Guides: URBS 210: The Wire and the City : Data & Documents

Baltimore City government documents

The Batlimore City government website will provide current documents produced by the city government and its agencies. The sources below will provide older documents.

Index to Current Urban Documents Online
ICUD Online offers US municipal and county government documents gathered from local government organizations and other sources. It is not comprehensive; its coverage generally starts ~ 2000.
Urban Documents Microfiche Collection & Index to Current Urban Documents (print)
The print ICUD indexes US municipal and county government documents, 1960s-2000. Assembled through contributions from municipal public libraries, it is wonderful and rich resource for all topics municipal. The microfiche set provides page images for most of ICUD's coverage.
To use ICUD and the fiche, work with ICUD in Van Pelt Reference or Fine Arts. Record the ID numbers for specific documents, and use the Franklin Catalog fiche record's "Scan & Deliver" service for the document, including its ID number - one request per document.

Data Visualization Sources

Social Explorer
Mapping for Decennial Census and American Community Survey small-area data, 1940-present, and more
PolicyMap
Mapping for social policy. Offers user-upload for geocoded data tables.

SimplyAnalytics
Web-based mapping application including a wide range of data sources, including census, consumer expenditure and business counts. Datasets include Claritas PRIZM and Simmons Local. Provides tract-level crime data, but it is not reliable.

Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance
Recent data for Baltimore neighborhoods from the US Census Bureau, the city of Baltimore, and other sources.
Baltimore DataMind
(This site appears not to be working.)
Like Neighborhood Indicators, Baltimore DataMind has recent data for Baltimore neighborhoods. Significant overlap with Neighborhood Indicators, but some data types and years are different. For data sources, see the data page.

How to Find Property Ownership and Occupant History

Real Estate / Land Records / Baltimore City Archives
This site provides instructions for using MDLANDREC, the Maryland State Archives digitized land records database, documenting real estate transactions from 1972 to the present.
Real Property Data Search / Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation
Identifies the current owner of a specific property, with detailed property description and valuation. Lists three most recent deed transfers, with price.
ReferenceUSA
US business directories, current-year (updated weekly) and annual for 2003-last year, and US White Pages for the current-year. The Business Directories "Advanced Search" permits NAICS industry-code searching. Downloading restricted to 250 records per batch - the "Detailed" output includes lat/lon for mapping.
Note. WRDS (Wharton Research Data Service) offers bulk-download access to ReferenceUSA business directories: listed in WRDS as InfoGroup.

Local Baltimore Data

Local and neighorhood crime data, 2010 to present
A selection from Open Baltimore.
Open Baltimore
Public data about health, crime, housing and other variables from about 2008 forward. Visualizations and local data is often available.
Neighborhood Health Profile Reports / Baltimore City Health Department
Data on major health characteristics and outcomes, presented in reports for 55 Community Statistical Areas (and the City as a whole). Reports are presented in PDF format for 2017, 2011, and 2008.
The Health Dept website also provides links to additional statistics and data resources, including:
- Health Maps Gallery
  ESRI story maps showing characteristics of Batlimore City small areas for many health indicators.
Baltimore Ecosystem Study
A long-term ecological research project, a multi-agency and multi-organization collaboration funded by the NSF.

Major U.S. Measurement Programs

In the U.S., two complementary federal programs provide much of what we know about the incidence of crime. The Uniform Crime Reports measures crime as reported to law enforcement agencies, while the National Crime Victimization Survey looks at crime as experienced by victims.

Uniform Crime Reports / Federal Bureau of Investigation
Data on offenses and arrests for Part I crimes (e.g., murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson), and for arrests only for Part II crimes (those considered less serious), reported for police departments. Data are collected by the FBI from local law enforcement agencies, 1930-present.
• Crime in the United States (annual): Online, 1930-present.
• Crime in the United States (annual): Print, 1930-present.
• UCR data : Excel tables, 1960-present (via FBI's Crime Data Explorer).
• UCR data : Datasets for statistical packages, 1960-present (via NACJD).
HINT! In NACJD, watch for multi-year compilations that offer online analysis tools.
• UCR data : Tables, datasets, mapping, 2010-present (via Social Explorer).
NIBRS - National Incident-Based Reporting System / FBI
Part of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports data collection program, receiving detailed crime reports from local law enforcement agencies.
• Datasets for statistical packages, 1991-present (via NACJD).
National Crime Victimization Survey / Bureau of Justice Statistics
NCVS surveys 135,000 households nationwide each year, 1973-present, asking about the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization. Detailed information is collected from respondents about individual victimication incidents, including offender characteristics and respondent experiences with police and the criminal justice system. In early years of the program, known as National Crime Survey.
• Criminal Victimization (annual): Online, 1984-present (via BJS).
• Criminal Victimization (annual): Print, 1976-1995.
• NCVS data: Excel tables and more, 1993-present (via NCVS Data User Page).
• NCVS data: Datasets for statistical packages, 1992-present, via NACJD.
HINT! In NACJD, watch for multi-year compilations and for datasets that offer online analysis tools.