8 datasets the city’s Licenses & Inspections Department should release now

The city’s Department of Licenses & Inspections, in charge of permits, inspections and other work associated with the built environment, has had a serious image problem and faced criticism after a series of building-related tragedies, including the building collapse at 22nd and Market Streets two years ago that killed six.
That’s why it’s striking that the department is working with the city’s open data team to offer up its data to citizens.
Late last week, the city published a list of all 69 of L&I’s datasets and asked Philadelphians to comment on which ones it wants to see published. It’s the most ambitious data inventory to date — the city has previously taken inventory of four other department’s data and published those lists, but none as expansive and weighty as that of L&I. The process of taking stock of a department’s datasets and asking the public for feedback is part of Chief Data Officer Tim Wisniewski’s master plan for making open data last past the Nutter administration.
Wisniewski and his team’s early efforts to collect input from the public on datasets haven’t garnered much attention yet (the most commented-on datasets from those first few departments have three comments, though the city did release a number of datasets from the City Commissioner’s Office after that process and plans to release Commerce Department datasets soon, Wisniewski said), but that could change with L&I, since its data is among the most talked-about.
Pick the L&I datasets the city should release
Some of the data on the list has already been released as part of L&I’s searchable map tool, though Inquirer journalist and open data advisory group member Dylan Purcell noted in the comments that more historical data would be useful.
Below, find our wishlist for L&I data.

• Building Inspection Results
• Building Permits
• Municipal Court Cases. (This data is searchable through Municipal Court’s clunky web interface. We’d love to see an interface that’s easier on the eyes.)
• Demolitions / Curbside Bids
• Property Maintenance Inspections
• Property Maintenance Violations
• Right to Know Request Log
• Vacant Property Owner Research. (When the city can’t find the owner of a vacant property, it can’t take action. City Paper called it a big “loophole” in the system. This dataset would be a good way to hold the city accountable in its efforts to research vacant properties and their owners.)