AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
Applications for Permits and Licenses

The dataset is one row per application for permits and licenses in the City of Somerville through the Citizenserve application system. The current dataset contains applications handled by the Inspectional Services Department (ISD) and the City Clerk’s office, representing approximately 90% of the applications processed by the City of Somerville. Soon to come are applications handled by other teams, including Engineering, the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD), and Fire Prevention. This dataset contains application information for over 90,000 applications for permits and licenses since 2014, including project details, status, and location information. Currently, this data can be viewed in the Tableau Visualization by Application Date or Issue Date. When you select “View Permits and Licenses by Application Date,” any Application which does not have an Application Date will be filtered out. The same is true for viewing by Issue Date. If an application has neither field, the application will not display in the Tableau Visualization. Such applications will, however, appear in the dataset. This dataset should be refreshed daily with data appearing in the early morning. If the data becomes out of date, please email data@somervillema.gov.
Bicycle & Pedestrian Counts

The annual bike and pedestrian count is a volunteer data collection effort each fall that helps the City understand where and how many people are biking and walking in Somerville, and how those numbers are changing over time. This program has been taking place each year since 2010. Counts are collected Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday for one hour in the morning and evening using a “screen line” method, whereby cyclists and pedestrians are counted as they pass by an imaginary line across the street and sidewalks. Morning count sessions begin between 7:15 and 7:45 am, and evening count sessions begin between 4:45 and 5:15 pm. Bike counts capture the number of people riding bicycles, so an adult and child riding on the same bike would be counted as two counts even though it is only one bike. Pedestrian counts capture people walking or jogging, people using a wheelchair or assistive device, children in strollers, and people using other micro-mobility devices, such as skateboards, scooters, or roller skates. While the City and its amazing volunteers do their best to collect accurate and complete data each year and the City does quality control to catch clear errors, it is not possible to ensure 100% accuracy of the data and not all locations have been counted every year of the program. There are also several external factors impacting counts that are not consistent year-to-year, such as nearby construction and weather. For these reasons, the counts are intended to be used to observe high-level trends across the city and at count locations, and not to extrapolate that biking and walking in Somerville has changed by a specific percentage or number. Data in this dataset are available at the location count level. To request data at the movement level, please contact transportation@somervillema.gov.
Somerville School Building Project Community Survey Responses

The City of Somerville is planning to build a new PK-8 school building to address the needs of the Winter Hill School. The City must decide whether to also address Brown School needs within this project and where the new school building should be located. Mayor Katjana Ballantyne convened a School Construction Advisory Group (CAG) made up of parents, elected officials, and other community members to develop a recommendation on these questions. To help inform this recommendation and the City’s decision, the City engaged DREAM Collaborative, an urban planning and architecture consulting firm, to work with members of the CAG to create a survey to gauge public opinion. The survey was open from August 7 to September 22, 2025. This dataset was prepared for analysis under the direction of DREAM Collaborative. For analysis and findings from this dataset, see DREAM Collaborative’s School Construction Advisory Group Summer 2025 Survey Results & Analysis report, linked below. For more information about the new PK-8 school building project, visit somervillema.gov/newpkto8.
Citizenserve Applicant Feedback 2023 Survey Results

All responses to the Citizenserve Applicant Feedback Survey, which asked respondents to rate their experience with the Citizenserve platform and overall application process in Somerville. The survey was offered to permit and license applicants in Somerville who had submitted an application through the Citizenserve platform between 7/1/2023 and 11/30/2023. Responses were recorded from 12/8/2023 to 12/29/2023.
City of Somerville Parking Permits

Parking permits issued by the City of Somerville Parking Department between January 1, 2017 and November 30, 2020. Each row represents a unique permit issued. Medical care permits have been removed from this dataset. Please note that this dataset may contain errors due to manual data input. If you have any suggestions about this dataset, please contact somerstat@somervillema.gov. Additional permit information can be found at https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/parking-department
Motor Vehicle Crash Reports (2010-2018)

