Pittsburgh earned recognition for its use of civic data, but there’s more work to be done

Pittsburgh just earned a spot on a growing list of cities leading the country in civc data use.

The City of Pittsburgh announced this week that it had received a silver certification from the Bloomberg What Works Cities program to recognize its use of data to improve residents’ lives. Launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2015, the program provides participating cities with an evaluation form to measure how much local governments appropriately incorporate local data into their civic decisions.

So far, only 55 of over 200 participating cities have achieved certification through the program, the City reports. (What Works Cities seems to have not updated its website to include the 2022 cohort.)

The assessment makes participating cities eligible to achieve three levels of certification: silver, gold and platinum. Those in the silver category achieve between 51% and 66% of the criteria, and are labeled as good at understanding data, tracking progress, and using data and evidence to make decisions. Local governments earning the gold certification are labeled as great at all of those things, achieving between 67% and 83% of the criteria. Cities receiving the platinum certification are recognized for setting the precedent in all of those skills, achieving 84% or more of the criteria.

🎉WWC CERTIFICATION ANNOUNCEMENT! 🎉

The #data movement is growing! We’re thrilled to welcome 5 new cities to What Works Cities Certification. @accgov, @cityofhenderson, @cityoflongmont, @CityPatersonNJ, and @Pittsburgh are using evidence to make lives better!#CitiesWinWithData pic.twitter.com/oyhR9znPXL

— What Works Cities (@WhatWorksCities) March 30, 2022

Of Technical.ly’s markets and per the What Works Cities website, DC achieved gold certification in 2021, while Philadelphia, Baltimore and Pittsburgh earned silver ones. The only two cities from last year’s cohort to earn platinum certifications are Los Angeles and Louisville, Kentucky. All cities that participate in the program have the opportunity to receive customized assessments from What Works Cities, along with coaching, training, technical assistance and more from organization partners.

“It is a tremendous honor to be among just 55 cities across the country to receive the What Works Cities Certification,” said Mayor Ed Gainey in a statement. “This certification is an acknowledgment of good governance and great teamwork across multiple departments. Our work is just beginning, and we are excited to continue building towards gold certification in the coming year.”

Promoting open data and civic use of it was a priority of former mayor Bill Peduto, whose administration established the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center. In interviews with Technical.ly, Gainey has also named data applications as a top tech goal for his tenure. This certification means that many of those efforts have been successful, specifically those related to using data to track civic progress, allocating funding, evaluating program effectiveness and achieving goals determined by contracts with outside vendors.

“Receiving Silver Certification from the Bloomberg What Works Cities program is a meaningful recognition of the hard work many of our colleagues across multiple departments have executed over the past two years,” Director of Innovation and Performance Heidi Norman said. “It is also an announcement to the residents of Pittsburgh that their municipal government cares deeply about the data collected, how it is governed, secured, and shared — all towards twin goals of vastly improved performance and transparency about our operations and services provided to the community. And finally, Silver Certification for Pittsburgh is a beginning; it is the ‘starting gun’ for us to build upon this foundation and to leverage the resources provided by Bloomberg What Works Cities to go for the gold!”

A press release on the news highlighted recent advancements in Pittsburgh’s use of data to create evidence-based neighborhood plans, coordinate with local and regional partners through the Department of Innovation and Performance, and using 311 call data to track project progress. Notably, though, some local organizations and institutions, including the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security, have detailed the work that still needs to be done in responsible use of civic data.

Sophie Burkholder is a 2021-2022 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Heinz Endowments.