How we use Charlotte's data

Our mission

Transparent.city makes each city's civic landscape legible, understandable, and actionable. We turn official public records into clear, source-linked insights so residents, advocates, and local leaders can share the same picture of what's changing and focus on fixing what isn't. Our mission is to shift local discourse from anecdote to evidence so communities can make smarter, more accountable decisions.

Independent and objective

We are independent of any government. We are not affiliated with the City or County of Charlotte, North Carolina, or with any other city we cover. Our goal is objectivity: we present the numbers as they come from official sources, with documented methods and direct links so you can verify everything yourself. We do not lobby, endorse candidates, or advocate for specific policies. We advocate for transparency and for conversations grounded in shared facts.

Data sources

All of our data comes from official public sources, primarily each city's own open data portal and published government records. For Charlotte, North Carolina, we work with hundreds of public datasets spanning dozens of categories. Every metric on Transparent.city links back to the original dataset so you can see exactly where the numbers come from and verify them yourself.

Open data portal: Each metric page includes a link to the specific dataset it uses. You can also search your city's official open data site for the source datasets we reference.

How we work with the data

Municipal data is complex. Datasets are published on different schedules, structured differently across departments, and riddled with gaps, inconsistencies, and format changes. Making this data genuinely useful requires far more than downloading a spreadsheet.

We normalize raw public records across temporal, geographic, and categorical dimensions. That means aligning data that arrives daily with data that arrives quarterly, matching records to the right neighborhoods and districts, and tracking completeness so you know whether a number reflects a real trend or a reporting lag. We build time series at multiple levels of granularity, from individual neighborhoods to citywide, so patterns are visible at every scale.

Data quality assurance is not a one-time step. We continuously monitor freshness, detect gaps in reporting, and track whether each dataset's update patterns are holding steady. We do not alter the underlying counts. We structure and contextualize them so trends and comparisons are easy to see. Our definitions and logic are documented on each metric's detail page.

Why this matters

Most city data is technically public but practically inaccessible. The gap between a raw government dataset and a usable insight is enormous. It requires domain knowledge, sustained engineering, and a commitment to rigor that goes well beyond what any single resident, journalist, or council member can maintain on their own.

We believe civic data infrastructure should meet the same standards as the best data practices in any field: reproducible methods, transparent sourcing, continuous quality monitoring, and documentation at every step. That is what we build, and it is why the picture you see on Transparent.city is one you can trust.