NOTE: Post-2018 crash data is available here: [https://data.somervillema.gov/Public-Safety/Police-Data-Crashes/mtik-28va/about_data] This data set tracks motor vehicle crashes within the City of Somerville from 1/1/2010 through 4/30/2018. This data was created by OSPCD in collaboration with the Somerville Police Department.
Winter Warming Center 2024/2025 Resident Feedback Survey Responses

The 2024/2025 Somerville Winter Warming Center operated at the Cummings School at 42 Prescott Street from December 2024 to April 2025, providing overnight accommodations to guests throughout the winter season. There were multiple efforts during the season to gather feedback from Warming Center clients and staff, as well as from nearby residents. This resident feedback survey, open in May 2025, invited residents to share their experiences with the Warming Center, including benefits, challenges, and suggestions for future improvements.
Parks and Recreation Program Feedback Survey Results

After every Parks and Recreation program cycle (generally following the seasons), the City of Somerville sends the Parks and Recreation Survey to the participants of every program (program information available at https://somervillema.myrec.com/). The survey asks participants to rate their experience of the programs. This dataset includes survey responses starting with the Summer 2024 program cycle. A data dictionary, exploratory visualization, and survey instruments are included.
Participatory Budgeting Submission Demographics

The City of Somerville completed the first-ever Participatory Budgeting cycle in 2023. In Participatory Budgeting, residents submit ideas for how to improve Somerville with one million dollars; volunteers score and select the 20 best ideas; and residents vote on the final ideas. This dataset describes the demographic characteristics of residents who submitted ideas. Residents could submit ideas through the Participatory Budgeting website. Submitters could optionally provide demographic information about themselves. Some submitters chose to identify themselves by name, while others remained anonymous. Demographic information is provided here in aggregated form, intentionally without a link to the individual ideas, to preserve privacy and anonymity.
Participatory Budgeting Submissions

The City of Somerville completed the first-ever Participatory Budgeting cycle in 2023. In Participatory Budgeting, residents submit ideas for how to improve Somerville with one million dollars; volunteers score and select the 20 best ideas; and residents vote on the final ideas. This dataset describes all the ideas that were submitted. Residents could submit ideas through the Participatory Budgeting website. Ideas were public to other users, who could comment or indicate support with a click. Ideas were then reviewed, combined, and scored for eligibility, need, and impact to determine which would appear on the ballot. This dataset includes the ideas that were submitted in this initial submission phase.
Participatory Budgeting Voter Demographics

The City of Somerville completed the first-ever Participatory Budgeting cycle in 2023. In Participatory Budgeting, residents submit ideas for how to improve Somerville with one million dollars; volunteers score and select the 20 best ideas; and residents vote on the final ideas. This dataset describes the demographics and satisfaction of residents who voted on the best ideas. After voting for the final Participatory Budgeting ideas, voters were invited to an optional survey to voluntarily submit their demographic information and indicate their satisfaction with the Participatory Budgeting process. Demographics were not connected to votes to preserve anonymity. Open text comments have also been removed from the open dataset for privacy.
Participatory Budgeting Voting Results

The City of Somerville completed the first-ever Participatory Budgeting cycle in 2023. In Participatory Budgeting, residents submit ideas for how to improve Somerville with one million dollars; volunteers score and select the 20 best ideas; and residents vote on the final ideas. Voters could choose and rank up to 5 ideas out of the 20 selected final ideas. This dataset provides the number of votes in each rank slot for each of the final ideas.
Police Data: Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD)

This data set encompasses calls for service from 2017 to present from the City of Somerville's Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. It excludes routine or administrative tasks (like vehicle refueling), community engagement efforts, and other non-call-related activities. Certain sensitive incidents, such as potential homicides or those requiring investigative follow-up, are omitted. Additionally, some incidents deemed sensitive statutorily or by SPD are included in the data set but stripped of temporal or geographic information in order to protect the privacy of victims. This data set is refreshed daily with data appearing with a one-month delay (e.g. CAD calls for service from 1/1 will appear on 2/1). If a daily update does not refresh, please email data@somervillema.gov.
Police Data: Crashes

