Baton Rouge is partnering with Bloomberg Philanthropies to track post-flood housing recovery in the parish.
The city was one of five municipalities picked to join the What Work Cities initiative, a national effort to enhance the use of data in the public sector. About 90 cities in 37 states are currently partnering with the Bloomberg initiative, which began in 2015. Other newcomers: Hayward, California and three North Carolina cities—Cary, Fayetteville and Winston-Salem.
Participating cities must commit to using data to develop policies that improve outcomes for residents. For its part, Baton Rouge will get expert support in building a data-driven framework to track restored flood-damaged houses and apartments.
City-parish officials also will engage community stakeholders to develop an open data policy and explore opportunities for citizens to use municipal data.
Baton Rouge officials estimate roughly 44,300 commercial, residential and public structures were impacted by flooding in August 2016. Of those, about 41,100 are residential properties.
