meeting the majority of Sunlight’s open data policy guidelines, it firmly establishes processes for the collection and release of quality data, takes major steps to ensure that data release is timely and is prioritized based on city priorities and public feedback. It also mandates an annual open data report and review process — an activity that will be fundamental in the effort to achieve the policy’s ultimate goals.
[City Manager Chris Brady is shown in the image to the right signing the Open Data agreement]
.

Here's a excerpt from the article from The Sunlight Foundation : Mesa is streamlining cross-departmental data sharing by "eating their own dog food
Off the bat, the portal features 94 new datasets related to building permits, bike paths and other information related to strategic priorities. Users can also put in requests for datasets they’d like to see on the portal.

Things, however, don't always work out - like this noted a couple of years ago in the African nation of Kenya . . . 

Why Kenya's open data portal is failing - and why it can still succeed

by Greg Brown

Sept. 23, 2013, 12:58 p.m.

Kenya’s open data portal is floundering.
Despite the excitement that surrounded its launch in July 2011, the portal has not been updated in eight months, has seen stagnant traffic, and is quickly losing its status as the symbolic leader

Mesa's Open Data Program
“Data is the fuel that powers our efficient and innovative services.
open.mesaaz.gov makes that data available to our residents,
providing a greater level of transparency and
fostering the creation of new ideas and applications”
                                                                                             
                                                                             - Mayor John Giles

Mesa celebrates Open Data Day with new open data portal

Innovative Partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ National What Works Cities Program

Post Date:03/04/2016 10:45 AM

The City of Mesa’s is proud to announce the opening of its new open data portal in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities and The Sunlight Foundation.

In celebration of Open Data Day on Saturday, March 5, the City of Mesa encourages everyone to check out the new portal at open.mesaaz.gov. 
“I strongly believe that data and evidence are the fuel that will continue to power the positive momentum we’ve created as we work to grow Mesa into an even better place to live work and raise a family,” said Mayor John Giles. “We are excited that Mesa is a leader in open data for Arizona.”
The portal will make it easier for residents to access data and learn more about the progress Mesa is making towards addressing the city-wide priorities of increasing prosperity, transforming neighborhoods and creating a vibrant downtown.
The data sets show trends over time, geographical concentrations and other indicators of what programs, projects or policies can be implemented to better reach Mesa’s strategic goals. The data sets can be exported for use in applications or to share via social media. 
There are currently 94 data sets available with more on the way. Users are encouraged to participate in the development of new data sets by providing suggestions.
To learn more about What Works Cities, please visit www.whatworkscities.org.

 

Mayor’s Office
Contact: Melissa Randazzo
Tel. 480-644-3219
melissa.randazzo@mesaaz.gov

City of Mesa: Financial Forecast/Sustainability General Governmental Funds

Hear a presentation and discuss the City's FY 2016/17 financial forecast

Mesa City Council Study Session

Today @ 7:30 a.m.

 

Download and see presentation ahead of time:

File #: 16-0199                                      

http://mesa.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2594309&GUID=3E7F0E3C-DB78-4D41-91B2-555B94ED547C

You might not go through understanding past success, evaluating the current environment, see 3 core strategies, or any analyzing to track and monitor results or cost/benefit analysis.

DYK [Did You Know?] New Urban Downtown > Mesa's 21st Century Café Society

Mesa's 21st Century Café Society will reposition the Mesa Arts Center campus as an inspiring “third space” for the city by creating a welcoming and interesting environment and gathering place through interactive public art in a setting featuring café tables, food/beverage service, and live performances.

LEARN MORE  >> http://www.artplaceamerica.org/grantee/21st-century-caf%C3%A9-society

Spark!! Mesa's Festival of Creativity > Entice Your Senses

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
spark! Mesa's Festival of Creativity, will provide an immersive environment to celebrate the work of amazing, creative people and to discover the creative thinker inside every visitor!  The event will take place at the Mesa Arts Center Friday, March 18th and Saturday, March 19th from 12N - 10PM
 
Each day and every night there will be a variety of Musical Performances featuring popular local and regional artists in Country, Rock, Latin, Blues and Jazz. The festival will offer food, fun and creative activities for the whole family! 
 


With the exception of ticketed performances in the MAC's theaters all festival activities and outdoor performances are free of charge.
https://www.mesaartscenter.com/index.php/events/spark-mesas-festival-of-creativity

YARN BOMBING: Shaking Up The Way We See The World //Things We Hadn't Seen Before

Textile artist Magda Sayeg transforms urban landscapes into her own playground by decorating everyday objects with colorful knit and crochet works. These warm, fuzzy "yarn bombs" started small, with stop sign poles and fire hydrants in Sayeg's hometown, but soon people found a connection to the craft and spread it across the world. "We all live in this fast-paced, digital world, but we still crave and desire something that's relatable," Sayeg says. "Hidden power can be found in the most unassuming places, and we all possess skills that are just waiting to be discovered."
This talk was presented at an official TED conference November 2015, uploaded yesterday. 132,075 views.
Running time: 5:35
You might have seen some yarn bombing around downtown last year on trees @ MAC

Yours truly likes this Bull near Wall Street in New York City . . .
Watch the video using the link below -  go see where Magda Syeg started and why this turned into a worldwide phenomenon in ten years.
Enjoy + Have fun!
http://www.ted.com/talks/magda_sayeg_how_yarn_bombing_grew_into_a_worldwide_movement