This data set contains Somerville crashes that occurred from May 2018 to present. Crash reports are completed when a motor vehicle crash occurs on a public way and involves at least one of the following: Any person is killed, any person is injured, or damage is in excess of $1,000 to any one vehicle or other property. Data does not include crashes that are under active investigation, nor those that occur on state roads, which are under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts State Police. State crash data may be accessed on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s crash data portal, IMPACT. This data set should be refreshed daily with data appearing with a one-month delay (e.g. crashes that occurred from 1/1 will appear on 2/1). If a daily update does not refresh, please email data@somervillema.gov.
Police Data: Crime Reports

This dataset contains crime reports from the City of Somerville Police Department's records management system from 2017 to present. Each data point represents an incident, which may involve multiple offenses (the most severe offense is provided here). Incidents deemed sensitive by enforcement agencies are included in the data set but are stripped of time or location information to protect the privacy of victims. For these incidents, only the year of the offense is provided. This data set is refreshed daily with data appearing with a one-month delay (for example, crime reports from 1/1 will appear on 2/1). If a daily update does not refresh, please email data@somervillema.gov.
Police Data: Traffic Citations

This complete version of the dataset contains traffic citations issued in Somerville by Somerville police officers since 2017. Citations include both written warnings and those with a monetary fine. Every citation is composed of one or more violations. Each row in the dataset represents a violation. This data set should be refreshed daily with data appearing with a one-month delay (e.g. citations issued on 1/1 will appear on 2/1). If a daily update does not refresh, please email data@somervillema.gov.
Somerville Happiness Survey Responses

Every two years, the City of Somerville sends the Somerville Happiness Survey to a random sample of Somerville residents. The survey asks residents to rate their personal happiness, wellbeing, and satisfaction with City services. This combined dataset includes survey results from 2011 to 2025, including all 2025 questions with applicable responses from previous years. A data dictionary, exploratory visualization, and survey instruments are attached.
Somerville Public School Staff MBTA Pass Pilot - Travel & Survey Data

Somerville Public Schools partnered with the City’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development to launch the Somerville Public Schools Workforce Transit Pass Pilot Program for Spring 2023. This program was funded thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act. The pilot program provided free MBTA LinkPasses to all SPS staff who signed up. Passes were good 7 days a week for unlimited travel on all MBTA subway lines, local bus lines, and the Silver Line. The goal of the pilot was to support staff, promote sustainable transit, ease parking pressure around schools, and evaluate use and interest in transit passes. This dataset includes anonymized travel data provided by the MBTA combined with select survey responses from the pilot intake survey.
Afterschool Needs Assessment Survey Responses

The Out of School Time (OST) Steering Committee, a city-school collaborative group, initiated the Afterschool Needs Assessment Survey in order to better inform strategic planning for system-wide improvements in access to OST programming. The survey was developed and administered in partnership with SomerPromise, SomerStat, and Somerville Public Schools. We received responses from 742 families representing 1,046 PK-6th grade students. This represents ~37% of SPS PK-6th grade students, with enough respondents from all demographic groups (e.g. school, income) to weigh the data to assess equitable access to care. In response to the survey and other available data sets, the number of full-time afterschool slots has been increased by 23% (244 seats). This accomplishment was made possible by contracting Apollo, an external provider, to operate in two additional schools, as well as expansion in slot capacity across all eight SPS Community Schools. Additionally, the Somerville YMCA was approved for a pilot to use space at Somerville High School by adding up to 52 full-time afterschool slots. The data determined that 50-57% of families enrolled in SPS with school-age children need full-time afterschool care. These increases in capacity mean that in SY 25-26, 53% of all Somerville PK-6th grade youth may be served in full-time afterschool slots.