There’s a new tool for taking the economic pulse of DC neighborhoods

On Thursday the District’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development (DMPED) announced a new addition to its open-source Economic Intelligence Dashboard — the Ward Indicators Tool.
You may recall that DMPED launched the Dashboard back in January as a one-stop-shop for civic hackers, business people, residents and community leaders looking for economic data. The new Ward Indicators Tool takes this mission further by providing a place to find demographic and investment data for each individual ward.

Good news, DC. We've made it easier to view DC investments & econ/demo data in your Ward. Take a look! https://t.co/CKEuCDmkMr #innoMAYtion

— DMPED (@DMPEDDC) May 19, 2016

As spokesman Joaquin McPeek explained via email, the tool enables interested parties to “view D.C. government investment projects started or completed in your neighborhood since the beginning of 2015.” These include, he added, “DMPED real estate redevelopment projects, affordable housing production and preservation projects, Industrial Revenue Bond projects, DHCD PADD Vacant Properties, and Great Streets Small Business Grantees.”
Click on your ward on the map to see the location of each of these projects, or select your ward from the side bar menu in order to see investment information along side things like population and unemployment data.
Our favorite part of the new tool is the “Ward Indicators” section where you can see data visualizations on ward population growth, what the most populous age group is in each ward, which housing types are more popular in which wards and more. There are some fascinating pieces of data in there — go have a look for yourself.
Here are population trends by ward, for instance:
http://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js

The new release coincides with InnoMAYtion — Mayor Muriel Bowser’s monthlong celebration of tech and innovation in the District.